The case of an infamous cannibal resurfaced recently, making headlines more a decade after a man sentenced to a psychiatric hospital for 60 years after killing and eating a homeless man. According to The Express, Tyree Smith is being released from psychiatric care after only 10 years of a 60-year sentence. Smith killed the man and then ate his brain and eyeballs, grabbing headlines in 2013.
According to the outlet, the Connecticut State Psychiatric Security Review Board determined that Smith was ready to be transitioned back into the general community after his time under treatment. His release leads to a Waterbury group home and he is barred from associating with anybody with a criminal record.
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“Tyree Smith is an individual with a psychiatric illness requiring care, custody and treatment. Since his last hearing Tyree Smith has continued to demonstrate clinical stability,” the board’s report reads. “Mr. Smith is medication compliant, actively engaged in all recommended forms of treatment, and has been symptom-free for many years.”
At the time of the slaying, Smith had recently moved in with his cousin, Nicole Raab, and exhibited some strange behavior. She noted he was talking about Greek gods and “needing to go out and get blood” when he first arrived. The next evening he arrived with blood on his pants, holding chopsticks and a bloody ax.
If you needed more confirmation that this person ate someone, Smith then allegedly told his cousin that he killed a man and ate his brains at the Lakeview Cemetery while drinking sake. He also made clear he was going to do it again.
Angel Gonzalez was discovered a month later in a vacant apartment in Bridgeport. Smith had lived there as a child, according to Express, and police recovered a bloody ax and empty sake bottle at a nearby cemetery.
Smith reportedly suffered from psychotic incidents since he was a child, hearing voices and commands to kill people. The focus on brains is reportedly due to the voices telling Smith to eat them to “get a better understanding” of humanity, and behavior, and to see into the “spirit realm” with the dead person’s eyes.
While the judgment of the board should be trusted and has certainly been vetted among professionals on location, it still makes you a little uneasy. Before Smith was committed, he was offering to eat the Yale psychiatrist who testified about his condition and had just calmly revealed he was out to eat people to his own cousin. Concerns should at least be noted, but the report does give a saving grace that he is truly healthier now.
“He denied experiencing cravings but stated that if they were to arise, he would reach out to his hospital and community supports and providers,” it reads. Quite reassuring.
