A Dutch man has been arrested on charges of murdering his mother, police said on Friday, and media reports said he flayed her and cloaked himself her skin during celebrations of a popular festival.
The 42-year-old man, identified in the Dutch press as Roland Z, was detained in the early hours of February 5 after police in the southern city of Vlaardingen received reports that a man was causing a disturbance.
He was said to be wearing a strange suit, or was draped in a flag, and was shouting quotations from the Bible.
”This man was arrested while he stood attempting to direct traffic,” said police spokesperson Henry Hambeukers. ”He said immediately that he had killed his mother.”
Investigators found the 76-year-old woman slain in her apartment.
”This man vandalised her corpse after her death. We are not discussing details out of sympathy for the man’s mother, and for him too,” Hambeukers said.
He could not confirm reports that the man has a history of mental illness and had joined a Christian cult, but said police are looking closely at his background.
Dutch media were filled with gruesome details of the killing.
Reports said the man wandered for several hours during the Carnival, a popular street festival in the southern Netherlands.
Many thought he was drunk and wearing a costume. — Sapa-AP