Luka Magnotta

Case record: Luka Magnotta

Background

Luka Rocco Magnotta was born as Eric Clinton Kirk Newman in July 24, 1982 in Scarborough, Ontario. He attended I. E. Weldon Secondary School in Lindsay.

He legally changed his name to Luka Rocco Magnotta on August 12, 2006.

In 2003, he began to appear in gay pornographic videos. He occasionally worked as a stripper and a male escort. In 2005, he appeared as a pin-up model in a 2005 issue of Toronto’s fab magazine using the pseudonym “Jimmy”.

In 2007, he was an unsuccessful competitor in OUTtv’s reality series COVERguy. Magnotta had multiple cosmetic surgeries and auditioned for the Slice network show Plastic Makes Perfect in February 2008.

In 2005, he was convicted of one count of impersonation and three counts of fraud (against Sears Canada, The Brick, and 2001 Audio Video) after impersonating a woman to apply for a credit card and purchasing over $10,000 worth of goods. He pleaded guilty and received a nine-month conditional sentence with 12 months of probation.

Magnotta declared bankruptcy in March 2007, owing $17,000 in various debts. The bankruptcy was fully discharged in December 2007.

Rumors emerged in 2007 claiming Magnotta was in a relationship with Karla Homolka, a high-profile Canadian murderer. Magnotta denied this in an interview with the Toronto Sun.

During the murder investigation, Montreal police initially announced the pair had dated but subsequently retracted the statement and acknowledged they had no evidence to corroborate the claim.

Many profiles on various internet social media and discussion forums were created over several years to plant false or unverified claims about Magnotta. Magnotta repeatedly dismissed such accounts as hoaxes and part of a campaign of cyber stalking against him. According to police, Magnotta set up at least 70 Facebook pages and 20 websites under different names.

The offence

Luka Magnotta was accused of killing and dismembering Lin Jun, a Chinese international student, then mailing his severed limbs to political parties and elementary schools.

After a video allegedly depicting the murder was posted online, Magnotta fled the country, becoming the subject of an Interpol Red Notice and prompting an international manhunt.

Canadian authorities obtained a “more extensive” version of the video and confirmed that cannibalism may have been performed.

During the murder investigation, Magnotta was accused of criminal harassment of Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper and several unnamed members of Parliament.

Investigation

Murder of Lin Jun

Lin Jun (Chinese: 林俊; pinyin: Lín Jùn) (30 December 1978 – May 2012), also known as Justin Lin, was an international student from Wuhan and an undergraduate in the engineering and computer science faculty at Concordia University. Lin worked part-time as a convenience store clerk in Pointe-Saint-Charles. Lin studied in Montreal since July 2011.

Lin moved into a Griffintown-area apartment with a roommate on May 1. He was last seen on May 24, 2012 and his friends reported getting a text message from his phone at 9 PM. His boss became suspicious when he didn’t show up for his shift the next day.

Three of his friends went into his apartment on May 27. He was reported missing to police on May 29.

Video posted online

On May 25, 2012, an 11-minute video titled “1 Lunatic 1 Ice Pick” was uploaded to Bestgore.com. The video depicted a naked male tied to a bed frame being repeatedly stabbed with an ice pick and a kitchen knife, then dismembered, followed by acts of necrophilia.

The perpetrator uses a knife and fork to cut off some of the flesh and gets a dog to chew on the body. During the video, the 1987 New Order song “True Faith” plays in the background, and a poster for the 1942 film Casablanca is visible on the wall.

Materials promoting the video appeared online at least 10 days before the murder took place.

On May 26, an attorney from Montana attempted to report the video to Toronto Police, his local Sheriff, and the FBI, but the report was dismissed by officials. Bestgore viewers also attempted to report the video.

Police later confirmed it was authentic and identified the victim, an Asian male, as the same one whose body parts were sent to Ottawa.

Packages and recovered remains

At 11 AM on May 29, 2012, a package containing a left foot was delivered to the national headquarters of the Conservative Party of Canada. The package was stained with blood and had a foul smell. It was marked with a red heart symbol.

Another package containing a left hand was intercepted in a Canada Post processing facility, addressed to the Liberal Party.

A janitor discovered a decomposing torso inside a suitcase left in a garbage pile in the alley behind an apartment building in the Snowdon area of Montreal. He first saw the suitcase on the 25th, but it was not picked up due to the large amount of garbage that day.

After searching the scene, police recovered human remains, bloody clothes, papers identifying the suspect, and “sharp and blunt objects” from the back alley.

Footage from surveillance cameras inside the building showed a suspect bringing numerous garbage bags outside, and the images matched a suspect captured on video at the post office in Côte-des-Neiges.

At 23:33 EDT (03:33 UTC), police searched apartment 208, which Luka Rocco Magnotta was renting. He moved in four months prior, and his rent was paid up to June 1. The apartment had been mostly emptied before he left.

Blood was found on different items including the mattress, the refrigerator, the table, and the bathtub.

“If you don’t like the reflection. Don’t look in the mirror. I don’t care.” was written in red ink on the inside of a closet.

On May 30, 2012, it was confirmed that the body parts belonged to the same individual, later identified as Lin Jun.

A note was found with the package sent to the Conservative Party, stating that a total of six body parts had been distributed and that the perpetrator would kill again.

Notes were also included in the other three packages, but police declined to disclose their contents, citing concerns about possible copycats.

On June 5, 2012, a package containing a right foot was delivered to St. George’s School and another package containing a right hand to False Creek Elementary School in Vancouver. Both schools opened as normal the following morning. Both packages were confirmed as sent from Montreal.

On June 13, the four limbs and the torso were matched to Lin Jun using DNA samples from his family.

On July 1, his head was recovered at the edge of a small lake in Montreal’s Angrignon Park after police received an anonymous tip.

Lin’s body was cremated on July 11 and his ashes were buried on July 26 at Notre-Dame-des-Neiges cemetery in Montreal.

Manhunt and extradition steps

An arrest warrant for Magnotta was issued by the Service de police de la Ville de Montréal (SPVM). It was later upgraded to a Canada-wide warrant by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP). The warrant accused him of the following crimes:

1. First degree murder;
2. Committing an indignity to a dead body;
3. Publishing obscene material;
4. Mailing obscene, indecent, immoral or scurrilous material;
5. Criminally harassing Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper and several (unnamed) members of Parliament.

On May 31, 2012, Interpol issued a Red Notice for Magnotta at the request of Canadian authorities. For several days before and after his arrest, his name and photo were displayed prominently at the top of the homepage of the Interpol website. The Red Notice requested that Magnotta be provisionally arrested pending extradition back to Canada by any Interpol member state.

Magnotta flew from Montreal to Paris on May 26, using a false passport under the name Kirk Trammel. His cell phone signal was traced to a hotel in Bagnolet, but he had left by the time police arrived. Pornographic magazines and an air-sickness bag were found in the hotel room.

He had contacts in Paris from a previous visit in 2010, and police were following a large-framed man who had been in contact with Magnotta. Another man he stayed with for two nights did not realize who he was until he had left.

Magnotta boarded a Eurolines bus at the Bagnolet coach station bound for Berlin, Germany.

On June 4, 2012, Magnotta was apprehended by Berlin Police at an Internet café in the Neukölln district while reading news stories about himself. He tried giving fake names before admitting who he was. His identity was confirmed through fingerprint evidence.

Magnotta appeared in a Berlin court on June 5, 2012. According to German officials, he had not opposed his extradition. There was sufficient evidence to keep him in custody until extradition, and he agreed to a simplified process.

On June 18, 2012, Magnotta was delivered to Canadian authorities in Berlin and flown aboard a Royal Canadian Air Force CC-150 Polaris to Mirabel International Airport, north of Montreal. The military transport was necessary due to safety concerns with using a commercial flight and potential legal difficulties if the plane was diverted to another country.

He was placed into solitary confinement at the Rivière-des-Prairies detention centre.

Identity confirmations and physical description

Montreal police Cmdr. Ian Lafrenière stated that Magnotta’s identity was confirmed through fingerprint evidence.

Police gave a description of Magnotta: Five feet 10 inches tall; 135 pounds; black or dark brown hair; blue eyes.

Arrest

Magnotta was arrested at an Internet café in Berlin on June 4, 2012 while reading news stories about himself.

Chief Supt. Stefan Redlich said authorities arrested Magnotta at 2 p.m. Berlin time (8 a.m. ET) at the Helin Café on Karl Marx Street. Redlich said seven officers were involved. The arrest was made after police were tipped off.

A café owner, speaking on condition of anonymity, said “A colleague recognized him from his photo, because he'd just read the newspaper,” and “Nothing happened, it all went very quietly.”

Berlin police confirmed that Magnotta initially denied his identity and eventually admitted, “OK, you got me.”

Trial

Preliminary hearing and media restrictions

On June 19, 2012, Magnotta appeared in court by video link to plead not guilty to all charges through his lawyer.

On June 21, 2012, Magnotta appeared in person at a high-security Montreal courtroom to request a trial by jury.

A preliminary hearing began on March 11, 2013. The evidence presented was subject to a publication ban.

Magnotta’s defence team requested the media and the public be barred entirely from the hearing; this was declined the next day.

Lin Jun’s father, Lin Diran, travelled from China to attend the hearing.

On March 13, one of Magnotta’s lawyers resigned due to a possible conflict of interest.

Expert witnesses testified, including a forensic pathologist, a forensic toxicologist, a forensic odontologist, a bloodstain analyst, data recovery specialists, and an Internet investigations officer.

The prosecution displayed video evidence. Both Magnotta and Lin physically collapsed at separate times during the proceedings.

On April 12, 2013, Luka Magnotta was indicted on charges of first degree murder, offering indignities to a human body, distributing obscene materials, using the postal service to distribute obscene materials, and criminal harassment.

Trial dates and scheduling factors

After committal for trial, a preliminary inquiry judge set a tentative trial for the fall of 2014 on April 29, 2013.

Magnotta elected to be tried by judge and jury.

Luka Magnotta’s murder trial was set for Sept. 15, 2014.

Other investigations into possible crimes

Alleged animal cruelty videos and online activity

Magnotta was alleged to be the person behind a series of videos of animal cruelty involving cats that were posted to YouTube beginning in 2010, including one titled “1 boy 2 kittens” showing a man deliberately suffocating two kittens with a vacuum cleaner.

In January 2011, professional model and animal rights activist Sia Barbi joined a private Facebook group who had identified Magnotta as the person in these videos. Animal rights activist groups offered a $5,000 reward for bringing him to justice.

In February 2011, Toronto police began investigating Magnotta in connection with the videos after receiving a complaint from the Ontario Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (OSPCA). The OSPCA also contacted the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals in England, the FBI, and police in Montreal due to the suspect’s extensive travels.

Alex West, a journalist for British tabloid newspaper The Sun, met Magnotta while he was living in London in 2011, following claims that he had made “Python Christmas,” an online video showing a kitten being eaten alive by a Burmese Python. The Sun contacted Scotland Yard, which denied that the python video incident had occurred within its jurisdiction, stating that the video had been “posted from somewhere in North America.”

After meeting Magnotta, Alex West said he received a threatening email, which he believed was sent by Magnotta.

On June 8, Los Angeles Police Department announced they were in contact with Montreal police to determine if Magnotta was involved in the unsolved murder and decapitation of Hervey Medellin, known as the “Hollywood Sign Murder.” The department later announced that they did not believe he was involved in the crime.

Last Chance for Animals claimed responsibility for posting YouTube videos linking Magnotta to the Hollywood Sign Murder in an attempt to lure Magnotta into contacting them. LCA offered a $7,500 reward for information leading to his arrest while he was on the run.

The case also drew comparisons to Mark Twitchell, a convicted murderer inspired by Dexter who used social media in his crimes and to self-promote his work.

Author Steve Lillebuen described a trend in crime where social media allows killers to become “online broadcasters” and have direct, instant access to a global audience.

Edmonton case involving Mark Marek

On July 26, 2013, Edmonton police arrested a website owner, Mark Marek, who faced charges over a grisly video at the centre of the Luka Magnotta murder case. A warrant was issued Thursday for Mark Marek on a charge of breaching conditions of his bail, which a judge granted last week.

Police said the 38-year-old was picked up at a gas station after a tip led them to a nearby Edmonton-area storage facility. Marek was originally charged with one count of corrupting morals for allegedly posting a video from Magnotta while knowing it depicted a real killing. The video allegedly showed the killing and dismemberment of Chinese university student Jun Lin in Montreal.

Magnotta had pleaded not guilty to murder and was to stand trial in September 2014.

At Marek’s bail hearing, the Crown opposed his release, pointing out he had no Edmonton address and had made it clear to police that he planned to go back to his native Slovakia. The defence said Marek planned to visit family in September but did not intend to run away from his legal problems. Marek told the judge that officers had already seized his passport.

Appeals

No appeal information was included.

Outcome

Magnotta remained in prison awaiting trial.

Aftermath

Reactions in China were highly critical, with some believing the murder was racially motivated. Some questioned public safety in Canada due to the killing being the second high-profile murder of a Chinese student there in slightly over a year.

Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird called Chinese ambassador Zhang Junsai to convey his condolences.

On June 4, 2012, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper said he was pleased that the suspect was arrested and congratulated the police forces on their good work in apprehending him.

Interim Liberal Party leader Bob Rae said Canadians should mourn the victim rather than “in any way, shape or form” celebrate Magnotta’s notoriety.

Two days later, Lin Jun’s family arrived at Trudeau Airport in Montreal. The Chinese Students and Scholars Association of Concordia University established a fund to defray expenses incurred by Lin’s family while in Canada and created an award in his honor.

A candlelight vigil was held in Montreal.

Magnotta was named Canadian Newsmaker of the Year by Canadian media, which caused controversy.

On July 16, 2013, Edmonton police charged BestGore.com owner Mark Marek with “corrupting morals” for posting the “1 Lunatic 1 Icepick” video online.

Other details

Investigative courtroom statements and quoted remarks

Roger Renville, a civil litigation lawyer based in Montana, said: “extremely frustrated” and also said: “I kept insisting, and he told me that my story didn't make sense.” “Why would a killer film himself and then put it on the internet?”

CBC News reported that Montreal police Cmdr. Ian Lafrenière said: “The investigation is far from being over. We've got to bring the suspect down to Canada to face justice,” and added, “There will be tons of questions to answer,” and “some of the dead student's body parts are still missing.”

Prime Minister Stephen Harper said: “I just want to congratulate the police forces on their good work.”

Bob Rae said: “Let's not forget that a young man was killed in the most terrible of circumstances. He came to Canada to improve himself, and to improve his life, and he is dead. “His family in China is mourning, and his friends are in mourning, and all of Canada should be mourning for the person who died, rather than … celebrate the notoriety of Mr. Magnotta.”

Montreal police Cmdr. Ian Lafrenière described the case as: “horrible.”

“Someone to do that,” was quoted by Labour Minister Lisa Raitt.

Records of additional investigative facts

Ottawa police said there were still remains unaccounted for, but they had no reason to believe they were also sent in the mail.

Magnotta was also known as Eric Clinton Newman and as Vladimir Romanov.

Police said Magnotta was wanted in connection with an alleged homicide and mailing of dismembered body parts to federal political parties in Ottawa.

Montreal police said there had been 15 solid tips about Magnotta’s whereabouts within two hours of releasing his photo Wednesday afternoon.

Police held some information back to weed out false leads from the public.

Police described the apartment search process: police in masks combed through the blood-soaked apartment after zeroing in on the source of a stench local residents described as rotting meat.

Procedural quotes on notice and extradition framing

Berlin Police spokesman Chief Supt. Stefan Redlich said extradition was not opposed and there was enough evidence to keep him in custody until extradition.

Justice Minister Rob Nicholson’s press secretary Julie Di Mambo said in a statement: “Interpol ‘red notice,’ which under German law is considered a ‘provisional request from Canada for his extradition,’” and also that Canada was required to submit a formal request “accompanied by ‘documentation outlining the evidence supporting the request,’” and that “It could take a very long time.”