[green-label]Claim:[/green-label] A man murdered his unfaithful fiancee and fed her remains to her unsuspecting parents at a barbeque.
[dot-false]FALSE[/dot-false]
[green-label]Origins:[/green-label] On 26 October 2015 the web site Now8News published an article titled "Crazed Man Murders Ex-Fiancé, Feeds Her ‘Ground Beef’ Remains to Her Parents at BBQ," and on 3 November 2015 that article's information was aggregated in the Closer article "Man murders cheating fiancé and feeds her remains to her clueless parents at BBQ."
The original Now8News article reported that:
The mysterious disappearance of a 38-year-old Little Rock, Arkansas woman is finally over, after finding Andrea Reynolds remains in a basement freezer of her ex-fiancé’s house. The video recorded confession of Jimmy Roberts sent chills up the spines of investigators. The following is part of the transcript released by Little Rock, Arkansas investigators:
"I caught her cheating on me and I lost it ... I killed her and her boyfriend. I had to come up with something quick. So I reported her missing. Everybody began to search for her so of course I joined in. Every week we had meetings at my house and I barbecued for all the volunteers. But what they didn't know is I put Andrea and her boyfriend in the meat grinder, made her into burger patties, and fed her to her parents. They were always so mean to me, all I could do was look at them and smile. Revenge never tasted so sweet. They had no idea! Well now they know!"
The claim's appearance on the Closer web site obfuscated its origins on the fake news purveyor Now8News, but a quick reverse image search revealed that the mug shot used for the story was taken as early as 2010. Now8News doesn't include a disclaimer marking its content as fake news, leaving many readers unaware of its untruthful nature.
Earlier hoaxes published by Now8News included the following claims: that a man was caught having sex with a pig in a Walmart bathroom; that aborted fetuses were used in making Chicken McNuggets; that bananas from Walmart were infested with parasitic worms; that KFC was busted raising mutant chickens; that a woman was arrested for performing a sex act with a breakfast sausage; that a separate woman was arrested for "trying on" feminine hygiene products at Walmart; and that a man was found cannibalizing a living teenager inside a haunted house attraction.
[article-meta]
[green-label]Last updated:[/green-label] 12 November 2015
[green-label]Originally published:[/green-label] 12 November 2015