Family and friends gather to remember dismemberment victim Jun Lin

MONTREAL – Family and friends gather today to bid farewell to Jun Lin, the Chinese university student whose slaying captured world attention after parts of his dismembered body were mailed to two Canadian cities.

The public service will be held at a Montreal-area funeral home.

A public memorial was held last weekend during which Lin’s anguished mother talked lovingly about her son and said he had been taken away by a devil who devastated their family.

Lin’s dismembered torso was found May 29 stuffed in a suitcase dumped outside a Montreal apartment building.

One of his feet was found in a package mailed to the Conservative party in Ottawa and a hand was found in another package in a postal warehouse in the capital on the same day as the Montreal discovery.

His other hand and foot were recovered on June 5 in packages mailed to two Vancouver schools.

Luka Rocco Magnotta, a small-time porn actor, was arrested June 4 in Berlin in connection with the case after an international manhunt.

He was extradited to Montreal on June 18 and charged with Lin’s first-degree murder the next day.

Magnotta has pleaded not guilty and goes to trial next year.