Would-Be Cannibal Gets 40 Years After Undercover Agent Uncovers 'Appalling' Plot on Dark Web
A would-be murderer and cannibal was sentenced Thursday to 40 years in prison after he pleaded guilty to plotting to rape, kill and eat a 13-year-old girl whom he solicited through the dark web in 2018.
Alexander Nathan Barter, 23, pleaded guilty in December, the Department of Justice said in a statement.
Although Barter thought he was communicating online with a 13-year-old girl’s father, he was actually exchanging messages with an undercover law enforcement officer.
“In my [23-year career] in law enforcement, this is among the most morally depraved and appalling criminal conspiracies that I have come across,” Homeland Security Investigations special agent Mark Dawson said.
He continued: “Without the quick and decisive actions of special agents from HSI Cocoa Beach and HSI Beaumont this disturbed predator would still be out there looking for potential victims to carry out his sick and demented fantasies.”
U.S. Attorney Stephen J. Cox called the case “chilling.”
The investigation began in October 2018 after an undercover agent saw Barter’s post on a dark web site, which read: “I’d like to try necrophilia and cannibalism, and see how it feels to take a life. If you’d be willing to let me kill you, are in the US (preferably in the south) and can travel by car, contact me.”
The agent, posing as the father of a 13-year-old girl, then contacted Barter saying he could have his daughter to rape, kill and eat.
Barter exchanged further messages with the agent about how they would conceal the crime.
Barter showed up to the agreed-upon meeting location in Joaquin, Texas, with a knife and trash bag.
A district judge ordered Barter to submit to a lifetime of supervised release following his imprisonment.
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