Easter Killing Rocks Mexico

Authorities in Mexico say a priest has confessed to strangling his pregnant lover after Easter Mass and cutting her body into pieces.

Mexican state Attorney General Abel Villicana says Cesar Torres, 42, confessed to slaying Veronica Andrade Salinas, 22, at Sacred Heart of Jesus Parish in the city of Nezahualcoyotl on Mexico City's eastern outskirts.

Villicana read from a statement signed by Torres in which the priest described how he had been having an affair with Salinas and that she came to his parish residence to say she was pregnant and ask for money shortly after he had participated in Easter Mass.

According to the statement, the two fought and Torres then strangled Salinas. Authorities say he dragged the body to a nearby bathroom, used a kitchen knife to cut off her head, hacked the body to pieces, and packed the pieces into plastic bags.

According to the confession, Torres loaded the bags into a pickup truck and dumped them near a municipal cemetery in Chimalhuacan.

Authorities in recent weeks have recovered the bodies of five other women who had been slain and dumped in Chimalhuacan. Some of those victims had been mutilated, sparking speculation a serial killer could be working in the area.

Villicana said the testimonies of Salinas' family members led to his arrest Wednesday morning and evidence recovered around the parish helped prompt his confession.

Torres is scheduled to appear before a judge in coming days to be formally charged with murder.

The victim was expecting a girl at the time of her slaying.

She had two other daughters: a one-year-old and a baby, just six months old.