Philippe Schneider, 69, and Nathalie Caboubassy, 43, are set to stand trial in France this week over the death of Georges Meichler whose remains were cut up and cooked
A restaurateur is set to stand trial this week for “chopping up and cooking” a man with a butcher’s knife, before scattering his remains across France. Philippe Schneider, 69, and Nathalie Caboubassy, 43, are accused of killing Georges Meichler in 2023. A missing person’s report was filed by his daughter which led to a police investigation.
After his arrest, Schneider told officers how he and Caboubassy had been robbing Meichler’s remote home in the woods when they pushed him to the ground and he died. To avoid his body being discovered they chopped off the remains and hid them around the area.
Schneider is said to have then cooked some of the remains in a bowl at home in an apparent “religious ceremony”.
According to France3 Schneider’s lawyer, Luc Abratkiewicz, said: “They cut up the body, they cooked it in a mess tin, and then they burned the rest. It’s crude, but that’s how it is.
“Of course, there’s the horror of imagining the body was cut up, cooked, burned, but then you have a burglary that goes wrong, a body you don’t know what to do with, and this completely crazy idea of wanting to get rid of it.
“It’s mainly about explaining the act, the motive, which is trivial, a few thousand euros, and then you sink into the horror.
“Philippe Schneider acknowledges his full responsibility and all the facts he is accused of. Philippe Schneider’s version is that at the time he lived a life of alcohol, drugs, and then this completely crazy idea of going to burgle his neighbor. He gags him. It goes badly, he dies.
“He made a serious mistake. And afterward, he continued to sink into absurdity and horror, because, indeed, the fact of having cut up this corpse is going to cost them dearly.”
Schneider and his partner Nathalie Caboubassy, 43, lived in Camarès. They previously travelled and worked for high-end restaurants before they opened a pizzeria in Saint-Sernin-sur-Rance before Covid hit.