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Concordia creates fund for body-parts victim

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MONTREAL – While much of the world focusses on bizarre alleged body-parts killer Luka Magnotta, the family of victim Jun Lin is quietly planning a funeral. And Canadians are helping to cover the costs.

Lin’s school, Concordia University, is setting up a fund to help with travel and burial costs.

Frederick Lowy, Concordia's president, and Peter Kruyt, chair of its board of governors, also announced the creation of a scholarship to honour the 33-year-old computer science student, who was killed and dismembered last month.

Lin’s ex-lover Magnotta, a former stripper and porn actor from Toronto, faces charges including first-degree murder in the high-profile case.

“The Jun Lin Award (will) benefit Chinese students studying at the university,” Lowy and Kruyt said in a statement.

“This has been a very emotional and heartbreaking journey for the Lin family, ” the statement continued. “It is our hope that they will be comforted by the knowledge that the Jun Lin Award will honour their son’s memory. ”

Lin’s parents, sister and uncle arrived in Montreal on Tuesday and are being cared for by the Chinese consulate and members of the local Chinese community.

Lin worked at a convenience store in south-end Montreal and was last seen May 24, just after completing a cashier shift.

A janitor at Magnotta’s west-end apartment found Lin’s torso inside a fly-covered travel bag in a garbage pile on May 29.

Later that day, Lin’s hand turned up at federal political office in Ottawa, and his foot turned up in a Canada Post sorting facility.

His other hand and foot later turned up two Vancouver schools.

A snuff video posted to a gore website shows Lin being stabbed to death with an ice pick, cut into pieces and partially eaten.

Magnotta fled to Paris and was arrested in Berlin on Monday, becoming the world’s highest-profile murder suspect in the process.

The 29-year-old is awaiting extradition and could be back in Canada by the end of the month.

The case has brought out the worst in voyeuristic Magnotta supporters who have downloaded and reposted the snuff video multiple times.

But the tragedy has also elicited an outpouring of support from Canadians, dozens of whom have offered money to the Lin family.

 

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