‘Canadian Psycho’ Magnotta leaves trail in Paris
Journalists stand in front of a hotel in Bagnolet, near Paris, on June 3, 2012, where witnesses said they saw Luka Rocco Magnotta. French police said they have been scouring Paris for the Canadian gay porn actor suspected of killing and carving up a Chinese man as his video camera rolled.
A friend may have alerted police to Luka Rocco Magnotta’s whereabouts in Paris as the alleged “Canadian Psycho” attempts to flee an international manhunt.
The 29-year-old suspect in the murder of Chinese student Lin Jun departed for Paris on May 26, a day after he posted video of the killing, dismemberment and cannibalism of the body online.
Witnesses are flooding Paris police phone lines with tips about the man’s whereabouts, including an acquaintance, the Globe and Mail said.
“He came and knocked on my door, he said he wanted to end the night with an after-party with us,” one woman told RMC Radio in Paris, the Globe reported. “Someone warned me he was in the neighbourhood, so I looked on the internet and confirmed it. I’m certain it was him. It gave me shivers.”
Police believe Magnotta stuffed Lin’s headlines corpse into a suitcase and dumped it with the garbage outside his apartment building.
The Canadian Conservative party received Lin’s foot in the mail, and his hand was en route to the Liberals before police found it at a Canada Post outlet.
He’s earned the nickname “Canadian Psycho” because music from the film “American Psycho” played in the background of the video.
More from GlobalPost: ‘Canadian Psycho’ victim identified as Jun Lin, Chinese engineering student
Airport surveillance video showed Magnotta, who was born in Toronto as Eric Clinton Newman and uses the alias Vladimir Romanov, leaving Montreal for Paris.
Witnesses later spotted him in suburban Paris bars, according to BBC, and police found pornography and airsick bags in a hotel room they believe Magnotta used.
They bar viewed security video and confiscated soda bottles he drank from, BBC said.
Magnotta fashioned himself as a male model and gay porn actor.
When news broke that he was in Paris, Interpol issued an international alert, but there are no assurances he’s still in France, The Canadian Press reported.
Police in Paris told their Montreal counterparts they received 360 tips by the weekend.
“He can travel, he’s someone who has been known to travel, so we’re not taking any chances and we want to keep an open mind,” Montreal police Insp. Ian Lafreniere told CP.
More from GlobalPost: Body parts murder suspect posted killing video online