The Greyhound Bus Murder

Vince Li was born in Dandong, China, and became a Canadian citizen in 2006. Even though he armed himself with a degree in Computer Science from Wuhan Institute of Technology, he could not get a permanent job in that field. So, he worked menial jobs ranging from a forklift operator, a janitor, and a cashier in Walmart and in newspaper delivery while his wife worked as a waitress.

Reportedly, he had a language barrier as English was not his first language but his previous bosses did not see any signs of aggression and even praised him as a diligent worker. But, weeks before the incident, he was fired from Walmart for a disagreement with his colleagues.

On July 29th, 2008, Li boarded the Greyhound bus 1170 and sat in the front rows. A few stops later, he switched seats to the back, next to McLean.

22-year-old Canadian Tim McLean was on his way home to Winnipeg after a job in a carnival. He was gonna be a father with his just pregnant girlfriend.

It was unclear why did Li make the switch. It could be specifically for McLean or just for more comfort. McLean barely acknowledged Li before slipping his headphones on to get some sleep. Things were quiet for 30 minutes or so before a chilling scream broke that silence. Garnet Caton, the passenger in front of them, said,

“It was a blood-curdling scream. I turned around and the guy sitting right [behind]me was standing up and stabbing another guy with a big Rambo knife … Right in the throat. Repeatedly.”

It was Vince Li stabbing McLean again and again. Panic erupted as passengers desperately tried to flee. The bus driver quickly pulled up at the side of the road. Caton was torn between saving McLean and saving himself. After all, Caton was unarmed against a very dangerous, armed man. But, moments later, McLean’s screams stopped.

Caton and Chris Alguire, a trucker that just pulled up behind the bus tried to keep Li inside by using a hammer and crowbar, and even their body to block the door.

Li ended up walking back to the motionless body. Through the bus windows, the passengers watched Li saw the victim’s head off. He then grabbed the severed head up and showed it to passengers. All this time Li was calm, almost emotionless, and detached from the horrific act.

It left the passengers in horror, some in tears and some in a puddle of vomit.

But, things did not stop there. Li started eating parts of the victim.

30 minutes later at 9 PM, the police had the bus surrounded but, it was far from an everyday situation so they waited for the tactical team to defuse the situation. All that time, Li either paced back and forth or continued to eat parts of the body.

At 1.30 AM, Li attempted to escape by breaking a window but he was quickly apprehended.

Vince Li was arrested and charged with second-degree murder. However, he was found not criminally responsible after he was diagnosed with schizophrenia.

Since 2004, Vince claimed he had been hearing voices from God. He said he was tasked to save people from aliens. That was what he thought he did, killed an alien on the Greyhound Bus. He was only diagnosed with schizophrenia after the incident and he was sent to Selkirk Mental Health Centre for treatment.

After 9 years, in 2017, Vince Li was absolutely and fully discharged, a decision that was strongly disagreed by McLean’s mother, Carol de Delley as she was worried that he might go off medications and history might repeat itself. She said,

“A killer is a killer, if you take a life, you forfeit your freedom for the rest of your life,” she said. “The only thing that should change with a mentally ill killer is that they should serve their sentence in a place where they can also receive treatment.”

However, Chris Summerville, executive director of the Manitoba Schizophrenia Society supported the ruling. He said,

“He is no longer a violent person. I will say, yes, he absolutely understands that he has to take his medication and has a desire to live a responsible, moral life and never succumb to psychotic episodes and not to hurt anybody ever again.”

It had not been easy for those involved. Some like Alguire, the truck driver, and Ken Barker, an RCMP corporal, suffered severe post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) from witnessing that horrifying incident.

It had been a particularly tough and long journey for McLean’s family, to lose their son to such a horrific murder. They were also financially drained off from lawsuits and lost income from missing out on work to attend hearings. In 2009, they even fought custody for McLean’s son and after 7 years, they were awarded full custody of their grandson.

*Source notes are available here.

Thank you for reading! This story was originally published on Medium by the author, Emmalina.