The man believed to have been brutally slayed in a videotaped attack before his body parts were mailed to Canada's top political parties was his killer's gay lover, police have revealed.
Montreal Police Commander Ian Lafreniere identified the victim as 33-year-old Chinese student Jun Lin, who moved to Canada to study and had dated his suspected killer.Authorities are now hunting for alleged attacker, low-budget porn star Luka Rocco Magnotta, in France, where he is believed to be posing as a woman.
The international search comes just days after Lin's maggot-riddled torso
was found in a suitcase near to Magnotta's Montreal apartment block,
and his hand and foot were mailed to two offices.
Magnotta had a weird taste for Chinese food.
A senior French police official said he is sure Magnotta is in France and that Magnotta, who has previously expressed a love for the Eiffel Tower and Moulin Rouge, has been there in the past. Another French police official said Magnotta apparently flew to Paris from Montreal last weekend before the gruesome case emerged.
Lafreniere added that Jun Lin does not have family in Montreal. A family member reported him missing on Tuesday after he was last seen on May 24.
Authorities say the killing, which is believed to have been filmed in footage that later circulated the internet, took place on the night of May 24-25, and the suspect fled for Europe on May 26.
Jun Lin was from the city of Wuhan and arrived in Montreal in July 2011.
'He is a Chinese citizen who studied at a university here in Montreal and was here for a certain time,' Lafreniere said. 'Thanks to the Chinese embassy, we have been able to reach the family with the sad news of what happened.'
Police launched an investigation after a package containing a severed festering foot was opened at the ruling Conservative Party headquarters. Just hours later, a hand was discovered at a postal facility in a packaged addressed to the Liberal party of Canada.
A torso was found in a suitcase on a garbage dump in Montreal, outside Magnotta's apartment building, where he has not been seen since. Montreal police have said they believe the suspected killer fled for France based on evidence they found at his apartment and a blog he once wrote about how to disappear.
Lafreniere 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.'
'What will hinder him the most is what he used to glorify himself, the web, with all the photos we have of him,' Lafreniere said. But he warned that Magnotta is 'someone who can disguise himself, he can change into a woman, wear a wig'.
France's fugitive search unit has been ordered to hunt for Magnotta, the French officials said but gave no details about his suspected whereabouts.
Lafreniere said Magnotta could be anywhere in Europe, and 'there's even been talk he might have returned to Canada under another identity', the Associated Press reported.
A neighbour noted that the usually well-groomed Magnotta looked like he was 'a bad hair day' when he saw him on May 25.
'It was red, and he normally is dark,' building resident Derek MacKinnon said. 'It looked like a really bad wig.'
Police suspect Magnotta filmed the murder. A video posted online 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 also dismembers the corpse and performs sexual acts with it. It is believed the man then eats some flesh with a knife and fork.
Interpol, the international police agency which is based in the French city of Lyon, has also issued a Red Notice search order for Magnotta's arrest.
It comes amid reports that Magnotta allegedly posted sick animal torture videos just months ago - before warning he'd be back 'but this time the victims won't be animals'.
It has been claimed that he wrote a chilling email to one newspaper in London at the time saying: 'You will be hearing from me again. This time, however, the victims won’t be small animals.'
The animal cruelty video, which was posted on a site called Flix from an account registered in Islington, north London, showed a man in his 20s carrying a kitten called Jasmine into a bedroom in a Santa hat and then placing it on a bed.
Lurking half-hidden under a pillow lay a yellow Burmese python, which can grow up to 19ft long and is one of the largest snakes in the world.
Jasmine is seen slowly walking across the bed until the thug distracts her and she fatally turns her back on the danger. The snake pounces, wrapping the kitten in its coils as it squeezes the life out of the playful animal.
Once the kitten's tail stops moving the snake swallows her whole - head first. Its cries of agony are drowned out by the Christmas song Little Drummer Boy playing in the background of the video.
At the time, Magnotta was staying in a room above a pub in Wembley, where he was tracked down and quizzed by journalists. Magnotta at the time denied being behind the sick footage, and he even turned up at the offices of The Sun newspaper to complain that reporters there were harassing him.
But shortly after the paper received an email staff believed came from Magnotta telling of his love of London but saying he would 'have to say goodbye for now'.
The missive continued: 'But don't worry, in the near future you you will be hearing from me again. This time, however, the victims won’t be small animals. I will however, send you a copy of the new video I’m going to be making. You see, killing is different than smoking... with smoking you can actually quit.
'Once you kill, and taste blood, it’s impossible to stop.' The email was signed off with the name John Kilbride, one of the first child victims of Moors murderers Ian Brady and Myra Hindley.
Police officers and animal rights campaigners believe Magnotta could also be behind a sickening video posted online where two further kittens are tortured and killed.
The animal-cruelty video, filmed two years ago, shows a man looking like Magnotta placing two kittens inside an airtight bag and using a vacuum cleaner to suck out the air.
In distressing scenes, the cleaner is then switched on and the air is slowly sucked out of the bag. The mewing kittens can be seen wriggling around and clawing to escape as the polythene tightens around them.
Commander Lafreniere also said officers have been trying to take down an online video that they believe shows Magnotta murdering a man he dated. The sickening snuff video footage, called '1 Lunatic 1 Ice Pick' and uploaded last week, shows a naked male tied to a bed frame being attacked with both an ice pick and a kitchen knife.
The Best Gore website says the film, which is unclear where or when it was filmed, then shows the victim being stabbed and having his throat slashed to the soundtrack of True Faith by New Order.
He is later decapitated, dismembered and sexually assaulted before his attacker uses a knife and fork to slice off and consume a piece of fatty flesh from his buttox.
It is believed the victim was already dead when the camera started rolling. The man in the video, whose face is never revealed, then goes on to play with the corpse's body parts for sexual gratification.
Commander Lafreniere said they were able to take down the video on Wednesday night but that it keeps reappearing online. 'It's horrible. I can't believe people take advantage of watching this,' he said.
The hunt for Magnotta began on Tuesday when Canadian police found a man's torso in a suitcase behind his Montreal 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.
'For best results under normal circumstances, a minimum of four months is really necessary to successfully carry out the heroic actions necessary to leave your old life behind.
'This is certainly not an undertaking to be entered into lightly - be completely sure of yourself before you commit to this.'
Police in masked combed through Magnotta's apartment in a working class Montreal neighbourhood in Wednesday. The four-floor, 57-unit building on Decarie Boulevard has apartments overlooking one of the city's busiest roads on one side. One of these is unit 208, the narrow, one-room apartment rented by Magnotta. Some tenants indicated that drug use is a common source of problems in the building.
Inside officers found blood-soaked sheets, what looked like a pool of blood in a refrigerator, and a message scrawled on a wall inside a wardrobe that said: 'If you don't like the reflection, don't look in the mirror. I don't care.' Mike Gauthier, who has lived in the building for three years, said Magnotta's apartment was emptied before he apparently vanished in recent days. There were no clothes and no books inside, he said.
Few tenants said they knew Magnotta, who had only lived in the building for around four months. They described him as an effeminate man who was quiet and aloof but pleasant at times. Eric Schorer, the building's manager, called him 'very anti-social.'
'He never really talked to anybody. He was always very cordial with me but very short, like, "Hi Eric, have a good day." That's it,' Mr Schorer said.
Jenni Bryne, a top political adviser to Canadian prime minister Stephen Harper, discovered the severed foot on Tuesday after she opened a bloodstained box at Conservative party headquarters. As she opened the package, a foul odour overcame the office. 'It was such a horrible odor. I'm sure many of us will not forget it,' Conservative Party spokesman Fred DeLorey said.
Police said the package was addressed to the Conservative Party of Canada and not to a specific person. According to reports, a note found with the foot claimed a total of six dismembered body parts had been posted, with the killer warning he would strike again. Magnotta has no criminal record, but, according to The Sun, a relative said: 'He hurt us when he was younger and we haven't been in contact with him for a while.'
Montreal Police Commander Ian Lafreniere identified the victim as 33-year-old Chinese student Jun Lin, who moved to Canada to study and had dated his suspected killer.Authorities are now hunting for alleged attacker, low-budget porn star Luka Rocco Magnotta, in France, where he is believed to be posing as a woman.
The international search comes just days after Lin's maggot-riddled torso
was found in a suitcase near to Magnotta's Montreal apartment block,
and his hand and foot were mailed to two offices.
Magnotta had a weird taste for Chinese food.
Man hunt: Police are searching for Canadian porn star Luka Magnotta, top,
after he allegedly hacked a man to death and posted his body parts to Canadian offices.
The victim has been identified as Jun Lin, above.
after he allegedly hacked a man to death and posted his body parts to Canadian offices.
The victim has been identified as Jun Lin, above.
A senior French police official said he is sure Magnotta is in France and that Magnotta, who has previously expressed a love for the Eiffel Tower and Moulin Rouge, has been there in the past. Another French police official said Magnotta apparently flew to Paris from Montreal last weekend before the gruesome case emerged.
Lafreniere added that Jun Lin does not have family in Montreal. A family member reported him missing on Tuesday after he was last seen on May 24.
Authorities say the killing, which is believed to have been filmed in footage that later circulated the internet, took place on the night of May 24-25, and the suspect fled for Europe on May 26.
Victim: Jun Lin, 33, was a Chinese student who had moved to Montreal to study. He dated Magnotta
Sick: An image from a gruesome video of the killing, which has been blurred by MailOnline, shows the victim
Jun Lin was from the city of Wuhan and arrived in Montreal in July 2011.
'He is a Chinese citizen who studied at a university here in Montreal and was here for a certain time,' Lafreniere said. 'Thanks to the Chinese embassy, we have been able to reach the family with the sad news of what happened.'
Disguise: An artist's impression of what suspected killer Magnotta may look like as a woman
Police launched an investigation after a package containing a severed festering foot was opened at the ruling Conservative Party headquarters. Just hours later, a hand was discovered at a postal facility in a packaged addressed to the Liberal party of Canada.
A torso was found in a suitcase on a garbage dump in Montreal, outside Magnotta's apartment building, where he has not been seen since. Montreal police have said they believe the suspected killer fled for France based on evidence they found at his apartment and a blog he once wrote about how to disappear.
Lafreniere 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.'
'What will hinder him the most is what he used to glorify himself, the web, with all the photos we have of him,' Lafreniere said. But he warned that Magnotta is 'someone who can disguise himself, he can change into a woman, wear a wig'.
France's fugitive search unit has been ordered to hunt for Magnotta, the French officials said but gave no details about his suspected whereabouts.
Lafreniere said Magnotta could be anywhere in Europe, and 'there's even been talk he might have returned to Canada under another identity', the Associated Press reported.
'Obsessed': Magnotta is believed to be on the run in France. He is said to be love the Eiffel Tour, pictured
On the run: Another photograph captures Magnotta, 29, outside The Louvre in Paris
A neighbour noted that the usually well-groomed Magnotta looked like he was 'a bad hair day' when he saw him on May 25.
'It was red, and he normally is dark,' building resident Derek MacKinnon said. 'It looked like a really bad wig.'
Police suspect Magnotta filmed the murder. A video posted online 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 also dismembers the corpse and performs sexual acts with it. It is believed the man then eats some flesh with a knife and fork.
Interpol, the international police agency which is based in the French city of Lyon, has also issued a Red Notice search order for Magnotta's arrest.
It comes amid reports that Magnotta allegedly posted sick animal torture videos just months ago - before warning he'd be back 'but this time the victims won't be animals'.
'Killer': Magnotta is believed to have fled the country on May 26 after the killing on the night of May 24 - 25
Gruesome: It is believed Magnotta, a low-budget porn star, filmed himself beheading his victim
It has been claimed that he wrote a chilling email to one newspaper in London at the time saying: 'You will be hearing from me again. This time, however, the victims won’t be small animals.'
The animal cruelty video, which was posted on a site called Flix from an account registered in Islington, north London, showed a man in his 20s carrying a kitten called Jasmine into a bedroom in a Santa hat and then placing it on a bed.
Lurking half-hidden under a pillow lay a yellow Burmese python, which can grow up to 19ft long and is one of the largest snakes in the world.
Jasmine is seen slowly walking across the bed until the thug distracts her and she fatally turns her back on the danger. The snake pounces, wrapping the kitten in its coils as it squeezes the life out of the playful animal.
Pink lipstick: Magnotta has acted in low-budget gay porn films, as well as working as a stripper and model
Evil: Magnotta is also thought to have been behind this video which showed a kitten being fed to a python
The bait: The kitten is distracted and moments later the python pounces and wraps its coils around its prey
Once the kitten's tail stops moving the snake swallows her whole - head first. Its cries of agony are drowned out by the Christmas song Little Drummer Boy playing in the background of the video.
At the time, Magnotta was staying in a room above a pub in Wembley, where he was tracked down and quizzed by journalists. Magnotta at the time denied being behind the sick footage, and he even turned up at the offices of The Sun newspaper to complain that reporters there were harassing him.
But shortly after the paper received an email staff believed came from Magnotta telling of his love of London but saying he would 'have to say goodbye for now'.
The missive continued: 'But don't worry, in the near future you you will be hearing from me again. This time, however, the victims won’t be small animals. I will however, send you a copy of the new video I’m going to be making. You see, killing is different than smoking... with smoking you can actually quit.
'Once you kill, and taste blood, it’s impossible to stop.' The email was signed off with the name John Kilbride, one of the first child victims of Moors murderers Ian Brady and Myra Hindley.
The video shows the kitten disappearing in the python's mouth
Friendly: This video, posted online two years ago, shows a man who looks like Magnotta appearing to be caring for the cats (he disguised his face)
Sickening: The thug places both of the cats inside the bag
The reference to the Moors murderers offered a gruesome link between the kitten killing video and those dreadful crimes - Little Drummer Boy was the same track heard on a tape Brady made of the torture and murder of Lesley Ann Downey.Police officers and animal rights campaigners believe Magnotta could also be behind a sickening video posted online where two further kittens are tortured and killed.
The animal-cruelty video, filmed two years ago, shows a man looking like Magnotta placing two kittens inside an airtight bag and using a vacuum cleaner to suck out the air.
In distressing scenes, the cleaner is then switched on and the air is slowly sucked out of the bag. The mewing kittens can be seen wriggling around and clawing to escape as the polythene tightens around them.
Commander Lafreniere also said officers have been trying to take down an online video that they believe shows Magnotta murdering a man he dated. The sickening snuff video footage, called '1 Lunatic 1 Ice Pick' and uploaded last week, shows a naked male tied to a bed frame being attacked with both an ice pick and a kitchen knife.
Cleaning up: Mike Nadeau (right), janitor of the Montreal apartment building where Luka Rocco Magnotta reportedly lived, inspects the premises
Lair: The kitchen of the Montreal apartment building where Luka Rocco Magnotta reportedly lived
Room number 208: The entrance door of the one-bedroom Montreal apartment building where Luka Rocco Magnotta reportedly lived
The Best Gore website says the film, which is unclear where or when it was filmed, then shows the victim being stabbed and having his throat slashed to the soundtrack of True Faith by New Order.
He is later decapitated, dismembered and sexually assaulted before his attacker uses a knife and fork to slice off and consume a piece of fatty flesh from his buttox.
It is believed the victim was already dead when the camera started rolling. The man in the video, whose face is never revealed, then goes on to play with the corpse's body parts for sexual gratification.
Commander Lafreniere said they were able to take down the video on Wednesday night but that it keeps reappearing online. 'It's horrible. I can't believe people take advantage of watching this,' he said.
The hunt for Magnotta began on Tuesday when Canadian police found a man's torso in a suitcase behind his Montreal 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.
Investigation: An internal shot of Magnotta's one-room apartment, outside of which a maggot-ridden torso was found in a suitcase
Bathroom: More images have emerged from the apartment rented by Magnotta, who has gone on the ru
Suspected crime scene: These images of the bed inside Magnotta's apartment show a mattress stained with blood. It is thought the former stripper dismembered his lover on camera
Other body parts remain missing, and Lafreniere said police are investigating the possibility that they also may have been put in the mail.
Criminal profiler Pat Brown said the suspect clearly loves attention. 'He's not political, psychopaths rarely are, so he didn't send those parts for political reasons but to get a splash in the media,' Mr Brown said. 'He wants to go in history as being the creepiest guy out there.'
Police said Magnotta is also known by the aliases Eric Clinton Newman and Vladimir Romanov. They described him as white, 5ft 8in tall with blue eyes and black hair. A police official said he was a porn actor. His internet presence indicates he is a bisexual porn actor and model with a myriad of aliases.
Magnotta changed his name from Eric Clinton Kirkman in 2006, and online posts suggest he had a longtime fascination with identity change and escape. In a post on the Digital Journal website dated 2009 that police confirmed, a six-step article under Magnotta's name describes how to disappear.
'When making the decision to disappear, it is very important to understand that this is not a process that can be successfully accomplished overnight,' it reads.
Criminal profiler Pat Brown said the suspect clearly loves attention. 'He's not political, psychopaths rarely are, so he didn't send those parts for political reasons but to get a splash in the media,' Mr Brown said. 'He wants to go in history as being the creepiest guy out there.'
Police said Magnotta is also known by the aliases Eric Clinton Newman and Vladimir Romanov. They described him as white, 5ft 8in tall with blue eyes and black hair. A police official said he was a porn actor. His internet presence indicates he is a bisexual porn actor and model with a myriad of aliases.
Magnotta changed his name from Eric Clinton Kirkman in 2006, and online posts suggest he had a longtime fascination with identity change and escape. In a post on the Digital Journal website dated 2009 that police confirmed, a six-step article under Magnotta's name describes how to disappear.
'When making the decision to disappear, it is very important to understand that this is not a process that can be successfully accomplished overnight,' it reads.
Disturbed: The chilling message written on the wall of a cupboard in the apartment
Fugitive: The shitty apartment where Luka Rocco Magnotta is believed to have lived
'For best results under normal circumstances, a minimum of four months is really necessary to successfully carry out the heroic actions necessary to leave your old life behind.
'This is certainly not an undertaking to be entered into lightly - be completely sure of yourself before you commit to this.'
Police in masked combed through Magnotta's apartment in a working class Montreal neighbourhood in Wednesday. The four-floor, 57-unit building on Decarie Boulevard has apartments overlooking one of the city's busiest roads on one side. One of these is unit 208, the narrow, one-room apartment rented by Magnotta. Some tenants indicated that drug use is a common source of problems in the building.
Gruesome: A dark red substance which looks like it could be blood is seen in Magnotta's refrigerator
Crime scene: Luka Magnotta's apartment in Ottawa, Canada
Grim work: Montreal police investigators gather evidence outside the apartment block
Manhunt: Police stand guard outside a forensic tent by the building
Inside officers found blood-soaked sheets, what looked like a pool of blood in a refrigerator, and a message scrawled on a wall inside a wardrobe that said: 'If you don't like the reflection, don't look in the mirror. I don't care.' Mike Gauthier, who has lived in the building for three years, said Magnotta's apartment was emptied before he apparently vanished in recent days. There were no clothes and no books inside, he said.
Few tenants said they knew Magnotta, who had only lived in the building for around four months. They described him as an effeminate man who was quiet and aloof but pleasant at times. Eric Schorer, the building's manager, called him 'very anti-social.'
'He never really talked to anybody. He was always very cordial with me but very short, like, "Hi Eric, have a good day." That's it,' Mr Schorer said.
Hazardous material: A police officer carries a yellow bag with the bloody package that contains the festering foot mailed to Conservative Party headquarters on Tuesday
Desperate for publicity: Criminal profiler Pat Brown said that, even though the package was addressed to Conservative Party headquarters, the foot was not a political message
Jenni Bryne, a top political adviser to Canadian prime minister Stephen Harper, discovered the severed foot on Tuesday after she opened a bloodstained box at Conservative party headquarters. As she opened the package, a foul odour overcame the office. 'It was such a horrible odor. I'm sure many of us will not forget it,' Conservative Party spokesman Fred DeLorey said.
Police said the package was addressed to the Conservative Party of Canada and not to a specific person. According to reports, a note found with the foot claimed a total of six dismembered body parts had been posted, with the killer warning he would strike again. Magnotta has no criminal record, but, according to The Sun, a relative said: 'He hurt us when he was younger and we haven't been in contact with him for a while.'
