Tim McLean

Tim McLean (September 24, 1985 - July 30, 2008) was murdered while a passenger on a Greyhound bus on the evening of July 30, 2008. The incident took place near Portage la Prairie, Manitoba, during a trip from Edmonton to Winnipeg. According to witnesses, McLean was stabbed fifty to sixty times in the chest and neck before being decapitated by his attacker, also a passenger. The RCMP arrested a 40-year-old suspect, Vince Weiguang Li, soon-after.

Incident

At midnight on July 30, 2008, Tim McLean boarded Greyhound bus 1170, departing Edmonton for Winnipeg, via the Yellowhead Highway through Saskatchewan. He sat at the rear, one row ahead of the washroom. At 6:55pm, the bus departed from a stop in Brandon, Manitoba with a new passenger, Vince Weiguang Li. Li, described as a tall man in his 40s, with a shaved head and sunglasses, originally sat near the front of the bus, but moved to sit next to McLean following a scheduled rest stop. McLean acknowledged Li, then fell asleep against the window pane, headphones covering his ears.

At 8:30pm, the RCMP in Portage la Prairie, Manitoba received a report of a stabbing on a Greyhound bus west of town. They arrived to find the suspect still on board the bus, being prevented from escaping by another passenger, the bus driver, and a truck driver who had provided a crowbar and a hammer as weapons. The other passengers were huddled at the roadside, some of them crying and vomiting. As the suspect had earlier attempted to escape by driving the bus away, the driver had engaged the emergency immobilizer system, rendering the vehicle inoperable. Witnesses had observed the suspect stabbing and cutting McLean's body, and carrying McLean's severed head.

By 9:00pm, police were in a standoff with the suspect and had summoned special negotiators and a heavily-armed tactical unit. The suspect taunted police, pacing the length of the bus, and alternately cutting and defiling the corpse. There have been reports that the attacker consumed flesh from McLean's corpse, although they have not yet been verified by the RCMP. The stranded passengers were transported from the scene to be interviewed at the Brandon RCMP detachment.

On July 31, 2008 at 1:30am, the suspect attempted to escape from the bus by breaking through a window. He was quickly apprehended, handcuffed and placed in the back of a police cruiser. At 10:00am, Greyhound representatives took the other passengers to a local store to replace their clothes, which remained on the bus. They arrived in Winnipeg, Manitoba at 3:30pm that day, to be reunited with family members and friends.

Witness Accounts

Garnet Caton, a 26-year-old seismic driller who sat one the row ahead of McLean, described hearing "a blood-curdling scream," saying, "I turned around and the guy sitting right me was standing up and stabbing another guy with a big Rambo knife ... Right in the throat. Repeatedly."

Caton added: "I got sick after I saw the head thing. Some people were puking, some people were crying, some people were shocked. just looked at us and dropped the head on the ground, totally calm."

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