Man accused of trying to hire 'cannibal cop' to kidnap woman
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Buy SPH photosNEW YORK (REUTERS) - A New Jersey man was arrested for offering to pay US$5,000 (S$6,104) to the so-called "cannibal cop" to kidnap a woman and deliver her to be raped, according to the FBI.
Federal authorities on Friday charged Michael Vanhise, 22, with conspiracy to commit kidnapping with Gilberto Valle III, a New York police officer who was arrested in October and charged with conspiring to kidnap, torture, cook and eat women.
In a series of emails in January and February of last year, Vanhise tried to bargain down the kidnapping fee and urged the police officer to "just make sure she doesn't die before I get her," according to a criminal complaint unsealed on Friday.
"No need to worry," Valle replied in an email, prosecutors allege. "She will be alive. It's a short drive to you." Vanhise admitted to investigators he sent the emails, prosecutors said.
