On the 29th of 1991, near the town of Saint Catherine in Ontario Canada some fishermen make a horrifying discovery at one end of Lake Gibson they noticed several what appear to be pieces of human flesh, protruding from the cracks. The victim was identified as fourteen-year-old Leslie Mahaffey. She had been missing for two weeks. The same day her body is found, a young couple exchanged wedding vows, 16 miles away in the quaint town of Niagara on the lake. Their fairy tale wedding is complete with an old-fashioned horse-drawn carriage, a pheasant under glass. There was a ball gown of a wedding dress that had the puffy princess sleeves. This attractive couple was dubbed Barbie and Ken.
Karla Homolka had always thought of herself as a princess. She loved Disney characters and she wanted to be a Disney princess. She planned a wedding that certainly on its surface looked like something you could witness in Disneyland. 21 year-old Karla’s prince charming was Paul Bernardo. Five years her senior but equally eager for a fantasy wedding.
At the age of 17 Karla started working at a local vet’s office. In October, 1987, Karla attended a pet convention in Scarborough. It was then that her life would change forever. Somewhere at that same convention, Karla met 23 year- old Paul Bernardo. He was a trainee accountant. When he approached her, there would be an instant spark. It was a lust at first sight. After several hours they were in a hotel room. He came across as strong, extroverted outgoing, confident, self-assured individual, in control. She became obsessed with him. She pretty quickly engaged in deviant sex with him. She wrote letters to him saying ‘do what you want to me. I’ll do anything and everything’, so she resonated to his deviance very fast. She didn’t suddenly change. There was already something there in her that he saw and triggered. She was quite ready for somebody like him.
Canadian couple Karla Homolka and Paul Bernardo appeared to be love’s young dream, but the level of evilness with both these people was extreme. Both harbored deep dark secrets that once revealed sent shockwaves through civilized society.
It was a sickening chapter in a story that had begun in 1987.
The year they met the city was rocked by an unprecedented series of violent rapes. The sexual assaults were the most brutal that detectives had since till then. Those were sadistic rapes. There never was before and never was since such a string of attacks like that. The mystery attacker would become known as The Scarborough rapist. The terror began in 1987. He would stalk his victims as they got off late buses, following them for a while before launching himself upon them. In May, 1987, two different young women were assaulted in the front and backyards their family homes. In December, the same year he assaulted two more young women, aged just 15 and 17. Law enforcement determined the pattern that serial rapist was following. In 1987 there were six attacks.
In 1988, another three women were sadistically raped and had committed countless attempted assaults. He escalated in his violence. October to December four attacks. He did awful things like gather up stones and sticks and insert them into the woman, who had just been raped. June 89 to May 1990, five more attacks. He took some of their belongings with them. This was followed by three more assaults in 1989. He threatened the victims that he would do harm to them if they made any noise. When the FBI profilers actually were called in. They did say if you don’t get this guy you can see from the way he’s escalating, he will turn to murder so there’s no doubt that the fact that he wasn’t getting arrested made him bolder.
The face on the poster in the puzzle. It has to be none of the victims had had a good look at her attacker, a man who grabs her from behind with a knife. Metro Police team of investigators was working full time on this case. They’ve interviewed and cleared over a thousand possible suspects, they’ve even offered a one hundred and $150.000 reward, but they still lack the key pieces to this puzzle.
In 1990 after assaulting yet another woman Police started closing in on Bernardo. For each of 17 known assaults, victims couldn’t describe him. In May he attacked the female from the front. Police created a composite drawing to help us identify him. However, after being interviewed by two detectives and he gave his DNA sample and was released. At that time DNA was in infant stages in terms of being forensic investigative tool so it took a long time to find the match. It set for two years on a shelf. He was one of 700 person of interest. Testing would prove he was the rapist, but tragically not soon enough.
The Scarborough rapist was striking again and again, targeting lone women and teenagers and paralyzing the community. May to December 1987, six attacks. Police formed a task, flooded the area, but they couldn’t catch him.
All the while The Scarborough rapist was terrorizing the city Karla Homolka was being wooed and captivated by her new boyfriend Paul Bernardo, a seemingly impressive and charming young man with good prospects. He went to University, was an accountant, had a car. He was older, tall, blonde. He was handsome. He was all Karla dreamed of both as a child and as a teenager. She was mesmerized by him. He was everything she wanted. Paul hated that Karla wasn’t a virgin. Karla would perform his fantasies for him. At the same time Bernardo lost his job as an accountant. He began smuggling cigarettes across the Canada – United States border. Two years into their relationship Paul began spending prolonged periods of time at the Homolka residence with Karla and her family. He was engaged to Karla. Paul always had a camera, he was recording everything. Karla also recorded. It has lasted since the beginning of their relationship. The family liked Paul. He appeared to be a clever young man, educated and well-mannered. He ended up spending most holidays with the Homolkas. It was during this time in the summer of 1990, that Paul developed an obsession for Karla’s 16 year – old sister, Tammy. Tammy was similarly to her sister, a well-liked member of the local community. She was particularly talented at sports, participating in track and field cross country, running and soccer.
It turned out that Karla was just as twisted as Paul.
When her partner confessed his attraction for Tammy to Karla. She helped hatch a plan to make Paul’s fantasies become a reality. They even wanted to have threesome. According to Karla her plan of drugging her sister in order for Paul to assault her was supposed to minimize risks, take control and keep it all in the family.
However, her claims soon turned out to be false. Instead, behind Karla’s Barbie-like appearance were an active, willing participant in everything Paul did.
One evening in July 1990, Karla was cooking dinner for Tammy in an apparent gesture of sisterly kindness. What Tammy did not know was that her spaghetti sauce had been laced with Valium which her sister had stolen from her employer. Tammy fell into a deep sleep Paul then saw his chances he assaulted Tammy for an entire minute before she began to awaken. Paul pulled away at that moment, but it would not be long until his unsatisfied urges once again took over. Moreover, Karla was determined to turn Paul’s fantasy into a reality claiming that she wished to offer Tammy’s virginity to Paul for Christmas.
On Christmas Eve 1990, the couple once again drugged Tammy during the party. Karla served Tammy drinks infused with triazolam is a drug acting as a tranquilizer (type of benzodiazepine). Their parents were upstairs and asleep. Then in order to make sure Tammy did not wake up during the assault, Karla placed a rag, dipped in halophane acted as a further anesthetic, on her sister’s face. Sadly, Paul and Karla’s planned with Tammy worked. They raped her in every possible way. However, Tammy soon started choking on her own vomit and died during the assault. In a panic Karla clothed Tammy and cleaned up the crime scene, claiming that her death had been accidental. She attempted to revive her but to no avail. The couple then dialed 911 and hid any remaining evidence, moving Tammy back into her bed.
In spite of drugs having been detected in Tammy’s bloodstream at the time of her death. This aspect was overlooked and the family decided to call her death accidental. However unbeknownst to them Karla and Paul had filmed her sister’s entire assault, taking turns holding the camera and filming Tammy’s miserable last few moments alive, but Karla and Paul can be seen engaged in morbid sexual acts those included multiple instances of Karla pretending to be Tammy whilst wearing her clothing, mimicking Tammy, without any remorse at all, and having intercourse on her bed. They pretend to mourn but after a month Karla wanted to marry and complaining to her friend that parents are mourning for too long.
The couple moved away from the Homolka house into a rented house in Saint Catherine.
On the 14th of June 1991, Leslie had gone out with friends. The early morning hours of June, 14 year – old Leslie Mahaffey told the friend she was heading home, but she never arrived. Leslie Mahaffey was a bright, likable teenager living in Burlington Ontario with her mother and stepfather. She was a typical teenager. Aged 14 Leslie had started spending some time away from home. Leslie’s friend group had recently suffered a heartbreaking tragedy when a friend died and everybody mourning the death. She had been told ‘if you are out with your friends and missed your curfew you’ll be looked out of the house’. She missed her curfew. While walking home an exhausted Leslie ran into a charming young man. He offered her a cigarette. The young man then took his sweatshirt off and quickly wrapped it around Leslie’s head, forcing her into the vehicle. The following day a friend of Leslie’s called the Mahaffey household inquiring about her and explaining that Leslie had found the house door locked the previous night. Panicked and seeing that her daughter was nowhere to be found Leslie’s mother eventually contacted the police on June 18th, unaware that her daughter had been abducted Debbie Mahaffey filed the official paperwork for her daughter to be sought and arrested as a runaway, if found by police. The news shocked not only the neighborhood, but the nation. 16 days later a canoeist on nearby lake Gibson would discover the appalling answer to Leslie’s whereabouts. Leslie Mahaffey is believed to have been abused for around 24 hours. Karla was enraged but not because Paul want to rape and murder a girl, but because he gave Leslie a glass they are going to use at their wedding. Leslie was forced to use degrading phrases such as ‘I am a slut’. Paul wanted that his victims to tell him that he had been great, the king… Apparently he had a difficult time, even with a rapes and the scripting helped, because it was about humiliating. Bernardo and Homolka gave Leslie a teddy bear to hold during breaks between the assaults and when they were finished with her, Bernardo wrapped an electrical cord around the girl’s neck and strangled her. They took the body in the basement. On the 16th of June 1991, Karla and Paul hosted a Father’s Day dinner at their home. However, unknown to her family members, Karla was hiding Leslie’s body in the basement and after the dinner had been wrapped up. The killers used the family’s circular saw to dismembered the young girl’s body. They would then encase Mahaffey’s body in concrete and throw it into Lake Gibson. Bernardo’s recounted the events. He states that Leslie died in the same manner as Tammy of a drug overdose, but Leslie’s manner of death was never truly revealed because you cannot have an autopsy without a body. Her body was dismembered. Leslie Mahaffey was identified through dental records.
It would later be suspected that Tammy’s death was not accidental and that Karla had administered a purposeful and powerful overdose. Whether Karla deliberately murdered her sister out of jealousy that night has remained a mystery.
Fifteen-year-old Kristen French a high school athlete and a straight A student was abducted from the front lawn of the church near her home. Kristen Don French was born in 1976 and lived in Saint Catherine’s Ontario. French was an athlete, taking part in precision ice skating, as well as rowing, but what started out as a regular school day for the 15 year – old would soon become a nightmare.
On April 16th while walking back from school French was approached by Homolka and Bernardo, now husband and wife, and a nearby parking lot the couple were seemingly asking for directions. She was always very careful. Especially after Leslie’s murder. This time they worked together. Karla is with a map, pretending that they were lost. As Kristen lean over, Karla grabbed her, in a split second, Bernardo pulled out a knife and grabbed her and threatened French, forcing her into the back seat of his vehicle. She was later reported missing by her family. During her disappearance French’s entire community took part in the search effort, her classmates, teachers and friends all wore green ribbons of hope in hopes of finding the teen.
Some articles of clothing were found but police said nothing couldn’t be tied to the case. But on the 30th of April 1992 worst fears were realized as police found Kristen’s naked lifeless body in a ditch. She had been murdered on the 19th of April. She was videotaped by Homolka and Bernardo as they held the young girl captive over three days, assaulting, humiliating her and forcing her to drink copious amounts of alcohol. Kristen tried to escape when Paul went to buy food. She asked food for the more distant place, so he went there. She was pleading with Karla, but she didn’t let her go. She was strangled. They videotaped it. The fact they videotaped it is very common among sexual sadists.
On May 15 1992, The Green Ribbon task force was created in an effort to investigate the murders of Leslie Mahaffey and Kristen French.
After this murder Paul started living in his delusional world and getting abusive with Karla.
Towards the end of that same month John Motil an acquaintance of Bernardo’s reported him as a possible suspect in the murders around this same time Homolka and Bernardo’s marriage began to turn sour.
On the 27th of December 1992 Bernardo beat Homoka with a flashlight and bruising her. She eventually reported Bernardo for domestic violence thus allowing law enforcement to arrest him. It wasn’t until Karla Homolka went screaming to police about the fact that she’d been beaten up by Paul Bernardo that they were caught. She pressed charges and at the same time DNA results surfaced.
Paul was sobbing and begging her, saying ‘it hurts. I am sorry’.
Police told Karla that her husband is a rapist and she had told them that he confessed to. He was arrested.
On February 9 1993, after being interviewed by investigators about her husband’s abuse Homolka confessed then. She claimed to be battered wife and unwilling accomplice. Police needed a witness to put him behind bars.
When police took Karla to the their house where girls were murdered the outfit she wore was eerily like that of an innocent school girl. She’d been present for the full horror show but seemed totally detached. It looked twisted. She explained that there are videotapes, but not where. She didn’t know probably.
On the 14th of May 1993 a Homolka accepted a plea bargain offering her 12 years’ imprisonment in exchange for her cooperation in her statements given to police. In a call from jail Bernardo told his lawyer about the incriminating videotapes. He had hidden them in a bathroom ceiling. There were a collection of tapes and many had Karla’s handwriting on them, like ‘Kristen, Leslie, Paul and me’ with hearts and flowers like stickers. Bernardo’s lawyer, Ken Murray, found the tapes and hid them again, it would take Bernardo’s attorney being charged for the tapes to finally come to light. The Crown prosecution did not know for the tapes when they signed a plea bargain. But before trial began a discovery was made that would show the self-proclaimed battered wife wasn’t what they believed. Karla Homolka raping, torturing right alongside her husband and she seemed to be enjoying it. Public in Canada called it ‘’The deal with the devil’’.
In 1995 Bernardo was tried for the murders of French and Mahaffey. He tried to suggest that the deaths were accidental and that Homolka was the actual killer, but on September 1st 1995, he was convicted of multiple offenses, including two second-degree murders and aggravated assaults he was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole, deemed a dangerous offender. It is important to note something about Bernardo. In hindsight he was diagnosed with clinical psychopathy scoring 35 out of 40 in the psychopathy checklist, Homolka scored 5 out of 40. Psychiatrists said for Karla that she is very narcissistic, calculated, self-centered, manipulative individual. Public speculated that Paul hadn’t killed before he met Homolka and questioned if she had been the motivating force for murder.
She was released from prison on July 4th 2005. She lives as a free woman.
She left to Quebec, Canada. She married and have children. Parents protested against her involvement in school activities. They were afraid of her.
Paul Bernardo was born in Scarborough Ontario on the 27th of August, 1964. The youngest of three children. He was troubled from the beginning. He was cought trying to peer into the neighbor windows, sis father did the same. So, parents forbade their children to play with him. He seemed to be inappropriate in a lot of ways. On surface he seemed well-adjusted. Paul’s mother was verbally abusive. Paul’s Father Kenneth Bernardo was an abuser who subjected his children to unspeakable acts of violence. Paul was especially aware of Kenneth’s repeated assaults on his older sister Deborah throughout his childhood. Eventually Kenneth Bernardo was charged with crimes of this nature, including voyeurism. Paul’s mother, Marilyn Bernardo, suffered from multiple mental illnesses. Eventually she became withdrawn from her family as a result of her ongoing depression and agoraphobia and moved into the family basement.
However, in spite of his troubled home life Paul Bernardo seemed to thrive. He kept up with school, was fairly popular and was a particularly active member of the Boy Scouts at some point in his childhood and later becoming a summer camp counsellor. He was a lifeguard, also took karate lessons. Marilyn and Kenneth’s marriage was on the rocks the two were hardly the pinnacle of stability. But around Paul’s teenage years was when things started going irreversibly sour one night after a particularly bad fight. Sixteen-year-old Paul found out that his father was in fact not Kenneth Bernardo, but a man his mother had an affair with. Angered Paul started yelling at his mother, cursing her vindictively. His mother called him ‘’a bastard from hell’’. In an act of incredible violence, Paul gathered all of his mother’s belongings and set them a light. He attended University of Toronto to become an accountant. The same University Russel Williams attended, but Paul was two academic years ahead. Paul was good looking and he could get any girl he wanted. Something switched inside Paul Bernardo because suddenly Paul had developed dark sexual preferences. Ones that would control him for the rest of his life. In one of his fantasies Paul dreamed of creating a virgin Farm where he would breed women. As Paul’s fantasies kept evolving and becoming even more twisted. After leaving the family home, Paul began seeing women and living out his fantasies, and just like his father before him, abusing them. By 19, 1986, Paul already had two restraining orders against him. He beat and humiliated his girlfriends and forced them to engage in sadistic sex. They rejected him and reported him. Until he met Karla.
Only an hour away from the town of Scarborough is Mississauga, Ontario. On the 4th of May, 1970, the woman who would become Paul’s wife was born. Karla Homolka’s childhood has always been presented as more than average. She grew up in a small town. She had a mother and father whose marriage stayed intact. Dad made a living primarily going to flea markets and selling lamps. Mom was some sort of an administrative assistant at the hospital in St. Catherines. They had three daughters. They were well liked in the community, they had a swimming pool so it was a gathering place for everybody. She was the oldest daughter. She wasn’t at all shy or weak and she wasn’t diligent when it comes to her studies, but she was clever and bright. She was very popular, blond, blue eyed. She always had a date. She had several boyfriends in high school. At times Karla’s behavior struck friends as odd, some of her friends called her bizarre because she a little bit of the occult and she seemed fascinated with death. She wore black.
