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Who Was Jun Lin, The Man Whose Brutal Murder Went Viral In 'Don't F**k With Cats'?
Chinese undergrad student Jun Lin was murdered so Luka Magnotta could get the attention he craved.
He was brutally murdered on camera in a case so grotesque it appeared to be the plot of a horror movie. But, it was very real.
The murder of Jun Lin, and the unbelievable events that surrounded it, are featured in a new Netflix true crime documentary called, “Don't F**k With Cats: Hunting an Internet Killer.”
Warning: Spoilers below.
The true crime documentary shows the real life cat and mouse game between cyber sleuths and a man named Luka Magnotta, who started off his horrific crime spree by posting a video of him killing two kittens.
Soon enough, the animal torturer graduated to killing a human being. Magnotta posted a video called “1 Lunatic, 1 Ice Pick,” in 2012. That clip showed Magnotta stabbing Lin to death with a screwdriver (modified to look like an ice pick) before defiling his body and even beheading him. The horrific video then went viral.
Soon Lin’s dismembered body parts began to show up around Canada. His torso was sent to an apartment complex in Montreal. One of his feet arrived at the Conservative Party headquarters in Ottawa while one of his hands was sent to the Liberal Party but was intercepted by the Canada Post, according to Toronto outlet CityNews. Magnotta used the address of Logan Valentini — sister of infamous Canadian serial killer Karla Homolka — to mail one package to a Vancouver school.
After murdering Lin, Magnotta fled the country, but he was eventually caught. True to his vain reputation, he was captured at an internet café while Googling news stories about himself, according to Canadian newspaper The Star. At least one of the cyber sleuths in the new docu-series pointed out that Magnotta wanted attention. Security camera footage featured in the docu-series even shows him stopping to check out his reflection after killing Lin. His mother, Anna Yourkin, wrote a book about him last year called, “My Son, The Killer,” which cast even more attention on Magnotta, who is currently serving a life sentence for his crimes.
The killer’s actions have attracted disgust and fascination from the public, but what does the public know about the victim?
Who was Jun Lin?
Lin was a 33-year-old international undergraduate student from Wuhan, China. He moved to Montreal in 2010 to study engineering and computer science at Concordia University.
Online sleuths featured in “Don't F**k With Cats: Hunting an Internet Killer” believe Magnotta lured Lin to his apartment with a Craigslist personal ad in which he said he wanted to make a “fun” movie. While Lin met up with Magnotta in 2012, they couldn’t have been any less alike.
Lin’s friends described him as positive and genuine — a stark contrast to his killer, according to a 2012 article of The Star.
Benjamin Xu, who called himself Lin’s best friend in the docu-series said he was reliable. He would always let his closest friends know if he was going out of town.
He was also reserved and shy, Xu said.
He was gay but not openly and this drew him to Canada, because of the country’s reputation as a “more liberal and accepting place,” Xu said.
Lin's family had pressured him to marry a woman, the Canadian outlet CBC reported in 2014. He had a boyfriend, Lin Feng, but they broke up just weeks before his murder.
"His family was not aware that he was gay — that’s why he was trying to date a girl,” Feng testified at Magnotta's trial, the CBC reported. He said that Lin had been in a relationship with a woman in the past, which resulted in divorce.
Lin also had a cat he loved dearly, according to Xu.
“Jun Lin’s cat was like his baby,” he said.
His friends described him as hardworking, according to The Star. While studying, Lin worked part time as a corner store cashier. Between juggling school and work, he also took French classes.
In an impact statement read before the court after Magnotta was found guilty of murdering Lin, the man's father, Diran Lin, called him his “brave son, smart son, laughing son, caring son, adventurous son, handsome son, strong son, popular son,” the Globe and Mail reported.
In his statement, he said his son wanted to stay in Canada to start his own business — a dream that would never come to pass.
“I live each day with regret that all I now see available here will never be his, that his name will only be associated with a horrible, degrading crime,” the grieving father said.”It causes me fresh pain to know that my son's legacy is to be remembered as a victim. He not only suffered in his murder but will be humiliated for each time his name is mentioned and it hurts me deeply and will hurt me forever.”
"Don't F**k With Cats: Hunting an Internet Killer" is currently streaming on Netflix. Watch the trailer here.
