Rocco Luka Magnotta, also known as Eric Clinton Newman and Vladimir Romanov, is shown in this undated handout photo released by Montreal Police
Authorities in California are looking into alleged killer Luka Rocco Magnotta’s potential involvement in another violent murder — hot on the heels of Montreal police connecting the so-called ‘Canadian Psycho’ to two grisly packages containing body parts sent to Vancouver-area schools.
Following Magnotta’s arrest in Berlin Monday, the Los Angeles Police Department contacted Montreal investigators over the 29-year-old’s possible involvement in the January dismemberment of a man in Hollywood. Cops found the decapitated head of Hervey Medellin, 66, in a plastic bag Jan. 17 in hills near the Hollywood sign, and discovered his hands and feet separately the next day — a similar methodology to Magnotta’s alleged killings. Media reports claim the Canadian porn star’s online trail suggests that he may have been in Los Angeles around the time of the murder.
(MORE: Porn Star Mail Murderer Arrested in Germany)
“Our detectives are contacting their counterparts in Canada and to see if [the] suspect was in Hollywood at the time,” LAPD spokesman Lyle Knight told ABC News. “It’s an open investigation. Our detectives are trying to see if there is a connection.”
The New York Observer notes that one of the Facebook accounts purporting to belong to Magnotta discusses being in Los Angeles less than one month after the murder, and even offers a Los Angeles-area phone number.
But the Los Angeles Times writes that anonymous sources familiar with the case have dismissed Magnotta’s connection to the Medellin murder, claiming that the alleged killer has not been in the U.S. for at least two years. This claim, however, was refuted by Montreal police Cmdr. Ian Lafreniere, who told QMI Agency that Magnotta was in Los Angeles at the time of Medellin’s murder.
U.K. tabloid the Sun also reported Thursday that an L.A. pimp claimed Magnotta was “working as a rent boy” in the city during the time of Medellin’s killing.
MORE: Police Connect Magnotta with New Packages of Body Parts.