（星星生活记者连鹏编译/综合报道）涉嫌在灰狗巴士上将邻座乘客斩首的李伟光(Vince Weiguang Li，译音)已被证实是来自中国大陆的移民，并且已入籍加拿大。早前有人根据李伟光被公布的英文名字拼写猜测，李伟光可能是来自中国大陆。不过，有报道称从来自李伟光代表律师的消息指，确定李伟光是中国大陆移民，现为加籍公民。
李伟光是一个安静、谨慎的人
加拿大《国家邮报》8月2日晚刊登加西新闻社文章，指出据李伟光的朋友描述，他是一个“安静、沉默寡言”的人。该文指，现年40岁的灰狗巴士血案凶犯李伟光约在4年前从中国移民到加拿大，最初在温尼伯安家。他，以及他可爱的妻子在社区热心人士的帮助下，很快融入到异国新生活中。
该报道说，李伟光很快就找到一份叉车司机工，这让他很快的提高了自己的英文水平，同时他们参加基督教浸信会的礼拜活动，并结识了很多新的朋友，他们利用闲暇时间一起聚会或者到附近湖边野餐。
该报引述温尼伯自由新闻社（Winnipeg Free Press）的报道指，虽然看起来李伟光融入加国新生活的过程非常顺利，但随后那些接近他的新朋友们却在他身上看到了别的东西。
两年前，他周围的人发现李伟光有时神情不定。根据一名不愿透露姓名的妇女在接受温尼伯自由新闻社独家专访时表示，李似乎是一个“失落的灵魂，他仿佛一直在寻找某种东西。”
该名女性和她的家庭曾跟李伟光一家如朋友一般，甚至两年前的圣诞夜和晚餐都是在她家度过，但是由于担心诸多媒体会争相采访，她并不愿透露自己的姓名。她表示，李伟光的确出了问题，但是却拒绝去看医生或寻求帮助。这个家庭的一位从事心理健康方面工作的朋友也表示李“很显然需要帮助，可他没有这么做。”
她表示曾经跟李伟光有过一次不同寻常的对话：有一次在李收到一张交通罚单后，他一直说：“有些人跟在我后面，但什么也没有。”
李伟光和他的妻子Anna移民到温尼伯后，他很快就找到一份叉车司机工，太太曾在几家中餐馆打工。他们偶尔参加基督教浸信会活动。该名接受温尼伯自由新闻社专访的女性说，她的父亲和继母很喜欢这对夫妇，他们一起聚餐、打牌，她父亲还请李伟光和太太到他们的休闲别墅玩。“李伟光是一个安静、谨慎的人，这可能是因为他的母语不是英语，但他还是让大家感到很亲切。”
但是，事情随着两年前李伟光突然独自搬到埃德蒙顿去而改变，此后他的太太则继续留在温尼伯，但李伟光随后找到了送报和派广告的工作，她最近也搬到了埃德蒙顿。
李伟光在温尼伯经常参加活动的教堂成员，最近也曾提及过他们这个家庭，关注他们现在是否过得还好。
血案死者亲属指麦克林善良爱交友
与此同时，灰狗巴士血案死者、今年22岁麦克林的亲人，8月2日晚在温尼伯举行的记者会上表示，麦克林是一个善良的青年，生前喜欢交朋友。
麦克林的叔叔艾力克斯（Alex McLean）表示，麦克林生前喜欢旅行，并与人们交朋友。麦克林并相信，他交往的每一个人都是善良的。麦克林个头虽不大，但他的心却比人们想像的还要大。
艾力克斯是代表麦克林的父母，对麦克林在30日晚间，在埃德蒙顿驶往温尼伯的一辆灰狗巴士中惨遭杀害，发表谈话。
艾力克斯表示，麦克林的父母对惨案发生后，全国民众的关心及慰问表示感谢。麦克林的父母目前仍极忧伤。这是自麦克林遇害后，他的家人首次公开谈话。
李伟光曾生吃受害人尸肉
另据周六稍早，从一家网站上透露的一段加拿大皇家骑警处理本案的通话纪录，李伟光在杀死麦克林后，还将麦克林的尸体切成碎片，生啖其肉。
加通社报道说，皇家骑警的通话记录周六遭泄露，并被人贴在网站上，引起广泛注意。这项简短的通话显示，凶手李伟光在杀死邻座旅客，斩首并挖出内脏后，还将尸体切成碎片生吃。
这项通讯纪录中，警方以“獾”做为凶手的代名。警方在通话中称，“獾”正在巴士内走来走去，手上握有有一把刀及一把剪刀。
警方通话纪录还称：“他正在巴士前方切割尸体”。通话又说：“现在‘獾’又来到巴士后方，正将尸体切成碎片生吃”。
这短短80秒钟的通话纪录遭人发布在网上后，骑警立刻发表声明指出，这项通话纪录是警方办案用，并非可以公之于众的材料。
刊载这项通讯纪录的有好几个站点，其中包含浏览量巨大的YouTube。皇家骑警周六下午已关闭此视频，但在关闭前，已有八千人点阅。
李伟光是于30日晚晚8点30分左右，在一辆由埃德蒙顿开往温尼伯的灰狗巴士上，用蓝波刀将邻座22岁的青年麦克林杀死。据目击者称，李伟光至少用刀刺麦克林五、六十下，然后将他的头割下，再开膛剖腹取出他的内脏。
同车旅客目击惨案后，纷纷逃离巴士，并于下车后将巴士门顶住，不让凶手下车，等待警方赶到处理。在等候警方来到期间，李伟光曾提着人头向其他旅客示威。警方赶到后，他拒绝投降，并提着麦克林的人头向警耀武扬威。李伟光最后打破车窗，弹出车外企图逃跑时被警方逮捕。
李伟光已于周五短暂出庭，一语未发。法官命令他先找辩护律师，之后再审理本案。
Beheading victim ‘never got into a single fight in his whole life’
Canadian Press and Globe and Mail Update
August 1, 2008 at 7:34 PM EDT
PORTAGE LA PRAIRIE, MAN. — A man accused of beheading a fellow passenger on a Greyhound bus uttered not a word in court Friday and the victim’s friends were still at a loss as to how anyone could have attacked someone they say never hurt a soul.
“There was nothing in the world that could set him off or [make] him do anything wrong to anybody,” said William Caron, who knew Tim McLean, 22, since Grade 7.
“As far as I’ve known him, he’d never got into a single fight in his whole life.”
There were no answers from a courtroom in Portage la Prairie, Man., where Vince Weiguang Li, 40, of Edmonton, made his first court appearance on a charge of second-degree murder.
Mr. Li — his face bruised, one hand bandaged and his legs shackled — quietly shuffled into the room with his head bowed. He did not make eye contact with anyone the entire time he was before the judge.
He would not even reply when the judge asked him if he was going to get a lawyer and only nodded slightly when asked whether he was exercising his right not to speak.
The Crown asked for a psychiatric assessment, but the judge said he wanted to give Mr. Li a chance to talk to a lawyer about that.
“It’s early and I think the judge just wants to respect his rights to … speak to counsel and he’s giving him that opportunity,” Crown prosecutor Larry Hodgson said outside court. “I don’t think it will be very long that they’ll allow him to do that [be without a lawyer].”
Mr. Li was charged after Mr. McLean died in a gruesome attack on a Greyhound bus that was travelling from Edmonton to Winnipeg.
Police did not release details about his death. But passengers said the young man died in an appalling attack in which his seat-mate silently stood up and repeatedly stabbed him before severing his head and carving up his body.
Friends say they simply cannot understand why anyone would attack the thin young man, just five-feet, five inches tall, and by all accounts easy-going.
“He was just such an amazing guy. He had a great personality,” Mr. McLean’s long-time friend and Mr. Caron’s wife, Jodi Lang, said on the lawn of their Winnipeg home.
Mr. McLean had been working at carnival booths and was coming home from Edmonton to be with his family. He led a mostly quiet life, preferring to spend time playing cards and the board game Risk, Mr. Caron said.
His friend liked to travel, which was the reason he spent three summers working the carnival circuit, Mr. Caron added.
“He never cared for sitting around, unless it was for a weekend with the guys playing Risk. He was always big on travelling. He didn’t like to sit in one place.”
Mr. McLean and Mr. Caron got their first tattoos together. Mr. Caron opted for a ghost riding a motorcycle. Mr. McLean chose a joker — a theme he would use for his Myspace web page under the name Jokawild, where he described his interests as “playin vids, chillin’, havin a good time.”
Mr. Hodgson couldn’t offer many details about Mr. Li.
“I know he was from Edmonton. I don’t know why he was on the bus. That’s still under investigation.”
The RCMP said Mr. Li has no known criminal record.
The Edmonton Journal is reporting that Mr. Li worked as a newspaper delivery man, delivering the Journal, Edmonton Sun and the National Post. When he did not show up for work on Tuesday, his colleague called his cellphone and a woman who said she was Mr. Li’s wife called back, saying he was called on an emergency.
Mr. Hodgson said if Mr. Li doesn’t get his own lawyer, the court could appoint one or the case could proceed anyway.
Mr. Li’s next court appearance is scheduled for Tuesday in Portage la Prairie.
Meanwhile, tributes to the victim were pouring into social networking and media websites. A Facebook website called “R.I.P. Tim” quickly sprang up after news of the attack.
“I can’t believe this is happening,” wrote Leah Dryburgh of Winnipeg. “Tim, you were the best guy ever. You didn’t deserve this at all.”
It was on Tuesday night that Greyhound bus 1170 rolled across the darkening prairie. Passengers were dozing off as The Legend of Zorro played on the television screen.
A man of about 20, making his way home to Manitoba from Edmonton, was sitting on his own in the back row, headphones covering his ears, sleeping with his cheek resting on the window pane.
He barely acknowledged the 40-year-old man in sunglasses who, having boarded the bus in Brandon, first sat near the front, then walked down the aisle, slid his bags into the overhead bin, and sat down next to him.
The strangers sat together in silence for a half hour or more, said Garnet Caton, a 26-year-old seismic driller who was in the row ahead.
Then the calm of an otherwise unremarkable bus ride was shattered by a sound so chilling it could only be described as somewhere between a dog howling and a baby crying.
“It was a blood-curdling scream,” he said. “I turned around and the guy sitting right [behind] me was standing up and stabbing another guy with a big Rambo knife … Right in the throat. Repeatedly.”
Mr. Caton said the attack was utterly unprovoked.
He watched in horror as the man, described as tall and well-built with close-cropped hair, plunged his hunting knife into the victim eight or nine times, sending blood spraying across the back of the bus.
The driver, hearing the screams, pulled to the side of the road and opened the doors, allowing passengers to flee. They scrambled over one another and, in their haste, knocked an elderly woman to the floor. One mother, who was seated near the back, threw her toddler forward several rows to get the child away from danger, a witness said.
Mr. Caton, who served five years in the Canadian Forces and was closest to the attacker, paused before leaving, torn momentarily between concern for his own safety and the thought of abandoning the bleeding victim. He turned to another man nearby and asked for his help.
“I said, ‘Give me a hand and let’s get this guy.’ And the other guy took off,” he said.
It was only moments later that the victim’s screams went silent. Mr. Caton knew he was too late.
Mr. Caton jumped off the bus, and was met by a trucker who had stopped after seeing the commotion. The trucker grabbed a crowbar and Mr. Caton got a hammer and they tried to contain the attacker on the bus. The attacker swung his knife at them through the partially closed bus door.
Then the incident became even more macabre. The attacker returned to the victim’s side and began sawing through his neck. A few moments later, he walked to the front of the bus holding a decapitated human head, displaying it to the 34 passengers and the bus driver standing outside.
“I got sick after I saw the head thing,” Mr. Caton said. “Some people were puking, some people were crying, some people were shocked.”
The killer, meanwhile, appeared unfazed.
“He just looked at us and dropped the head on the ground, totally calm,” Mr. Caton said.
Reports from the scene indicate the man then ate pieces of the corpse.
It was at that point that the RCMP arrived and a standoff developed, with armed officers surrounding the bus.
For more than three hours the man taunted police, moving around the bus and cutting away at the corpse. Around 1:30 a.m. local time, he broke a window and tried to jump out but was quickly arrested.
At the scene Staff Sergeant Steve Colwell could offer no explanation for what prompted the attack, and had no information on whether the attacker was known to police or had a history of violence or instability.
Police did not release the victim’s name because they had not been able to notify his family. But CTV reported Friday that his family learned of the attack through the media.
Police praised the reaction of the bus driver and passengers, which they say may have averted further injuries.
“They were very brave. They reacted swiftly and calmly in exiting the bus and as a result nobody else was injured,” Staff Sgt. Colwell said. “It’s not every day that someone gets stabbed on a bus. I imagine it would be fairly traumatic for the other passengers on the bus and the way they reacted was extraordinary.”
The passengers were eventually taken to an RCMP station in Brandon to be questioned, and then put up for the night in a local hotel. Most stayed up late, bleary-eyed strangers gathering in small groups, talking through a horrifying event that defied rational explanation.
“I tried to lay down at 4 o’clock this morning and I was up 10 minutes later, because every time I close my eyes I see this man in the window with some guy’s head I just smoked a cigarette with an hour before,” said passenger Cody Olmstead, who was on his way home to Nova Scotia.
Mr. Olmstead may have been the last person to speak to the victim before he was killed. He said they exchanged pleasantries, but not much more. The young man, who was about 5 foot 8 and 150 pounds, was dressed in baggy, hip-hop clothing, passengers said.
“He seemed to be all right. I didn’t get to know him,” he said. “He just told me where he was going. I told him where I was going.”
At first, Mr. Olmstead said, he thought it was a regular fistfight. But when somebody yelled “knife,” everyone started to run.
“What can you do when a man’s got a knife the size of, you know, it’s a big knife. So we just tried to stay out of the way,” he said.
He said he didn’t notice any tension between the two men beforehand, or even a minor incident that could have sparked a confrontation.
“No, there was no tension. The guy got on the bus, sat down beside the fellow. The fellow offered him the seat, woke up, said, ‘Yeah, go ahead,’ fell back asleep. Next thing you know, he’s getting stabbed repetitively,” he said. “And then I guess he cuts buddy’s head off, and he walks up to the door, holds the head in the door and just looks at him, crazy like, and just drops the head.”
Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day called Thursday’s incident horrific and said his heart goes to the family of the victim. However, he played down the possibility of enacting tough security measures in Canada’s bus terminals, similar to what exists in airports.
“People should always be open to looking at precautionary measures. But let’s keep in mind that as bizarre and tragic as this is, it is extremely rare,” Mr. Day said.
He also dismissed talk by some opposition MPs of a “knife registry,” saying that millions of them are bought each year simply for kitchen use. He added that there are already provisions in the Criminal Code against crimes and assaults.
Speaking at a Conservative Party caucus meeting, Mr. Day said he does not want to jeopardize the investigation, but added he wants to see the killer “convicted in court.”
Grief counsellors from the Brandon Regional Health Authority were made available to the passengers at the hotel Wednesday night. They were eventually allowed to complete their journey to Winnipeg, even though all their possessions had to be left on the bus while police continued their search of the crime scene.
Greyhound paid for them to buy clothes Thursday, and later transported them into Winnipeg, where some were reunited with anxious family members late in the afternoon.
The bus remained parked at the side of the Trans-Canada Highway Thursday, about 20 kilometres west of Portage La Prairie, as forensic teams sifted through evidence.
With reports from Joe Friesen in Winnipeg and Daniel Leblanc in Lévis, Que.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080731.wdeath01/BNStory/National/home
How a madman’s blade cut Tim McLean’s reunion short
JOE FRIESEN
From Saturday’s Globe and Mail
August 1, 2008 at 10:16 PM EDT
WINNIPEG — In his last phone calls and text messages, slain bus passenger Tim McLean was eagerly looking forward to seeing his friends and family, talked about how much he was enjoying himself, and made no mention of the peculiar passenger now charged with his murder.
Alexandra Storey, Mr. McLean’s ex-girlfriend, said he sent her dozens of texts as the Greyhound he was riding made its way east to Winnipeg from Edmonton Wednesday night. The 22-year-old Winnipegger was coming home after seven weeks working on a carnival tour of Western Canada.
He told her some of the other passengers were taking ecstasy, a party drug with stimulant properties, and that he was counting down the hours by sending a new text at every town he passed.
It was from Brandon, Man., some time before 8 p.m. that he sent the longest flurry of texts, she said. He planned to go see his father, collect his pet iguana from a friend and wanted to visit Ms. Storey later that night. After their relationship ended, he became like a brother to her, she said, and he was particularly devoted to her daughter, April. In his last message, Mr. McLean said his phone was dying and he was going to charge it when he got to Portage la Prairie.
Ten minutes later, his accused killer, 40-year-old Vincent Li, changed seats, making his way to the last row of the bus and sitting next to Mr. McLean. Witnesses said the younger man, barely 5 foot 5 and 125 pounds, had fallen asleep with his headphones on, his cheek resting against the window, while Zorro played on the bus’s television screen.
Without warning, witnesses said, a man stood up and stabbed Mr. McLean several times in the throat and torso, sending passengers scrambling off the bus. Afterward, the killer severed his victim’s head, hacked at his body with a large knife and a pair of scissors, and, according to reports from the scene, ate some of the body parts.
Derek Caron, Mr. McLean’s closest friend, was waiting at the Winnipeg bus station that night, anticipating a 9:45 p.m. arrival. He hung around patiently as Greyhound officials told him the bus was delayed, but as the hours passed they never explained what had happened. He left only when they closed the terminal after 1 a.m.
Although police didn’t release his name, the description of the victim passed on by witnesses – a small, aboriginal man of 18-20 years – seemed to fit Mr. McLean, who wasn’t aboriginal but looked it, Mr. McLean’s friends said. As the day wore on, and they received no word from him, a small group gathered outside the home of his father, also named Tim McLean. When the older man arrived home from work, he greeted them cheerfully, asking if they were waiting for his son.
They sat down with him at his computer as he watched the news for the first time. He put his hands over his mouth and said, “No, no, no. My God, no,” according to a woman who was there. He tried to contact the RCMP to confirm his worst fear. His son’s friends said an uncle had spoken to the RCMP already, and was told his nephew wasn’t a passenger on the bus. But later that night, Mr. McLean had to identify his son’s body.
As they struggled with their grief Friday, friends described the young man as a warm, fun-loving free spirit who attracted people to him with his energy and joie de vivre. He had never been in a fight in his life, said his friend Will Caron, who had known him for 10 years.
“There is no way he could have provoked that guy. No way. He’s just not like that,” said Colleen Yestrau, who had allowed Mr. McLean to stay with her for three months before he left on the carnival circuit. They also said Mr. McLean had asked his father, in a text message sent Wednesday evening, if it would be all right if a girl named Stacey stayed with them once he arrived in Winnipeg.
Mr. McLean dropped out of Oak Park High School before completing Grade 11 because he had other priorities, his friends said. He would spend the summer months touring Western Canada, starting with the Red River Exhibition in Winnipeg, and travelling to the Pacific National Exhibition in Vancouver. He ran booths and games at the fairs, which he referenced in his latest tattoo, a cursive script across his stomach saying “Wanna Play.” He sent a photo of it to Ms. Storey, which, in a ghostly twist, she received several hours after he was killed.
He was also proud of his other tattoos, including cartoon character Marvin the Martian, a spider and skull, and one that said “Joker Wild.”
He hadn’t had a fixed address for several years, his friends said, but would often stay with one of them for three months at a stretch, and then move on. In the winters he worked at various jobs, cleaning and repairing street lights, manufacturing brake shoes, pumping gas and managing a fast-food restaurant.
Will Caron said he last saw his friend in mid-June, when a group gathered for a massive weekend-long board game of Risk. As his wife Jodi broke down in tears over the loss of their friend, and his three-year-old daughter talked about how her father had been crying too, Mr. Caron just shook his head in disbelief. Why didn’t anyone fight back? he asked. Surely the three dozen passengers could have overpowered a lone man with a knife.
“Only in movies would you think something like this would happen. Not in real life. Not on a bus,” he said.
Derek Caron said he and Mr. McLean were planning to move to B.C. together in the fall. Mr. McLean loved the outdoors, he said, and they were going to set out with a tent and find whatever work they could.
The gruesome details of their friend’s killing, the beheading and dismemberment, are rarely mentioned, referred to only in whispers, but their presence lingers in every conversation.
“I’m hoping it was quick,” Ms. Storey said. “I hope he didn’t suffer through it.”
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080801.wbus-victim01/BNStory/National/home?cid=al_gam_mostview
Police tape leaked, beheading victim mourned
Edmonton man charged with second-degree murder utters not a word when he appears in court
Aug 01, 2008 11:49 PM
Steve Lambert
THE CANADIAN PRESS
WINNIPEG–A man accused of beheading a fellow passenger on a Greyhound bus uttered not a word in court today and the victim’s friends were still at a loss as to how anyone could have attacked someone they say never hurt a soul.
“There was nothing in the world that could set him off or (make) him do anything wrong to anybody,” said William Caron, who knew Tim McLean, 22, since Grade 7.
“As far as I’ve known him, he’d never got into a single fight in his whole life.”
There were no answers from a courtroom in Portage la Prairie, Man., where Vince Weiguang Li, 40, of Edmonton, made his first court appearance on a charge of second-degree murder.
Li – his face bruised, one hand bandaged and his legs shackled – quietly shuffled into the room with his head bowed. He did not make eye contact with anyone the entire time he was before the judge.
He would not even reply when the judge asked him if he was going to get a lawyer and only nodded slightly when asked whether he was exercising his right not to speak.
The accused, wearing a grey T-shirt and prisoner’s vest, appeared to be about five-foot-eight or nine with a stocky build.
Passengers had described McLean’s attacker as a big man who weighed at least 200 pounds.
The Crown asked for a psychiatric assessment, but the judge said he wanted to give Li a chance to talk to a lawyer about that.
“It’s early and I think the judge just wants to respect his rights to … speak to counsel and he’s giving him that opportunity,” Crown prosecutor Larry Hodgson said outside court. “I don’t think it will be very long that they’ll allow him to do that (be without a lawyer).”
Li was charged after McLean died in a gruesome attack on a Greyhound bus that was travelling from Edmonton to Winnipeg.
Police did not release details about his death. But passengers said the young man died in an appalling attack in which his seat-mate silently stood up and repeatedly stabbed him before severing his head and carving up his body.
Friends say they simply cannot understand why anyone would attack the thin young man, just five-feet, five inches tall, and by all accounts easy-going.
“He was just such an amazing guy. He had a great personality,” McLean’s longtime friend and Caron’s wife, Jodi Lang, said on the lawn of their Winnipeg home.
McLean had been working at carnival booths and was coming home from Edmonton to be with his family. He led a mostly quiet life, preferring to spend time playing cards and the board game Risk, Caron said.
His friend liked to travel, which was the reason he spent three summers working the carnival circuit, Caron added.
“He never cared for sitting around, unless it was for a weekend with the guys playing Risk. He was always big on travelling. He didn’t like to sit in one place.”
McLean and Caron got their first tattoos together. Caron opted for a ghost riding a motorcycle. McLean chose a joker – a theme he would use for his Myspace web page under the name Jokawild, where he described his interests as “playin vids, chillin’, havin a good time.”
Hodgson couldn’t offer many details about Li.
“I know he was from Edmonton. I don’t know why he was on the bus. That’s still under investigation.”
The RCMP said Li has no known criminal record.
Hodgson said if Li doesn’t get his own lawyer, the court could appoint one or the case could proceed anyway.
Li’s next court appearance is scheduled for Tuesday in Portage la Prairie.
Meanwhile, tributes to the victim were pouring into social networking and media websites. A Facebook website called “R.I.P. Tim” quickly sprang up after news of the attack.
“I can’t believe this is happening,” wrote Leah Dryburgh of Winnipeg. “Tim, you were the best guy ever. You didn’t deserve this at all.”
http://www.thestar.com/News/Canada/article/471031
Family remember Tim McLean as charming free spirit
JOE FRIESEN
Globe and Mail Update
August 2, 2008 at 6:28 PM EDT
WINNIPEG — The family of Tim McLean, slain on a Greyhound bus Wednesday night, spoke publicly for the first time Saturday, describing their lost loved one as a stubborn yet kind soul.
Alex McLean, Tim’s uncle, read a statement on the family’s behalf.
He said Tim made friends effortlessly and charmed all with whom he came in contact.
He was a free spirit who loved to travel and who was making his way home to Winnipeg after working at a carnival in Edmonton.
Tearful family members stood behind Mr. McLean holding photos of Tim and grieving together. Many were in tears as he spoke.
“He was a little guy with a heart bigger than you could know,” Mr. McLean said.
“Tim spent his life travelling and meeting new people and always saw the good in everyone. He had the most infectious giggle and you could hear him laughing a mile away. It didn’t matter what kind of day you were having because when you heard his laugh, you couldn’t help but join in.”
Tim’s parents stayed away from the news conference, which was held in Mr. McLean’s backyard. He thanked friends of the family and the greater public for their love and support.
“The outpouring of well-wishes from complete strangers has been overwhelming,” he said. “We are suffering our loss. This is obviously a most difficult time for us all.”
The killing aboard the Greyhound bus has been among the top stories around the world in the last few days. It was a shocking, apparently unprovoked attack that claimed the life of a 22-year-old who friends said had never been in a fight in his life.
Witnesses said Mr. McLean was asleep, listening to headphones when he was attacked without warning. A man pulled out a long knife and began stabbing him repeatedly in the chest and neck. After other passengers fled the bus, the man beheaded his victim and displayed the head to the horrified onlookers standing outside. He then cut apart and ate parts of the body.
A 40-year-old man from Edmonton, Vincent Li, is charged with second-degree murder. Mr. Li worked as a newspaper deliveryman in Edmonton but failed to show up for work earlier this week. He is being held in custody until his next court appearance on Tuesday.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080802.wmclean0802/BNStory/National/home?cid=al_gam_mostview
B.C. friends remember slain bus passenger as ‘always smiling’
Last Updated: Saturday, August 2, 2008 | 12:11 AM ET
CBC News
A young man brutally killed aboard a Greyhound bus travelling through Manitoba overnight Thursday had spent two summers working in Vancouver and was talking about plans to move to B.C., friends said.
Police have not confirmed the identity of the man stabbed to death, and then beheaded according to witnesses, but court documents name him as Timothy McLean, 22, of Winnipeg. Friends have also confirmed McLean was the victim.
RCMP have said only that a stabbing took place around 8:30 p.m. CT on an eastbound Greyhound bus on the Trans-Canada Highway about 20 kilometres west of Portage la Prairie.
‘To take away that life, you’re taking away a little bit of everybody’s life.’
— Teisha Ryley, friend of Tim McLean in VancouverMcLean’s friends in Vancouver told CBC News on Friday that he planned to arrive in the city in mid-August to work again this year at the annual Pacific National Exhibition.
“I worked with him in 2006 at the PNE and last summer at the PNE,” Teisha Ryley said.
The PNE is one of the biggest summer events in B.C. and employs the largest number of youth in the province. The fair runs this year from Aug. 16 to Sept. 1.
Ryley said the horror of what happened still hasn’t sunk in.
Trisa, left, and Teisha Ryley say Tim McLean was always smiling and would get the attention of all the girls. (CBC)
“I didn’t know who it was. I was disgusted to hear that and then this morning to know that it was somebody that I worked with and it was somebody that I was close with, I was really sick to my stomach,” she said.
She said McLean manned the darts and the rollerball game at the PNE last year.
“He was always smiling. He loved little kids and he would always get the attention from, of course, all the girls,” Ryley said.
Another friend McLean met first in Edmonton and then in Vancouver said because McLean was short every one called him “little Timmy.”
On McLean’s MySpace page, under the name JoKAwiLd, he describes himself as five-foot-five, weighing about 125 pounds.
“He wanted to move out here. He kept telling us, ‘Only three more weeks until I get to see you guys,'” said Trisa, who declined to give her last name.
Trisa said she worked with McLean at the Calgary Stampede in July of last year and then at the PNE in Vancouver later in the summer.
“If I was in a bad mood and didn’t get much sleep because we worked long hours, he would just walk up and brighten the mood every day,” Trisa said.
The pair said that when the PNE starts this year his friends will be holding a memorial.
“To take away that life you’re taking away a little bit of everybody’s life,” Ryley said of McLean.
RCMP announced Friday morning that they had charged Vince Weiguang Li, 40, with second-degree murder. Police said he has no previous criminal record.
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/british-columbia/story/2008/08/01/bc-tim-mclean-friends.html
