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Alleged Cannibalism Stuns Indiana Town of Jeffersonville

The prosecutor said allegations against Joseph A. Oberhansley were so gruesome they were like nothing he'd ever seen in a quarter-century in office.
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This story contains graphic content that may be disturbing to some readers.

A southern Indiana town is reeling after 33-year-old Joseph Albert Oberhansley was charged with killing his girlfriend in a case so disturbing that even the prosecutor said he'd never seen anything like it in a quarter-century in office. Oberhansley was being held without bond on murder and other charges pending a February trial date in the death last week of Tammy Jo Blanton, 46, whose body was found with numerous stab wounds at her home in Jeffersonville, a few miles north of Louisville, Kentucky.

Oberhansley admitted having cannibalized several of Blanton's organs, Jeffersonville police alleged in a probable cause affidavit filed in Clark County Circuit Court, which NBC News isn't publishing or linking to because of its graphic nature. Oberhansley was living in Indiana after having been released from a Utah prison in 2012 on a conviction for manslaughter in the 1998 shooting death of a previous girlfriend, Utah parole records show.

"After being a prosecutor for so long, you think you've seen everything. And this is one of those cases where I've never seen this," Clark County Prosecuting Attorney Steven Stewart told reporters after a court hearing Monday. Fighting back tears, a friend, Jennifer Osborne, told NBC station WAVE of Louisville: "We just don't know what to do next. We don't know what to do." Another friend, Tonya Graham Davalos, told the station: "I start thinking about everything, and it's so hard. ... I want everyone to think of [the family] and pray for them, because this is going to be really hard for them."

Image: Joseph A. Oberhansley, 33, is charged with murder, abuse of a corpse and breaking and entering in the case.
Joseph A. Oberhansley, 33, is charged with murder, abuse of a corpse and breaking and entering in the case.Clark County Jail

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