WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT The killer kept his victims’ tongue, ear and nose in his pockets with police believing he ate the 22-year-old’s eyes
A father-to-be suffered a gruesome beheading before he was cannibalised by a man who thought he was protecting humanity from aliens.
Tim McLean, a Canadian carnival worker, was travelling to Winnipeg to see his pregnant girlfriend and was quietly listening to music at the back of the bus when Vincent Weiguang Li boarded. Passengers described the man as agitated, but said he sat down quietly at the front of the bus, according to Ranker.
Then Li made the fateful move to the back of the bus next to Tim, who was asleep against the window. At 8.30pm on July 30, 2008, Li unleashed a bloody chaos on the expectant father, keeping his ear, tongue and nose in his pocket. Police collected the severed remains of Tim’s body from the bus and found the 22-year-old’s ear, tongue and nose in Li’s pocket, according to The Toronto Star. His heart and eyes were never recovered and police suspect Li ate them. Today, Li walks free.
One young veteran and the bus driver tried to intervene – to no avail. The bus driver pulled over and passengers fled. Li kept anyone trying to help Tim away, wielding his knife in the air. The bus was locked to keep Li in. Li unleashed a frenzied attack on McLean, repeatedly stabbing the younger man in the neck and chest with a large knife. The driver pulled the bus over and most passengers fled, but one — a young veteran — tried to intervene with the help of a truck driver who’d spotted the commotion.
Sickeningly, Li then lifted McLean’s severed head to the window for all to see and began to eat parts of his flesh, causing onlookers to vomit. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police arrived at the scene to find Li on the bloodied coach. Over five hours Li attempted to escape by smashing a window, but was shot twice with a Taser and finally arrested. Li claimed to hear the “voice of God” speaking to him to protect people from an alien invasion, according to the BBC.
“The voice told me that I was the third story of the Bible, that I was like the second coming of Jesus [and that] I was to save people from a space alien attack,” Li explained, adding that he was, “really sorry.” Li followed the voice that he said told him to travel across the country and disappeared from his home for days at a time according to his wife. Li began to carry a knife- thinking he was at risk of alien attack. Li said the voice told him to murder Li because he was an alien. In March 2009, Li was found not criminally responsible for the murder on account of mental illness and was committed to the Selkirk Mental Health Centre.
“[Li] still did it,” Tim’s mother, Carol DeDelley, said. “Whether he was in his right frame of mind or not, he still did the act. There was nobody else on that bus, holding a knife, slicing up my child.” Tim’s father said: “Although we’re trying to move forward, it’s still an ongoing challenge. I don’t believe we will ever fully recover.” In 2017, Li was granted an absolute discharge and now lives alone in a community within Manitoba, Canada. He is no longer required to attend yearly reviews or be closely monitored.
Li eventually changed his name to Will Lee Baker. Caroline said Tim’s son, who was born five months after her son’s death is “a gift from God, and I believe Tim sent him to me,” according to CBC.
