International Manhunt for Canadian Porn Star Killer Who May Have Fled Continent
Luka Rocco Magnotta has been added to Interpol's international wanted list.
May 31, 2012 — -- An international manhunt is underway for a Canadian porn star accused of killing and dismembering his lover before sending body parts to Canadian government offices. Police are calling the case "completely crazy and inhuman."
Luka Rocco Magnotta, 29, has been added to Interpol's wanted list and Canadian authorities believe he may have left the country.
"We got the reasons to believe that the suspect went out of the country and that's the reason why we asked that our warrant will be sent out to Interpol," Montreal Police Commander Ian Lafreniere told ABCNews.com. "So now we got help of different agencies around the world, actually, because he might be out of the country and he might be out of North America, so that's why we need help of Interpol."
Lafreniere said investigators have ideas about what country Magnotta may flee to, or may have fled to, but "we keep that to ourselves for the moment."
Investigators believe that Magnotta is responsible for killing a man in his 30s with whom he was having an affair. Authorities will not reveal the victim's identity, but said that his family is overseas and that the man had previously been reported missing in Montreal.
"We know that the suspect and the victim knew each other. It was not a random attack," Lafreniere said. "[Magnotta] knew the victim. They were having an affair."
A human foot was mailed to the Ottawa headquarters of the Conservative Party of Canada. It was discovered on Tuesday by a receptionist, who contacted authorities after receiving a blood-soaked package.
Later in the day, police seized a second package at an Ottawa post office that contained a hand. Authorities have not said where the second package was addressed.
Authorities confirmed that the body parts mailed to Ottawa originated in Montreal.
Also on Tuesday, a janitor found a male torso in a suitcase behind a building in Montreal's Cote-des-Neiges neighborhood. Magnotta was living in the apartment building. He has no criminal history that police are currently aware of.
Authorities are now confirming that the mailed body parts did indeed belong to the torso that was found.
"The state of the body is so bad. It was cut. It was dismembered," Lafreniere said. "This is a very hard case for us in terms of being extremely gross. We're still missing body parts."
Lafreniere said police do not currently believe that any of the missing body parts are in the mail, but said they are still working with the postal service while they investigate.
Magnotta has a heavy online presence, with a personal website filled with photos of himself and rambling essays titled "Cyber Stalking" and "Media Propaganda."
Lafreniere said the abundance of photos online may actually help investigators.
"This guy was posting a lot of pictures and people are sharing those pictures now all around the world and you have a lot of people looking for him," he said.
Lafreniere also said that "a video showing the complete murder" of Magnotta's lover was posted online.
"We have no reason to doubt that that could be the killing," Lafreniere said, when asked about the video's authenticity.
Authorities have removed the original video, but Lafreniere said copies are still circulating on the Internet. He called the video and the crime "completely crazy an inhuman" and was baffled that people would continue to circulate the video.
There are also videos online that appear to show Magnotta killing cats and appearing in pornographic films.
"We believe [Magnotta is] the same person seen on the web doing some porn movies and giving a hard time to some animals," Lafreniere said.
Some reports have said that a note may have been included with one of the mailed body parts indicating that there could be more killings. Lafreniere said police have heard those reports, but do not have confirmation of them yet.
When asked what the motive for the killing may have been, Lafreniere said, "Besides being a weirdo, I don't know."
Magnotta also goes by the pseudonyms Eric Clinton Newman and Vladimir Romanov, according to the Montreal Police Department. He is white with black hair and blue eyes. He is 5 feet 10 inches and weighs about 135 pounds.
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