Canada - Tim McLean, 22, decapitated on bus, Winnipeg, 30 July 2008 *Insanity*

[Texana]

OMG. What a traumatic incident, what a horrifying thing. I feel terrible for the children involved, for anyone who saw that.

I'm going to go with mentally ill as well, but someone who can do something like that should be locked away at the very least forever. The capacity to be so violent--that person can't be let loose in society. I'd say death penalty, but I don't think he'd get that in Canada.

What a nightmare--horror movies are real for those people now.

 

[DesertDreamer]

This is one of those cases that, when I read it, it seriously disturbed me. I feel creeped out, just thinking about it. It's just so....wrong. That poor victim (only 19, going home to his family, it said). I hope he was dead before the decapitation and gutting happened! Also, I feel for all those people that witnessed it, kids and all. It disturbs me just reading about it, I can't even imagine what it's like for them. I hope they are able to get good counseling to help with any PTSD they have, because they're going to have it. That's severely traumatic and gruesome.

I wish we had an idea the killer's motives...it might, for me at least, make more sense of this horrible tragedy.

 

[becklynn]

This is one of those cases that, when I read it, it seriously disturbed me. I feel creeped out, just thinking about it. It's just so....wrong. That poor victim (only 19, going home to his family, it said). I hope he was dead before the decapitation and gutting happened! Also, I feel for all those people that witnessed it, kids and all. It disturbs me just reading about it, I can't even imagine what it's like for them. I hope they are able to get good counseling to help with any PTSD they have, because they're going to have it. That's severely traumatic and gruesome.

I wish we had an idea the killer's motives...it might, for me at least, make more sense of this horrible tragedy.

Omg. He was only19? Just a kid going home. that makes it all worse.

 

[brighidin]

OMG. I'd say death penalty, but I don't think he'd get that in Canada.

No, Canada abolished the death penalty. I'm not sure when, but I want to say the late 60s.

 

[jilly]

No, Canada abolished the death penalty. I'm not sure when, but I want to say the late 60s.

My guess is that this guy won't even see trial. Incompetent. He'll spend the rest of his life in an institution for the criminally insane. jmo
What a horror story. I would bet this guy has a history of some sort too.

 

[DesertDreamer]

Omg. He was only19? Just a kid going home. that makes it all worse.

About that age. 19. 20. Around there.
I read in one article that they think he was going home to his family. Either that or he (victim) said that to someone, who then was quoted in the article. I don't know if it's a fact at this time.

Either way. Very sad.

Edit: I just heard a blurb on the news and it said some passengers were puking, crying, etc.
How traumatizing!

 

[DesertDreamer]

Victim 'just a kid': witness

Passenger Cody Olmstead, 21, told CBC News he had smoked a cigarette earlier in the trip with the victim, whom he described as a man in his late teens or early 20s. The victim got on the bus in Edmonton, he said.
"I never took the time to know him, but he seemed to be OK, right, just a kid," said Olmstead, a Nova Scotia man who had been taking the bus from Alberta to Montreal.
"He just said he was going to Winnipeg … going home, that's where he was from."

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2008/07/31/greyhound-transcanada.html

And!

OMG! I missed this, I don't think it was mentioned in the articles here:

"We have word from people on the scene . . . that when the killer was alone with the body . . . that there may have been some small acts of cannibalism on the body," Oliver said.
Oliver said that police have not confirmed that, but have not denied it either.

http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNe...1/Manitoba_bus_080731/20080731?hub=TopStories

 

[concernedperson]

The more I think about these random acts the less I think we can do as a population. This has to stem from a home environment or else it would be evident to the average person. I wonder if we will find out this person was being secluded by his family because of strangeness and then he broke out on his own? I seriously doubt that he didn't exhibit oddities in his behavior prior to this atrocity.

I wish we had a shrink or profiler on board who could discuss this more fully.

 

[becklynn]

About that age. 19. 20. Around there.
I read in one article that they think he was going home to his family. Either that or he (victim) said that to someone, who then was quoted in the article. I don't know if it's a fact at this time.

Either way. Very sad.

Edit: I just heard a blurb on the news and it said some passengers were puking, crying, etc.
How traumatizing!

Yes I heard that. It is what is so traumatic. The vivid details you just do not expect. And they say he may have been eating some flesh or something.
When I first heard it I was so horrified I could not think. Now I am finally to start to wonder why. I can only think drugs. I have no idea. And they say he was holding the head and taunting police with it, hitting the bus windows with it. I just have no idea why.

 

[browneyes]

I am curious why none of the passengers stepped in to stop the killing...the man was just armed with a knife...right?

This is so sad.

 

[Mohabi]

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2008/07/31/greyhound-transcanada.html

And!

OMG! I missed this, I don't think it was mentioned in the articles here:
"We have word from people on the scene . . . that when the killer was alone with the body . . . that there may have been some small acts of cannibalism on the body," Oliver said.
Oliver said that police have not confirmed that, but have not denied it either.
http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNe...1/Manitoba_bus_080731/20080731?hub=TopStories

Small acts of cannibalism? What are those? Is that like being a little bit pregnant?

Horrible, horrible story

 

[DesertDreamer]

Small acts of cannibalism? What are those? Is that like being a little bit pregnant?
Horrible, horrible story

I was thinking, perhaps licking, ingesting his blood? Or maybe parts of his guts? Or maybe bites or small bits of flesh? Truly, creepy.

I am curious why none of the passengers stepped in to stop the killing...the man was just armed with a knife...right?

I'd say, shock.
From what I read it seemed very much out of the blue.
Also, they might have realized the victim was un-savable and decided it was best to not risk everyone else (kids include) and got the hell out of there. At that time no one knew what was happening or going it-- I'm sure it was a panicked, chaos. The bus driver, a man and someone else blocked the door to keep him in the bus and also they tried to check to see if the victim was alive, and saw he was being decapitated and gutted.

 

[fran]

Friends identify man stabbed, beheaded on Greyhound bus

Police were providing few details Thursday night after a young man was stabbed and, according to witnesses, beheaded aboard a Greyhound bus in Manitoba the night before.

Police have not confirmed the identity of the victim pending notification of his family, saying only that he was stabbed while riding on a bus that was en route to Winnipeg from Edmonton.

The victim has been identified by friends, however, as 22-year-old Tim McLean of Winnipeg.

A Facebook group posted early Friday entitled R.I.P. Tim McLean lamented the young man's death.

"R.I.P Tim McLean, You are loved and you will be missed dearly!" the site description read.

McLean's father, Tim McLean Senior, told CBC News Thursday night that he was in the process of trying to get confirmation from the police that his son was, in fact, the victim of attack.

<<<<<<<<<full article at link>>>>>>>>>>WARNING, VERY GRAPHIC

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2008/08/01/stabbing-victim.html

 

[Meyahna]

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=22639421199

There is a picture of Tim on this page.

 

[Annie]

There is another picture here with comments from some of his friends. He had been texting a friend until about ten minutes before the murder.

http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNe...anitoba_victim_080801/20080801?hub=TopStories

 

[C.Whalen]

Unbelievable......I just can't understand this.
I haven't heard any updates on the murderer yet, but he must be one sick unit. Has to have a history of violent acts.

 

[lizzybeth]

I'm with browneyes, why couldn't someone on that bus stop him from at least beheading this young man? Granted, he may have died from the stabbing anyway...but ***t. Sorry, I'm on the verge of tears here.

What a handsome young man and from what has been written about him he was a good guy too.

BTW, I haven't read any of the witness accounts and didn't read the original link. Just reading the posts here are enough.

 

[C.Whalen]

I agree that someone should have stepped in, and I am surprised that nobody did.
I have recently travelled on Greyhound from my home in London Ontario to Knoxville Tennessee, two bus transfers and lots of time in the terminals waiting for our connection in Detroit and Cincinnati. About every second person was a 6' or taller 220lb. man. I am almost certain that if anyone had gotten out of control on any one of the 3 buses (6 buses if I count the return trip) that I was on, he would have had several people tackling him.

 

[capoly]

Evacuating the bus was the correct first move to make. Anyone who has been in the position of having to restrain a disturbed individual will attest that such individuals can have the strength of ten men, it's not a simple restraint. Add a large sharp knife and the close confines of a bus with 37 other people still onboard and it's a near impossible restraint without adding an additional victim.

Three men did go back in the bus to see if they could do something. That had to take incredible courage and I admire them for that.

God bless Tim and his family.

 

[lizzybeth]

You're probably right capoly but I would think that in a case like this you go with your first instinct. Mine would be to try and help the person. I may end up getting killed myself but I hope I wouldn't just leave the bus and do nothing. No one ever knows what they would do unless they are in that situation. I'm not blaming the other passengers, just wishing that someone had been able to stop him.