Murder, Mystery & Makeup - Tim Mclean- The Chilling Greyhound Bus Case - Justice Served?

Episode Date: March 15, 2022

Hi Friends!  Hope you are having a wonderful day today so far. Today I wanted to talk about Tim Mclean and what in the world happened to him on the greyhound bus. The whole story is strange.   I hope the family and passengers get the justice they deserve but most of all are able to heal and move forward. Love and appreciate you guys so much and I hope to be seeing you very soon xo Bailey Sarian 

Hi guys, how are you today? My name is Bailey Sarian and today is Monday, which means it's Murder, Mystery, and Makeup Monday. How are you guys today? I hope you're having a wonderful day so far. My name is Bailey Sarian. Oh, I said this already. My apologies. If you are new here, hi. Every Monday I sit down and I talk about a true crime story that's been heavy on my noggin and I do my makeup at the same time. It's a good time, kind of, yeah. If you're interested in true crime or you like makeup, I would highly suggest that you subscribe. So today I wanted to talk about Tim McClain

and this Greyhound bus situation. It's pretty awful and it's so weird. So I guess I'll just shut up and let's get right into it. So Tim McLean was born October 3rd, 1985. He grew up outside of Winnipeg, Canada in a small town called Eli, Manitoba. And you know, it's just one of those small towns where growing up, you really have to make up your own fun.

That's small towns for you. You build like little mud huts and stuff. Did anyone build mud huts? That's what we did. So Tim's friends would say that he was very outgoing. He loved people. He was not shy at all. Like if he got invited somewhere

and he didn't know anybody in the room, he would be able to go up to anybody and just like make friends with them. I'm so envious of people like that. I aspire to be like that, but you know, I'm completely opposite. I'm like, mm, doesn't matter. Tim loved just meeting new people, seeing new places.

So one summer when Tim was 22 at this time, his longtime friend since like childhood hit him up and was like, hey, what are you doing this summer? And he's like, nothing. Well, I don't know if he said nothing, but he was like, nothing. She told him, hey, okay, well pack your bag for like a week. I don't know how long we're gonna be gone,

but pack your bag for a week and come meet me at this place. I got a job opportunity for you. So the two of them go to this job opportunity and it's actually at a carnival working as carnies. Is that the right term? I believe so. Carnivals travel from city to city,

got to work all the different games and stuff. It wasn't gonna be like a permanent job. It was just like a quick little thing, but then it turned into a long summer job for the whole summers. It seemed like a lot of fun, like you become really close with everybody that you work with at the carnival

and you become like a tight knit family pretty much who travels from city to city so you're constantly seeing new places, new cities, meeting new people constantly. So it was like the perfect job for Tim because he loved traveling and he loved meeting new people constantly. So it was like the perfect job for Tim because he loved traveling and he loved meeting new people. He seemed to like find a passion in it. Like he was very passionate about this job.

And honestly, at 22, like that sounds like a fun ass job. You're traveling with a bunch of people who became now like your friends. You're going from city to city. You're making money. You're seeing cool places that you probably would have never seen before. You're just having a good time, a good good summer so it was the perfect job for him now at this time i think he had a girlfriend i'm not really quite sure it was kind of hard to find a lot of information um on tim's like upbringing and background and stuff he had a girlfriend i think or they were just like hanging out, you know?

So her name was Colleen and he knew her since like first grade. After high school and all that, they went their separate ways. This Colleen lady, she ended up getting married and then she got a divorce and her and Tim started hanging out after she got a divorce and this was in like 2008.

So they kind of like rekindled their their friendship or whatever. So not long after Colleen was pregnant this would be her third child. So she had two from her previous marriage and this would be Tim's. Tim was back working at the carnival and at this time it was at Edmonton and the carnival's next stop was Regina and that's when Tim made a crucial decision. Instead of going to Regina, he'd go home to Winnipeg to make arrangements for his move to British Columbia. He liked it there, so he planned on moving.

Some friends offered to buy him a plane ticket so he didn't have to take the bus because it would be a 24 hour bus ride. But Tim insisted on taking the Greyhound bus. Then just after midnight on July 30th bus 1170 began its journey 24-hour journey back home. Okay so then there is another person in this story and his name is Vince Lee. Now he was born in China. Vince was born April 30th 1968 and then he moved to Canada in June of 2001. He ended up going to college there and he graduated in 2002 with a computer programming degree. He worked in Winnipeg at a church for six months and he got married and he

was trying to support his wife Anna. His old boss at this church would say that Vince seemed like really nice, really happy. He seemed thankful to be having a job because he was having a hard time finding a job and he seemed very committed to what he was doing as well. Now there was a language barrier and his old boss would say that it was frustrating for Vince because you know lack of communication or not being able to communicate with someone is just really frustrating in general. His old boss would say that he could tell Vince was frustrated because he just couldn't seem to communicate clearly with his co-workers and stuff. Learning a new language is effing hard, come on. His old boss would also say that

Vince showed no signs of aggression. He didn't seem like an angry man. So then in 2005, Vince started working as a forklift operator in Winnipeg and his wife worked as a waitress. And then Vince moved to Edmonton in 2006. He worked a lot of just random jobs. He was working at Walmart.

He was working at a fast food restaurant. He worked a lot of just random jobs. He was working at Walmart. He was working at a fast food restaurant. He worked at a newspaper delivery boy. Man, sorry. Vince was getting more and more frustrated over time because he had this degree for computer programming and he was working these random little jobs, nothing in his, you know, what he went to college for so he was just growing more and more frustrated and then later in 2005 vince would be diagnosed with schizophrenia and

this would be left untreated but him and his wife ended up getting a divorce and he left a note for his ex-wife anna saying quote i I'm gone. Don't look for me. I wish you were happy, end quote. There's no report on what his plan was or like where he was gonna go. He just wanted to get out of there. And it seems like this Anna lady wasn't happy. So he was just leaving.

I guess according to Anna, his ex-wife, it was a complete surprise. Like it was super random that he left. He was just gone one day and she found that letter and it was like, oh, well, I guess I'm single now. July 29th, Vince gets on a Greyhound bus and it's bound for Winnipeg. Around 6 p.m., Vince got off of the bus

in Erickson, Manitoba, Manitoba, Manitoba. Is that okay? Mm-hmm. Now Vince got off this bus in Erickson and he had three pieces of luggage with him and he stayed the night on a bench next to a grocery store, but close to the bus stop, you know, because he wanted to hop onto another bus.

According to one witness, they saw Vince like sitting on the bench and it was like 3 a.m. I'm not sure what they were doing at 3 a.m., but whatever. They see Vince sitting like straight up and his eyes are like wide open. And they remembered this because it was weird. I'm sure if any of us saw that, I would be like,

um, fuck that, I'm going over here. So then it's later reported that Vince sold some of his luggage, I guess in order to make money. We're not really clear on that. Anyways, but he sells some of his luggage and in his luggage was like his computer and stuff. And he decided, you know what, fuck it, I'm gonna sell it. So he sells it, makes some money

and he's waiting for the next bus to come. At this bus stop that he was at, there was only one bus that came a day. So he's waiting for the next bus to come. At this bus stop that he was at, there was only one bus that came a day. So he's waiting for that specific bus. Now, finally at 6 55 PM, a bus pulls up to the bus stop. This is the same bus that Tim is on. Remember Tim? We just talked about him.

I really hope you remember. So the bus pulls over, people get off so they can smoke their cigarettes or stretch their legs and they pick up any new passengers. Vince, he hops on this bus. Now Vince was like a tall man, he's in his 40s, he has a shaved head, he's wearing sunglasses, he seemed to just kind of mind his own business, this is according to people on the bus. So when Vince got onto the bus, originally he sat like in the front of the bus. Now Tim was actually in the back of the bus, like the very, very back row.

Not that that's bad or anything, but Tim was in the back. And when you're in the back of the bus, you're kind of like cornered into the back. If I say back one more time. Anyway, so Vince gets on the bus and he's in the very front. So a scheduled rest stop came up and Tim stepped out so he could have a cigarette

and a lot of people got off. So again, they could stretch their legs, they could get snacks at the vending machine or whatever. Now, when Tim got back onto the bus, he goes back to his seat. That's when Vince, he gets up from his seat and he goes to the back of the bus, he goes back to his seat. That's when Vince, he gets up from his seat and he goes to the back of the bus and sits next to the empty seat that's next to Tim.

So Tim's like at a window seat, right? And then Vince is sitting next to him. There's people sitting in front of him and then behind them is like a wall. So again, cornered. Now witnesses say it didn't seem like Vince knew Tim at all, but Tim was friendly. When Vince came and sat next to him,

Tim said, hello, how's it going? Because again, he was a friendly guy. So Tim puts on his headphones, listens to music, and he kind of leans his head on the window so he could just go to bed. On the bus, they've got the little TVs going and they have the return of Zorro playing. Some passengers are sleeping, some are reading.

So suddenly out of nowhere, the passengers just hear like a blood curdling scream, wakes everybody up. And it was coming from the back the neck and in the chest. Just going to town on this poor kid. Now again, witnesses would say that Tim was just a little bit more aggressive than the other witnesses. But Tim was still a little bit more aggressive.

And Tim was still a little bit more aggressive. And Tim was still a little bit more aggressive. And Tim was still a little bit more aggressive. And Tim was still a little bit more aggressive. And Tim in the neck and in the chest. Just going to town on this poor kid. Now again witnesses would say that Tim tried to fight back, he was trying his hardest to get Vince off of him. Then it said that Tim was either thrown onto the the floor of the bus or he fell onto the floor of the bus. Tim's seat again was towards the back of the bus so the seats in front of him made it like really difficult to escape because he's cornered like the

killer is right here right and then you got people in front of you and a window right here where are you supposed to go now the bus driver his name was bruce he is yelling at Vince to stop, to stop. I mean, what can he do? You're driving. Stop that. You know, he pulls over to the side of the road. Quickly, all the passengers get off of the bus. Bruce, the bus driver, stays behind.

And he's yelling at Vince to stop. Please stop, please stop. Trying to reason with Vince. And Bruce says that's when Vince was like holding the knife and walking towards Bruce. And Bruce was like, fuck that. So he gets off the bus, he closes the door and he like barricades it, locks it,

make sure that Vince cannot escape. Sadly, just leaving Vince and Tim inside. Now they didn't know at that time, like if Tim was still alive, should we get him? Like, should we try and save him? What should we do? Everyone was just panicking. So a bus driver was driving in the area

and he sees the bus pulled over and he sees a bunch of people and they all look like they're in distress. So this bus driver named Chris, he pulls over and asks what's going on. He actually helps barricade the bus door because Vince was trying to escape. And he's there just making sure that Vince does not get out.

Oh, and by the way, when the bus was exited or when they pulled over, the police were called and stuff. So they're just kind of waiting for police to show up. Vince inside with Tim's body, he turns back and goes back to Tim and he just continues to stab and attack him. You know, it's a Greyhound bus. So there's a bunch of windows and stuff

and everybody standing on the outside, all the passengers and whatnot, they could see into the bus. So they could see Vince and like what he was doing. So they're just like watching and I couldn't imagine. So then another Greyhound bus that was on the same route and it was carrying passenger, like their overload. So they see the Greyhound bus is pulled over

and so they pull over. The driver of that bus, his name was Bernie. And so Bernie was like, okay, I'm gonna try and go on the bus and see if Tim is still alive. Can I help him? Maybe I can do something. So Bernie decides to go into the bus

and he's asking Vince to stop. He's asking him why, like, why are you doing this? But Vince simply responded with quote, "'Get emergency'," end quote, while continuing to stab Tim. Now, Bernie would say that he's on this bus and he's yelling at Vince to stop, right? Now, the whole time he's yelling at Vince to stop,

he had like this crazy look in his eyes and he's just like staring at Bernie, like, I'll fucking kill you. And Bernie was just like, oh shit, no. And Bernie said that he's just like staring at bernie like fucking kill you and bernie was just like oh shit no and bernie said that he didn't really look at tim at that moment because you know when you see something like maybe bad happening over there and if you just don't look at it then it's like not real or you're like trying not to look at it because you just don't want to acknowledge it so you're just not looking at it anyways what he was saying is he didn't like look at tim yet because he just didn't want to lose it and then bernie says he finally

just like looks at tim and he sees tim's body and like vince was cutting deep into tim's body and just taking out pieces of his flesh and then bernie realized that that Vince was cutting deep into Tim's neck and he was beheading Tim. I think at that moment you know Bernie exited the bus because he realized that there was really nothing they could do at that point to save Tim. He was sadly dead. So Bernie got off the bus and they barricaded the door again. Bernie then they see the bus and they see the driver and they see the bus and they see the driver and they see the bus and they see the driver. So they're waiting for the bus to come up.

And then they see the bus and they see the driver. And then they see the bus and they see the driver. And then they see the bus and they see the driver. And then they see the bus and they see the driver. And then they see the bus and they see the driver. And then they see the bus and they see the driver. And then they see the bus and they see the driver. And then they see the bus up so he could take off. And then once Vince realizes that he's kind of like stuck, he starts to get really, really agitated.

He's growing very frustrated. So Vince goes to like the door of the bus and he's trying to stab and cut his way out and he's trying to get out of the bus. And then he's trying to get out of the bus and he's trying to get out of the bus. And then he's trying to get out of the bus So Vince goes to like the door of the bus and he's trying to stab and cut his way out of the door. And he's, everybody, well, not everybody,

but like the bus driver and Chris, the truck driver, they're all trying to like make sure that Vince does not get out of this door. So at this point, Vince accepts the fact that he is trapped inside this bus. So they see him kind of give up on this door idea and he just goes back to what he was doing. So he went back and he continued to stab

and mutilate Tim's body. Finally, at 9 p.m., emergency officials arrived at the scene. Corporal Harder tried to talk to Vince down from outside of the bus, and he's pleading with him to drop the knife, to come out, to throw the knife out of the small window of the bus. And then they ended up bringing in special negotiators

and a heavily armed tactical unit. They're trying to negotiate with Vince. They're trying to get him to turn himself over. It's said that Vince's, his responses were very chaotic. They didn't make any sense. The one thing that they did make out was Vince loudly said, I'm going to stay on this bus forever, which is like, okay. So again, all the passengers and stuff

are like standing on the side of the road. And you can see inside of the bus, they could see what Vince was doing. And then they're just watching Vince in there, just doing weird shit. They could see him mutilating Tim's body with scissors and a buck knife. Vince would like pull certain body parts and organs out of Tim's body. Again, they're watching, they could see, I think just Vince wanted to put on a show or something. I don't know, man.

But Vince pulls a body part out and then he like smells it. Everybody's watching that he smells it. And then he puts it in his mouth and begins to eat it. There were also reports that Vince, he was like licking the blood off of his hands and arms. And then he would just walk up and down the bus aisle, just like carrying various organs and body parts. And he was like showing them off to the witnesses

before stuffing them into garbage bags, like the small, you know, chopping garbage bags. Vince then decides to pick up Tim's head and he's carrying it back and forth, letting everyone see it. A lot of the witnesses were saying it's one of those things where it's horrific, right? But you also can't stop looking. Around 9.30 or 10 p.mm the stranded passengers finally were taken and they were

transported to be interviewed at Brandon RCMP detachment which I think means police department. You know I do a lot of researching for these stories but I always forget to google the small stuff that I don't know. Like RCMP what what is that? I should have Googled that. The passengers are taken to be questioned and hear all of their stories and whatnot, trying to understand the situation and what happened. July 31st, 2008 at 1.20 a.m. This is hours after the initial attack.

Vince broke one of the back windows open on the bus and he threw out some belongings along with the knife and the scissors that he was using. Vince then decided to jump out of the window and he wasn't necessarily turning himself in. He was gonna try and run for it. Great plan, Vince. But that didn't work out.

He jumps out the windows. And then that's when Vince is like trying to resist arrest. He's trying to get away. And of course, like police use their little taser, and they control the situation. The police were able to go onto the bus and they just see a horrific scene. They see that there are trash bags everywhere.

And inside these trash bags were like parts of Tim's body. What he was doing with them. So they go up to Tim's body and they see that his ear, his nose, his tongue, they were all missing from, from Tim's face. So they're like, where the fuck is that? They search bins and they find in his pockets were Tim's ears, nose, and tongue.

Don't know what he was going to do with that. And then sadly, Tim's eyes and part of his heart, they were never found or recovered. And they are assumed that Vince ate them. So then at 10 a.m. Greyhound representatives took other passengers to Walmart, I think it is, or it was like a small store. I kind of saw both.

But they took some of the passengers to the store to replace the clothing that they're wearing because they had blood like on their shirts and whatnot. They let them get some items to replace the bloody clothes and then they sent the passengers on another bus to head back to Winnipeg so they could go home. Vince, his trial was on March 3rd, 2009. Vince was pleading not criminally responsible. Now this means, hold on, not criminally responsible. So this means that he accepted the offense occurred. He's like, yeah, that shit happened. But I wasn't fully there mentally.

So technically it wasn't me. So Vince would go on to say that he got on the bus, right? And he sat in the front. And then there were voices in his head that were telling him he was in danger. Vince said he sat next to Tim. Tim smiled at him and asked how he was doing. And Vince said he heard the voice of God

telling him that he had to kill Tim or he would die immediately. This is the part that pisses off a lot of people. I mean it pisses it pissed me off too okay. So Vince was charged with second degree murder but ended up being found not criminally responsible because he was diagnosed with schizophrenia and he failed to take his medications. So Vince was required to be held at a mental hospital, get the help that he needs. And then after a few years, he ended up being fully discharged. Fully discharged.

And this caused a lot of debate for obvious reasons. Some people, I wanna say like 90% of people, believe that Vince should have been held accountable for the murder due to its brutality. And then others believe that he should be forgiven due to his mental illness. So really quick, like my own personal opinion, where I totally support the idea that if you are suffering from a mental illness and you commit a crime, that yeah, I like the idea that you get help

versus just being locked up and like the key's just thrown away, right? Like out here in America, you just get locked up forever. And then you're in the system forever because you can't ever get out, hot mess. And in Canada, it seems like they're always trying to help the people. They're not just trying to lock them up forever.

They're trying to truly help people. But I feel like in some cases, like with this one, it's not like he stabbed him one time and it was like, not that stabbing him one time would be better, but Vince full on chopped this guy's head off and was like carrying it around. Like, you know, like, no, it should be case by case. I don't quite understand why they, yeah, no.

And then in February of 2016, Vince ended up legally changing his name to Will Baker. And he left his group home and is living independently. People who work closely with Vince, they say that he feels great remorse and that like he'll be fine as long as he's. They say that he feels great remorse and that he'll be fine as long as he's getting the help that he needs. And there wasn't just one victim.

All of the passengers on that bus have suffered in some kind of way. Sadly, this awful murder had lasting effects on those who were a witness. One of the passengers who gave birth a couple years later, she suffered from PTSD that occurred from witnessing the attack. This affected her ability to raise her child

who had been taken from her and placed in foster care for 18 months before being returned to her. Another, the truck driver, Chris, he is the one who's tried to stop and help. He also came forward and said he struggled from PTSD from what he witnessed. He says he became an alcoholic after the event because he couldn't sleep at night from all the nightmares.

There was another witness who actually tried to file lawsuit against Greyhound, the police, and Vince, and it was later dropped. But she goes on to say it's unfair because officials were so lenient with Vince and his mental illness, trying to help Vince to get better, but nobody has offered help for the people that suffer from PTSD and suffer daily.

Where's their help? And for that, Vince shouldn't be out because where's their help? Get them help. The list goes on. Almost every single passenger on that bus has suffered from PTSD ind in some way whether they got they were able to get help or not greyhound has never offered any type of help for them the

only type of help they did offer was compensation for the like reimbursement of clothing um or any items that may have gotten stained with blood but other than that that was about it so on december 21st, 2008, this is five months after the murder, Tim's girlfriend, Colleen, remember Colleen? She was pregnant with Tim's son. She ends up giving birth. Sadly, there was a messy custody battle

between Tim's family and Colleen that started in 2009. I'm not sure exactly like what the case was, why they felt like she was unfit, but regardless, in 2016, Tim's mother and her husband were granted full guardianship of Tim's son. According to Global News, Vince was most recently in a secondary training program

in hopes to enter the career fields. So that is the tragic story about Tim McClain. He just got to walk free. The kind of horse shit is that? He wasn't getting help and he needs help and he should get that in prison, but he needs to be in prison and he needs to be held accountable for what he did.

He took a life. Whether you were there mentally or not, you still did it. He still did it. And it's truly unfortunate because all of the victims on that bus, Tim's family, they are carrying this heavy thing that happened to them. And knowing that the person responsible for this is out there living their life,

changed their name, trying to get a career, fucked up. I'm not sure in Canada how the law works. Can somebody be retried for a case? Is that something that can happen? I'm not sure in Canada how the law works. Can somebody be retried for a case? Is that something that can happen? I'm not sure, but if it's possible, I really hope justice can happen for Tim's family and for all of the victims who are affected. I would love to hear your guys' thoughts down below.

Do you believe Vince should be in prison? But if you don't, I would love to hear as well. I guess, yeah, that's about it. Thank you so much for hanging out with me today. I hope that you have a wonderful day. Be safe out there, okay? Rest in peace to Tim McClain, and I really hope his family and all the victims

can get some kind of peace and healing. Let me know who you would like me to talk about next week, but other than that, I hope you have a wonderful day today. You make good choices, and I'll be seeing you guys later. Bye!