P i n k • F e m i n i s t

Torres first met his lover when she was 13

A Mexican priest has confessed to strangling a woman with whom he had an 18-month-old child, before chopping up and dumping her body, authorities say.

Cesar Torres, 42, admitted killing his lover, 22-year-old Veronica Andrade Salinas, on Easter Sunday, a state attorney general said.

A row between the two erupted shortly after Torres had said Mass.

Police arrested Torres after being tipped off by the victim's mother, and finding him covered in bruises.

The mother said the pair had been in a relationship for years, since they first met when Ms Salinas was 13. They had a daughter 18 months ago.

Ms Salinas apparently called on Torres after Mass at the Sacred Heart of Jesus church in Nezahualcoyotl, on the eastern outskirts of Mexico City, said the attorney general of Mexico state, Abel Villicana.

Kitchen knife

According to one unconfirmed account, Ms Salinas had told Torres she was pregnant and had demanded money.

During the fight Torres strangled and killed the woman, then dragged her body to a bathroom where he used a kitchen knife to cut off her head and cut her body to pieces, according to his confession.

He put the pieces in plastic bags and drove them to a municipal cemetery in Chimalhuacan, where he dumped them.

Police had already been investigating the deaths of five other women who had been slain and dumped in Chimalhuacan - some of them mutilated - suggesting the work of a serial killer.

There is no suggestion Torres is linked to the other murders.

Torres was arrested on Wednesday morning. He did not resist and willingly confessed to killing his lover, Mr Villicana said.

He was due to appear before a judge to be charged with murder.

# posted by pinkfem @ 8:31 AM