Get the best experience and stay connected to your community with our Spectrum News app. Learn More BERLIN (AP) — The former home of a man serving a life sentence for killing and eating an acquaintance in a case that appalled Germany two decades ago burned down early Monday It wasn't immediately clear what caused the overnight blaze in the small central town of Rotenburg an der Fulda but police said they weren't ruling out arson Mayor Christian Grunwald said he hoped the fire would put an end to frequent trips to the site by people coming out of curiosity and for other reasons “The ruin must be removed permanently; it must not become a pilgrimage site,” he said The half-timbered house belonged to Armin Meiwes who was convicted of murder and disturbing the peace of the dead Meiwes was arrested in December 2002 over the death the previous year of Bernd Juergen Brandes He has said that Brandes answered his internet posting seeking a young man for “slaughter and consumption” and that Brandes wanted to be stabbed to death after drinking a bottle of cold medicine to lose consciousness Meiwes was convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to 8½ years in prison Federal judges overturned that ruling and ordered a retrial failed to give sufficient consideration to the sexual motive behind the killing He was convicted of murder and given a life sentence at a retrial in 2006 rewritten or redistributed without permission This website is using a security service to protect itself from online attacks The action you just performed triggered the security solution There are several actions that could trigger this block including submitting a certain word or phrase You can email the site owner to let them know you were blocked Please include what you were doing when this page came up and the Cloudflare Ray ID found at the bottom of this page.