WARNING: THIS REPORT CONTAINS GRAPHIC DETAILS

MONTREAL—What began as a case of a severed foot sent to Canada’s ruling party headquarters has spiralled into an astonishing murder case involving a self-professed porn actor with links to Karla Homolka who’s accused of killing and dismembering a man in a Montreal apartment.

Police have launched a Canada-wide manhunt for Luka Rocco Magnotta, 29, a Toronto native who appears in several dubious places on the Internet. He’s accused, among other things, of torturing and killing kittens and being romantically linked to notorious sex killer Homolka, though in a 2007 newspaper report he denied this last allegation.

The police hunt follows the discovery Tuesday of a headless torso inside a brown suitcase next to a pile of rubbish at a dingy Montreal apartment building. Police say a foot and hand mailed to Ottawa belonged to the body.

Late Wednesday, CTV News was reporting there was a note in the box containing the severed foot sent to the Conservative headquarters. The note reportedly said it was the first of six body parts, and it indicated the killer would kill again, according to CTV.

In another shocking twist, a grotesque video has emerged on the Internet that appears to show a man stabbing a naked and bound victim dozens of times with an ice pick, defiling the corpse and cutting off the head and limbs.

Montreal police said they are investigating the video, which sources say appears to be authentic.

Though the actual Montreal crime scene appears similar to the one shown in the murder video, police have not confirmed that the video does indeed show the murder of the man whose body parts were mailed to Ottawa.

However, a police source said, “Everything looks like this is the person we’re talking about.”

More: Second body part discovered in Ottawa after severed foot sent to Conservative party headquarters

The sources added there is a “very strong possibility” that the man whose body parts were sent to Ottawa is an Asian male who was reported missing by family members several days ago.

“The suspect and victim knew each other,” Montreal police Cmdr. Ian Lafrenière confirmed. He didn’t identify the victim.

A source said the victim apparently attended the suspect’s apartment willingly.

“I’ve been doing this job for close to 30 years now and I’ve never seen and never heard of something like this,” Lafrenière said. “It’s like watching a very bad movie.

“It’s important to stay sensitive to these things. Some people might say ‘this happens’ in society. I don’t think so. It’s something very shocking.”

The macabre discovery on Tuesday of a severed foot, delivered to the downtown Ottawa headquarters of the Conservative Party of Canada, set alight confusion and concern on Parliament Hill and made international headlines.

Hours later, Ottawa police confirmed a hand had been found in a package at a Canada Post processing facility. It had apparently been addressed to the Liberal party headquarters.

On Wednesday, the situation escalated as Montreal police said they believed the body parts belonged to the same victim. They asked for the public’s help in finding Magnotta.

The suitcase was reportedly sitting in the rubbish pile since last Friday. The video was posted online on May 25.

Police spent much of Tuesday combing through the grimy second-floor studio apartment where the torso was found. Its windows look on to a major Montreal expressway.

A poster from the 1942 film Casablanca is visible from outside. The poster can also be seen in photos posted on the Internet appearing to feature Magnotta.

Neighbours had reported a strong foul odour emanating from the studio. Inside, the bed sheets and mattress were soaked with blood.

“There was blood all over the bed,” said building manager Eric Schorer, 59.

There was also a pool of what appeared to be blood on the bottom shelf of the refrigerator. Traces were found too in the freezer.

Inside the closet, a message scribbled in red ink reads: “If you don’t like the reflection, don’t look in the mirror. I don’t care.”

Magnotta arrived in Montreal and rented the furnished apartment about four months ago for $490 a month, Schorer said. His rent was paid up to June 1.

“He came from Toronto and wanted to start a job as a caregiver and to be closer to his child,” Schorer recalled.

According to Schorer and other neighbours, Magnotta kept to himself, slept late into the day, going out in the late afternoon, perhaps to work.

Neighbour Derek Mackinnon, 56, said Magnotta spoke to no other neighbours except himself, “maybe because I was gay too.”

Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading...

“He’s probably one of the coldest people you’ve ever met in your life,” Mackinnon said.

Mackinnon, a former actor who starred in the 1980 horror film Terror Train, said Magnotta asked him how to make the transition from porn into legitimate acting. “He said his porn career was over.”

He said he saw Magnotta bring home a male five nights ago, an unusual sight because he never previously saw the young man with anyone. He saw Magnotta leave the building the next morning wearing a red wig. “I thought, ‘What is going on with that?’ ”

Mackinnon then began to cry, as he revealed that Magnotta had asked him to come to his apartment to see him, also five days ago.

“I wonder,” he whispered, “if that could have been me.”

The suspect legally changed his name in 2006. His birth name is Eric Clinton Newman. Police said he also goes by the pseudonym Vladimir Romanov.

An online profile pegs him as a bisexual porn actor. He has been targeted as a cat torturer and killer by animal rights activists, who have posted horrific videos to support their accusations. In one, a cat is placed in a plastic bag and the air is sucked out with a vacuum.

The suspect’s Facebook page lists a variety of heroes, from Madonna to Joseph Stalin.

“There is such things as Monsters, Demons and Ghosts,” says a quote typed onto that page. “They live inside of us, and sometimes they win.”

He also appears in an online blog posting about necrophilia. And a piece under Magnotta’s name posted in 2009 is titled, “How to Completely Disappear and Never Be Found.”

“When making the decision to disappear, it is very important to understand that this is not a process that can be successfully accomplished overnight,” the article explains.

Two top Conservative ministers denounced the posting of the body parts as a “criminal” act.

“Bizarre and completely horrifying,” said Immigration Minister Jason Kenney, saying it was clearly a “completely disgusting criminal act.”

Conservative Party spokesman Fred DeLorey said the package, when it arrived at headquarters on Tuesday, was brought to Jenni Byrne, a former senior adviser to Prime Minister Stephen Harper and the campaign manager in the 2011 election, “because it looked suspicious.”

“It was opened. Ms. Byrne examined it, saw the blood and smelled the odour and made the decision to call police.”

Delorey said that “staff are very upset and disturbed by what happened yesterday.”

With files from Tonda MacCharles and Allan Woods

ALSO FROM THE STAR:

Who is Luka Rocco Magnotta?

Read more about: