Student ID’D as murder victim
Suspect Luka Magnotta sought by authorities in France
A missing Concordia University student from China has been identified as the victim of suspected body parts killer Luka Rocco Magnotta, Montreal police said Friday.
Magnotta, 29, faces a firstdegree murder charge.
Jun Lin, 33, was reported missing May 24, one day before a torso was found stuffed in a suitcase and disposed in a Dumpster outside a Montreal apartment building.
According to Montreal’s La Presse, Lin, from Wuhan — a city in central China — arrived in Montreal last July for his studies.
A missing-person’s report posted to the Chinese Consulate said Lin hadn’t been in contact with his family and friends since May 24.
Montreal police believe Magnotta, an actor in gay pornographic videos, killed a man on May 25, inside his tiny second-floor apartment. The homicide only came to light four days later.
Police believe there is a link between the man Magnotta allegedly killed and dismembered body parts that were mailed to Ottawa.
Packages containing body parts arrived Tuesday, coincidentally, around the same time a janitor discovered the torso inside a discarded suitcase in Montreal. One package arrived at the federal Conservative party’s headquarters and another, destined for the Liberal party, was intercepted.
The search for Magnotta has also led police overseas, since they believe he fled to Europe.
A senior French police official says he is “sure” that Luka Rocco Magnotta is currently in France. Another French police official says Magnotta apparently flew to Paris from Montreal last weekend.
The officials say France’s fugitive search unit was ordered to hunt for Magnotta.
Both officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak about such searches publicly.
A first-degree murder conviction carries an automatic life sentence with no chance of parole before 25 years.
According to the warrant made public at the Montreal courthouse on Thursday, Magnotta is also charged with committing an “indignity to the body of the human remains (of) an unknown person.”
The second charge carries a maximum sentence of five years.
The same warrant revealed Magnotta was initially accused of second-degree murder, a lesser charge which still carries a life sentence but offers more flexibility to a judge when determining parole eligibility.
Commander Ian Lafreniere, of the Montreal Police Service said the warrant charging Magnotta with seconddegree murder was issued early in the investigation, while investigators were still at the murder scene.
He said a prosecutor later decided to upgrade the charge to first-degree murder after she was shown a disturbing video depicting a man, believed to be Magnotta, committing indignities to a body.
The graphic video was posted to a website and has been viewed by many.
The warrant charges Magnotta with causing the death “of an unknown person.”
Magnotta does not have a criminal record in Quebec provincial court or in Montreal municipal court. But on Thursday, the Ottawa Citizen learned that in 2004, Magnotta was charged, under the name Eric Clinton Newman, his name at birth, with defrauding numerous large retail chains. He was also accused of stealing $17,000 and sexually assaulting a woman.
Montreal police also backtracked on claims they made that Magnotta had dated Karla Homolka, one of Canada’s most notorious sex killers.