OTTAWA – A severed hand and foot sent to Ottawa in separate packages are linked to a dismembered torso found in a suitcase in Montreal, police confirmed on Wednesday.
The hand and the foot, which was mailed to Conservative party headquarters, were both sent from Montreal, according to the city’s police force.
An initial round of tests has linked the hand and foot with a with a torso that was discovered by a janitor in a suitcase outside of a Montreal apartment building, but Montreal Police Cmdr. Ian Lafreniere says forensic tests are being done to confirm.
Lafreniere told Global Montreal that the suspect in the murder and the victim knew each other and it is unlikely that the incident is linked to organized crime.
The Montreal police are expected to release a surveillance video image of the suspect later this afternoon.
Montreal police spent the night and part of the morning searching an apartment near where the torso was found.
Inside the apartment were a blood-stained mattress, bloodied bed sheets and spots of blood on the carpet, according to a Global Montreal crew at the crime scene.
Richard Payette lives across the hall from the suspect 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 his neighbour well, but described him as a Caucasian man in his early 30s, who spoke English and often wore a black wig. The last time Payette saw the man was about three days ago.
The investigation started in Ottawa on Tuesday morning after a blood-spattered package containing a severed foot was sent to the Tory main office just a few blocks away from Parliament Hill.
Police have said the package containing the severed foot was addressed to the Conservative Party of Canada and not to a specific person.
The package was opened by Jenni Byrne, one of the party’s top strategists, and the mastermind behind the 2011 election campaign.
“The package was brought to Ms. Byrne because it looked suspicious,” said Conservative party spokesman Fred Delorey. “It was opened, Ms. Byrne examined it, saw the blood and smelled the odour and made the decision to call police.
Later that afternoon, authorities intercepted another package, this one containing a human hand, that was found at a Canada Post processing facility. Ottawa police confirmed the package was not addressed to the Tory headquarters.
Canada Post said it was collaborating with police and said it couldn't comment further as a police probe was underway.
The body parts will be sent to forensics where investigators will try to lift fingerprints from the hand, harvest DNA samples and determine how and when it was severed.
There is still no indication of why it was severed, but a criminologist at Simon Fraser University said the method is usually linked to organized crime, kidnapping, threats, an attempt to send a symbolic message or mental illness.
“My money is on this person being somebody with a psychiatric disorder,” said Rob Gordon, the director of criminology at the B.C. university. “It is simply the most credible. Unless you’ve got specific messaging that goes along with it, then the threat doesn’t make much sense, then the symbolism doesn’t make much sense, unless people know what you are trying to communicate.”
Gordon added: “I’m not sure what rotting hands and feet have to do with the Conservative party although I could spend some time speculating.”
Parliament Hill reacted to news on Wednesday regarding the two packages containing severed body parts that made their way through Ottawa’s mail system, with one landing in the Conservative party’s headquarters.
Public Safety Minister Vic Toews called the package containing a severed human foot disturbing, but said it’s up to the police to investigate.
“It is certainly an usual development and even insofar as homicides go, it’s quite an unusual circumstance and I would prefer to allow the police to investigate this fully to determine exactly how this developed and what steps need to be taken,” Toews said, after making an unrelated announcement.
Immigration Minister Jason Kenney, who was making the announcement with Toews, said he hoped the criminal who did this would be found.
“It’s horrible and I’m thinking of the workers that were faced with that situation and I hope police get to the bottom of it,” said NDP leader Thomas Mulcair.
Liberal leader Bob Rae said everyone should cooperate with police to get to the bottom of this terrible crime.
“Apart from the bizarre nature of this event, behind it is a human tragedy and we should all reflect on that,” he said.
© Global News. A division of Shaw Media Inc., 2012.