School kids get counselling after human remains found

Police say the hand and foot mailed from Montreal likely belong to Jun Lin, who was murdered and dismembered in that city

Students at the two Vancouver schools where human remains were delivered on Tuesday were still in shock Wednesday, as the investigation into the suspected gruesome mailings by Luka Rocco Magnotta was turned over to Montreal police.

As students arrived at False Creek elementary school and St. George’s junior school on Wednesday morning, they were met with crisis management teams as well as national and international media attention.

Vancouver police said the decision to turn the investigation over to the Montreal Police Homicide Unit came after VPD homicide investigators found out the packaging and addresses on the boxes sent to Vancouver were similar to those of the packages discovered earlier this week in Eastern Canada.

The hand and foot sent to Vancouver were mailed from Montreal, and all evidence collected so far indicates they belong to Jun Lin, Montreal police Cmdr. Ian Lafreniere said Wednesday.

Two similar packages were mailed to the federal Conservative and Liberal parties in Ottawa last week containing another hand and foot.

Police have said those body parts belonged to Lin, a Chinese student whose torso was found in a back alley in Montreal with its hands, feet and head removed.

The man’s head is still missing.

Magnotta is accused of killing and dismembering the body of his former lover Lin and is in a Berlin prison awaiting extradition to Canada following his arrest Monday at an Internet café.

On Tuesday, Montreal police said investigators had obtained surveillance video of Magnotta allegedly mailing the gruesome packages to Ottawa from a Canada Post outlet in his Cote- des- Neiges neighbourhood.

The contents of the Vancouver packages — a right hand and a right foot — were sent to Montreal Wednesday for further forensic examination, police said.

Montreal police said the packages sent to the Vancouver schools contained notes, but did not reveal the contents.

Montreal police also confirmed that Magnotta had spent time in Vancouver, although they didn’t know how much.

Jeff Vanzetti, webmaster for the U. S.- based Internet Adult Film Database, said Magnotta may have made a porn movie in B. C. almost a decade ago.

Vanzetti says he started looking at Magnotta’s resume on the site when police began their manhunt.

Vanzetti said a film distributor called StreetBait. com had an office in Vancouver in 2003, the year Magnotta shot a movie with the company.

Bankruptcy records also link Magnotta to Vancouver — he had an outstanding debt of $ 6,882 to an auto- leasing company in Burnaby.

A spokesman for the company Scotia Dealer Advantage, Andrew Chornenky, would not answer any questions related to the debt, citing privacy laws.

Parents and students at St. George’s, a boys’ private school, were still shocked and mystified by the gruesome discovery Wednesday, and wondered why the school on W. 29th Avenue was chosen as a destination for one of the packages.

John Lumn who dropped his son off just before 8 a. m. said he was still shocked at what has occurred.

“My son has been here for four years. This is very disturbing for all parents,” he said.

A student who asked not to be named said students were also shocked.

“We’ve no idea why the school was targeted. It appears to be random,” said the student.

As students arrived at False Creek school Wednesday morning, members of the media were staked out looking for reaction.

Some parents were upset about the number of cameras, while others said they expected it, given the level of international interest in the case.

Kurt Heinrich, a spokesman for the Vancouver school board, said a crisis management team was at the False Creek school to talk to the students about what happened.

“We are just trying to calm everyone down. I know that will be a difficult thing to do given the national and international interest,” he said.

School staff sent a letter home with False Creek students Wednesday with tips on how to deal with anxiety and the media attention.

Parent Charlene Hiller was feeling a little more uneasy about the situation and said she didn’t know what to say to her young daughter in kindergarten.