He Killed and Ate His Girlfriend Nearly 40 Years Ago. Here’s Why His Parole Is Now Being Reversed

The California Board of Parole Hearings rescinded their offer of parole to a man who was sentenced to 25 years to life for killing his girlfriend, raping her corpse and eating a part of her body. 

Leslie Closner was sentenced to 25 years to life after pleading guilty to first-degree murder in 1988. He will remain in prison for the rest of his life until another parole hearing is required by law, the Sutter County District Attorney said in a statement. 

On Oct. 16, 1987, Closner and his girlfriend Jan Ferguson checked into a motel for her daughter’s wedding. The couple got into a fight when Closner shoved Ferguson onto the floor and strangled her to death, according to a parole review document obtained by PEOPLE. 

After Closner killed Ferguson, he moved her body to a bed, ripped her clothes off and raped her dead corpse, according to the parole review document. He attempted to give Ferguson mouth-to-mouth resuscitation but when that didn’t work, he fled from the motel room. 

After leaving, Closner realized that he left his wallet in the hotel room, so he climbed through an open window to get it, the parole review document said. He then had sex with Ferguson’s corpse again and bit off both of her nipples and swallowed them.

According to the parole review document, Closner then fled the motel but turned himself in to Oregon police two days later.

In a 2018 decision to deny Closner parole, former California Governor Jerry Brown wrote that this wasn’t Closner’s first aggressive crime. During Closner and Ferguson’s five year relationship, he allegedly inflicted repeated emotional and physical abuse on her. 

During a short separation, Closner followed Ferguson around “to the point of obsessing over her,” the parole review document said. 

Closner told the board during a parole hearing, “I was really obsessed with her, and this obsession was sexual, um, and it just — it spiraled into even more and more heightened tension between us.”

He was also in an abusive relationship with his ex-wife, the parole review document said. In one instance, he attempted to strangle her to the point where she couldn’t breathe. Their marriage ended in divorce, after his ex-wife filed for a restraining order. 

Brown wrote in his decision to deny Closner parole that he didn’t think Closner knew why he has violent tendencies. When the board asked him why he committed such an appalling crime, Closner said, “My view is that I was dealing with some, you know, negative core issues that extend back from early childhood and in relationship with my mother.”

Closner said during a parole review that he believes his violent tendencies came from the fact that he was physically abused as a child and saw his mother’s naked body. 

A psychologist said in 2014 that Closner spoke about his mother differently, “sometimes with anger and sometimes with a lustful voice” and that at some point during their interview, he “seemed to become sexually excited as he described watching his mother undress,” the parole review document said. 

Former Governor Brown wrote that Closner poses an unreasonable danger to society if he was to be released. 

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“The people would like to thank the victim’s family for their dedication all these years, for attending every hearing and representing their loved one so fiercely,” the district attorney’s office said in a statement. “The Sutter County District Attorney’s Office will continue to represent the people of the state of California in these hearings, speaking up for justice for the family of his victim and the well-being of the community,” 

If you are experiencing domestic violence, call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233, or go to thehotline.org. All calls are toll-free and confidential. The hotline is available 24/7 in more than 170 languages.