A Canadian man who beheaded a father-to-be on a Greyhound bus and ate parts of his body has been granted an absolute discharge and now lives freely in Manitoba. Vincent Weiguang Li, now known as Will Lee Baker, was found not criminally responsible for the murder of Tim McLean in 2008 due to mental illness.
Tim McLean, a 22-year-old carnival worker, was travelling to Winnipeg to see his pregnant girlfriend when Li boarded the bus. Li, who was agitated, sat quietly at the front before moving to the back where McLean was asleep. At 8.30pm on July 30, 2008, Li attacked McLean with a large knife, stabbing him repeatedly in the neck and chest. He then severed McLean's head and displayed it to onlookers through the window, causing some to vomit.
Police recovered McLean's ear, tongue and nose from Li's pocket, but his heart and eyes were never found; police suspect Li ate them. Li claimed he heard the 'voice of God' telling him to protect humanity from an alien invasion. He told 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.'
In March 2009, Li was found not criminally responsible and committed to the Selkirk Mental Health Centre. In 2017, he was granted an absolute discharge and now lives alone in Manitoba, no longer required to attend yearly reviews. Tim McLean's mother, Carol DeDelley, expressed her anguish: '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 son was born five months after his death. Carol described the child as 'a gift from God, and I believe Tim sent him to me.'
