Catherine Becker
Catherine Kieu Becker, seen in a police mugshot taken July 11, 2011, has been arrested after police responded to a home in Garden Grove, California and found her husband castrated in his bed. Reuters

It all began with some strange tasting tofu.

A newly filed police account helps to piece together the chain of events that allegedly led 48-year-old Catherine Kieu Becker to chop off her husband's penis as he lay bound to his bed. Becker was set to be arraigned on Friday on charges of torture and aggravated mayhem.

Becker and her husband already had a volatile relationship and filed for divorce in 2009, citing irreconcilable differences, but they still shared a Garden Grove condo when the husband arrived home on the evening of July 11. He told Becker a male friend would be staying at the apartment, and an argument ensued.

What happened next is unclear. The victim ate some tofu that Becker had prepared and later told the police that it tasted metallic. Police believe he may have been poisoned but are awaiting the results of toxicology tests. Either way, the victim awoke to Becker tying his hands and feet to the bed with white nylon rope.

You deserve it, Becker allegedly told him. You deserve it.

She then severed his penis with one swift motion of a 10-inch kitchen knife, acccording to the police report, and tossed it in the garbage disposal. He was rushed to UC Irvine Medical Center where doctors unsuccessfully attempted to reattach the penis, which they had retrieved from the garbage disposal.

If past precedent is any guide, questions of Becker's mental stability and of any potential domestic abuse are likely to surface should the case go to trial. In 1993, Lorena Bobbitt cut off her husband John Wayne Bobbit's penis as he slept, and in court she recounted the abuse she endured from her husband. She was found innocent by reason of insanity.

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