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Wednesday, Jun 6, 2012 3:15 PM UTC

Police: Newly found body parts sent from Montreal

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Topics: From the Wires,

Police: Newly found body parts sent from MontrealStudents walk outside St. George's School after a human foot was delivered to the school earlier in the day in Vancouver, British Columbia, on Tuesday June 5, 2012. A human hand was also delivered to another Vancouver school Tuesday. (AP Photo/Darryl Dyck, The Canadian Press) (Credit: AP)

TORONTO (AP) — Body parts mailed to two Vancouver schools were sent from Montreal and are thought to be linked to the killing and dismemberment of a Chinese student there, police said Wednesday.

Montreal Police Cmdr. Ian Lafreniere said they are taking over the Vancouver investigation after packages were found Tuesday at the two schools. One contained what appeared to be a right hand. The other contained what looked like a right foot.

“They were the same limbs we were looking for,” Lafreniere said. They also were shipped from Montreal, where the killing occurred.

DNA tests will be conducted to determine if there is a match, Lafreniere said.

The suspect in the death of Jun Lin, 29-year-old Luka Rocco Magnotta, was arrested in Berlin on Monday and is expected to be extradited. If he doesn’t fight extradition, it’s possible he could be back in Canada by the end of the week.

Investigators in Canada say Magnotta videotaped the killing and dismemberment in his apartment, and posted it online. The video also shows the suspect eating parts of the body, police said. A copy of the video viewed by The Associated Press did not show anyone eating the body but did show a man using a fork and knife on it. Police suggested they have access to more extensive video of the killing, possibly an unedited version.

The case began last week when body parts were mailed to the headquarters of Canada’s Liberal and Conservative parties. A torso was found in a suitcase on a garbage dump in Montreal, outside Magnotta’s apartment building. Lin’s head is still missing.

Magnotta, 29, was caught at an Internet cafe in Berlin after evading police for days while he partied in Paris. He has told German authorities he would not fight extradition.

German authorities are waiting on Canada’s formal extradition request, Martin Steltner, a spokesman for Berlin prosecutors, said Wednesday. The Canadian Embassy in Berlin declined to comment on when Ottawa may file the official papers seeking extradition.

After the request arrives, Magnotta will officially have to tell the court whether he objects to the request. If he does, it could drag out the process, Steltner said.

Magnotta arrived in Berlin on Saturday on a bus from Paris and stayed with a friend, or someone he met on the Internet, for two nights before he was captured, Steltner said. Investigators in Germany were looking for more information on the person.

In Vancouver, police said staff at False Creek Elementary School opened package containing a hand. Another package containing a foot was discovered by staff at St. George’s private school for boys.

Lin’s parents, meanwhile, arrived to Montreal from China late Tuesday and were expected to meet with investigators on Wednesday, said Zheng Xu, a press spokesman at the Chinese consulate.

Cmdr. Denis Mainville, the head investigator of the Montreal police major crimes unit, said investigators will review hundreds of homicide cases over the last 30 years throughout Quebec for any possible links to Magnotta. Mainville said such a review is routine in such cases.

Meanwhile, DNA tests have confirmed that the body parts mailed to the political parties were Lin’s remains, police said, and that they have footage of Magnotta mailing the two parcels that were sent to Ottawa.

___

Associated Press writers David Rising in Berlin, Sean Farrell in Montreal and Phil Couvrette in Ottawa contributed to this report.

More Rob Gillies.

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