Store clerk never missed a shift before he was slain

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This article was published 02/06/2012 (4990 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

MONTREAL — A university student identified as the victim of a gruesome killing and dismemberment was described Friday by his boss as a model employee who never missed a shift until his sudden disappearance last week.

Jun Lin, 33, was a responsible, polite cashier who was friendly with customers in a tough Montreal neighbourhood, said the owner of a convenience store.

Kankan Huang said that’s why he knew something was amiss when the part-time clerk — his only employee — didn’t show up for work on May 25.

“I’m just shocked and I don’t know if it is true, but I hope it’s not,” he said after learning Lin’s fate from the news.

Police launched an international manhunt this week for a porn actor named Luka Rocco Magnotta, who is wanted for first-degree murder, defiling a corpse and other charges. Magnotta is suspected of videotaping himself stabbing and dismembering Lin. The film was later uploaded onto the Internet.

A torso was found this week in a suitcase behind Magnotta’s Montreal apartment building. The same day, authorities found a hand and a foot that had been mailed to political offices in Ottawa.

Magnotta’s apartment was found stained with blood. Montreal police confirmed he flew to Europe last Saturday.

Montreal police say Magnotta and Lin knew each other and believe the killing happened sometime overnight between May 24 and 25.

Lin, a native of China, was reported missing on Tuesday. He was an undergraduate student in the faculty of engineering and computer science at Concordia University.

Magnotta had his name changed in 2006 from Eric Clinton Kirk Newman. Police believe he may be using different names to avoid capture.

— The Canadian Press