Luka Magnotta: Police probe cannibal porn star's link to Miami dismemberment cold case
Did cannibal porn star strike in Miami too? Police probe possible link to 2009 cold case of man dismembered and dumped in river
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Miami has become the latest jurisdiction to look into a possible connection between the suspected Canadian ‘cannibal’ Luka ‘Rocco’ Magnotta and a local cold case involving brutal dismemberment.
Veteran Miami homicide detective Sergeant Confessor Gonzalez said he plans to reach out to police in Montreal to explore the possibility that Magnotta was involved in the mysterious 2009 death of Guatemalan national Omar Laparra.
Gonzalez said he will also investigate the movements of the well-traveled Magnotta back and forth across the U.S.-Canada border.
Mystery: Miami police are looking into a possible connection between Luka Magnotta (left) and the 2009 murder of Omar Laparra (right), who was found dismembered
The 29-year-old gay porn actor and prostitute was arrested in a Berlin Internet café on Monday and is currently awaiting extradition back to Canada, where he is expected to face several charges, including first-degree murder.
Magnotta is accused of murdering his lover, 33-year-old Chinese student Jun Lin, with an ice pick in Quebec in May.
According to investigators, the 29-year-old then posted a video showing him dismembering the victim’s corpse, raping some of the body parts and eating Lin’s flesh.
International: Magnotta could be returned to Canada as early as this week, according to authorities
Slain: Jun Lin, a Chinese exchange student who once dated Magnotta, was shown in a video being horribly mutilated and partially eaten
Magnotta then allegedly mailed Lin’s hands and feet to Canadian government offices and two schools.
‘I looked up the story — rather interesting,’ Sergeant Gonzalez told The Canadian Press in a phone interview.
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Share‘If Mr Rocco was in Miami at the time of my murder then yeah, I'll be definitely looking at him.’
According to law enforcement officials in Miami, 21-year-old Laparra went missing after leaving a bar in the Little Havana neighborhood early in the morning on May 31, 2009. He was never seen alive again.
Hot ride: An online user named luka-magnotta posted a photo of himself in a Lotus and said that he was driving it in Miami
In the days that followed, Gonzalez said Laparra's remains were found stuffed in four plastic bags floating in waterways around the southern part of the city.
Gonzalez specified that Laparra's arms and legs were removed after he was killed, which is similar to the way Lin was dismembered.
‘We were never able to put it together,’ he said about the three-year case, which was featured on the show America's Most Wanted.
The detective, however, told the Toronto Sun that while the connection between the two crimes is worth exploring, it does not appear very likely since Laparra’s murder was probably random.
Poser: Another image posted online by Magnotta reading 'I'm not bad, I'm just drawn that way'
It remains unclear when — or even if — Magnotta may have been in Miami. It has been suggested that the suspect, who filed for bankruptcy in 2007, may have used the Internet to exaggerate his jet-setting lifestyle.
Several online posts declared that a person named Luka Magnotta was living in Miami in August of 2010.
Multiples: Police said he has 70 Facebook accounts under different names
Captured: Magnotta was arrested in Berlin on Monday and is currently awaiting extradition to Canada
‘Just bought myself a new Lotus (sports car) and im enjoying myself in Miami, my new home,’ the poster, identified as luka-magnotta, said at the time on a website for car enthusiasts.
‘What do you guys think of my new wheels?... Its hot huh.’
The online entry was accompanied by a photo of Magnotta sitting in a Lotus. The writer also bragged about using the high-end vehicle to sweet-talk a female police officer into reducing a ticket, and about getting frequent sexual attention.
Slain: Hervey Medellin's severed head was discovered beneath the Hollywood sign in January
Disturbing: This photo of Luka Rocco Magnotta, the man accused of hacking his gay lover to pieces, shows the Canadian porn actor looking menacing with a switch blade
On an online forum for Lotus fans, a luka-magnotta posted: ‘What do you guys think of the car?’
‘I live in Miami and Vancouver... I think I can only get away with driving it in Miami though... Nice huh.’
Police forces in Los Angeles and Gatineau, Quebec, have also indicated that they were taking a close look at Magnotta's recent activity because both jurisdictions have unsolved homicide cases involving corpse mutilation and dismemberment.
Last week, Gatineau police said they would contact their Montreal counterparts to look for possible connections with the 2011 slaying of an 18-year-old college student.
Investigators in Los Angeles were looking at a possible link between Magnotta and the brutal murder of 66-year-old Hervey Medellin, who was found decapitated and dismembered under the Hollywood sign in January.
However, earlier this week, authorities said they do not believe Magnotta was in Los Angeles at the time of Medellin’s murder.
Authorities have been entertaining the idea that there could be a connection between the two crimes following the discovery of a Facebook page created in Magnotta's name.
The page included posts made in February that suggest the user was in Los Angeles working as a masseur.
Following an international manhunt, the actor was arrested in Germany on Monday after evading police for days while he partied in Paris.
Which one's the real monster? Luka Magnotta, the suspect in the Canadian cannibal case, stands flanked by actors portraying horror characters Freddy Krueger and Michael Myers on Hollywood Boulevard, Los Angeles, in 2007
He was searching for online reports about the case and looking at naked pictures of himself when he was recognized by a member of staff in an internet cafe. He has told German officials he will not fight extradition to Canada.
The crime came to light last week when body parts – now proven to be those of Mr Lin – were posted to the headquarters of Canada’s Liberal and Conservative parties.
A torso was found in a suitcase on a rubbish dump outside Magnotta’s apartment building, but the victim’s head remains missing.
Officers believe Magnotta flew to Paris soon after allegedly murdering Mr Lin on May 24. He chose the French capital because he knew people there from an earlier visit, they said.
He arrived in Berlin on Saturday by bus from Paris, staying for two nights with a friend he met on the internet before he was captured, German prosecutors said.
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