Murder suspect may be overseas
Canadian police seek porn actor
OTTAWA — A Canadian porn actor suspected of mailing body parts to the headquarters of two major political parties after making a video of the killing might have fled to France, police said Thursday.
Montreal Police Cmdr. Ian Lafrenière said authorities believe Luka Magnotta, 29, fled North America based on evidence they found at his apartment and on a blog Magnotta once wrote about how to disappear.
“We believe he may be in a foreign country,” Lafrenière said. “He left a letter on a website mentioning how to disappear for good, and secondly, our investigation brought us some details that might let us think that he could be away from the country.”
A Montreal police official said investigators believe Magnotta may have gone to France. The official spoke to the Associated Press on condition of anonymity because she was not authorized to talk about the case publicly and gave no other details.
The case began Tuesday when police found a man’s torso in a suitcase behind Magnotta’s apartment building and a severed foot was found in a package mailed to the Conservative Party headquarters in Ottawa. A hand was found in a separate package at a postal facility, addressed to the Liberal Party of Canada.
Other body parts remain missing, and Lafrenière said police are investigating the possibility that they also may have been put in the mail.
An online video that police believe shows Magnotta murdering a man he dated has been on the Internet. The video shows a man stabbing another man with an ice pick while the victim lies naked and tied up. The first man later reveals he has slashed the other man’s throat. He then dismembers the corpse and performs sexual acts with it.
Lafrenière said police believe the victim is a man reported missing several days ago.
Police said Magnotta is also known by the names Eric Clinton Newman and Vladimir Romanov. They described him as white and 5 feet 8 inches tall with blue eyes and black hair. His Internet presence indicates he is a bisexual porn actor and model with several aliases.