NoCarrier

Murders

On October 17, 1987 Homolka, then 17 met Bernardo who was 23, at a hotel restaurant. Their relationship quickly became sexual in nature. They would maintain a relationship until 1994 when Homolka divorced Bernardo and began testifying against him. At the time of their meeting, Bernardo had already raped several girls in Scarborough, a Toronto suburb, but he had not been found out. On December 23, 1990, Homolka stole the animal anesthetic, Halothane, from the veterinary clinic where she worked. Together she and Bernardo administered it to her fifteen-year-old sister Tammy Lyn Homolka along with a mixture of alcohol and halcion. They raped Tammy in the basement of the Homolka family's home while she was unconcious. The official cause of death was attributed to the girl having choked to death on her own vomit. Tammy's death was, at the time, ruled an accident.

After getting engaged to Bernardo, Karla Homolka and her fiancé rented a bungalow in the quiet suburb of Port Dalhousie. On June 15, 1991 Paul Bernardo, while stealing license plates to aid in his Cigarette Smuggling scheme ran into Leslie Erin Mahaffy who had been locked out of her home. The two spoke for some time and went back to Paul's car for a cigarette. At that point 14-year old Leslie Mahaffy was abducted. Paul Bernardo brought her to their home where they held the girl hostage for several days, sexually assaulting her repeatedly. This, they recorded on video tape including one scene where Homolka pretties herself for the camera before raping the girl. Eventually, they killed Mahaffy, and Paul Bernardo cut up her body with a circular saw. On June 29, a couple canoeing on a lake at the edge of the city of St. Catharines found parts of Mahaffy's body in shallow water, encased in cement. On the same day that the girl's body was found, Karla Homolka was married in a lavish ceremony, resplendent in an all-white wedding dress and riding with her husband in a horse-drawn carriage at Niagara-on-the-Lake.

On April 16, 1992, Paul and Karla drove into a church parking lot. Karla stepped out of the car with a map pretending to be lost and asking for help from 15-year-old Kristen Dawn French. Paul approached from behind and used a knife to force Kristen into the car. A piece of the map, one of Kristen's shoes and some of Kristen's hair were all later found at the crime scene. Paul Bernardo forced the girl into the backseat floor of the car at knifepoint. They brought French to their home where for several days they sexually assaulted, abused, and tortured her. They killed her just before going to Easter Sunday dinner at Homolka's parents' home. On April 30, the body of Kristen French was found in a ditch in the city of Burlington, Ontario.

It is almost absolutely certain that Paul Bernardo and Karla Homolka had other victims -- more likely rape victims and not murder victims. During the initial search of the Bernardo home a Hawaiian newspaper article was found which outlined the rape of a local that occurred when Paul and Karla were honeymooning in Hawaii. The fact that they had cut out this article, that the rape itself followed Paul's Modus Operandi and that it occurred when the Bernardos were vacationing in Hawaii have all led people to speculate that it may be related. It is, however, somewhat pointless for the United States to attempt to extradite Paul Bernardo at this point, since he is likely never to be released from prison in Canada.

Some people, including the defense attorneys for Robert Baltovich, think that Elizabeth Bain, a 22 year old female in the Scarborough area of Toronto was abducted and murdered by Paul Bernardo in 1990. Witnesses testified about seeing Bain with a blond man in the days before she vanished. There are numerous other links between Bernardo and Bain, but a Canadian publication ban stands in the way of much of the information getting into the public domain. Regardless, on December 2nd, 2004 the Ontario Court of Appeals set aside Baltovich's conviction and ordered a new trial given some of this evidence. In 1998, author Derek Finkle published the book No Claim to Mercy where details tying Bain to Bernardo were presented.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karla_Homolka

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