On September 2001 police in China's northeastern province of Jilin captured Piao Yongzhi, who murdered an undisclosed number of longhaired women, keeping their tresses in bags at his house. He flayed the face of one victim, cooked it in a wok and ate it.

Shi Wanxia, 29, murdered by ethnic Korean Piao Yongzhi

Wed, Nov 07, 2001

BEIJING (Reuters) - An ex-convict has been indicted in China for the gruesome murder of a woman who was beheaded, scalped and the skin from her face cooked in a pot, a police official said Wednesday.

Ethnic Korean Paio Yongzhi is accused of murdering 29-year-old Shi Wanxia out of lust for her long hair, police officer Du Changqing told Reuters by telephone from Kaishantun, in the northeastern province of Jilin.

The 40-year-old Piao took the victim's head back home after beheading her with an axe and seriously wounding her sister on 16 September 2001, Du said. He then peeled off the scalp and hair and cooked the facial skin with some pepper.

The victim's hair and skull were discovered in his storage room. "We found out later that he had just been stir-frying the dish when we knocked on the door," Du said.

Authorities found the victim's face boiling in a pot when they searched the house. The suspect had been sentenced to life in prison for a 1977 murder and was released in 1997, Du said.

Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty for Piao, the officer said. He did not say when the trial would begin. Details of especially grisly or otherwise high profile cases are routinely published in advance of trials at which the verdicts are almost certain.