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Thursday, March 28, 2024 | Back issues
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Man Accused of Eating His Girlfriend

JEFFERSONVILLE, Ind. (CN) - Police say a southeastern Indiana man told them he killed his girlfriend and cooked and ate some of her organs.

Joseph Oberhansley, 33, of Jeffersonville, was charged Monday with murdering Tammy Blanton, 46. He also was charged with abuse of a corpse and breaking and entering, the Associated Press reported.

Oberhansley allegedly denied the allegations and claimed in court that police have the wrong man and that his name was actually Zeus Brown.

According to a probable cause affidavit, police were called twice to Blanton's home on Thursday, Sept. 11.

The first time, at 2:50 a.m., Oberhansley was upset that Blanton had changed the locks and he couldn't get in. Police told him to leave.

Police returned after Blanton didn't show up for work. Oberhansley opened the door with what appeared to be a fresh injury to his hand and a pocket knife with blood on it.

Police found Blanton's body in the bathroom. The deputy coroner said a large portion of Blanton's brain and heart were missing.

Oberhansley denied knowing what happened at first, but eventually admitted that he broke into the home and into the bathroom where Blanton had locked herself, the affidavit states. Oberhansley struck her several times with a knife and used a jigsaw to cut open her skull. He told police that he ate part of her heart, lung and brain, according to the affidavit.

Oberhansley was convicted of manslaughter in the 1998 shooting death of his then-girlfriend, 17-year-old Sabrina Elder, in suburban Salt Lake City, just days after the birth of their son. The prosecutor in the Utah case said during Oberhansley's sentencing hearing in 2000 that the shooting followed a two-to three-week drug binge and that he probably wasn't rational at the time.

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