Luka Rocco Magnotta: LA police probe possible link to severed head, hands in Hollywood

Police in Los Angeles are investigating whether body parts found in Hollywood earlier this year could be connected to Luka Rocco Magnotta, the Canadian man accused of murdering and dismembering a Chinese student.

LA investigators are working with Canadian police to establish whether Magnotta, 29, was in California at the time of the earlier murder, Reuters reported.

More from GlobalPost: Severed head, hands found near Hollywood sign

The severed head, hands and feet of 66-year-old Hervey Medellin were found near the Hollywood sign in January. The rest of his body was never recovered, and no one has yet been charged with his death.

"The body parts are the common denominator here," LAPD Officer Lyle Knight told the Vancouver Star. "That's why our investigators want to talk to the Canadians. We want to know if his whereabouts included Hollywood because we understand he was in the acting field and Hollywood being the acting and movie mecca, we want to know."

The question of Magnotta's whereabouts is complicated by the fact that the self-styled model and porn actor went by several identities. 

In posts on one of the many Facebook accounts attributed to him, identified by the New York Observer, Magnotta claims he is "doing massages" in LA. The posts are dated less than one month after Medellin's body was found.

Meanwhile Britain's Sun tabloid claimed to have spoken to a Hollywood pimp who said Magnotta was working as an escort in LA at the time Medellin was killed.

More from GlobalPost: Police confirm Vancouver body parts linked to Magnotta

However, LA Police Commander Andrew Smith played down the chance of a connection between the murders, telling Reuters: "The bottom line is that we don't think these two cases are related but we're looking into it."

Magnotta is currently in prison in Germany, where he is awaiting extradition back to Canada to face murder charges. He is suspected of killing Chinese national Jun Lin with an ice pick, then dismembering and sexually abusing his body. 

Lin's hands and feet were later mailed to political parties and schools in Ottawa and Vancouver.