MONTREAL - The jury in Luka Rocco Magnotta's first-degree murder trial has been told that police were not able to establish how, when or why the accused first met his future victim, Jun Lin.
One of the homicide detectives involved in the case says despite exhaustive searches of phone records and online activity, police were never able to determine when they first crossed paths.
The trial has resumed in Montreal this morning, with more surveillance video from Magnotta's apartment building that shows him leaving for the last time on May 26, 2012, and getting into a taxi.
That video was captured two days after Lin was seen walking into the building with Magnotta.
Lin was never seen alive again, and Magnotta is seen discarding trash over two days before leaving the apartment building for good.
The 32-year-old Magnotta has pleaded not guilty to five charges. He insists he is not criminally responsible in the Chinese student's death because of mental disorder.
Lin, 33, was seen on surveillance video wearing a yellow T-shirt, shorts and a baseball cap as he walked nonchalantly into the apartment building with Magnotta at 10:16 p.m. on May 24, 2012.
Just a few hours later, Magnotta was caught on the same cameras, wearing Lin's T-shirt and methodically putting trash in the basement of the building as well as carrying it outside over the next day.
Lin's torso was found on May 29, 2012, stuffed into a suitcase behind the Magnotta's apartment building.
A baseball cap similar to Lin's was found among Magnotta's personal effects when he was arrested in Berlin in early June of that year.
Also on Monday, the jury watched video of another individual who went to Magnotta's apartment a week before Lin's slaying.
That person, who has not been identified by investigators, appears in the first 53 seconds of the so-called murder video the jury has not yet seen.
While Magnotta admits to causing the acts he's accused of in Lin's death, his lawyer has said his client suffers from schizophrenia and was diagnosed with borderline personality disorder shortly before the slaying.
The Crown contends the killing was planned and deliberate and says it will prove that.
The charges against Magnotta are first-degree murder; criminally harassing Prime Minister Stephen Harper and other members of Parliament; mailing obscene and indecent material; committing an indignity to a body; and publishing obscene material.
Note to readers: This is a corrected story. A previous version stated evidence was presented Friday, but the court did not hear evidence that day.
