June 04, 2012 |
Magnotta Manhunt OverâSuspect Caught in Berlin |
BERLIN, Germany—Luka Rocco Magnotta, the Canadian citizen who's been on the run for more than a week for allegedly having killed his lover Jun Lin and having mailed some of Lin's body parts to two of Canada's political parties' headquarters, has reportedly been arrested at a cybercafe in Berlin's Neukoeln district. Most news stories have described Magnotta as a "porn star" and "stripper," but so far, the only connection Magnotta appears to have had with porn is his having shot briefly for Badpuppy Enterprises in 2005, though he may have continued to do webcam shows after that, and a German news service has reported that he also worked as a prostitute under the name "Angel." Magnotta was rumored to have traveled internationally dressed as a woman, after having had plastic surgery to make his face look more feminine. According to Interpol, Magnotta was seen on security checkpoint surveillance video entering Germany either late Sunday night or early this morning. He was arrested at 5 a.m. Pacific time after the cafe owner recognized Magnotta from his photograph, which had been widely circulated after persistent rumors that Magnotta had fled to France. Indeed, Paris police had earlier found some of Magnotta's belongings—airline airsickness bags and porn—in a hotel room in Bagnolet, a suburb of Paris. Magnotta's alleged acts came to light after a staffer at Prime Minister Stephen Harper's Conservative Party headquarters in Ottawa received a package on May 29 containing just a severed foot. Later that same day, a package addressed to Ottawa's Liberal Party headquarters was found to contain a human hand. At about that time, a video showing Magnotta apparently raping Lin's corpse and eating parts of it was posted online. According to a BBC report, when police searched Magnotta's apartment in Montreal, they found "a bloody mattress and pools of blood on the floor and in the refrigerator," describing the crime scene as "among the worst city police had ever seen."
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