Son stabbed then cannibalised his mother while she was still alive | US | News
City councilwoman Rosalie Johnson, 62, was stabbed and partially eaten by her son. (Image: Big Lake City, Minnesota)
A young man made a bloody confession to his father, moments after stabbing and cannibalizing his mother in a frenzied attack at their lakeside Minnesota home.
Eric Leif Jordahl was 20 years old when he killed 62-year-old city councilwoman Rosalie Johnson in July 2020 at the family’s lakeside property in Big Lake, Minnesota. Eric Leif Jordahl, now 26 and newly convicted of murder, revealed the horrific details of the attack in court documents filed in Sherburne County.
When her husband returned home on July 23, 2020, he found Jordahl covered in blood in the garage. His son’s confession was immediate.
“There is the devil, he is inside me and I ate my mother,” he told his father, according to the records.
Read more: 25-year-old gang rape victim’s emotional 3-word message before euthanasia
Read more: 33-year-old woman raped, beheaded and hanged from tree while visiting rest stop
According to The Sun, Jordahl sneaked into his mother’s room late at night while his father was at work. When the woman told him to return to bed, the man beat her, then took the knife and stabbed her repeatedly. Police said he also bit her during the attack.
Johnson was found beaten and stabbed in the basement, with parts of his body missing. He had suffered severe facial trauma and was covered in blood, according to a probable cause statement seen by the Daily Mail.
Jordahl removed part of his body and carried it to the kitchen, where officers found human tissue and a butcher knife on the table.
The medical examiner ruled that Jordahl cannibalized his mother before she died; This was due to severe blunt force and sharp force injury to his mother’s head, neck and torso. In handing down the guilty verdict, Judge Karen Schommer concluded that he beat and stabbed his mother, then “began to cut and cannibalize” her while she was still alive.
Eric Leif Jordahl, 26, stabbed and cannibalized his mother at their lakeside home in Minnesota. (Image: Sherburne County Jail)
legal battle
Jordahl was initially deemed mentally incompetent to stand trial in 2021. He regained competency and trials resumed in 2024, with his lawyers pleading not guilty by reason of insanity.
He waived his right to a jury trial. Judge Schommer found him guilty on all counts, including first-degree murder, which carries an automatic life sentence.
On Monday, Schommer will hear evidence on whether he will be found not guilty by reason of insanity.
If it rules in his favor, Jordahl could avoid prison and be committed to a psychiatric hospital instead.
