Paul Bernardo and Karla Homolka: The Ken and Barbie Killers

[Nat Quinn]

Sister Sacrifice

It was 1990 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Twenty-year-old Karla Homolka was engaged to handsome, successful accountant Paul Bernardo. There was just one problem: Paul couldn’t get past the fact that Karla was not a virgin. And Paul was insistent that she do something to compensate for her shortcoming.

Tammy Lyn Homolka was Karla’s 15-year-old sister. Still a virgin, she seemed the perfect peace offering for Paul.

Karla worked in a veterinarian’s office and was familiar with the drug Halcion (triazolam), which they used to induce unconsciousness in their animal patients. Karla felt certain she could administer the drug to her younger sister. Paul would be able to have sex with the teen and Tammy would never know what happened.

On Christmas Eve, Paul and Karla celebrated the holiday with the Homolka family, all while lacing Tammy’s food and drink with Halcion. The drug soon took effect and Tammy fell asleep on the couch. When the rest of the family went upstairs to bed, Paul and Karla set about making Paul’s fantasies come true.

As Paul raped Tammy, Karla held a drug-soaked rag over her face to make sure she didn’t wake up while the couple was filming the disgusting event.

Tammy Lyn Homolka

Serial Rapist

Suddenly Tammy, full from the dining festivities, began to vomit. Realizing this, Karla held her sister upside down—just as they did with patients at the animal clinic. Despite her efforts, Tammy choked on her own vomit and died. Paul and Karla hid the drugs, video camera, and other evidence of their crime before calling for emergency aid.

Long before Tammy died, Paul had been raping women. At one point after they began dating, he asked Karla what she would think of him if he were a rapist—she replied she’d think it was cool.

So the “Scarsborough Rapist” carried on with his crimes, now often accompanied by a videotaping female partner in crime. Police had good descriptions from victims and semen left behind by the rapist; they just couldn’t identify their man.

On June 15, 1991, Paul was in the process of stealing license plates when he met 14-year-old Leslie Erin Mahaffy, as she stood in front of her Burlington home, contemplating what to do about being locked out of the house after missing curfew.

Paul forced the young teenager into his car and drove her to the home he shared with Karla. There he stripped Leslie naked, blindfolded her, and, along with Karla, sexually assaulted the girl for the next 24 hours. As usual, the couple videotaped their indiscretions, including a scene in which Homolka “pretties” herself for the camera.

They eventually killed Leslie (Karla claiming Paul strangled her, Paul saying Karla killed her with a drug overdose), cut up her body, encased the parts in cement, and dumped their victim into Lake Gibson.

As the date of the wedding drew closer, Paul had doubts about marrying Karla but on June 29, 1991, the couple was wed at Niagara-on-the-Lake in a fairytale ceremony that spared no expense. As the couple rode away in a horse-drawn carriage, a couple canoeing on the lake at the edge of St. Catharine’s discovered Leslie’s dismembered body.

Shortly after returning from their honeymoon, Karla dined with an underage teenage friend. Knowing the girl was a virgin, Karla plied her with drinks laced with Halcion and, once they took effect, brought her home to Paul as a wedding gift. The next morning, the unidentified girl woke up with no memory of the previous evening or meeting Paul until that morning.

Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Trial and Recent Updates

In January 1993, Karla, at the urging of her parents and while sporting two black eyes, filed assault charges against Paul. In February 1993, the laboratory test results were finally returned and police learned that Paul Bernando, despite their misgivings, was indeed the Scarsborough Rapist. Shortly thereafter, Paul was arrested on the rapes and for the murders of Mahaffy and French.

Karla was terrified and assuaged her fears with painkillers and alcohol. And she lawyered up. It served little good, however, when a search warrant produced a written diary kept by Paul in which he thoroughly described each event, as well as the video library of the crimes.

A plea bargain was made with Karla in exchange for her testimony against Paul. The fact that she would only serve 12 years was heavily criticized by the public as a “deal with the devil.” She was paroled, under heavy restriction, on July 4, 2005, and moved to Quebec.

In February 2007, she gave birth to a baby boy and a year later moved to the West Indies with her new husband, Thierry Bordelais, where she claimed her son could “live a normal life.”

News reports indicated that Homolka had returned

Paul Bernardo and Karla Homolka: The Ken and Barbie Killers – The CrimeWire

 

 

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