True Crime Collection

Tim McLean

Timothy Richard McLean, Jr., was born on 3rd October, 1985, in British Columbia, Canada. He grew up both in Winnipeg and Elie, in Manitoba. He was 22 years old when he was killed on 30th July, 2008. At the time of his death, Tim had been working as a carnival barker. 

The incident took place near Portage La Prairie, Manitoba, during a trip from Edmonton to Tim's hometown of Winnipeg. At 12:01pm on 30th July, 2008, Tim McLean, a carnival barker, was returning home to Manitoba after working at a fair in Alberta. He departed Edmonton on board Greyhound bus 1170 to Winnipeg, via the Yellowhead Highway through Saskatchewan. He sat at the rear, one row ahead of the toilet. At 6:55pm, the bus departed from a stop in Erickson, Manitoba, with a new passenger, Vince Weiguang Li. Vince, described as a tall man in his 40s, with a shaved head and sunglasses, originally sat near the front of the bus, but moved to sit next to Tim following a scheduled rest stop. Tim "barely acknowledged" Vince, then fell asleep against the window pane, headphones covering his ears. 

According to witnesses, Tim was sleeping with his headphones on when the man sitting next to him suddenly produced a large knife and began stabbing Tim in the neck and chest. After the attack began, the bus driver pulled to the side of the road, and he and all the other passengers fled the vehicle. The driver and 2 other men made an attempt to rescue Tim, but were chased away by Vince, who slashed at them from behind the locked bus doors. Vince ultimately decapitated Tim and displayed his severed head to those standing outside the bus, then returned to Tim's body and began severing other parts and consuming some of Tim's flesh.

At 8:30pm, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in Portage La Prairie received a report of a stabbing on a Greyhound bus west of the city. They arrived to find the suspect still on board the bus, being prevented from escaping by another passenger, the bus driver, and a truck driver who had provided a crowbar and a hammer as weapons. The other passengers were huddled at the roadside, some of them crying and vomiting. As the suspect had earlier attempted to escape by driving the bus away, the driver had engaged the emergency immobiliser system, rendering the vehicle inoperable. Witnesses had observed the suspect stabbing and cutting Tim's body, and carrying Tim's severed head. 

By 9:00pm, police were in a standoff with the suspect and had summoned special negotiators and a heavily armed tactical unit. The suspect alternately paced the length of the bus and defiled the corpse. Police officers then observed Vince eating parts of the body. Meanwhile, the stranded passengers were transported from the scene to be interviewed at the Brandon RCMP detachment. RCMP officers reportedly heard Vince say, "I have to stay on the bus forever."

On 31st July, 2008, at 1:30am, the suspect attempted to escape from the bus by breaking through a window. The RCMP arrested Vince soon afterward. He was shot with a taser twice, handcuffed and placed in the back of a police cruiser. Parts of the victim's body, placed in plastic bags, were retrieved from the bus, while his ear, nose and tongue were found in Vince's pockets. The victim's eyes and a part of his heart were never recovered and are presumed to have been eaten by Vince.

At 10:00am, Greyhound representatives took the other passengers to a local store to replace their clothes, which remained on the bus. They arrived in Winnipeg at 3:30pm that day, to be reunited with family members and friends.

Vincent Weiguang Li, commonly known as Vince Li, was born in Dandong, Liaoning, China, on 30th April, 1968. In 1992, Vince graduated from Wuhan Institute of Technology with a Bachelor of Science degree in computers. From 1994-1998, Vince worked in Beijing as a computer software engineer. Vince immigrated to Canada from China on 11th June 2001, and became a Canadian citizen on 7th November, 2006. The psychiatrist Stanley Yaren, who later examined Vince, said Vince was hospitalised in 2003 or 2004 after an incident with the Ontario Provincial Police.