Murder of Jun Lin

Jun Lin (林俊), also known as Justin Lin, was a 33-year-old international student who was killed in Montreal, Quebec, in May 2012. Born in Wuhan, China, on December 30, 1978, Lin moved to Canada in 2010 and enrolled in the engineering and computer science faculty at Concordia University, where he studied computer engineering. Those who knew him described a young man building a new life abroad; his father, Diran Lin, later travelled from China to attend the trial of the man responsible.

Lin was last seen on May 24, 2012. When he could not be reached, friends reported him missing on May 27 after finding his apartment empty. Over the following days, authorities in Montreal and Ottawa recovered human remains that were identified as Lin's, and investigators named Luka Rocco Magnotta, an acquaintance, as the suspect. Magnotta had already left Canada, prompting an international search coordinated through Interpol, which issued a Red Notice. He was arrested in Berlin, Germany, on June 4, 2012, and extradited to Canada later that month.

Magnotta was charged with five offences: first-degree murder, committing an indignity to a body, publishing obscene material, mailing obscene material, and criminal harassment. The harassment charge related to threatening communications directed at Prime Minister Stephen Harper and other members of Parliament. At trial before the Quebec Superior Court, Magnotta pleaded not guilty. He admitted to the physical acts but argued that a mental disorder left him not criminally responsible. The proceedings centred on his state of mind, with expert witnesses offering differing diagnoses.

On December 23, 2014, after eight days of deliberation, a Montreal jury of eight women and four men found Magnotta guilty on all five charges. The Crown had argued that the killing was planned and deliberate. Magnotta received the mandatory sentence for first-degree murder — life imprisonment with no eligibility for parole for 25 years — along with concurrent sentences totalling 19 years on the remaining counts. He filed an appeal in early 2015 but withdrew it on February 18, 2015, leaving the convictions in place.

The case drew wide attention in Canada and internationally. For Lin's family, the focus remained on the loss of a son whose father told the court that his final words to him had been "be careful, son." Jun Lin is remembered by those who knew him as a dedicated student who had come to Canada in pursuit of an education and a future.