Nothing can be more traumatising for a child than walking in on Daddy and Mommy gettin' busy. Unless, of course, the child walks in on Daddy eating the face off Mommy's corpse.

According to Captain Tienkie van Vuuren, police were dispatched to the KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa home of Jabulani Siphethu after Siphethu's 13-year-old daughter ran to a neighbour asking for help. The neighbours called the law, who arrived to find Siphethu naked, straddling his dead wife and eating the flesh off her head.

"Only the forehead was still intact," said van Vuuren. "The bone was visible where the rest of the face used to be."

Police say Siphethu was hostile toward them and threatened them with a knife. He was restrained, but began choking on something, lost consciousness and died.

Police are hoping an autopsy reveals some explanation to Siphethu's late-night snack. Siphethu had also stabbed his other daughter in the head. She is recovering in hospital.

» Scott Saxon