MONTREAL - Montreal police have confirmed that a body part uncovered in Angrignon Park Sunday is the missing head of murder victim Lin Jun.
The head was immediately transported to a forensics lab, which subsequently conducted several days of tests and finally determined that the head was a DNA match for the 33-year-old Chinese student allegedly murdered and dismembered by Luka Magnotta.
“"We still had to wait for analysis to be made before confirming anything,” said police spokesperson Anie Lemieux. “There's also respect for the family."
Police made the announcement Wednesday afternoon at 3 p.m.
They had initially predicted that it would take about one week to test the head for a genetic match, but got the match in about half that time.
News of the discovery brought some solace to depanneur owner and Lin’s former boss, Kan Kan Huong.
"For me it's a kind of end of the tragedy," he said.
Lin was dismembered after his murder, with body parts shipped through the mail and others left in an alley near Magnotta's apartment just off Decarie Blvd.
Eric Schorer, the manager of that apartment building, said residents are still traumatized by the grisly murder.
"It's a horrible thing and it affected all of us and we're all just healing and getting over it all."
Police found the missing head as a result of information uncovered in the Magnotta investigation.
They would not say whether Magnotta himself had in any way provided information leading them to the dismembered head.
Magnotta is being held in solitary confinement in Montreal. He was arrested in a cafe in Berlin following an international manhunt and extradited back to Canada.
He is expected to face a trial by jury in March 2013, and has pleaded not guilty to all charges against him, including first-degree murder.
Magnotta is accused of having killed Lin Jun and sending his hands to political offices in Ottawa and feet to schools in Vancouver.
