The 23-year-old Vietnamese man, whose name has not been revealed, was charged with murder after he admitted to investigators that he had killed 26-year-old Liu Mou, a Chinese student, with a hammer.
The Daily Mail reported Tuesday that the Vietnamese suspect had surrendered at a local police station in August last year. Based on his testimony, police forces conducted a two-hour search for the body of the victim.
The body parts of Liu, an exchange student at the University of Friedrich Schiller in Jena City, eastern Germany, had been found chopped into pieces, placed in bags and discarded in the Saale River on August 28.
His head was found under a bridge and his liver was missing from his body, and an autopsy showed signs of the organ being removed by a sharp instrument like a knife.
During the investigation, police found that the Vietnamese suspect was a huge fan of cannibalistic serial killer Hannibal Lecter, the main character in the horror detective series written by Thomas Harris, adapted in the 1991 movie, "The Silence of the Lambs," and its 2001 sequel "Hannibal".
Investigators also confirmed the suspect had several times watched the movies prior to the murder and mentioned the likelihood of his having eaten the victim`s liver as happens in the movie. However, whether or not the suspect has confessed to doing it is unknown.
Investigators have said that the accused had a quarrel with the Chinese student, who lived in a neighboring apartment, shortly before the murder took place. It has been said that the suspect stole the victim’s computer and mobile phone, and used Liu’s money to buy expensive goods on the internet.