Tennessee man admits to dismembering, eating woman on day they met

A Tennessee man has confessed to killing a woman, dismembering her and then eating part of her body less than a day after meeting her, according to law enforcement officials and court documents released to the Los Angeles Times.

Gregory Scott Hale has been charged with murder and abuse of a corpse in connection with the slaying of Lisa Marie Hyder.

Arrest warrants say police were informed that a killing had occurred Friday in a home on Pete Sain Road in Manchester, a town of about 10,000 people in central Tennessee. A neighbor apparently called the Coffee County Sheriff’s Office on June 6 and said he had “reason to believe” someone had been killed on his street, Dist. Atty. Mickey Layne told the Times.

Sheriff’s investigators executed a search warrant and found Hale, who confessed to the slaying, according to court documents. Hale told police that he beheaded Hyder’s corpse, then cut off her hands and feet and placed them into separate buckets.

He also “admitted to eating part of the victim after murdering her,” the warrants said.

Hale, 37, lived at the home with his parents, who were in a different part of the residence when the killings took place, Layne said. Hyder met Hale late last week in Manchester, according to Layne, who did not comment on the circumstances surrounding their meeting or what led to the killing.

“I understand that they were recent acquaintances, my understanding is they just met that day,” he told the Times.

Hale made his first appearance in court on Monday, and is being represented by a public defender. An autopsy had yet to be completed.

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