The man who once boasted about knowing how to disappear and never be found has been arrested in Berlin, Germany after ten days on the run.
Suspected Canadian killer Luka Rocco Magnotta, wanted for the killing and dismemberment of a Chinese student in Montreal, is now sitting in a jail cell in Berlin.
German police closed in on Magnotta around 2 p.m. local time on Monday, as the fugitive was sitting alone in a corner of a 24-hour internet café in an Arabian district near Berlin’s city centre.
Magnotta was looking at news reports about himself.
A civilian noticed Magnotta entering Helin Tele-und Internetcafé on Karl Marx Strasse around 1:30 p.m. and flagged down a police patrol on the street.
As Magnotta surfed the net, seven police officers from a local police school were getting ready to take him down.
Entering the café, the police demanded to see ID from Magnotta. The Canadian man rambled off several names before finally admitting who he was.
“You’ve got me,” he told police as he pulled out his real ID.
Police took the 29-year-old Canadian into custody without a struggle and fingerprint analysis confirmed his identity. Magnotta is now being held in a Berlin jail until he can go before a judge tomorrow.
- Canadian man dies during Texas Ironman event. His widow wants answers as to why
- On the ‘frontline’: Toronto-area residents hiring security firms to fight auto theft
- Honda’s $15B Ontario EV plant marks ‘historic day,’ Trudeau says
- Canadians more likely to eat food past best-before date. What are the risks?
Magnotta will be extradited to Canada at some point, but the process could take weeks.
Someone named Luka Magnotta wrote a blog post in 2009 entitled, “How to Completely Disappear and Never be Found.”
Montreal police believe Magnotta left the city on May 26, three days before the torso of 33-year-old Lin Jun was found in a suitcase in a Montreal alley last week.
Other severed body parts, including a hand and a foot, were mailed to the offices of political parties in Ottawa.
Montreal police prompted an international manhunt for Magnotta after identifying him as a suspect in the slaying on May 30. Interpol put Magnotta on its equivalent to a most-wanted list and on Sunday released photos of him at an airport wearing a Mickey Mouse shirt, jeans and what appears to be a wig.
The search was focused on France over the weekend, where police were responding to a flood of calls reporting Magnotta sightings.
French media report some of Magnotta’s belongings, including pornographic magazines, were found in a Paris hotel, and that police have been trying to track his movements through his cellphone activity.
Magnotta was apparently put up one night by a man who later contacted authorities after realizing who his guest had been.
One published report had Magnotta spotted in a bar and in a hotel where he spent two nights. The bar manager was quoted in French media saying Magnotta ordered a soft drink and appeared very nervous. The manager said the fugitive left with a man with an “impressive physique.”
Another sighting reported in French media was from a woman who said Magnotta tried to join an after party at her hotel room.
By Monday, European media were reporting Magnotta was believed to be fleeing to Berlin by bus.
With files from The Canadian Press
Comments