Family members of Jun Lin, the Chinese man allegedly killed and dismembered by Luka Rocco Magnotta, have arrived in Montreal under intense media attention, while the victim's friends rally to support them.

Yan Shi, head of Concordia University's Chinese Student Association, was among the delegation of people that greeted Lin's family at the Trudeau airport.

He described their "heartbreaking" arrival as Lin's mother openly struggled with her grief.

"She was not even able to even walk straight, so we had to carry her," Shi said. "When we tried to understand what she was saying, all we could make out was, 'We come here to take you home.'"

Jun Lin appears at a Christmas party in Montreal, where he was celebrating with fellow students from a French course. (Photo submitted by Mohsen Abdolghafari )

Community fundraising efforts are underway to help alleviate the possible financial burden related to the tragedy.

Chinese students at Concordia have set up a fund — the Lin Jun Rest in Peace Foundation — to help defray the family's expenses while they're here, which is expected to be two or three weeks.

In an interview with CBC Montreal, a close friend of Lin described him as an ambitious, hard-working young man who loved his new life in Canada.

"He was a very nice person, very open-minded. He enjoyed making jokes with us," said Matty, 24, who only wanted his first name used.

"I just want people to know he was good to his friends, and he was a good student. I know his marks at Concordia were around A's."

Lin worked long hours in China to support himself and save enough money to come study in Montreal, where "it's not cheap, it's pretty expensive for Chinese people."

"His life was not easy," but he was happy, Matty said.

Lin's mother, father, sister and uncle have already met with Montreal police and Concordia officials, who offered to hold a school memorial in his memory.

Community members in Montreal are also remembering Lin by dropping off cards at the Pointe-Saint-Charles corner store where Lin used to work. His boss, Kankan Huang, said he has collected dozens of cards so far.

At a press conference in Montreal, police Cmdr. Ian Lafrenière said authorities will stay in contact with Lin's family to provide assistance.

"This is a horrible ordeal they’ve been put through,” he said Wednesday.

Magnotta awaiting extradition

Magnotta, 29, is awaiting extradition in Germany on a number of charges, including first-degree murder, mailing obscene material and committing an indignity to a human body. He was arrested in Berlin earlier this week following an international manhunt.

He is accused of killing Lin, recording and uploading a video of the act to the internet and sending Lin's remains through the mail.

Luka Rocco Magnotta, 29. is in Germany awaiting extradition to Canada on a number of charges. (Montreal Police Service)

Magnotta's court-appointed German lawyer, Evelyn Ascher, told CBC News she has advised him to hire a top criminal attorney in Canada, and to refrain from saying anything about the charges until he is extradited.

"He was not nervous. He was kind of sad, maybe, and he was in a new situation," Ascher said, after meeting with Magnotta this week.

The Canadian man is reportedly very concerned about his personal safety while he is held in prison in Berlin.

"He is afraid that he gets attacked by other prisoners, because he is in all newspapers, as a really, really bad person, described as a devil," Ascher said.

Ascher, a criminal specialist, said she didn't know anything about Magnotta or the case when she was first asked to represent him.

Sources told CBC News that Magnotta has agreed to a simplified extradition process, and that German authorities have given his case the "utmost priority."

Human remains found in B.C.

Lin, a 33-year-old Chinese national who was attending Concordia University in Montreal, was last seen on May 24.

His torso was found inside a suitcase outside a Montreal apartment on May 29, the same day body parts addressed to the offices of the Conservative and Liberal parties in Ottawa were discovered.

Magnotta was identified as a suspect the following day.

Police believe Lin was killed sometime around the evening of May 24 or early May 25. A video that apparently captured some of the act was posted to an online gore site on May 25 and circulated on the web for several days.

Investigators in Montreal said Tuesday that some of Lin's remains were still missing. Later that day, a hand and a foot were delivered to two elementary schools in Vancouver.

Cmdr. Lafrenière said Wednesday police are working to confirm that the remains found in B.C. are Lin's, although it appears likely. Vancouver police are sending the remains to Montreal and are handing the investigation over to officers there.

Magnotta has a previously known connection to B.C.: When he filed for bankruptcy in 2007, he owed $10,000 to a car leasing company in a Vancouver suburb. It emerged Wednesday that he also spent time in the province shooting a porn film in 2003.

Lafrenière also said police continue to search for Lin's head.

"We’ve been working extremely hard to find all of the body parts out of respect to the family," Lafrenière said. "They're going to have a hard time to live with this now."

With files from The Canadian Press