A worried mother went drinking with a man. She didn’t know he was the “cannibal killer.”

The suspect in the gruesome 1999 murder of Julie Paterson proudly confessed, but 25 years later, questions remain

Content Warning: The following article contains disturbing details.

A Briton remains behind bars more than 25 years after being convicted in one of the most shocking murder cases in modern English history.

David Harker, known in the media as the “cannibal killer,” was convicted in 1999 of the murder of Julie Paterson, a 32-year-old mother of four whom he had met just weeks earlier.

The details of Harker’s crimes remain shocking and disturbing some quarter of a century after the gruesome murder in Teesside, about 70 miles north of Leeds.

PEOPLE looks back at Paterson’s April 1998 murder, which happened after she and then-24-year-old Harker met to drink at a local park.

PA images via Getty

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A worried mother

According to Paterson, she was a mother of four and was struggling with alcoholism and depression at the time she met Harker The Teesside Gazette. Paterson’s partner, Alan Taylor, reportedly told police that Paterson often disappeared during binge drinking sessions but would always show up at home afterwards.

However, when Paterson met Harker for drinks at a local park in April 1998, the mother never returned.

Harker proudly confessed – and claimed more victims

After Paterson disappeared, police searched for a month in hopes of finding her body, they say The Guardianbut the mother of four children was only found in parts. It wasn’t until they interviewed Harker’s friends that investigators began to understand the brutal truth of what happened, the outlet reported.

“Harker told friends and psychiatrists at Ashworth Hospital that he killed her,” lead investigator Superintendent Barry Peart later testified in court The Guardian. “He also said he ate part of her thigh, fried it and ate it with pasta and cheese.”

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According to the report, Harker had told his friends that he wanted to be a serial killer one day gazettewho reported that he had also read books about other murderers. He pleaded guilty in February 1999 after telling a psychiatrist that “people like me don’t come from these movies, these movies come from people like me,” the outlet reported.

Owen Humphreys/PA Images via Getty

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Paterson’s remaining body parts were never found

Harker was convicted of Paterson’s murder in 1999 but has never told authorities where he disposed of Paterson’s head and limbs The Northern Echo.

The outlet reports that Taylor, Paterson’s then-partner, was tormented by not knowing where his loved one’s remaining body parts were hidden, and even as he began digging in areas, he believed his late partner’s body parts might be buried be.

The gazette reported that while in prison, Harker also withheld the information from Paterson’s first husband, who wrote a letter to his ex-wife’s murderer asking him to tell investigators where the woman’s head and limbs were buried because of the convicted murder.

“You are right when you talk about decency, I have none,” Harker reportedly wrote to Paterson’s ex-husband, Fred Newman gazette. “I have no inhibitions, no remorse or regret, and therefore I don’t care at all whether your wife receives a full body burial or not.”

BBC reported that Harker was denied parole in October 2021 under “Helen’s Law,” a law designed to make it harder for convicted murderers to be granted parole if they refuse to tell authorities where they found the remains disposed of their victims.

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Read the original article on People.