No one knew when Karla Homolka and Paul Bernardo met that it would lead to the killings of three teen girls. There was nothing stopping them from destroying the lives of those around them; not even their own family members were safe. Listen to the story of how two depraved killers plagued communities throughout Ontario, Canada in the late ’80s and early ’90s.
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TuneInScarborough, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Scarborough is located in the eastern part of the city of Toronto, which is the provincial capital of Ontario. It is named after the cliffs in Scarborough, England. It’s one of the most culturally diverse areas of Toronto. One website named it the 8th safest city in the world.
May 4, 1987
Late in the evening of May 4, 1987, a 21-year-old woman is walking to her parent’s house when she is attacked and raped outside of her home. The rape lasted half an hour and would be the first of many to come. Ten days later there was another attack. This time a 19-year-old girl is sexually assaulted in the backyard of her parent’s home. This rape would last over an hour.
On June 27, 1987, there is another attack, but this time the victim fights back and her attacker runs off. Toronto Metro Police issued a warning to young women in Scarborough traveling at night to remain extra vigilant. They knew they had a serial rapist on their hands.
On December 23rd a 4th rape would occur closing out 1987. This time the victim was a 17-year-old girl and the rapist used a knife. The rapist would come to be known as The Scarborough Rapist. The rapes would continue in the Scarborough area until May 1990.
There were seven more rapes and three attempted rapes. Each rape escalated in violence and duration. All of the victims were females between the ages of 15 and 22-years-old. Who was the Scarborough Rapist? Why did he stop or did he? Toronto Metropolitan Police discovered that his crimes were only beginning. It turns out they had already had at least one conversation with the Scarborough Rapist.
Karla Homolka
Karla Homolka was a 17-year-old from the St. Catherines area of Ontario, which is located in the Niagara region. She was in Toronto for a work-related event when she met Paul Bernardo (age 23) at a restaurant on October 17, 1987.
Karla Leanne Homolka was the oldest of three girls born to Karl and Dorothy Homolka on May 4, 1970. In the Spring of 1998, Karla graduated from high school. She took a job at the Thorold Veterinary Clinic as a veterinary assistant. Karla and Paul’s relationship continued and the couple was engaged by December 1990.
Paul moved in with Karla’s family in St. Catherines.
Paul Bernardo
Paul Bernardo was born on August 27, 1964, to Marilyn Bernardo and a man that she had an affair with. Kenneth Bernardo, an accountant, is listed on the birth certificate as the couple would remain together. The Bernardo family was dysfunctional at best. Kenneth Bernardo was caught fondling young girls and sexually abused his own daughter.
Marilyn suffered from depression and became morbidly obese. She eventually moved into the basement of the family home. But by all accounts, Paul always appeared to be a happy boy, always smiling, polite, and well-mannered. He excelled at school and had a reputation for being a hard worker. When Paul was 16 his mother told him the truth about who his father really was, an Italian immigrant that Marilyn had been involved with much to her parents’ displeasure when she was younger. She married Kenneth Bernardo to appease her parents but rekindled her relationship with her first love soon after. At that point, Paul began to change. He would call his mother a “slob” or a “whore.”
He graduated from high school and attended the University of Toronto. Paul would begin to live out some of his darker sexual fantasies with the girls he met. He would humiliate them and often beat the women he dated while engaging in sex with them. Paul seemed to have met his match with Karla. She encouraged the sadistic side of his sexual fantasies and engaged in the dominant/submissive lifestyle they both seemed to enjoy.
Tammy Homolka
In early 1990, Paul started taking an interest in Tammy Homolka, Karla’s 15-year-old sister. Paul was now living with the Homolka’s and engaged to Karla. He had lost his job in 1990, but no one knew. He made money by smuggling cigarettes across the Canadian-US border.
Karla Homolka, who always wanted to please Paul, stole two drugs from the vet clinic she worked at. Both of them plotted to take Tammy’s virginity.
Their first attempt was on July 24, 1990, when Karla spiked her sister’s spaghetti dinner with the Halcion. Halcion is benzodiazepine and is similar to Valium. Paul started to rape Tammy while Karla Homolka watched. This lasted for about a minute when Tammy began to revive. They both quickly redressed her and left with Tammy never knowing what had happened.
On December 24, 1990, after dinner at the Homolka residence, they spiked Tammy’s eggnog so that she would pass out. Once everyone went to bed they enacted their plan. This was Karla’s Christmas present to Paul. They moved Tammy into the basement and undressed her. To ensure that Tammy would not wake up Karla held a cloth over her mouth soaked in Halothane, which is a liquid anesthesia used in pet surgeries. This drug is usually given through a vaporizer.
She did this while Paul raped her younger sister. Then Karla Homolka took her turn. All of this was captured on an 8mm videotape.
Tammy Unexpectedly Dies
Suddenly, Tammy began to choke all the while remaining unconscious. Paul and Karla quickly cleaned her up, redressed her, and moved her back to her bedroom before calling 911, but it was too late. Tammy Homolka was pronounced dead at St. Catharines General Hospital having never regained consciousness. Niagara Regional Police would question both Paul and Karla and ended up accepting their stories even though their behavior that evening was questionable.
The pair were vacuuming and washing laundry in the middle of the night. The coroner would conclude that Tammy had died of accidental causes due to asphyxiating on her vomit. A chemical burn on Tammy’s left cheek area and burns around her mouth were attributed to the gastric acid from her stomach when she threw up. There would be a second autopsy, but that would be years later that could not rule out smothering as a possible cause of death. The video taken that night would show Karla Homolka covering Tammy’s nose and mouth with the Halothane soaked cloth.
February 1991
Paul and Karla moved into their own home.
June 7, 1991
In June of 1991, Karla befriended Jane Doe, a 15-year-old girl who was working at a pet store that Karla frequented. She did this because she felt she was losing Paul to someone he had met on a bachelor trip to Florida. She invited her to a girls’ night out on June 7th and took her back to the home she shared with Paul at 57 Bayview Avenue.
Karla spiked Jane’s drink with Halcion, a benzodiazepine similar to Valium which induced sleep. This virgin was Karla’s wedding gift to Paul. Paul had always made it known to Karla that he was upset that Karla was not a virgin when they met. Paul videotaped Karla Homolka raping Jane before Paul vaginally and anally penetrated the unconscious girl.
When Jane woke up the next day she was nauseous and ended up vomiting believing that she had drunk too much for her first time. She had no memory of having been violated. Karla’s gift seemed to work as Paul cut off contact with the girl in Florida and the wedding was still on.
Leslie Mahaffy June 15, 1991
In the early morning hours of June 15, 1991, Leslie Mehaffy, a14-year-old had missed the curfew her parents had set. This was not the first time. Leslie had been attending a friend’s funeral that evening and did not return to her home in Bulrington in time. Her parents locked her out of the house.
Paul was in the area looking to steal license plates when he came across Leslie. Leslie asked if he had any cigarettes when she approached his car. Paul forced her into the car, blindfolded her, and took her to the house he shared with Karla Homolka on Bayview Avenue.
Paul and Karla would take turns sexually torturing, raping, and sodomizing Leslie. They would videotape the entire thing. Per Karla, Paul would end up strangling Leslie the next day. According to Paul, Karla had given her an overdose of drugs that killed her. Paul bought a dozen bags of cement at a local hardware store the next day. He would use his grandfather’s circular saw to cut up Leslie’s body and encase her in several cement blocks.
On Sunday, June 16th Karla and Paul invited Karla’s parents and sister, Lori, over for Father’s Day. All while Leslie was dead in the basement. The pair then took numerous trips to Gibson Lake where they would dump the blocks. One block, which weighed over 200 pounds, would not sink and was discovered on June 29, 1991, by a father and son who were out fishing. Leslie would be identified through her orthodontic records.
June 29, 1991, was also Paul and Karla’s wedding day in Niagara-by-the-Lake.
August 1991
Paul and Karla invited Jane to accompany them on a trip to their Port Dalhousie home to spend the night. Once again they plied her with Halocan and for a short time, she stopped breathing. Karla called 911 as Paul tried to revive her, which he was able to do. Karla called back 911 operator saying everything was “all right” and the EMTs were recalled. No follow-up was done by authorities.
December 22, 1991
In December 1991, Jane was still associating with Karla and Paul and was over at their house once again. Karla tried to pressure Jane into having sex with Paul, this time without being rendered unconscious. Jane became upset at the suggestion and left. She didn’t know what they had already done to her.
April 1992
Niagara Regional Police would reach out to the US Federal Bureau of Investigation specifically to their criminal profilers to help produce a psychological portrait of who their killer might be. The FBI felt that this murderer was a violent sexual predator who would likely kill again.
Kristen French April 16, 1992
On the afternoon of April 16, 1992, 15-year-old Kristen French was walking home from school the day before Easter break when she was stopped by a blonde woman asking for directions. Paul and Karla had been driving around St. Catherines looking for their next victim when they came upon Kristen in a church parking lot. While Kristen was distracted Paul came up behind the pair and put a knife to her throat and forced her into his gold Nissan.
Police were notified right away by Kristen’s parents when she didn’t arrive home from school and police found Kristen’s shoe and a torn piece of a Toronto map in the parking lot along with several witnesses who saw the abduction. Unfortunately, the witnesses gave the wrong make of the vehicle Paul was driving. A cream-colored Chevy Camero, not a gold Nissan.
For over the next three days, over the Easter Weekend, Paul and Karla would tape themselves torturing, raping, and sodomizing Kristen. They would force her to drink large quantities of alcohol to keep her compliant. She was never blindfolded. Per Karla’s testimony on the fourth day, before setting out to meet Karla’s parents for dinner, Paul strangled Kristen for seven minutes while Karla watched.
Per Paul, Karla beat Kristen with a rubber mallet because she tried to escape and put a noose around her neck that was secured to a hope chest and she strangled herself. Kristen’s nude body would be found in a ditch on April 30, 1992, in Burlington. Burlington is 45 minutes from St. Catherines and not far from where Leslie’s body was found. She had been washed and all of her hair was cut off.
May 15, 1992
The Green Ribbon Task Force is formed in May 1992 to investigate the Schoolgirl Murders. Leslie Maffay’s body is exhumed for further examination. They find bruises on her back similar to the injuries found on Kristen French. A connection was made between the two cases. That same month both Paul and Karla applied to change their last names to Teale, after the villain in the 1988 movie Criminal Law.
July 21, 1992
A re-enactment of Kristen French’s abduction is shown on tv in the hopes of generating some leads. This generated several thousand tips, but no major leads.
December 27, 1992
Karla Homolka arrives at St. Catharines General Hospital after having been severely beaten by Paul with a flashlight. She was brought to the hospital by her parents. She had severe bruising to her face, head, body, and some bruised if not broken ribs. Karla told the hospital staff and the Niagara Regional Police that she was a battered spouse and filed charges against Paul.
Paul was arrested and released on his own recognizance soon after. Karla never returned to her home with Paul and moved in with relatives.
The Beginning of the End
In November of 1988, Paul had been questioned by Toronto Metropolitan Police as tips had been received that he resembled a sketch of the rapist given by one of the victims. At the time he was questioned the police felt he was an unlikely suspect, but they still asked for and received hair, blood, and saliva samples from Paul.
In February 1993 after Paul Bernardo’s DNA sample was submitted to the Center of Forensic Sciences (CFS) his sample was finally tested and a match was made to the Scarborough Rapist. Paul was immediately placed under 24-hour surveillance.
On February 9, 1993, the Toronto Sexual Assault Squad interviewed Karla informing her of their suspicions that her husband was the Scarborough Rapist. Karla didn’t really answer any of their questions regarding the rapes but instead focused on her own assault at Paul’s hands. However, later that evening, she told her aunt and uncle that Paul was in fact the Scarborough Rapist and that they were involved in the Schoolgirl Murders. She even told them about the videotapes that were made.
On February 11, 1993, Karla Homolka met with an attorney looking to obtain full immunity if she was to testify for the Crown against her husband. Her attorney, George Walker, met with the prosecutor’s office on February 12th to work out a deal and told them about the supposed videotapes. These tapes of the murder victims were not found by the police when they searched the Bernardo residence. There was one tape found that featured Jane Doe being sexually assaulted.
Karla Cuts a Deal
The prosecutor’s office was not willing to give Karla full immunity. A deal was reached that Karla could plead guilty to two counts of manslaughter for two twelve year sentences to run concurrently. This deal was only good for one week at which time she would be charged with two counts of murder one and other various charges.
She took the deal. On May 13, 1993, the deal was finalized and Karla finally began to talk to investigators about what they wanted to know. Karla lead investigators through her home on May 17, 1993, and they were able to obtain DNA evidence and a receipt for the concrete used in the Maffay murder. On May 18, 1993, Paul Bernardo was charged with two counts of murder in the first degree, two counts of kidnapping, unlawful confinement, aggravated sexual assault, and one count of indignity to a human body. Karla Bernardo, now Teale (as it was approved in February 1993) was to be the Crown’s star witness.
What the Crown (prosecution) didn’t know that on May 3, 1993, Paul had given a letter to his lawyer, Ken Murray, with strict instructions to only open it once he was in his home. When he opened the letter it was directions to the second-story bathroom. Once there he was to remove a pod light in the ceiling and in the attic space he would find six 8mm video cassettes. Mr. Murray decided he would keep the tapes to use in Paul’s defense to discredit Karla once she had given her testimony on the stand.
Keep in mind that Murray had these tapes in his possession (and viewed them) seven days before Karla finalized her deal with prosecutors.
Tapes are Turned Over
On September 22, 1993, the tapes were finally turned over to the prosecution. Ken Murray had held on to them all summer and was worried about doing so. He consulted his own attorney who took this ethical dilemma to the Law Society of Upper Canada professional conduct committee for their thoughts. Their advice was to seal the tapes and turn them over to the judge presiding in Bernardo’s case and Murray was to immediately remove himself as Bernardo’s lawyer.
Which he did.
There was a media ban placed on all the Bernardo and Homolka proceedings by the judge on July 5, 1993, barring any media from reporting on the proceeding. This included television coverage, newspapers, and magazines. This did not include the internet nor any coverage from US media, especially from neighboring Buffalo and Detroit.
Once the public heard about the tapes and what they exposed (Karla was not an unwilling victim, but an accomplice) they were outraged about the “Deal with the Devil”, but nothing could be done at that point to renegotiate the deal. Supposedly these tapes showed Karla assaulting four female victims, having sex with a female prostitute from Atlantic City, and drugging what looked like an already unconscious victim.
Psychological Testing
Both Paul and Karla would undergo various psychological testing. One test, in particular, is the Psychopathy Checklist or the Hare Psychopathy Checklist-Revised. It was developed by the Canadian Psychologist Robert Hare in 1970. This checklist/psychological assessment assesses the presence of psychopathy in an individual. It’s a 20 item questionnaire of perceived personality traits. The maximum score in Canada is 40.
Paul scored 35/40 and Karla scored 5/40. In comparison, Bundy’s score was a 39/40, and Aileen Wuornos score was a 32/40.
May 18, 1995
In May 1995 Paul Bernardo’s trial begins. The trial would last for four months. Karla would spend 17 days on the stand. She would testify that both girls (Maffay & French) had been used as sex slaves. Kristen French was made to watch her father’s emotional plea on tv. She also claimed that Paul had boasted to her that he had raped up to 30 women.
Paul Bernardo was found guilty and sentenced to life in prison with no possibility of parole for 25 years. He was also placed on dangerous offender status making parole unlikely. In 2018 he was charged for weapons possession for having a homemade shank composed of a screw and a pen handle. This strike will be held against him when he comes up for parole again. He was eligible for parole starting in 2018.
Karla Homolka Prison Life & Today
Karla appeared to thrive in prison. She was transferred to the Joliet Prison, a low to medium-security prison where cells are more like dorm rooms. She earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology from Queens College. Karla became bi-lingual having learned to read, write, and speak French. She would serve 12 years and was released in 2005.
At first, prosecutors wanted restrictions placed on her, but Karla appealed them and won. Karla moved to the island of Guadeloupe (dependent territory of France) in the Caribbean under the name Leanne Bordelais with her new husband, Thierry Bordelais, and their three children. Karla met her new husband through his sister, Sylvie Bordelais, who was her lawyer while she was in prison.
Today, Karla lives in Quebec with her family. She briefly made the news in 2016 when parents of the school her children attended found out who she was and did not want her allowed on school property or to be able to attend school events.
Campbell Report
In 1996 Justice Archie Campbell submitted a report that was an investigative review of the Paul Bernardo Investigation. He looked at everything from the various police department’s handling of their investigations, to the coroner’s office, to how the forensic crime lab handled of evidence.
This is a little of what is in the report. You can find the whole thing by googling Bernardo Investigation Review Report by Justice Archie Campbell.
From May 1987 to December of 1992 Paul Bernardo raped upwards to 18 women in Scarborough, Peel, and St. Catherines areas and killed at least 3 young girls in St. Catharines and Burlington.
“Paul Bernardo is a unique type of criminal, a determined, organized, mobile, sadistic serial rapist, and killer who demonstrated the ability of such predators to strike in any Ontario community”.
DNA Sample that was Submitted on November 21
Serology results on December 13, 1990, showed that it was right for further DNA testing and the CFS was given the go-ahead from the Metropolitan Police to test and compare. Due to several factors namely not enough personnel to complete testing in a timely manner, Paul’s sample was not completed until February 1, 1993 ( 25 ½ months – a little over two years). Had testing been done when requested then a match could have been made in January 1991. During this time Paul raped four young women and killed two others.
Communications Between Various Police Investigations
There was no communication between these police forces or a linkage system at that time. Now ViCLAS is operational. Campbell states that these departments “might have well been in two different countries” also “when Bernardo stopped stalking and raping in Toronto and started stalking and raping and killing in St. Catherines and Burlington he might as well have moved to another country for a fresh start”.
Coroner
Campbell reported that it was “inappropriate” for Dr. Rosloski, the coroner who performed Tammy Holmolka’s autopsy, to put on his final report that her cause of death was by natural causes. Especially due to the fact that Tammy had an unexplained second-degree burn over the left side of her face and around her mouth. At the time, it was acceptable for coroners to list aspirations of vomit as a cause of death. This is no longer the case. They must have a good explanation as to the underlying causes.
If Tammy’s death had been ruled “undetermined” or “unexplained” it would have come to the attention of another police force GRTF when they checked the Niagara Police records on Paul in early May 1992.
Investigations
Campbell references the discrepancy between the 15 to 20 minute wait time before 911 was called in the death of Tammy Homolka. This is what Paul told the EMT, but to the detective, he said there was only a 2 to 3-minute wait. This discrepancy was not followed up on. If it had it might have led another detective who was investigating Paul in May 1992 to put him under a closer microscope.
Campbell also noted issues with the search done on Paul and Karla’s home at 57 Bayview. When Paul’s lawyer, Murray, left the house on May 6, 1993, with the videotapes – police had continued to have the home under surveillance. They had no cause to search Murray believing that he was an officer of the court and would not remove evidence from a murder scene. Police also failed in their attempt to find the videotapes and the failure to find those tapes had a major impact on the prosecution of both defendants.
Out of this report came 27 recommendations to ensure that lapses in investigations like this never happen again.
December 2001
Authorities in Canada determined that the videotapes had no future use and they were destroyed. Karla Homolka’s depositions from commenting on each of the tapes still exist and they remain sealed.
Resources
- 10 Little-Known Facts About The Ken And Barbie Killers
- Karla Leanne Homolka
- BERNARDO INVESTIGATION REVIEW SUMMARY REPORT OF MR. JUSTICE ARCHIE CAMPBELL JUNE 1996
- The new and self-improved Karla Homolka – Globe and Mail- Child rapist, killer and mutilator
- Karla Leanne Homolka
- Paul Bernardo
- Meet The Ken And Barbie Killers: Paul Bernardo And Karla Homolka
- The Fifth Estate Karla Homolka Part 1