Hi everyone, this is Deb from Dying to be Found. Before we get started today, I just
wanted to mention that episodes contain disturbing discussions on harmful acts and crimes against
animals and or humankind. Recordings are not intended for young or sensitive audiences
due to the content nature of this podcast. Listener discretion is strongly advised.
Good morning, Beth. How are you? Awesome. How are you? I love that. Is that how we're
going to start every day? I love that. You're awesome. That's how I answer the phone. Awesome.
When they asked me, that's great. So hi everyone. It's Deb. It's Beth. And I just wanted to
say thank you for coming along today. I'm, I was doing some stats and I'm excited because
we have listeners literally all over going to say North America right now, because we
just got California wanted to say thank you for those of you who are listening out there.
I saw Oklahoma and North Carolina and a few other places, Texas. I saw Texas and then
there's places all the way up into Montreal and, and Northern, Northern Ontario. So thank
you so much for joining us. We appreciate you. Thank you. You can find us on Spotify
and Apple and all of the podcasts that you listen to. So please listen. We just put out
a new recording this morning and I hope you like it. I hope you like our format. So here
we go. We're going to talk to you today about an interesting topic, but before we get started,
Beth, tell me what's going on. Well, I've been busy doing my hobby. The, where I spend
20 plus hours in my stamp room and no, they're not postal stamps. They are actual rubber
stamps and I do a lot of really unique cards and I do video tutorials on YouTube. So if
you want to find me on YouTube, just look up Beth Norman Roberts and you will find me
there or www.sunflowers-dragonflies.ca and there is my website where I blog and whatnot.
Are you, are you in your room 20 hours a day? 20, did I say a day? I'm sorry. A week. No,
you didn't. You weren't specific. I just wanted to know because I know what it's like. I used
to stay in a, do some work and I had 17 hour days. I don't have that anymore. It's wonderful.
That's why we're doing this podcast. That's awesome. But you're so hard working and 17
hours is grueling. It is grueling, but I have a lot of time on my hands and I'm loving this
new hobby of mine and I'm loving that I get to talk with you every week. Me too. So are
you ready to get started? Yeah. Okay. We're going to talk about the Canadian psycho and
I don't know if you even know who that is, but he is definitely psycho because after
doing the research for this story, holy cow, he is definitely a psycho. Do you know who
that is or shall I surprise you? Surprise me. Okay. So I'm going to start by saying
it's Eric Clinton Kirk Newman, who was born on July 24th, 1982 in Scarborough, Ontario,
which is the outskirts of Toronto. It's like a, it's like a town in the metro area of Toronto.
So Scarborough, Ontario. And he was born to Anna Yorkin and Donald Newman. He was the
oldest of three kids and eventually went to go live with his grandparents after his parents
split up when he was pretty young. So he lived with his grandma and he was homeschooled for
a bit because his grandma believed that the world was dirty and a dangerous place. Wow.
I think it's crazy that he was raised in such a nice loving home. If the grandmother thought
it was a dirty and dangerous place, she would be really giving some good structure to his
home. And it's pretty sad that he's moved on to a different lifestyle. Oh yeah. So I
came across a show. I want to fast forward a little bit because I'm going to give you
just a little bit of a premise to a documentary that I found. And I'm not going to say the
word because I, I'm married to a sailor, but I'm the one with a sailor mouth. So I am trying
not to swear in this podcast, but I did find a documentary and I think it's been out there
for quite some time. I just happened to come across it called don't F with cats. Have you
seen that documentary at all? Yeah, I saw it about three years ago. So this is what
we're talking about today. We're going to be talking about the person that was in this
documentary. It was a worldwide manhunt that began somewhere around 2011 for some guy who
put videos on the internet of him killing cats in very disturbing ways. I was horrified.
You all know, or at least you do best that I have a kindred spirit with animals. I should
have been that vets a long time ago that I wanted to be when I grew up. Right. Yes, you
did. And I thought you would have gone in that direction. Do you want to know why I
did not? No, I'd like to know. So Auntie Diane said one day, Oh, you want to be a vet. I
have to take my dog to the vet. Go with me. I said, okay. So I was job shadowing at probably
the age of 11, right? And I ended up going to the vet with her and they performed a,
what would you call it? They had to check the dog to see if it had worms. So the process
of checking that first of all, horrified me. But secondly, let's just say the dog did have
worms and that was, Oh, I was no grossed out. No can do. I worked. I just know I can't do
anatomy and things like that. So yeah, that is what turned me away from wanting to be
a vet. I never knew that. All I remember is growing up. I'm going to be a vet. I'm going
to be a vet. As soon as I thought I was going to be a lawyer. I know sometimes things just
don't turn out the way you plan, but it's all good because life is good and I'm happy
where I'm at today. So good. Me too. Good. So one of the people interviewed in the documentary
don't F with cats was Deanna Thompson. And she's just an average person like you and
me doing your thing every day, going to work. Okay. Do you love cat videos? I love them.
I don't know. Do you even like animals, Beth? Well, as a matter of fact, I'm so crazy about
owls. I just followed the cute photos on Instagram of owls. And I just, I just, I warm up when
I see them. Oh, so that's kind of like kitty cats too. I love kitty cats and Hey, since
we're on the topic, we were talking about some random trivia and I wanted to test you
here for a second because the website I came across, what is the name of a baby owl? Do
you know? No, it's an owlette or a nestling. I like owlette. Yeah. Owl. That's cute. And
yeah, random trivia doesn't mean anything for this podcast, but who cares? So yeah,
who cares? Deanna Thompson is just an average person. She goes to work every day. I think
she was in the computer business. So she had some kind of techie job. She just happened
to love cats and she loved to watch cute, sweet videos with playful little kitties.
I see those too. I love them. What if I'm a scrolling? Absolutely. I stop because I've
always liked cat. One day Deanna was looking on her social media when she received a notification
to watch a video, which was circulating on the internet. So she probably got the message
in her inbox and then she thought, okay, let's go click on this. Cause I love kittens, right?
And before I continue, I want to give a little disclaimer. I know I do this at the beginning
of every episode, but there is cruelty to animals. So if you're sensitive, then you
can absolutely fast forward if you need to. But in December of 2010, this video was posted
on the internet called one boy, two kittens. And it shows a guy playing music and petting
two sweet little baby kittens just laying there on the bed. Now you couldn't see his
face. He had it hidden. He had some long bangs in his face and he was wearing a hoodie. So
he deliberately made sure that he could not, that the audience could not see his face.
But then you see this guy put the kittens in a plastic bag and you hear a vacuum get
started. So I'm not going to really go into detail on what happened. The video is out
there. I did see it when I was doing this research and it is quite disturbing, but basically
long story short, he suffocated the cats to death and then posted it on the internet.
So you've got this soothing music playing and he's petting the kittens. And then the
next thing you know, he's doing what he did to the cats. So then he also posted a couple
other videos. There was one showing a kitten being drowned in the tub. I'm going to tell
you, I stopped with the first video. I couldn't handle it. And I think part of that too is
because that was actually on the Netflix documentary. So that was just part of it. Had I known what
was coming, I probably too would have fast forwarded it. But he also posted a couple
other videos, one where he was drowning a cat in a tub and then another one being fed
to a Python. I'm actually quite surprised that something like that can get onto the
internet. I don't know how the authorities can monitor that. Exactly. Interesting you
say that because I feel like I have in my past studies, I have looked into all that
and because it's the worldwide web, every country has its own regulations. So it's not
something that can be regulated. You know, there's the dark web out there. Yes, I do.
And so if you're going to find it, you're going to find it. But the authorities can't
really do a ton about it because every country has its own regulations and it is the worldwide
web. So do they have global regulations? No. Will they have global regulations? Doubtful
because it's just so massive. You know what I mean? Yeah. So if normal people like you
and me came across this video, of course they were horrified. And then I'm just going to
say, if you don't like cruelty to animals, please don't watch the Netflix show. I don't
know if I would have watched it if I had known what the story was really about. And I don't
even know why. I guess you know why I watched it because it was because of the title. Don't
F with cats. That's what grabbed me. So I thought, let me watch this. Oh, wow. So several
people saw the video and literally began actively trying to hunt down the person who was posting
all this crap on the internet. Good for them. Yes. Hooray. Good for them for taking time
out of their day. I really do believe this would be something that I would do because
I don't know, being an average sleuth, I certainly wouldn't put myself in a position of danger
or anything like that. But this story tells you that you can be anybody that you want
behind the computer screen. History shows that you can be anybody you want. You don't
need to be. I think the Deanna Thompson at the beginning of the show, she even said that
she had an alternate ego or alternate persona on her social media sites. So she wasn't even
using her real name and just goes to show you, you can be anybody that you want. But
the average person was looking for this person that was posting these videos on the internet.
A $5,000 reward was posted from an animal protection group for any information on who
was in this video and who was posting. And then the group of people took it upon themselves
to hunt the guy looking for everything going on in the video. Now, this was the cool part
and this is what really intrigued me. Beth, you do your stamping, you do cards, you make
those things. And a long time ago you scrapbooked, right? Oh, I have 25 scrapbooks in my stamp
room in a tote. You have 25 scrapbooks in a tote? Yep. All finished. I have probably
2,500 pictures in a tote waiting to go into a scrapbook. It's never going to happen. I've
come to the conclusion. I'm going to scan all of those pictures into a digital format
and probably have the book printed because I just don't have that kind of time. Oh, that
would be a nice idea. There we go. Christmas present to Beth. Yes. After all, I made you
a scrapbook and they'll wear our old haunts where we grew up. And I still have it is actually
sitting in the, but I can see it from where I'm sitting right now. That's, I love it.
I had every intention when scrapbooking was popular to put something together. I have
a couple pages here and there, but I'm just like, yeah, I don't have time for that anymore.
But you know how trends come and go. Yeah. And by the way, scrapbooking is still there.
Is it? Yeah. Oh, you know what? I think I had somebody telling me recently that they
were scrapbooking and I was like, bravo. Good for you if you have that kind of time. It
is quite therapeutic to just sit there and cut and paste. And okay. So what is my point?
You know, I'm random. So what is my point? When you take a picture of something, you're
usually looking at the person or taking a picture of a person, but you're not really
looking at the background, right? Exactly. This is my point. So when you're, when I began
scrapbooking, I realized, huh, I need to be looking more at the background and not just
the person in the picture. So that got me to really, really critically think on, I think
this is how photographers probably work too. They're looking at the big picture, no pun
intended. They are basically looking at everything in the scene. So the group of people that
were taking it upon themselves to hunt for the guy, they were looking at everything in
the video. So think about somebody stop, rewind, play, stop, rewind further back, play again,
you know? Yeah. They were looking at electrical outlets, bedding, languages being spoken on
the television in the background. They were looking at cigarette brands and a vacuum cleaner.
Interesting when they were talking about cigarettes, I will say, I do know the differences because
growing up in Canada, seeing the packaging there versus here. Yeah, they're completely
different. So packaging is completely different all over the world on certain products. So
these people were really paying attention to everything in the background. They were
listening to the sounds, the languages. After a couple of weeks of tracking activity based
on what they could see from the background of the videos, this group identified the person
in the video to be Luca Magnata as the person who was posting the video of animal cruelty.
And they ended up going to the police, but they were told that they couldn't do anything
because it was just a video about cats. Okay. So the cool thing is that the public refused
to stop going after this guy. The police said they couldn't do anything about it. So they're
like, well, we're going to do something. And they started their own Facebook group and
communicated with each other. They just anything that they could do. They gave each other information.
And there was also a bunch of techies, like I said, who probably knew their way around
the internet. So I love the fact I'm calling them renegades because they're after this
man. There's a man chase. Good for them. Human, you know, anything that breathes has, I don't
know, just anything that breathes animals, especially they can't defend themselves. So
while I think it's Bravo to those techies who wouldn't let it go, he was a very sick
individual and he certainly needs to be taken down. Yes, absolutely. So truly this group
was relentless on pursuing the guy who posted the videos. Eventually this Facebook group
finally discovered that the person they were trying to identify was Luca Rocco Magnata.
Luca was also known as Eric Clinton, Kirk Newman, like I said, at the very beginning
of this podcast, but he changed his name legally to Luca Rocco Magnata in 2006 because of all
things we just talked about me wanting to be a vet. You wanted to be a lawyer? Well,
Luca wanted to be a porn star. Yuck. So at the age of 20, he began stripping and appearing
in porn videos. Again, very disgusting. And this keeps getting worse and worse. Most definitely.
So you know, you just never know the mindset. Luca regularly created an internet presence,
sort of like an online photo album. How ironic that we're just talking about scrapbooking.
Wow. So social media wasn't really a thing back then. So you were saying, how could the
authorities not control this? But think about it, Beth, we're in the year 2022. And this
happened way back, you know, more than what? Oh gosh, here we go with math again, 2010,
2011. So think about how far we have come in technology in the last 12 years, right?
Yes, exactly. So Luca was very vain and had a history of inflating his own ego. He's been
known to create a shrine for himself at one time at his house. I'm assuming when he lived
with his grandma. And then the short time he actually attended public school, even his
teachers recognized that he was very much into his appearance. He's trying to create
this online presence. That's pretty proactive that he's trying to do that 12 years ago.
And he posted lots of pictures that made him look like a world traveler. But again, just
like with the Facebook group that was looking at all the scenery behind them. If you looked
very closely at these photos, you could see that there was a lot of images being Photoshopped.
I actually looked up Photoshopping because of course that's, you know, one of the technologies
that came out in 1987, 1988. And so Luca was using the software to create an extensive
online profile to self promote himself and help his aspiring career of wanting to be
a porn star. Good for you, Luca. I don't want to see that, but I've seen how people have
built online photo albums. Do you know anybody that's done that? Yes. You just post it and
just, you can go look at it anytime you want. So that's what he was doing. And then at some
point in time, he even fabricated his association with Carla Hamoka. I know you have got to
know who that is. Oh yeah. Carla was only 22 years old when she was charged with three
rape and murders of minors at 22. And this happened between around 1990 and 1992. She
was associated with Paul Bernardo, who is her partner in crime. He's still in jail.
Carla received only a 12 year sentence and she's currently living in somewhere in Quebec.
I should also mention that one of her victims was her very own sister. Do you remember that
story being out there? Yes. It was pretty horrifying. What did you hear about it or
what do you remember about it? That the thing that stuck out with me was that her murder
of three minors, when unfortunately was one with her sister, she was one of the victims
that was killed. Wow. Apparently in 2007, Magnata casually dropped by a local newspaper
to deny rumors going around that he was dating Carla at the time. So here you go. He's trying
to be his own publicist. He created this online persona for himself and then he decided he
was going to go stop the rumors at the local newspaper. I get what he was doing because
we're promoting our podcast on our own as well and we're getting our news out there.
I think we're doing a pretty good job. Thank you all for whoever's listening to us, whoever's
following us. Getting back to Luca, before they could identify him as the guy in the
video, his behavior escalated and he videotaped himself murdering and dismembering young Lin,
who was 33 years old. He was a foreign exchange student at Concordia University in Montreal.
Jun Lin was studying engineering when he responded to an escort ad that Luca had posted on Craigslist.
Jun Lin was last seen in May of 2012, right before he was supposed to show up to work
on May 24th. So on May 25th, Luca, as bold as he was, posted an 11 minute video of the
murder and dismemberment on the internet called One Lunatic, One Ice Pit. What shocked me
was that this video had over 172,000 views. Okay, Beth, I mean out of 172,000 views, I'm
going to say first thing, people just like with the cats probably had no idea what they
were looking at or no idea what was about to come, right? And then secondly, how could
after 172,000 views, how could somebody not call the authorities?
That's true. Maybe there's an awful lot of sickos out there that enjoy watching that
kind of stuff.
Yeah, I'm sure that there's a dark web websites that people go to for that. But apparently
the video not only contains detailed graphics of Luca performing lewd acts on the victim,
but it also included cannibalism. And finally, at some point in time, a lawyer from Montana
discovered the video and reported it to the police in both United States and in Canada.
So bravo to you, lawyer from Montana. I don't even care what you were looking at or why
you were on that site, but thank you. Thank you for turning him in. And guess what? What?
The authorities once again did not even pay attention to what this lawyer reported because
they said the video was fake. Am I going to assume that the police watch the video themselves?
Oh, they probably didn't. They're so full of cases and hear so many things that they
just didn't take it seriously.
Well, in May of 2012, after this video was posted, Luca mailed a severed hand to a Vancouver
elementary school. He also mailed a severed foot to a Vancouver middle school. Why?
Now that I remember being in the news.
Why would somebody send things like that to a school? I don't get it. I mean, is that
just like shock value?
Yeah, it's, I don't understand it neither.
So he also mailed another severed foot to the conservative and liberal parties headquarters.
And I'm sure that was in the news because I did see some people being interviewed on
that. So what were they telling people? Like what were they telling the public at this
point in time?
You know, it was so long ago. I can't remember that. I certainly remember the foot and something
tells me that they even were going to look at going into the dump. I think they were
even considering the local waters too.
They I'm sure at this point probably didn't even know who the victim was.
No.
Well, they were able to track the packages through the mail service. So there's a bar
code that is put on the packages through the postal service, but not before finding June
Lynn's torso in a suitcase in a park in Montreal. I mean, was this days apart? Was it all in
the same day within 24 hours? Okay. So do you remember that Facebook group that I told
you about from the Netflix video?
Yes.
Police finally requested to join that group who was still trying to track down Luca on
their own as most citizens should do because citizens arrest. Is that still a thing? I
hope so.
I hope so too.
So let's go ahead and talk about the arrest. They finally caught up with Luca because an
employee at an internet cafe in Berlin, Germany, who was following the story recognized Magnata
and went to the authorities to give them a tip that Luca was frequently hanging out where
he worked. Luca was in the internet cafe reading news about himself. Imagine that because he's
so self-centered. He was in the cafe when he was arrested on June 18th, 2012 for the
murder of June Lynn.
I'm kind of surprised that somebody in Berlin, Germany would be following the case of all
things and having Magnata right there.
Yeah. Interesting because worldwide web gets around and everybody is able to get access.
So he may or may not have just seen it in the news. Maybe, who knows? Maybe he was in
that social group, but good for him for stepping up. I wanted to talk about a letter and a
mental health assessment that Luca was given and it goes back a ways. A letter from his
psychiatrist was dated May 30th of 2005, which stated Luca was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia
and he had been treated for five years for this condition. He received inpatient care
in 2003 and should have also been attending outpatient treatments, but did not follow
through nor take his prescribed medications as instructed. When he went to trial in 2014,
he did plead not guilty due to his schizophrenia diagnosis, but after eight days of deliberation,
the jury found him guilty of first degree murder for June Lynn. And because Luca also
mailed those packages to the political parties, he was later charged with threatening prime
minister Stephen Harper, who was in office at the time from 2006 to 2015. And he was
also found guilty for harassing prime minister Harper and the police. And on top of that,
he also was found guilty with a bunch of other charges for mailing those body parts all over
Montreal and is serving time for 25 years with the chance of parole.
Well, I hope he never gets out because he'll only go back. I know the whole point of being
incarcerated is to rehabilitate, but you know, budgets and things, you don't get the right
programs. But I mean, some people are, but I don't know about this mindset. There's just
no way. Is there anything missing from the story? Do you think I'm trying to think I
because I watched four years to go on. There was no mention of charges for animal cruelty.
Oh, because we're going back to the people in an uproar. Yeah. I mean, honestly, it probably
would be if I had heard this story. And then what do you do about it? I mean, you've got
the authorities saying that they can't do anything. It's just an animal, but it's a
living breathing animal that relies on socialization with human beings, you know? So I found a
good timeline on the CBC news that gives a really good synopsis of Luca Magnata. I'm
going to add it back to the show notes because it was really cool. I mean, I found it after
I had done all my research, but good news. I wanted to kind of bring something else up
because this kind of gets thrown in every time we talk about these. Everybody deserves
love, right? Oh, for sure. Especially me. I love you, Beth. I love you too, Deb. Congratulations,
Luca, for your marriage to another inmate in 2017. Gross. Where did they meet? Another
dating website called Canadian inmates connect. Luca's mother was there to witness the wedding.
Of course. I mean, if you've got a son who's been accused of something and he's been found
guilty, I mean, a mother's love, you're not going to stop loving that child, right? Right.
But I do want to add that Luca's mom was also accusing the renegades from the Facebook,
amateur techie sleuths that site that got started. She accused this group of being internet
stalkers and she called the Facebook group crazy and accused them of acting like high
school children for accusing her son of doing something wrong. Dude, it was all on video.
I'm not in her shoes and I don't know what it's like to have my own child behind bars,
but when it comes to somebody, a human being committing heinous crimes, I know I would
unconditionally love my child. And when you've got all this stuff documented on video, there's
a hundred percent evidence. So the cherry on the cake here is that although Luca was able to
marry as everyone should, I totally agree with that. His spouse and he are not allowed to see
each other because they can't have visitation with other inmates. I don't even know if they're at the
same prison, but folks, this is a good example of why you just have to be careful when using dating
websites. And, and, okay, you guys can't see us right now, but I'm laughing. I'm about to
just tell you why. And I deliberately did not put this in our notes. I thought I did something wrong.
No, you did nothing wrong. Wait, what did you say? Be careful when using dating websites. Yes.
I met my husband the old fashioned way on a dating website and we just celebrated our sixth year
together. Well, not everything is what it seems in the case of this Magnotta, but I'm really happy
for you that it's worked out on a dating site. You just have to be very careful. Yes, you do.
Absolutely. I have you all, I was on my own for quite some time and I'm not going to say every
person I went out with was ideal, but yes, you definitely have to be very, very careful on those
websites that you get on because again, people are not who they say they are. You can be anybody that
you want behind the screen. Can you think of any tips for people that are dating on online? Yeah.
Oh, wow. That's a great question. First off, go with your gut. And if you get a bad feeling,
more than likely that bad feeling is telling you something. I truly believe in that, in that
internal feeling. Definitely if you have a bad feeling about it, it's probably going to be a bad situation.
And then secondly, tell somebody if you're going to go out with a person. When, you know, Beth,
if I were going on a date, then definitely I would be saying, hey, I'm going out to dinner and I'm
going to meet this fella and his name is whatever it is and try to get as much information as you can.
And then always meet in a public place at least the first couple of times for sure. Yeah. So I'm
going to say, I mean, honestly, I mean, to me, because my life has been so, so busy, it worked out
in my favor. It worked out as far as time wise. I'm going to say gave me some shortcuts, speed
dating of sorts. You know what I mean? I've never done speed dating, but it's just for busy people.
Again, you just have to, when you meet somebody in person, look at some of these cases that we are
going to be talking about later. Even if you meet somebody in person, you still have that gut feeling.
You either click or you don't, you know what I mean? Yeah. Yeah. There we go. So that's the story
on Luca Magnata, the psycho Canadian. And that's a wrap. That's a wrap. Thanks for joining us. And I
hope that you guys will visit us on www.dyingtobefound.com. We've got all of our social links there and
follow us on Spotify, rate us and tell us how we're doing. If you have anything that you would like
us to talk about, please email us at dying the number two, the letter B found at gmail.com.
And we will talk to you soon. Bye bye.