New body parts from ‘psycho’
Hand, foot mailed to schools
POLICE yesterday probed a new twist in the grisly “Canadian Psycho” murder case after new body parts sent from Montreal turned up at Vancouver schools, as the suspect awaited extradition from Germany.
Authorities were still trying to determine if the human hand and foot discovered in separate packages at the two schools on Tuesday were indeed those of the killer’s victim, 33-year-old Chinese student Lin Jun.
Luka Rocco Magnotta, a 29year-old Canadian porn actor, was arrested on Monday in Berlin after a week-long international manhunt and is awaiting extradition to Canada for murdering Lin, believed at one point to have been his lover.
Magnotta allegedly filmed himself on the night of May 2425 killing Lin with a pick axe and dismembering the body before sending a foot and a hand to the headquarters of Canadian political parties, including Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s Conservatives.
A series of new videos from Magnotta – probably filmed after the murder – have appeared on the internet and appear to be authentic, according to police.
In one, posted on YouTube, Magnotta is seen smoking and says, “what’s up and hi to all my fans”, while Madonna’s song, La Isla Bonita, plays in the background.
Police called the initial video showing the murder “sordid” and said the crime scene – a flat on Montreal’s busy Decarie Boulevard – was virtually covered in blood.
The victim’s torso, which has also been identified as belonging to Lin, was discovered in a suitcase outside Magnotta’s block of flats, but his head and his second hand and foot were all unaccounted for before Tuesday.
Montreal homicide investigators have taken over the Vancouver probe into whether the latest body parts belonged to Lin, who had been studying computer science at Concordia University in Montreal.
Vancouver police said the packaging and addresses on the boxes sent to two schools there were similar to those on the parcels discovered at the political offices in eastern Canada.
Montreal police spokesman, Ian Lafreniere, said that a note was included with one package sent to a Vancouver school, as well as one of the packages delivered to Ottawa, but did not discuss the contents of the notes.
After a warrant was issued for Magnotta’s arrest, local media reported that a note sent with a severed foot to Conservative Party headquarters indicated that more body parts had been sent in the mail and that the person who dismembered the victim would kill again.
Magnotta, who fled Canada on May 26, at first to Paris, was picked up on Monday on an Interpol warrant by German police in an internet cafe in Neukoelln, a working-class district of Berlin.
It is not clear when he will be extradited to Canada, but the move is expected in the coming days.
Canadian authorities said Magnotta would face charges of first degree murder and committing indignities to a body. He is also expected to be charged with publishing and mailing obscene matter to Canadian politicians.
The suspect has been dubbed the “Canadian Psycho” and the “Butcher of Montreal” for an unfathomable murder that could have come straight out of a horror movie.
Lin’s grieving parents, accompanied by his sister and uncle, arrived in Montreal on Tuesday from China to meet Chinese diplomats, police and university administrators.
Authorities are mulling whether to investigate an Edmonton-based website for publishing the video of Lin’s dismemberment, believed to have been posted by Magnotta before he fled Canada.
Police are probing three other videos which appeared on the internet after the suspect fled Canada.
Montreal’s serious crimes unit said it believed the videos were filmed after Lin’s murder.
Magnotta, who has worked as a bisexual porn star and as a gay prostitute, has changed his name and used several aliases.
He had several fraud convictions on his record and had reportedly been banned from owning or using a camera or a computer, and from accessing the internet. – Sapa-AFP