Many of us have taken a trip on a Greyhound or other long distance bus to travel in. And normally, at least in my experience, you might find the odd person here and there, but mostly you find some interesting and cool characters to ride with.

However, this isn't that kind of story.

Cannibalism is something that has always fascinated me. The psychology that goes into the consumption of another human being, outside of drastic measures for survival (ex: The Donner Party), is rather interesting.

So, imagine that you were traveling, minding your own business and someone sits down in the seat next to you. Something that most people (outside the introvert crowd) wouldn't think twice about it. After all, when you board a bus, it isn't outside the realm of possibility that someone will end up sitting next to you.

Sometimes you get lucky and the person is awesome.

Sometimes you're not so lucky and the person that sits next to you is a murderous cannibal.

This is the situation that Tim McClean unknowingly found himself in. He had no idea that when he boarded that bus that he wouldn't be stepping off of it again alive.

The day was July 30th, 2008. Tim McClean, a young man in his early twenties, was a carny that was working the carnival circuit. As the bus was making its way down the freeway, Tim was attempting to catch up on some sleep as they traveled from Edmonton, Canada and Winnipeg, Canada, after having worked at a fair in Alberta, Canada.

He was seated at the back of the bus, away from a good majority of the noise of the other bus travelers. But given that the toilet was only a single row ahead of him, he was unable to sleep due to the traffic coming in and out of it; though his headphones helped block out a good majority of the noise.

The bus stopped, as buses tend to do, at a stop in Erickson. It was at this stop when Tim McClean found the peace he was trying to attain, go to hell in a hand basket.

A man entered the bus and sat next to McClean.

Now...as someone who, at one point, rode the bus...one of the most irritating things was when someone would sit next to me when the whole damn bus was empty or close to empty. As a very introverted person, I hated that. But I digress...

The man that sat next to Tim was a tall, 40-something, Chinese-Canadian man named Vincent Li. Now, originally, when he got on the bus, Li had taken a seat in the front of the bus, but then moved to the back next to Tim.

When he sat down, Tim glanced at him momentarily, before readjusting his headphones and leaning his head against the window.

Now, Vincent Li was born in China but moved to Canada sometime in the 1960's and became a citizen. He was educated in computer science, completing the degree while still in China, however could only find grunt work for employment in Canada.

His coworkers all said that he seemed happy and ardent about his job at the Grant Memorial Church. While there was a language barrier, everyone at his work seemed to enjoy having Li around.

Throughout his time working in Canada, he worked as a forklift driver, a greeter for Walmart, as well as delivering newspapers. He was married to a supportive woman by the name of Ann.

In June of 2008 he was fire from his job at Walmart over an alleged "disagreement" with one or more of his coworkers. And a short time later, took some leave from his delivery job. He had told them that he was going to Winnipeg for a job interview. On the 29th of June, he boarded the Greyhound.

Before he boarded the bus, he had spent the night on a bench outside of a grocery store. Witnesses stated that he had three pieces of luggage with him. And while he did spend the night there on that bench, he did not sleep.

Sat sat there, almost sitting at attention, eyes wide open. I surmise he could have been sleeping with his eyes open, but this is just conjecture on my part. Witnesses reported that he seemed dissociated, unaware of anyone else that walked by.

One person, a 15-year-old boy, spoke to him. The boy, Darren Beatty, bought a new laptop from Li for $60. It was the next day the everyone's lives would change that was riding on that bus.

So while Tim McClean was trying to catch what zzz's he could through the ride, Li sat next to him, seemingly once again in a dissociated state. Then, Li reached into his pocket and extracted a long knife.

Without warning, Li stabbed Tim McClean in the neck. Pulling the knife from his neck, Li jammed the blade into the young man's chest. As you can imagine, blood spurted out across the inside of the bus.

This is where the chaos really breaks. Other passengers began screaming and jumping up in an attempt to get as far away from the scene as possible. The driver pulled over to the side of the road and shut the engine. Passengers rushed out of the bus in a panic, pouring out onto the road like spilled milk. As everyone was rushing, one woman sat still, paralyzed in fear, unable to move.

Her husband noticed and grabbed her from the seat, pushing her off the bus. And I got to say...good on him for stopping and going back to get her. He could have just left...some people would have.

As the passengers stood at the side of the road, scared and probably in some kind of shock, Li kept up his Michael Myers impersonation and continued stabbing at McClean.

The driver and a couple of other passengers decided that they would do...something. When they reached the doors, the three of them saw Li charging toward them. They were able to get the doors shut as Li slashed at the men with his knife.

Unable to do anything to save Tim McClean, they ran. Assuming he was even still alive at this point.

While passengers watched, Li then began to essentially saw through Tim's neck. When he had completely decapitated McClean, Li then held up the head toward the window, showing the terrified passengers that still stood outside on the side of the road.

It was at this point...and I'm not sure why no one thought to call the police sooner...someone called the police. It took the police at least an hour to show up at the scene.

Now...being that I've never been to Canada, and I don't know how far the nearest PD was located in comparison to where they were pulled over, but it seems like that's a long response time for what was happening. And the police really just...weren't prepared for what was going on.

Now admittedly, being an American, I can only compare the response time (and actions, or lack thereof, for that matter) to American PD's.

So while they waited on the police to finally make an appearance, they watched on in horror as they saw the sun glinting off the blad before it plunged back down into Tim McClean's body. He began to cut pieces of his body, lifting the bloodied flesh for all to see, before eating it.

By the time the cops actually arrived, the passengers were trying to keep Li on the bus. Arms with crowbars and any other weaponry that they could find, stood guard at the doors as Vincent Li slashed at them through whatever opening he could locate. Everyone stood away, huddled together at the roadside.

At one point, Li tried to steal the bus, however, the driver had the forethought to hit the emergency immobilizer, so he could not move or leave the bus. In those moments when he wasn't trying to escape the bus, he would return to McClean's body, cutting chunks off and eating it.

He still carried around Tim's head, showing it many times to the passengers who were just as stuck as Li himself.

As darkness fell, ambulances and the police arrived. They put the bus under siege and called in a tactical unit.

The police/tactical unit tried to find a way onto the bus, as Li continued to slice and eat parts of McClean's body.

At one point he shouted, "I have to stay on this bus forever!"

As the passengers were moved to safety, the siege continued. It went on for hours.

Now...it's this that makes me really compare the American and Canadian PD's. If any of this would have happened here, a sharp shooter would have likely taken him out within moments of the initial call.

Being ignorant on Canada's laws, police departments or anything of the sort, can't really understand why it took so long for this issue to be resolved. (If anyone reading can inform me, that'd be great.)

The police tried to find a way in...and at 01:30 early the next morning, Li surrendered. He tried breaking a window of the bus, but the cops finally decided to enter the bus through the damn doors. They were only arms with tasers.

Now, if you're not familiar with buses, there's the front door...emergency windows, (sometimes) and emergency back door, and usually two emergency exits on the top of the bus.

As they shot the tasers into Li, he went down as thousands of volts ran through his body, at which point, the police pounced, handcuffed him, and dragged him off the bus.

Blood soaked every seat, the floor, ceiling, and windows.

There were parts of McClean's body that Li did not eat, but put in his pockets as macabre souvenirs. The body parts the police collected were Tim's ears, nose, and tongue. His eyeballs and a part of his heart, among other parts of the body, had been consumed.

The media, in typical media fashion, latched onto this crime. Not that I can really blame them, considering...

The trial would be held nearly one year later. No one really knew, and it took quite a bit of time to ascertain why such a reportedly mild-mannered person would go to such extremes. An answer could never be found.

The trial concluded and the jury came back with a verdict of 'not criminally responsible'...basically the insanity defense. And while the insanity defense isn't something that a jury will usually swallow, but with something like this, insanity would be the best defense.

Li was sent to a mental health facility for rehabilitation.

In February of 2017, Vincent Li was granted release. He remains a free man.