Cops rushed to the gruesome scene after a neighbor reported terrified screams from the 21-year-old woman's apartment. Horrified officers said they broke down the door and found a frenzied man on top of a half-conscious young woman, ripping at her face with his teeth.
They tore the madman off the woman, whose face was pouring blood. The savagely mutilated woman also had bite marks on her arms, cops said, and one of her earlobes was almost gone.
Even more horrifying: Chunks of the girl's flesh were missing, police said, but they were nowhere to be found--leading them to believe the attacker had swallowed the girl's flesh like a cannibal!
Cops and witnesses said blood was dripping from the attacker's face. And the carnage had left blood all over the room--splattered on walls, floors, and even the ceiling.
"There was blood everywhere," said a disgusted man, who accompanied officers to the gruesome bedroom.
Police said the man accused of the attack was dating the victim. Friends and family were shocked. No one could recall the couple having any troubles bad enough to end in such an orgy of violence.
"It was lunatic-like," a friend said of the attack. "It was a real shift in personality--he's never like that!"
But sources said the man had sought psychiatric care only a week earlier. "He was feeling a lot of stress," the source said.
The case recalls the mythical creature explored in folklore and in such Hollywood films as I Was A Teenage Werewolf. That movie starred Michael Landon as a troubled teen who becomes a werewolf and terrorizes his girlfriends.
While werewolves have not been scientifically proven to exist, psychiatrists do say some people suffer from a mental condition called lycanthropy. A person with the disorder acts like a werewolf because he sincerely believes he is one.
