Canada faces long wait before Magnotta stands trial for murder

Canada will have to wait until next year – late next year – before the dark clouds surrounding the death and decapitation of Jun Lin and the public manhunt for suspected killer Luka Magnotta are put to rest.

A judge announced on Monday that Magnotta will stand trial for first-degree murder in September of 2014.

CBC News reports that the court case will begin on Sept. 15, 2014, while preparatory hearings will begin later this year – Sept. 3, 2013.

Magnotta faces five charges including first-degree-murder in the death of Jun Lin, a Concordia University student who was found cut into pieces last May.

[ Related: Magnotta trial date set for fall 2014 ]

Pieces of Lin's body were mailed to political party offices in Ottawa, two Vancouver schools and the remains were later found in a Montreal park.

Magnotta was arrested in Germany two months later following an intense international manhunt.

[ More Brew: Judge rejects excessive publication ban in Magnotta hearing ]

The very public and graphic fallout of the gruesome murder has left a notable scar on the Canadian public, who forced to watch as the details played out for months in headlines, graphic videos and through a bizarre web of online profiles.

It’s hard to think that there won’t be an ending to it all until next late next year at the earliest. Those dark clouds will hover for more than a year before Magnotta returns to court.