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Issei Sagawa, the "Kobe Cannibal" who murdered and ate a Dutch student but was never imprisoned, has died at the age of 73.

Sagawa died of pneumonia on November 24, and his funeral was attended only by relatives, with no public ceremony planned, according to a statement from his younger brother and a friend.

The statement was issued by the publisher of Sagawa's brother's 2019 memoir.

Sagawa was studying in Paris in 1981 when he welcomed Renee Hartevelt, a Dutch student, to his home.

He shot her in the neck, raped her, and ate pieces of her body for three days.

He then tried to dispose of her remains in the Bois de Boulogne park, but was apprehended.

Sagawa was deemed unfit to stand trial by psychiatric experts, and he was initially detained in a mental institution in France before being deported to Japan.

He was ruled sane by Japanese authorities, but because the allegations against him in France had been dropped, he was released.

Sagawa made no secret of his crime and reaped the benefits of his celebrity status, including a novel-like memoir titled "In the Fog" in which he reminisced about the murder in vivid detail.

In interviews in a 2017 documentary, "Caniba," he detailed the experience and his persistent preoccupation with cannibalism.

"My desire to eat a woman had changed into an obligation," he said as quoted by media outlet Vice.