TRUE CRIME REPORT

The Greyhound Bus Beheading

Warning ⚠️ this case is very hard to read, even for myself. Proceed at your own risk.

The murder of Tim McLean, also known as the Greyhound Bus Beheading, occurred on July 30, 2008 in Portage la Prairie, Manitoba, Canada.

Tim McLean was born in British Columbia, Canada on October 30, 1985. He grew up around the Winnipeg and Elie areas of Manitoba. Many family and friends described Tim as kind, sociable, and outgoing. At the time of his death, Tim was working as a carnival barker, a person who’s job is to attract customers to entertainment events, like the carnival or circus. Tim was only 22 years old at the time of his murder.

On July 30, 2008, Tim was headed back to his hometown of Winnipeg from Edmonton after working at a fair in Alberta. The bus departed at around 12:00 p.m. At about 6:55 p.m. the bus departed from a stop in Erickson, Manitoba, where another passenger, Vince Li, got on.

Vince Li was born on April 30, 1968 in Dandong, China, and immigrated to Canada on June 11, 2001 and became an official Canadian citizen in 2006. Eyewitnesses at the incident described Vince as, “ a tall man in his 40s, with a shaved head and sunglasses.” Vince Li had a history of mental health issues and had been hospitalized between 2003 and 2004 for an incident involving the Ontario Provincial Police. He was also married, but there is not much information about his relationship. It is said that a lot of his frustrations stemmed from his difficulty communicating and understand others. It was found that he apparently suffered from schizophrenia.

When Vince got on the bus, he originally sat at the front of the bus, but after a scheduled rest stop, he moved to the back of the bus and sat in the aisle seat right next to Tim McLean, who was sitting next to a window. Tim didn’t acknowledge Vince much when he sat next to him and continued to listen to music on his headphones and eventually fell asleep.

Visual of the seats Tim McLean and Vince Li sat in

WARNING ⚠️ this gets VERY graphic

While Tim slept, Vince suddenly pulled out a huge knife and began stabbing Tim in the neck and back! A man sitting in the seats right in front of Tim and Vince alerted the bus driver and commanded everyone to get off the bus. The bus driver pulled over and all the passengers frantically ran out while Vince just proceeded to stab Tim. Tim obviously woke up and began screaming for help. The driver, passenger, and a trucker who had stopped to help attempted to save Tim, but Vince chased them away by trying to slash them too. The passenger said they went back one more time to try to save Tim, and that’s when they seen Vince cutting his head off and he knew there was unfortunately nothing they could do to save Tim. As the others ran to safety, Vince proceeded to decapitate Tim. The bus driver locked Vince inside of the bus, and he, the passenger, and the trucker all stayed by the bus door with weapons just in case Vince attempt to escape.

After he completely severed off Tim’s head, Vince walked towards the front of the bus with Tim’s head in his hand, looked them dead in the eyes, and dropped it on the ground. The passenger recalls this, saying that Vince seemed absolutely calm while everyone else freaked out. He then went back to Tim’s body and began cutting off pieces of his flesh and eating it. There were people crying and vomiting because of what they had just witnessed.

Vince then made several attempts to escape. First he attempted to start the bus to get away, but the bus driver engaged the emergency immobiliser system, preventing the bus from starting. The RCMP arrived at about 8:30 p.m. after receiving a report of the stabbing. The police engaged in a standoff with Vince at around 9:00 p.m. Heavily armed tactical units and special negotiators were called to the scene to help capture Vince. During this, Vince continued eating parts of Tim’s body and one officer recalled hearing him say, “I have to stay on the bus forever.”

Finally, at 1:30 a.m. on July 31, 2008, Vince attempted to make an escape by breaking through a window. Officers shot him with a taser and handcuffed him, placing him in the police car. Officers found parts of Tim’s body in plastic bags, while his ear, nose, and tongue were found in Vince’s pockets. Tim’s eyes and heart were never recovered, assumed to have been eaten by Vince.

At about 10:00 a.m. Greyhound representatives took the remaining passengers to get replacement clothing for what was left on the bus. They finally arrived in Winnipeg at around 3:30 p.m. that day, reuniting with family and friends after the traumatic event.

Vince Li’s trial began on March 3, 2009. Vince pleaded not criminally responsible due to mental illness. Vince’s psychiatrist said that he committed the murder because “God’s voice told him McLean was a force of evil and was about to execute him.” The judge accepted this statement and ruled that Vince was not criminally responsible for the murder! Vince was then sent to stay at Selkirk Mental Health Centre.

Following the brutal murder, many citizens started petitions demanding increased security on intercity buses. Greyhound also chose to remove multiple advertisements, which included the slogan, “There’s a reason you’ve never heard of bus rage.” Ironic. The organization PETA attempted to run an ad that compared Tim’s murder to the consumption of animals, which was obviously refused to be published. In February of 2011, two passengers sued Vince Li, Greyhound, the RCMP, and the Government of Canada for being exposed to the murder, but later dropped their lawsuits. Another passenger actually lost custody of her young daughter because she became so unstable after witnessing the horrible incident. One of the first officers at the scene, Corporal Ken Baker of the RCMP, committed suicide in July 2014, his family reporting that he suffered from PTSD after the incident.

The family of Tim McLean filed a lawsuit $150,000 against Greyhound, the Attorney General of Canada, and Vince Li.

Vince began getting psychiatric help, and on June 3, 2010, Vince was given supervised outdoor walks within the mental health facility he stayed at. These privileges have grown over the years. On May 30, 2011, CBC stated that Vince was getting better from the treatment and the doctor recommended he receive more privileges. On May 17, 2012, it was reported that Vince had been granted temporary passes that would allow him to visit the town of Selkirk, supervised by a nurse and peace officer.

These privileges grew more and more, and finally, the Manitoba Criminal Code Review Board ordered for Vince to be released. Vince Li now lives freely under a new name with no legal obligations or restrictions as of February 10, 2017.

This case honestly bothers me so much. The fact that a person can be attacked, decapitated, and partially eaten in front of so many witnesses and the killer be able to walk freely is absolutely ridiculous. Obviously Vince Li suffered from issues, but he should not be free whether he supposedly got better or not. A lot of people commit horrible crimes but are able to get off freely because they claim “mental instability”, but if that’s the case, they should be sent to get help, and not for just a few years, especially for something as horrific as beheading and cannibalizing someone. Murdering someone is not a mistake that can just be easily pushed aside. Tim McClean’s mother Carol de Delley stated that Vince Li’s discharge is a “great injustice.”In my honest opinion, Vince should have never been released. Tim McLean deserved better than what the justice system did for him. It saddens me how this case ended.

Resources-

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killing_of_Tim_McLean

The Murders of Amina and Sarah Said

What is a father? Most people would describe a father as a parental figure that is seen as the protector, leader, and strength of a family. However this was not the case with Amina and Sarah Said’s father.

Warning ⚠️ this talks a lot about abuse, so if this is a sensitive topic to you, perhaps skip this one.

Amina and Sarah Said were two sisters from Texas and the daughters of Yaser Abel Said, an Egypt-born American, and Patricia Owens. Yaser came to America in 1983 on a student visa and later became a permanent citizen in 1997. Yaser married Patricia in February of 1987 when she was only 15 and he was 30. Amina was then born in 1989 and Sarah was born in 1990. Yaser and Patricia also had a son named Islam Said born in 1988, and Yaser had another daughter with a separate woman in 1987. Yaser later became a taxi driver in Texas.

(from left to right) photographed is Yaser, Islam, Sarah, and Amina Said

Patricia, Amina, and Sarah all suffered some type of abuse at the hands of Yaser. Both Amina and Sarah reported to family and friends of the abuse they had to endure, which included sexual, verbal, and physical abuse. There were several instances where Amina came to school with bruises and even a busted lip and she openly admitted that her father had abused her but her mother refused to allow her to get medical help. She also reported to authorities that Yaser had “penetrated” her at least once.

Yaser would also spy on his daughters. He would secretly record and video tape them without their knowledge. Sarah eventually got a job, and her father would actually spy on her and record her while she was at work and proceed to punish her for being too friendly with customers. Amina stated that she was afraid to even use a public telephone because Yaser would know because “he gets everywhere, he knows everything”.

Screenshots from a video Yaser took of the girls. In the video, the girls were trying to nap. Both tried covering themselves with blankets and pillows as their father uncomfortably watched and recorded them. Amina even speaks up, telling her father to stop and that she would delete the recording.

Yaser once even tried to set Amina up in an arranged marriage by taking her to Egypt when she was 16, but she refused. Amina eventually began a relationship with a boy named Joseph Moreno. She would often see Joseph while Yaser was out of the country, but she still had a fear that Yaser would still find out some way. One day Yaser found a note that Amina had written to Joseph, but Amina tried to cover it up by saying it was something she had written to her imaginary boyfriend. Yaser did not believe this and continued to dig for answers.

The family eventually relocated to Lewisville, Texas, which was about 20 miles away from where they previously lived. This prompted Amina to make plans with Joseph to runaway to Las Vegas and get eloped and start a new life together. Joseph then dropped out of school to save money for these plans. Joseph once stated that Yaser threatened to kill Amina quite often and on some level, she knew this was true. Yaser would beat Amina trying to get information about her relationship out of her, but she always refused and never even gave Yaser’s Joseph’s name.

Amina and Sarah decided to run away with their mother Patricia after Christmas in 2007. Amina’s boyfriend had relatives in Tulsa, Oklahoma, so that is where they fled to. However, sometime later Patricia told her daughters that she wanted to drive to East Texas to visit her mother’s grave on December 31st, which was her mother’s supposed death date. Sarah went with hesitation, but Amina caught suspicion and flat out refused to go. Patricia and Sarah left, but Patricia eventually came back and started an argument with Amina trying to get her to leave. Patricia had insisted that her father had forgiven them and that it was okay for them to come back home. Amina reluctantly trusted this, which turned out to be a fatal choice for both sisters.

On January 1, 2008, Yaser took both his daughters to his taxi cab, telling them that he was taking them to eat somewhere. Patricia wanted to come along, but Yaser insisted that he wanted to take the girls by himself. He then drove the girls to Irving, where things took a turn.

Yaser shot both his daughters, Amina who was 18 and Sarah who was 17, to death in his taxi cab. Amina died immediately, but Sarah was able to stay alive long enough to call 911. She screamed to the operator, “Help, my dad shot me! I’m dying, I’m dying!” before she eventually succumbed to her wounds and passed too. The taxi was later discovered by another cab driver outside of the entrance of what is now known as the Omni Las Colinas Hotel.

It is suspected that the girls’ murders were some type of honor killing, which in certain cultures is the killing of a relative that is typically a young girl or woman in retaliation for her dishonoring their family in some way. It is believed that Yaser did this because he felt his daughters were becoming too “Americanized”, however, that is no exception for what he did to them.

Yaser went on the run after the murders of Amina and Sarah. At first, authorities believed he fled to Egypt, but later found that he was still in the United States. He was even reported to be seen driving a taxi in New York City. Patricia also filed for a divorce from Yaser in 2009. Yaser was able to avoid being captured for over 12 years. He became a suspect on the FBI’s top 10 Most Wanted List on December 4, 2014 with a $100,000 reward for anyone with information that could lead to his arrest.

On August 14, 2017, there was finally a break in the case! A maintenance worker at an apartment complex owned by none other than Yaser’s son, Islam, reported seeing a man inside Islam’s apartment matching Yaser’s description. Authorities got a search warrant and began a 24-hour surveillance on the property on Yaser’s neice Dalal Said’s, house in Justin, Texas, which Yaser was also reported to be seen at.

Finally, on August 26, 2020, S.W.A.T. agents captured Yaser Abel Said! Yaser was 63 at the time of his capture. That same day, the FBI also arrested and charged Islam and Yaser’s brother, Yassein, for helping him evade authority. Yaser is now held at the Dallas County North Tower Detention Facility and will be tried for “Unlawful Flight to Avoid Prosecution” and “Capital Murder.”

I’ve been following this case for years. I always had hope that justice would be served for what Amina and Sarah had to endure. Their father was supposed to be the person to protect them, not harm them. The capture of Yaser is one of the good things to come out of 2020.

2022 Updates

Yasar Said was found guilty of capital murders after his trail in August 2022. He is now serving a life imprisonment sentence.

Resources-

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yaser_Abdel_Said

Deborah Gail Stone

Disneyland is known for being the happiest place on Earth! However, it is also known for some horrible accidents that have happened. One of the most known accidents was the death of Deborah Gail Stone.

Deborah Gail Stone, who also went by Debbie, was an 18 year old hostess at the Disneyland theme park in Anaheim, California back in 1974. During her time working there, a new attraction called “America Sings” opened up.

The new attraction known as “America Sings” opened up on June 29, 1974. The structure of the attraction was basically a carousel theater. The building the attraction was in had an outer ring of theaters connected by the walls and as each act of each play would end, the stage would basically rotate to another act in a counter clockwise direction. This occurred every 2 to 4 minutes during the attraction. The different acts of the attraction included a singing cast of animatronics, including a bald Eagle named Sam and an owl named Ollie.

Only 9 days after “America Sings” opened, tragedy struck. Debbie was working as a hostess that day on the attraction. During the times of 10:35 p.m. and 10:40 p.m. the fatal accident occurred.

WARNING ⚠️ graphic detail below

Debbie was accidentally crushed to death between two walls of the building. As the rotating theater walls were coming around, Debbie either accidentally stepped or fell back and got stuck between the moving wall and a stationary wall. An audience member reported hearing Debbie scream and notified a staff member. She was pronounced dead at 11:00 p.m. due to her injuries.

“America Sings” was temporarily closed down after Debbie’s death, but opened only 3 days after the incident. There were safety lights put in the theater and the walls were remodeled to break away just in case any similar incident occurred.

Debbie’s parents filed a lawsuit against Disney for her death, with resulted in a small settlement for them. “America Sings” did stay open for a while longer after Debbie’s death, but closed for good on April 10, 1988 and was replaced by the attraction “Carousel of Progress” and later replaced again by “Innoventions” and finally “Star Wars Launch Party” in November of 2015. This final replacement has a walk through concept now, so hopefully no horrific accidents like what happened to Debbie will occur again.

It is unfortunate that Debbie died in such a horrific way. Hopefully this accident has taught many theme parks to create extra safety precautions to protect both their staff and their customers so these types of accidents don’t happen because it can be avoided.

Resources-

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/America_Sings

https://youtu.be/YDVoSwjjaog

Welcome!

Hello, my name is Kiya and welcome to my blog! This blog will be focused on true crime, which means I will be researching and exploring cases involving solved and unsolved murders, disappearances, unidentified decedents, serial killers, etc. I’ve always been interested in watching videos and reading about topics like this. I also love to write and I’ve always been acknowledged for how great my writing is. I am a first year college student and I am currently majoring in Journalism, so I do want to pursue some type of writing career. I want to incorporate my skill with an interest of mine. Therefore, I have decided to create this blog! If you have this same interest as me, follow along with my blog to see all the content I share. Thank you!

Septic Tank Sam

To kick off this blog, my first post will be covering the unsolved murder of “Septic Tank Sam”, an unidentified homicide victim whose remains were found inside of a septic tank, giving him the nickname.

“Sam’s” body was discovered on April 13, 1977 by a local resident of Tofield, Alberta, Canada. The resident was looking for a septic tank to replace a pump on the one he had, so he chose to use a spare one that was located behind a vacant barn on part of his property. When the resident took the cover off of the spare septic tank, he was shocked to find a human foot sticking out of the water of the tank.

The resident called the RCMP to the scene. While at the scene, the officers used empty ice cream pails to scoop the water out of the septic tank, which took about an hour. After all the scooping, the body was discovered.

The body of Septic Tank Sam was found wrapped in a yellow bed sheet and tied up with a nylon rope. He was last wearing a blue Levi shirt with buttons, a gray t-shirt, blue jeans, and imitation Wallabee shoes.

During the autopsy, the medical examiner found that Sam was a male of Causcasian or Native descent and was estimated to be about 28 years old. His bones and teeth showed that he possibly suffered from some type of illness as a young child. He was also believed to possibly worked as a laborer or some type of transient. Sam’s cause of death was determined to be two gunshot wounds to the head and chest. However, before his death, Sam was tortured so horribly in unimaginable ways.

Warning ⚠️ graphic details below

First, Sam was beaten and tied up. He was burned with both cigarettes and a butane torch. His genitalia was mutilated with farm shears. It was determined that Sam’s body had been in the septic tank for months, quite possibly even a year. After his death, Sam was covered in quicklime, which is a chemical compound of calcium oxide that is known to speed up decomposition of remains, which is what Sam’s killer(s) were more than likely trying to do.

Because of the level of decomposition and the mutilation inflicted on the body, it took months for the medical examiner to even determine Sam’s gender!

Because of the lack of evidence at the location, the RCMP determined that Sam was murdered elsewhere and his remains were just dumped at the septic tank. They also determined that the murder(s) were local of the area where Sam’s body was found in because how else would they know that there was an abandoned barn with an empty septic tank that they could hide a body in?? They had to be familiar with the area. The RCMP also believe that the killer(s) knew the victim because of the brutality of the murder.

Sam’s body was exhumed twice in the years of 1979 and again in 2000. However, these led to no further information regarding Sam’s murder or the person(s) that killed him.

After hearing of the murder, the town of Tofield, which had about 1,200 residents at the time of Sam’s murder, were terrified. Even other farmers began checking their own septic tanks to make sure there weren’t any unknown bodies stored inside. Because this was such a small town, everyone was paranoid that the murder(s) could be anyone around them, even people they were close to. Some people suspected that Sam was possibly murdered for committing a sex crime or being unfaithful in a relationship. However, we don’t even know who Sam is, so we cannot make these assumptions at this moment.

To this day, we do not know who Sam is. Someone out there knows who he really is and the truth will be brought to light. Although the RCMP do not believe that Sam’s murder will ever be solved unless someone with information comes forward, I believe that there is still a chance. Now we have advanced technology and so many cold cases are being solved and families are getting closure. We have to remember that Sam was a human too, not just some murder victim. There’s someone out there that cares about him and they deserve to get closure. Sam also deserves justice for what was done to him and eventually, that day will come.

Resources-