Necrophilia—sexual attraction to the dead—is among the most chilling taboos known to humanity, and the disturbing cases that surface often involve a twisted blend of murder, ritual, and sheer depravity.
Disturbing Cases Unveiled
10 Kaoru Kobayashi
On November 17, 2004, Kaoru Kobayashi, a middle‑aged newspaper deliveryman from Sango, Nara Prefecture, abducted seven‑year‑old Kaede Ariyama and whisked her to his home.
There, he sexually assaulted the child before drowning her in his bathtub. He then mutilated her corpse, photographed the body with the victim’s own cell phone, and dumped the remains in a rural gutter.
To taunt the family, Kobayashi emailed the gruesome pictures to the girl’s mother and sister. Police traced the cell‑phone activity to his address, recovered the damning images, and promptly charged him. He was convicted, sentenced to death, and later executed for his heinous act.
9 The Moche Civilization
The Moche, who ruled Peru’s northern coast from the first to eighth centuries AD, earned a reputation as the “Greeks of the Andes” and built massive huacas (pyramids) adorned with vivid murals.
Archaeologists digging into Moche tombs in the 1980s uncovered pottery and wall paintings that depicted highly unsettling scenes: humans copulating with animals and corpses, and tender embraces with the dead.
Scholars interpret these images as evidence that the Moche performed sexual rituals with the dead during or after human sacrifices, suggesting a cultural acceptance of necrophilic practices.
8 Karen Greenlee
While roughly 90 percent of necrophiles are male, Karen Greenlee stands out as a female exception. A former apprentice embalmer at Sacramento Memorial Lawn mortuary, she was arrested in 1979.
Greenlee confessed to having sexual contact with between 20 and 40 male corpses. Because necrophilia wasn’t illegal in California at the time, she faced charges only for illegally driving a hearse and interfering with a burial after she stole the body of 33‑year‑old John Mercure.
She served 11 months in jail, two years of probation, and paid a $255 fine. Since then, Greenlee has become an unofficial spokesperson for necrophiliacs, openly admitting she enjoys the smell of death and attends funerals of fellow “corpse‑lovers.”
7 Anthony Merino
In the fall of 2007, 24‑year‑old Anthony Merino, a laboratory technician at Holy Name Hospital in Teaneck, New Jersey, made headlines for a grotesque crime.
A hospital security guard caught Merino in the act of sexually desecrating the corpse of a 92‑year‑old female patient who had recently died. The guard reported that Merino was engaging in indecent behavior with the body.
Merino was later sentenced to seven years in a Bergen County prison. He accepted a plea deal that required psychiatric evaluation and psychological treatment, which could have reduced his sentence.
6 Genzo Kurita
Between 1948 and 1952, Japanese killer Genzo Kurita embarked on a brutal spree targeting mothers and daughters. He was apprehended in January 1952 after being linked to the murder of a 24‑year‑old woman and her 63‑year‑old aunt, with allegations that he also violated the younger woman’s corpse.
Kurita’s most infamous act, the Osen Korogashi incident, occurred in October 1951. He raped and murdered a 29‑year‑old mother of three, then hurled her body and her three living children over the Osen Korogashi cliffs—miraculously, one child survived.
Other crimes included breaking into homes while mothers slept, murdering them, and raping their corpses before fleeing. For his atrocities, Kurita was executed by hanging in 1959.
5 The Hickory Street Four
In January 2014, a quartet dubbed the Hickory Street Four—Alisa Massaro, Joshua Miner, Adam Landerman, and Bethany McKee—lured acquaintances Eric Glover and Terrence Rankins to an apartment in Joliet, Illinois, under the pretense of a gathering.
After robbing the two men, a taped confession revealed that Miner claimed the murders only began when one of the victims allegedly tried to assault McKee, a claim contradicted by Massaro and McKee, who testified that Miner and Landerman instructed them to leave the room before the men were strangled.
The aftermath turned even more grotesque: Massaro and Miner allegedly attempted sexual activity on or beside the freshly murdered bodies. By 2015, Miner, Landerman, and McKee received life sentences without parole, while Massaro got ten years after cooperating with prosecutors.
4 Victor Ardisson
Victor Ardisson, also known as the “Vampire of Muy,” served as an undertaker and gravedigger in the tiny Provençal town of Muy, France. Over the years, he confessed to necrophilic acts involving more than 100 corpses entrusted to his care.
Police searches of his home uncovered the body of a three‑year‑old girl, whom Ardisson admitted to sleeping next to and performing sexual acts upon. He also kept the skull of a 13‑year‑old girl, which he constantly kissed and lovingly called “my bride.”
Ardisson told investigators that he talked to the corpses as if they were alive; when they failed to respond, he felt rejected and fell into despondency, revealing a deeply disturbing psychological profile.
3 Marcelo de Andrade
Marcelo de Andrade, dubbed the “Vampire of Niterói,” earned his chilling moniker by drinking the blood of his victims. Before becoming a serial killer, he endured a hard childhood as a teenage prostitute and survived a suicide attempt that sent him to a reform school.
During a nine‑month spree in 1991, Andrade raped, murdered, and defiled the corpses of 14 young boys—many of whom were involved in Rio’s underworld drug trade or worked as prostitutes. Several victims were also decapitated.
He was apprehended in December 1991, declared insane, and spent the next two years in a psychiatric facility before his case concluded.
2 Wan
In 1982, 27‑year‑old taxi driver Lam Kor‑wan terrorized Hong Kong as the “Hong Kong Butcher,” later nicknamed the “Rainy Night Butcher” for his habit of killing on stormy evenings.
He murdered four women—Chan Fung‑lan (21), Chan Wan‑kit (31), Leung Sau‑wan (29), and Leung Wai‑sum (17)—and then sexually violated their bodies. Lam removed their sexual organs and preserved them in Tupperware containers, earning the grisly title “Jars Murderer.”
He is currently serving a life sentence for his crimes.
1 Francois Bertrand
Sergeant Francois Bertrand became infamous as the “Vampire of Montparnasse” after a series of grave‑robbing and necrophilic acts in mid‑19th‑century Paris.
On March 15 1849, he arrived at Val‑de‑Grace hospital with gunshot wounds, having been caught in a trap set by Montparnasse gravediggers. While being treated, he confessed to exhuming and eviscerating dozens of corpses.
Bertrand was convicted of 15 counts of grave desecration and sentenced to a single year in prison. After serving his term as a model inmate, he took his own life.