WARNING: This story contains disturbing content that may not be suitable for some people. Discretion is strongly advised.
TORONTO – Toronto police along with several law enforcement officials in the United States ignored a tip about a disturbing video posted online depicting the grisly murder and dismemberment of a man, an American lawyer says.
Roger Renville, a U.S.-based lawyer, says that on May 26 and May 27, he warned police stations in Toronto, Denver and Miami of a video posted on a website that shares gory content with its viewers.
“The video is horrific and the comments associated with the site prepared the viewer a little but . . . watching the video, I was both horrified and shocked,” he told Global News.
The video in question is now being examined by investigators in Montreal who believe it may be related to the vicious murder of a man, allegedly at the hands of a 29-year-old suspect.
The Canadian manhunt for porn actor Luka Rocco Magnotta, wanted in connection with the violent killing and dismemberment of a Montreal man has gone global.
The Best Gore site boasts that the video – which contains a victim, tied to a bed, getting his throat slit and limbs detached while his murderer sexually assaults the body and performs cannibalistic acts – has garnered worldwide media attention in light of the Magnotta manhunt.
Montreal police say they have contacted the site's owner Mark Marek and are urging him to remove the alleged murder video.
Renville says that after scouring the Internet, he discovered the video may be linked to Magnotta and that he handed the Montreal resident’s name to multiple police departments, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
“I started doing some snooping online and by late evening (Saturday), I had come across the clues that linked (the video) to the name and Luka Magnotta is notorious on the Internet... ” Renville said, noting that the most recent postings pointed his whereabouts to Toronto.
By Sunday afternoon, Renville phoned Toronto police, who he alleges were not receptive to his tip.
“He said that my story didn’t make sense. It didn’t make sense that a killer would film himself committing his crime, and then post it on the Internet. He said it was illogical,” Renville says.
When Renville pleaded for an email address to send the link, the official on the other line said it wasn’t necessary, Renville said.
He said the officer insisted the video must be a fake and that special effects can be convincing.
When contacted by Global News, a Toronto police spokesman refused to comment about the Magnotta case.
Still, Renville said he understands that officers may have been baffled by his call.
“I heard how I sounded. There’s a murder in a video on the Internet... he asked me how do I know (Magnotta’s) name. I started to say, ‘Well, he’s been on the Internet for years, and he’s killed kittens,” he said.
By Monday night, Renville said he was “so frustrated” his wife had to calm him down, but on Tuesday, Renville noticed reports about a torso in Montreal and severed limbs – one shipped to the Conservative Party headquarters and one bloody package intercepted at a Canada Post shipping facility.
“I wasn’t certain this was linked but I thought if this is only a coincidence, then this is a much crazier world than I thought we lived in,” he said.
Interpol has added Luka Rocco Magnotta to its wanted persons list just a day after Montreal police issued a nationwide arrest warrant for the Scarborough native.
Interpol is the world’s largest international police organization, collaborating with 190 member countries.
Magnotta, 29, is the main suspect in a grisly case that has shocked Canadians across the nation.
Investigators warn that he has also gone by the names Eric Clinton Newman and Vladimir Romanov. Profiles circulating online describe him as a male model and bisexual porn actor while shirtless photographers of the man in question are also readily available on the Internet.
Reports suggest that he may have travelled to France over the weekend, after police linked a violent killing and dismemberment of a victim to the shipping of at least two severed limbs to political party headquarters in Ottawa.
Toronto police also confirmed Thursday that they are launching an investigation into the killing of cats that was posted online in February 2011 after they were contacted by the OSPCA.
Police on the hunt
The discovery of the violent crime began Tuesday when a Montreal janitor found a locked suitcase that contained a decapitated male torso outside of an apartment building in a working-class neighbourhood in the city.
Magnotta was a tenant in the apartment.
Meanwhile in Ottawa, a Canada Post mail carrier delivered a white box with a red heart scribbled on top to staff at the Conservative party headquarters just blocks away from Parliament Hill. The blood-splattered package contained a severed foot.
Hours later, officials say they intercepted a second package at the Canada Post distribution centre. It was addressed to the Liberal party and contained a severed hand.
Montreal police found another hand and foot in the Montreal apartment.
By Wednesday night, media reports indicated that a letter was attached to the foot delivered to the Conservatives’ headquarters. The note said that four more body parts had been mailed out.
Both police and postal officials are said to be working now to track down these grotesque parcels.
The letter also stated that the killer would strike again.
Police are not releasing the name of the victim, a white man, as body parts are still at large.
They say the victim and suspect knew each other, though.
Who is Magnotta?
Magnotta is not known to police, but the name is well-circulated on the Internet as belonging to a bisexual model porn star, allegedly appearing in kitten killing videos posted online.
Magnotta was rumoured to have romantic ties to Karla Homolka, the ex-wife of school girl killer Paul Bernardo. He denied the allegation in a 2007 interview with the Toronto Sun.
Reports also indicate that he once lived in Scarborough, Ont. and that family members now reside in Peterborough, Ont.
Video interviews show him talking about his work in the porn industry while written pieces he supposedly penned discuss how to get into the industry and how to change your identity.
At the scene of the crime
Montreal police are still searching an apartment near where the torso was found, a crime scene SPVM (Montreal Police) spokesman Ian Lafreniere called “difficult.”
Inside the apartment were a blood-stained mattress, bloodied bed sheets and spots of blood on the carpet.
Richard Payette lives across the hall from the suspect’s apartment and said he woke up to detectives and a pungent odour.
“I never smelled dead body (before), but I’ve smelled bad meat,” Payette said. “If I go by my sense of smell, it certainly wasn’t just hamburgers.”
Payette said he did not know Magnotta well, but described him as a quiet, Caucasian man, who spoke English and often wore a black wig. The last time Payette saw the man was about three days ago.
The man who discovered the torso-laden luggage told Global News it had been laying out for nearly a week when he decided to open it.
“Every time I passed by it smelled very bad and there were flies around it. I took a closer look and there were maggots coming out, worms coming out,” said Mike Nadeau.
Nadeau and another neighbour decided to cut the lock and see what the suitcase contained.
“We opened it up and looked inside and there was a body with no head, just a torso,” he said.
There is still no indication of what motivated the murder and mailings, but Lafreniere said there is no reason to believe the Conservatives or other potential recipients of the sordid packages were linked to the crime.
“The people who received the packages are not part of the crime scene or crime equation,” he said.
© Global News. A division of Shaw Media Inc., 2012.