Cannibal killer murdered student and mailed his severed hands and feet to schools

A crime that shocked and appalled a nation continues to reverberate through the city where it happened, more than 14 years after the horrific killing.

Jun Lin had traveled from Wuhan, China to Montreal, Canada in 2010, hoping to build a fresh start. He was studying computer engineering as an undergraduate at Concordia University in Montreal, Quebec.

Jun was gay and had previously been in a heterosexual marriage that ended in divorce. In the years leading up to his death, he had shared a home with another man from China.

The student had kept his sexuality hidden from his family, and one romantic relationship reportedly ended because he felt familial pressure to “settle down and marry a woman”.

It was during this period that he encountered the man who would become his cannibal murderer. After his relationship ended, Jun was using online platforms to meet men, and depraved killer Luka Rocco Magnotta claimed to have connected with him after answering an advertisement, reports the Daily Star.

Magnotta was born Eric Clinton Kirk but legally changed his name in 2006. He had received a schizophrenia diagnosis, a condition his father also suffered from.

After his parents’ divorce during his childhood, he moved in with his grandmother.

His mother alleged that even as a youngster, he was fixated on cleanliness, would prevent his two younger siblings from entering their home, and claimed he deliberately left their pet rabbits outside in freezing temperatures to perish. Magnotta relied on disability payments due to his mental health struggles, supplementing his income through escort work.

He also appeared in adult films in 2003 and had worked as a stripper.

Seemingly driven by a desire for notoriety, Magnotta underwent multiple cosmetic surgeries and even auditioned for the reality TV show Plastic Makes Perfect in 2008.

He established dozens of social media profiles, many containing outrageous claims regarding his modeling career and adult film appearances. Magnotta also deliberately planted false rumors about himself, only to publicly deny them.

One such rumor, which emerged in 2007, alleged he was romantically involved with convicted killer Karla Homolka. Magnotta spoke to the Toronto Sun, where he denied the relationship.

However, it was during this interview that his web of lies began to unravel, as the reporter characterized him as “troubled” and suspected Magnotta himself had fabricated the rumor.

Five years later, a former partner revealed that Magnotta was “obsessed” with achieving fame and looked to Homolka and her accomplice Paul Bernardo as role models.

By 2005, Magnotta had embarked on a life of crime. He was convicted on one count of impersonation and three counts of fraud, receiving a nine-month conditional sentence and 12 months of probation.