Joe Metheny dead: Serial killer who claimed he put women's remains into barbecue sandwiches dies in prison

A serial killer who claimed to have sold his victims' remains in barbecue sandwiches has died in prison.

Joe Metheny, 62, was found unresponsive by a prison guard in Maryland where he was serving two life sentences, having escaped a death sentence on appeal.

Metheny was convicted of murdering two women in Baltimore during the mid-1990s—Cathy Magaziner and Kimberly Spicer—but claimed to have killed 10 people in total.

The killer, who was then heavily overweight and nicknamed "Tiny", confessed to police at the time that he was "a very sick person" and, according to a contemporary report in the Baltimore Sun, broke down in court when he saw Ms Spicer's mother.

Confessing to Ms Magaziner's murder two decades ago, Metheny told detectives he "got a rush out of it, got a high out of it".

He was found dead at about 3pm on Saturday, the Sun reported.

In a supposed confession posted online, Metheny described how after killing the women he stored their flesh in a freezer and "opened up a little open-pit beef stand".

"No one can tell the difference" between pork and human flesh when the two are mixed together, he claimed in the unverified text.

He murdered the women while living in a trailer on the lot of a pallet company in south Baltimore.

Ms Spicer's body was discovered in December 1996 and a few days later Metheny showed police the location of Ms Magaziner's remains.

Police were unable to gather enough evidence to charge Metheny with all the killings he claimed to have committed.

Before his conviction in the deaths of Ms Magaziner and Ms Spicer, he was acquitted of murdering two homeless men with an axe, though he later said he had been guilty.

During court proceedings, the Sun reported at the time, Metheny falsely claimed his mother was dead.