A SUSPECTED cannibal couple lured victims using dating sites before drugging, butchering and eating them, it has been claimed.

Dmitry Baksheev, 35, and his wife Natalia, 42, have reportedly confessed to killing at least 30 people in Russia over two decades.

Cops fear Natalia may have also fed human meat to student pilots in the Krasnodar military academy where she worked as a nurse.

The couple were arrested after the dismembered remains of a young woman were found in the academy next to a bucket filled with body parts.

Dmitry admitted the grim killing and boasted about multiple other murders after a phone was found with pictures of him allegedly posing for selfies with dead bodies.

Investigators are seeking to verify the claims after seven bags of body parts were found in their fridge and freezer.

A jar with pickled human remains and 19 slices of skin were also discovered in the macabre flat.

Many cans with steamed meat were found in their kitchen, a source told Komsomolskaya Pravda.

Police fear Baksheev set up meetings with the victims after chatting to them on dating sites.

His wife is reported to have been shown the faces of missing women in southern Russia and identified dozens who she claimed were their victims.

A police source said: “Going through the photographs, the woman has recognised more than 30 victims that they killed and eaten together with her husband.

“A psychologist was sent from Nizhny Novgorod to make her talk.”

Separate reports say Natalia was checked by a psychiatric hospital and found to be “mentally healthy”.

“In their home, many mobile phones of their victims were found, and also video lessons on how to cook meals from human meat,” said the police source.

“This woman had been working in the military academy as a nurse and supposedly she was sharing these cans of steamed human meat with student pilots.”

But so far police have concrete evidence of only two women who were allegedly killed and cannibalised, it is understood.

Baksheev was detained after a man found his mobile in the street and found images of him posing for selfies with a woman’s body parts.

“He took a selfie with the hand in his mouth, at the same time he put the fingers of the dead hand into his nose,” said a police report.

“Then he cut one finger with a knife.”

He told interrogators he began his macabre reign of terror in 1999.

One sickening image appears to show a head being served as Christmas dinner surrounded by mandarins.

A police source added: “The earliest date of their culinary experiment is 28 December 1999 – the date on one of the photographs.

“We can see a cooked human head at the big plate surrounded by mandarins.

“They put olives into the eyes and attached a lemon to the nose.”

A police search found body parts in a rubbish container near the hostel where the pair lived and a red-haired woman’s head in a metal bucket, with human skin nearby.

More human remains were found in a cellar.

Baksheev confessed to throwing away the body parts, telling police: “I did a stupid thing.”

The woman was identified as Elena B, who lived in the same military academy where the alleged cannibal couple resided.

It is believed she was killed in a forest nearby and her dismembered remains were carried to his home by Baksheev in a backpack.

Both suspects have been detained pending further investigations.

A local shopkeeper remembers him coming to top up his mobile and walking away with blood dripping from a cooler bag he was carrying.

Road worker Roman Khomyakov found Baksheev’s Samsung mobile phone and noticed the hideous photographs.

“We were working near Gastello street, putting asphalt on the road, when I found the phone,” he said.

“I opened the photo album and looked only at two pictures.

“At first I did not even understand what was there, it looked like a head and a hand. I thought pictures were real.”

Baksheev reportedly came looking for the phone.

“The man looked homeless. He said: ‘I lost my phone.’

“I recognised him from the pictures in the phone. So I did not return the phone, we said we knew nothing. He left.

“Soon a road police car came passed, and I gave them the mobile phone. I said: ‘It’s your job, sort it out’.”

Police say Baksheev was an orphan from Siberia who was adopted by a childless couple.

He was in his teens when his mother Svetlana died of cancer – and his adoptive father threw him out of the family home even though he was underage.

Some reports say Natalia took him in and married him when he was 18.

Others say that she had other partners and the pair did not wed until four years ago.

His father – who was not named – said: “Before moving out of our flat he set fire to his room.”

He said: “He was convicted four times for stealing things.

“He took loans and gave my name as a trustee. I had to switch off my phone because banks kept calling me.

“I had tried to help him, I found jobs for him several times but what could I do?

“It is useless talking to him. His eyes are made of glass.

“He is looking through your body and does not listen.”

Natalia Baksheeva, who is seven years older than her husband, came to live in Krasnodar from Omutinsk town in Kirov region.

Cops uncovered “video lessons for cannibals” at their homes, according to Livekuban.ru.

The couple are being held in Krasnodar as cops investigate.