Where Is Luka Magnotta Now? Inside the Killer's Life After Brutally Murdering a Stranger and Mailing His Body Parts

Luka Magnotta was one of the most wanted men in the world in 2012, and his infamy only grew when Netflix released the 2019 docuseries Don’t F**k With Cats: Hunting an Internet Killer.

The show followed cyber-sleuths’ attempts at finding Magnotta after he posted videos of himself killing kittens online. Magnotta ultimately escalated his violence from animal cruelty to murder when he killed and dismembered a Canadian student, Jun Lin, in May 2012.

Magnotta posted a video of the gruesome slaying and mailed Lin’s body parts to Canadian government officials before fleeing the country for Europe, per The Guardian.

An international manhunt ensued for Magnotta, who was also accused of defiling Lin’s corpse.

Here’s what to know about where Luka Magnotta is now.

Who is Luka Magnotta?

Magnotta was born Eric Clinton Newman on July 24, 1982, in Scarborough, Ontario, Canada, to Anna Yourkin and Donald Newman, per the National Post.

The Montreal Gazette reported that, according to a psychiatrist’s notes, Yourkin and Newman were teen parents who didn’t send Magnotta to school until sixth grade. Per the outlet, Magnotta’s parents divorced in 1994 after Newman was diagnosed with schizophrenia. Magnotta alleged that his mother would frequently lock her children outside and kill their pets.

When he was a teenager, Magnotta was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia after he claimed to have begun hearing voices. He ultimately dropped out of school and entered a group home for psychiatric care in 1999.

The criminal was convicted of fraud in 2004 after racking up nearly $17,000 on a woman’s credit card, The Guardian reported. Per the National Post, he was also charged with sexually assaulting the woman, but the charge was dismissed.

In 2006, Magnotta officially changed his name to Luka Rocco Magnotta in an effort to start a new life, CBC News reported. He was then hospitalized several times in various Ontario hospitals, per Global News, for various mental and physical health problems.

At the time, Magnotta attempted a career in modeling, adult films and reality TV.

In 2007, Magnotta filed for bankruptcy, the Vancouver Sun reported.

Who was Jun Lin?

Jun Lin, also known as Justin Lin, was an international student from Wuhan, China, who moved to Canada to pursue a degree in computer science, per the Toronto Star.

Lin was previously married to a woman and divorced, per CBC News. When he moved to Canada, CTV News reported, he began dating fellow permanent resident Lin Feng from late 2010 to May 2012.

They lived together while they dated, with Feng later testifying in court that he aided Lin financially at times.

Feng added that Lin’s parents were allegedly pressuring him to marry a woman and didn’t know that Lin was gay and in a romantic relationship with him. Feng also noted that after they broke up, they remained friends and texted regularly.

Lin was last seen alive on the evening of May 24, 2012, when he was seen on a security camera with Magnotta entering his Montreal apartment building, Global News reported.

What did Luka Magnotta do?

Magnotta began posting disturbing videos online in 2010, including several in which he drowned and suffocated kittens. Internet sleuths tracked Magnotta down and labeled him as “The Vacuum Kitten Killer” and reported him to police, according to CNN.

He initially denied that he was the perpetrator, but later confessed to the crimes in a 2011 email to The Sun, in which he also hinted that his next victim wouldn’t be an animal.

In May 2012, Magnotta murdered and dismembered Lin in his own apartment. He then mailed one of Lin’s severed feet to Canada’s Conservative Party and a severed hand to Canada’s Liberal Party.

Lin’s torso was found in a suitcase in a Montreal apartment building where Magnotta lived at the time. Magnotta fled Canada after the murder, wearing a wig and boarding a flight to Paris, Global News reported. Police initially struggled to find Lin’s head, according to CTV News, but later discovered it in a park.

How did Luka Magnotta get caught?

On May 29, the superintendent of Magnotta’s apartment in Montreal called police after he found a human torso in a suitcase. Police on the scene found garbage bags filled with a dead puppy, blood-stained clothing, a circular saw, knives and human limbs, as well as Magnotta’s ID, per Global News.

Investigators initially thought Magnotta may have been the victim, as the torso hadn’t yet been identified, but later that night, they saw a video online of him stabbing and dismembering Lin, feeding parts of his corpse to a dog and committing acts of necrophilia, titled “1 Lunatic 1 Icepick.”

They also noticed that in surveillance footage from after the slaying, Magnotta was wearing the same shirt Lin was in when he was last seen alive.

Days later, a forensic biologist found that Lin’s blood and DNA were found all over Magnotta’s apartment.

While Canadian investigators pieced together clues, Magnotta partied for several days in Berlin with a man named Frank Rubert, whom he met online.

According to Global News, on June 4, Magnotta went to an Internet cafe in Berlin, where he read news stories about himself. While he was there, Rubert recognized his face on the front page of a newspaper — and so did the employee working at the front desk of the cafe, who called the police.

Magnotta was detained just outside the establishment that afternoon, initially denying his identity to police before admitting, “You got me.” He was extradited back to Canada two weeks later and arrested.

What was Luka Magnotta’s sentence?

In December 2014, a jury convicted Magnotta of first-degree murder, committing an indignity to a human body, publishing obscene material and mailing obscene and indecent material.

He was also convicted of criminally harassing then-Prime Minister Stephen Harper and other members of Parliament, according to Global News.

Magnotta was sentenced to life in prison with a chance of parole after 25 years for the first-degree murder charge, plus an additional 19 years for the other charges.

After the jury announced the verdict, the prosecutor read a statement from Lin’s father on behalf of his family.

“In one night, we lost a lifetime of hope, our futures, parts of our past,” the statement read. “We do not want to tell our story because it is too sad to repeat. We cannot talk much about Lin Jun without talking about his murder. The murder has robbed us not only of Lin Jun but our ability to think and talk about him without feeling pain and shame.”

Where is Luka Magnotta now?

Magnotta began his prison sentence at a maximum security prison in Port-Cartier, Quebec, according to CTV News.

Seven months later, in July 2015, Magnotta reportedly placed a personal ad for a “Prince Charming” romantic partner on a website that attempts to link convicts. The ad was removed weeks later after the site creator said she received a letter in which he said he “found what he was looking for,” per CTV News.

Magnotta reportedly planned to marry another inmate from New Brunswick, Canada, two years later, though Vice reported that they wouldn’t legally be able to consummate their relationship.

In 2018, Magnotta’s mother co-authored My Son, the Killer with author Brian Whitney. In the book, Magnotta spoke out publicly for the first time since his conviction, telling Whitney (via the Toronto Sun) that he regretted his defense strategy.

“It’s very annoying. I never wanted anything to do with the NCR [not criminally responsible] defense,” Magnotta said. “I have no mental illness whatsoever. I had to go with it, even though I didn’t want to, but my lawyers pressured me into it.”

In 2022, Magnotta was transferred to the medium-security facility La Macaza Institution, per CBC.

According to CTV, Magnotta is currently imprisoned there and will be eligible for day parole on June 4, 2034, and for full parole on June 4, 2037.