CBC News

Police were providing few details Thursday night after a young man was stabbed and, according to witnesses, beheaded aboard a Greyhound bus in Manitoba the night before.

Police have not confirmed the identity of the victim pending notification of his family, saying only that he was stabbed while riding on a bus that was en route to Winnipeg from Edmonton.

The victim has been identified by friends, however, as 22-year-old Tim McLean Jr. of Winnipeg.

In an e-mail, friend Jossie Kehler says McLean was loved by everyone, had a bubbly personality and was a ladies man.

"He has a lot of friends and they are all very upset he's gone and they would like to say they miss him and he will always be in their hearts," she wrote.

A Facebook group posted early Friday entitled R.I.P. Tim McLean lamented the young man's death.

"R.I.P Tim McLean, You are loved and you will be missed dearly!" the site description read.

McLean's father, Tim McLean Sr., told CBC News on Thursday night that he was in the process of trying to get confirmation from the police that his son was, in fact, the victim of attack.

"It's a phone call no parent ever wants to make, but it's one Tim McLean Sr. had to make last night," CBC's Karen Pauls reported early Friday.

"He got home from work to news of a horrific murder on a Greyhound bus and the possibility that his son was the victim. He had to call RCMP for confirmation."

The father said that his son had sent him a text message as the bus was leaving Brandon, the last leg of its journey, to ask if he could come home for the night. Tim McLean Jr. was returning to Winnipeg from Edmonton, where he had been working at an exhibition.

The father told his son that, of course, he could come home, and that was the last contact he had with him.

Quoting unidentified friends, other media outlets also identified the victim as Tim McLean early Friday.

The RCMP would not confirm the reports of beheading, saying only that a stabbing took place around 8:30 p.m. CT on an eastbound Greyhound bus on the Trans-Canada Highway about 20 kilometres west of Portage la Prairie.

A 40-year-old man, believed to be from outside Manitoba, was arrested early Thursday morning after a standoff lasting several hours. He remains in RCMP custody.

Charges have not been laid and the suspect has not yet been interviewed, RCMP spokesman Staff Sgt. Steve Colwell said Thursday afternoon, adding that he could release no further information on the investigation.

Witnesses said the victim got on the bus in Edmonton. His attacker came aboard in Brandon, Man., and sat away from the victim toward the front of the bus, they said. After a short cigarette break, however, the attacker moved his belongings and chose a seat beside the young man.

Garnet Caton, who was sitting in the seat in front of the victim, said he was a young man who was sleeping with his headphones on when he was attacked.

Caton said he heard a "blood-curdling scream" and turned around to see the attacker holding a large "Rambo" hunting knife above the victim, "continually stabbing him in the chest area."

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