Andrés Mendoza appearing in a court in Mexico on Thursday, admitted to killing and dismembering six women, beginning in 2001

Investigators, after finding the remains of 29 women at his residence, said there could be as many as 30 victims

Mendoza said he killed all of them with a stab in the heart

He was arrested on Saturday, May 15, at his home in Atizapán, Mexico, after the husband of his last victim went searching for her when she failed to return home

The day before she was killed, Reyna Gonzalez, 34, met up with Mendoza to go shopping

The husband, a police officer, found Reyna Gonzalez’s dismembered body on the dining table in Mendoza’s home – the cop and his wife considered the elderly man who turned out to be a serial killer, a friend

Mendoza, 72, said he peeled the skin off the mom-of-two’s face ‘because she was very pretty’

During a search of his home, officers found the remains of at least 29e women, video tapes of the killings, jewelry and other personal objects

A 72-year-old butcher in Mexico, accused of being a ‘serial killer cannibal’, has admitted killing seven women, and telling a court he peeled the skin off the face of his last victim because he thought she was ‘pretty’.  
Authorities say ‘Cannibal killer’, Andrés Mendoza ‘slaughtered and ate 30 women in cellar whilst on 20-year killing spree‘
Mendoza, 72, made the shocking admission during a four-hour court hearing Thursday in which he was formally charged with the femicide of Reyna González. The 34-old victim was the wife of a local police officer. 
Mendoza, was arrested on Saturday after Gonzalez disappeared and police searched his home in Atizapán de Zaragoza.
During the search, the police forensics team found the remains of Gonzalez, along with the remains of 29 other women. The investigators also found video tapes of the killings, and personal objects.
Mendoza also admitted to eating some of their body parts, police said. 

Andrés Mendoza, who was arrested in Atizapán, Mexico, on May 15, admitted to murdering Reyna González and said he decided to peel the skin off her face ‘because she was pretty.’ He also confessed to killing six other women, the first incident taking place in 2001

Mexican authorities search for remains of victims of ‘cannibal’

During his court hearing on Thursday, Mendoza said ‘all I want to do is tell the truth’.  ‘I removed the skin from her face because she was very pretty,’ he said. ‘What has been done is done. The husband is there, he saw everything.’
Mendoza also admitted to killing six other women since 2001 during the hearing. However, it’s reported that he could have up to 30 victims.

According to Infobae, Bruno Portillo, a police officer in the State of Mexico municipality of Atizapán de Zarazoga, last saw his wife May 14 at 5am before he left the family home for work. 
Portillo said his wife had planned to meet Mendoza to go shopping for spare parts for the used cellphone business she operated. It’s unclear how Gonzalez knew Mendoza, but her husband said that they provided him with financial assistance because of his old age.  
News tv network Milenio reported that Portillo noticed that the mother of his two daughters, aged 4 and 8, failed to return home at night, he went over to Mendoza’s home, but he refused to open the door.
The concerned cop returned to Mendoza’s home with other cops and after a brief struggle at the door, Portillo entered the residence and saw some of his wife’s personal belongings before he discovered her remains lying across a table.
Mendoza attempted to escape but was placed under arrest. 

Since Monday, search teams from the Attorney General’s Office for the State of Mexico have discovered various body parts, including skulls, which were found buried in the basement of the home after a sniffer dog was deployed. Some more human bones found bones buried underneath the concrete floors of the home.  
Agents also found video tapes that contain the actual killings of victims, a notebook with the names of 29 women along with women’s clothing and accessories. 
State of Mexico Attorney General Alejandro Gómez said in a statement Friday that anthropologists, forensic archaeologists, geneticists, experts in criminology, dentistry, forensic medicine and photography, and detective are conducting a three-phase investigation in search of skeletal remains and other evidence.
The first phase includes digging out the patio and kitchen area, which is covered with wood and an unknown layer. 
The second phase of the search with include the excavation of the master bedroom and the 20 squared meter basement, which has two levels and can be accessed through a wooden staircase.
The final phase includes digging through  another patio area and two bathrooms.

In court on Thursday, Mendoza described how his first victim was a woman named Norman in 2001.
He met her at a bar and was rebuffed several times before he tricked her into going to his home where he stabbed her to death.  
Mendoza met his second victim, Berenice Sánchez, at a bar and he again attempted to establish an a romantic relationship with her. After he was rejected, he plunged a knife into her chest before he cut off her limbs. 
In 2016, Mendoza met Flor Vizcaíno, a  38-year-old mother-of-two, at a bar and took her on dates and reportedly gave her money. Like the other women, Vizcaíno, was not interested in being Mendoza’s girlfriend and was killed, too.  
Mendoza said he met Rubicela Castillo , 32, in 2019 and that he was so obsessed with her, that he kidnapped and murdered her. 
Investigators found voter identification cards belonging to Castillo who was reported missing July 20, 2019, and Vizcaino, who was last seen October 16, 2016.
Mendoza also admitted killing two other women, Alyn and Gardenia, both of whom he met at ‘El Barrigón’ Bar. He did not specify the dates their murders took place.

Sergio Baltazar, attorney for the González’s family, said it could take up to a month before her remains are turned over to her husband for burial because the medical examiner has to legally confirm her identity through DNA samples.
‘These types of people feel pleasure in taking the lives of other people,’ he said. 
‘This person is a psychopath because he does not feel regret, so much so that he tells the Public Ministry, in the presence of a defense attorney , the circumstances of how it happened, (as well as) the other events of the other people he has murdered.’ 
Residents in the Lomas de San Miguel neighborhood had mixed feelings about Mendoza – some described him as ‘polite’, while others said he was always ill and drunk.