Pod Insights Crime, Conspiracy, Cults and Murder Ep. 95 | The PURE EVIL Barbie and Ken Killers About this episode What happens when charm and cruelty collide behind closed doors? We unpack the chilling story of the so-called “Barbie and Ken Killers,” and the shocking twists that left Canada questioning justice itself.
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1:27 Speaker 02 A neat little house, picture-perfect smiles. The kind of couple you'd expect to see framed in wedding photos and in magazines. Not in police files. But they looked like a dream. Like the dream. Young, attractive, and confident. But behind closed doors, beneath the rehearsed charm and the fairy tale life, something was off. And these monsters didn't just hide in the shadows. They were center stage in the spotlight. This is the story of the Barbie and Ken killers. Crime, conspiracy, cults, serial killers, and murder. All things that I love to consume, and I know you do too, you sick, twisted, beautiful, intellectually-minded freak.
2:10 Speaker 02 Put a little sauce on it for you today. But today, we are talking, we are, we are, in all seriousness, talking about a very disturbing case, one that took place in Canada. So without further ado, let's unbuckle our seatbelts, go Machan down the highway, slam all the brakes, and bust through this windshield into this case together.
2:42 Speaker 02 Tammy Lynn Homolka was born in Port Credit, Mississauga, Ontario, on New Year's Day 1975. It was a birthday forever tied to celebration and the promise of new beginnings. As she would be the youngest of three, Carla came first, and then Laurie would follow, and then Tammy arrived five years after Carla, quickly defining her place as the baby in the family. And as a child, she was always moving. She ran and played and competed, and sports came very naturally to her, and people noticed her abilities really early on. So athletics were a part of her identity at that point, and her childhood as a whole appeared very stable, and unremarkable in the best way.
3:23 Speaker 02 And her and her family would go on vacations, and those vacations were spent out on Ostler Lake, sorry if I'm saying that wrong, where they would pass the days with swimming and campfires and shared meals. Just a simple kind of life, but beautiful. And Tammy looked up to her older sisters, especially Carla, and she wanted to be near her constantly, following her around, admiring everything that she did. But Carla, on the other hand, tried keeping her distance, more just tolerating her rather than embracing her, which is a pretty common sisterly dynamic, especially at around that age. She just wanted her independence. She didn't want to be a babysitter all the time. So by 1990, Tammy was already 15 years old, a grade 10 student at Sir Winston Churchill
4:07 Speaker 02 Secondary School in St. Catherine's. And her life followed a very steady schedule of school during the week and sports whenever she could possibly play them. And soccer was her true biggest passion, but she also loved Track and field and cross country. And she would obviously excel at all of them. But the Homolka household was welcoming. And Carol, Tammy's dad, worked as a traveling salesman. And he was known for his easygoing manner and general friendliness. And he also had a really thick accent and a very contagious laugh. And Dorothy, Tammy's mom, worked as a hospital secretary and managed the home. And Carla, Tammy's sister, described her as a supermom capable of anything and everything.
4:50 Speaker 02 So the family would move around a few times before settling on Dundonald Street in St. Catherine's. And they built a swimming pool in the backyard, which became a gathering place in their home. And people would constantly come over, making summers loud and really busy. But Christmas time was the true heart of the Homolka family calendar. Because year after year, the house would fill with relatives, neighbors, friends, and anyone that could attend. So the door was always open with Carol and Dorothy, ready to hand you a drink at any moment. And somewhere in the midst of all the merriment, a photo of the three sisters would be taken, shoulder to shoulder, kneeling and smiling in front of the tree. And these sorts of photos filled their photo albums. And each daughter seemed to have her own role in the household.
5:35 Speaker 02 And Carla would be known as the smart one. And Laura would be the social one. And Tammy was the athlete, of course. And she would fully embody that role. And on top of that, Tammy was also outgoing and just full of enthusiasm and willing to fully throw herself into whatever she did. And also, she was deeply, deeply caring, doing anything to help the ones she loves. So this holiday season was shaping up to be just like the rest. The family was gathered on the evening of December 3rd. Decorations were up, and the home videos captured laughter and joyful moments. But at some point during the evening, Tammy ventured down to the basement rec room. And Carla was there, and so was Paul. Now, Paul was her fiance that had become a regular part of the family.
6:20 Speaker 02 And at this point in the night, Tammy's parents had gone to bed upstairs, and Lori was elsewhere in the house. So Tammy's loved ones were all near, the people she really trusted the most. And all seemed to be merry and bright. But before we get into what happened next, we need to understand who Carla really was. So the five years separation in age between Carla and Tammy shaped the relationship from the very beginning. And by the time Tammy was old enough to follow her older sister around, Carla had already decided she existed on a whole different level. She was older, she was above it all. And even though they lived in the same house and answered to the same parents, in Carla's mind, they didn't live in the same world. Yet, when Carla suffered from asthma attacks, it was usually Tammy who stayed by her side,
7:05 Speaker 02 helping her through them. And Tammy would do anything for anyone, but especially for Carla, because she looked up to her as an older sister. And as the girls got older, the Homolka household grew louder and busier. And boys started coming around more frequently. And to anyone watching from the outside, it looked like a vibrant home full of outgoing teenage girls. And Carla was described as someone with deep sensitivities around rivalry and humiliation. She needed to feel superior. And as Tammy grew into adolescence, healthy and athletic and naturally likeable in ways that Carla simply was not, the gap between them became harder to ignore. But Carla was the eldest daughter, and with that position come certain responsibilities and privileges.
7:48 Speaker 02 And by the time both her sisters arrived, she had become used to being the center of attention. And her childhood looked quite different from Tammy's. Not because of a difference in parenting style, but due to her own interests and strengths. Because Carla wasn't drawn to the world of sports or physical activity, but instead enjoyed more intellectual pursuits. So while Tammy would effortlessly move through the outside world, Carla turned inward. And she'd spend hours reading and drawing, building worlds in her head, controlling the stories. And her health also brought its shares of complications. Because Carla suffered from chronic asthma, and the attacks could be rather serious. And sometimes it would be brought on by nothing more than excitement, and sometimes severe
8:33 Speaker 02 enough to land her in the hospital. But with illness came attention, and with pain came care. And at some At one point Carla learned a lesson about vulnerability. It could be a tool to make people focus on you. And she quickly demonstrated her intelligence in school where her teachers recognized her smarts when she was still very young. And she would learn to read faster than most and later testing showed her IQ to be above 130. And her memory was exceptional and she just absorbed information like a sponge. And Carla also understood that she was different from those around her and she believed she was special because of it, or better than people because of it. Because at one point after Paul, Carla's fiance, had entered the picture, Tammy showed
9:17 Speaker 02 affection towards him and the two sisters clashed openly. And whether Carla was consciously aware of any other building resentment is impossible to know, but the groundwork was laid. So Carla went to the same school Tammy would later attend, Sir Winston Churchill Secondary School in St. Catherine's. And she continued to thrive academically and teachers took a liking to her because she spoke up in class and carried herself with confidence, rarely seeming uncertain about anything. But she wasn't part of the popular crowd necessarily and had no interest in being part of it because, remember, she thought she was kind of above everyone. And in her mind, she was just meant for something bigger, something beyond her classmates and current circumstances.
9:58 Speaker 02 So people who knew her in those years described her as stubborn and strong-willed. And once Carla set her sights on something, she didn't let go until she had it. So she wasn't easily intimidated by anyone and her interests shifted as she got older. And the childhood books gave way to romance novels, then to mystery novels. And she allegedly became obsessed with crime after discovering Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys. And she started writing her own stories and a theme emerged. And nearly all of them centered on a girl who was adored, a princess type, claimed by someone who would never let her go. And when Carla became interested in something, she fully consumed it.
10:39 Speaker 02 And friends noticed the intensity and some found it unsettling. And she immersed herself in Michael Jackson's Thriller music video, watching it hundreds of times. And she wanted to be Olivia Newton-John, dressing and dancing just like her. And there were incidents during those years that stuck with people, like she threw a friend's pet hamster from a second-story window, and it took the hamster two weeks to die afterwards. And Renya, Carla's friend, noted that she, quote, "showed no remorse and looked like she enjoyed the whole thing," unquote. Dear fucking god. And Carla later made Renya dig up the hamster after it was buried so she could "mess with it." Red frickin' black!
11:23 Speaker 02 And she also snuck out to dig up her cat, Mishka, at one point, just to see what the dead body looked like. And at the same time, Carla projected a completely different image, because she loved animals and talked about wanting to become a veterinarian someday. And in class, she refused to harm insects, even dissecting a worm. And she once told some boys in her class, quote, "You shouldn't kill it, it's wrong to kill anything," unquote, when they were about to step on a beetle. So to anyone on the outside, she seemed very gentle and compassionate, but both versions of Carla existed at once. And she experienced mood swings, and one friend noted, quote, "At times she seemed
12:05 Speaker 02 elated and at other times she would hardly speak at all for weeks at a time," unquote. And by her mid-teens, she had started experimenting with sex and with drugs and with older boys. And relationships came and went quickly because she got bored pretty easily, because what she wanted was something that felt bigger than ordinary life, something exciting in her eyes. And she even formed the Exclusive Diamond Club with her friends, where they talked about moving to California and a rich man's engagement ring would be their ticket to anywhere outside of St. Catherine's. And she also found interest in the occult, reading books about witchcraft, and her favorite book was allegedly about satanic abuse.
12:47 Speaker 02 And by the time she was seventeen, Carla had taken a job at a pet shop inside the Penn Center Mall, so perfectly aligning with the vision of herself she wanted people to see as responsible, intelligent, and gentle with animals. And then she would finish high school and receive acceptance letters from universities, but turn them all down, because university just felt too slow for her, too confining, because she wanted more, she just always wanted more. And around the same time, her relationship with her father began to worsen, and she saw him as weak. A man who didn't measure up to the life she had already started imagining for herself. She wanted a man who could fulfill her fantasies that had been living in her mind for as long as she could remember.
13:30 Speaker 02 And growing up, Carla had collected dozens of Barbie and Ken dolls, and she loved everything about them. Quote, "Because everything about them was just so perfect, from Barbie's hair to house, even her underwear. It was a wonderful pretend family in a beautiful pretend world." Unquote. And now, in her teens, she projected that perfection and pure image to the outside world. Meanwhile, she continued exploring her sexuality with a special appreciation for kinky sex, trying out handcuffs, and more. And Carla would love "dirty talk." Quote, unquote. And even with that pristine, outer-facing image, later psychiatric evaluations would claim, "Amolka remains something of a diagnostic mystery.
14:13 Speaker 02 Despite her ability to present herself very well, there is a moral emptiness in her which is difficult, if not impossible, to explain." Unquote. So by the fall of 1987, Carla's desperation for something greater was at an all-time high. But little did she know, she was about to meet Paul Bernardo. So Paul Kenneth Bernardo was born the youngest of three kids on August 27, 1964, in Scarborough, Ontario. And on paper, the Bernardo's seemed respectable. His father, Kenneth, worked as an accountant, while his mother, Marilyn, had grown up in a stable, affluent household after being adopted as a young child. But inside the home, it was a different story entirely.
14:54 Speaker 02 Kenneth was violent and verbally cruel, and he belittled his wife openly, calling her "a bitch" and "a big fat cow." But that was the least of his offenses, because he was a predator. Because in 1975, he was charged with child molestation. And he was known around the neighborhood as a "Peeping Tom." And he even sexually abused his own daughter. And he even essayed his own daughter. And sometimes, in front of other family members, this man was a monster. So the abuse didn't happen in secret, it happened openly and brazenly, as if the rules that governed other families simply didn't apply to theirs. So he made no effort to hide it, and no one stopped him either.
15:37 Speaker 02 And the neighbors knew him too for who he truly was. They called him "a Peeping Tom," because they would catch him lurking outside windows after dark. The police are a thing. In this, in this era, what's going on here? Call the cops. And luckily, someone did. And in 1975, he was charged with child molestation after assaying a girl who lived nearby. So the household Paul grew up in was dysfunctional, to say the least. It was actually just predatory. And young Paul was watching. And young Paul was learning, absorbing lessons about what men were allowed to do in his mind, and about what they could get away with. And Marilyn, for her part, battled severe depression and anxiety.
16:22 Speaker 02 And as the years passed, she pulled further and further away from the family, becoming isolated. But the most damaging truth of all remained buried, because Paul was not actually Kenneth's biological son. Because Marilyn had conceived him during an affair years earlier, and the secret had been kept from Paul his entire childhood. Yet even before anyone told him, Paul seemed to sense something was off. Because he always felt like he didn't quite belong, like he was being treated differently, and that unease would never leave him. And despite the chaos at home doors, Paul learned to perform. And he was polite and smiled easily, and adults found him charming and well-mannered. And he joined the Scouts and earned the Chief Scout Award even.
17:06 Speaker 02 And he later worked as a camp counselor where parents trusted him and the kids loved him. But there were early signs. And around the age of 10, he and friends started setting fires with magnifying glasses. And he learned very early how to split himself in two. And the gap between the boy people saw and the life he actually lived became one of the defining features of who he really was. Similar to who? Carla. But Paul went to Sir Wilford Laureate High School in Scarborough and graduated in 1982. And from there, he enrolled at the University of Toronto's Scarborough campus to study accounting, following in his father's footsteps. And physically, he drew attention.
17:49 Speaker 02 As a tall, blonde, impeccably groomed young man, he looked like someone people trusted instinctively. Not me. I don't trust adult blond men. Out of the gate, at least. I don't know what it is, I just don't. I feel like a lot of us can agree, if you're an adult man with blonde hair, sorry, this doesn't apply to you. You're a good person if you watch this channel, automatically. Anyway, but before college, at the age of 16, Paul's world would shift. And during a heated argument between his parents, Marilyn told Paul the truth about his father. Kenneth was not his real dad. And Paul met the situation with immediate disgust, followed by rage, and he turned on his mother, hurling the same degrading insults he had spent his childhood
18:34 Speaker 02 hearing inside of the house. And the revelation did more than just anger him, it shattered the already fragile foundation of his identity. Because for years, Paul sensed something was off, that he was treated differently, and that he didn't quite belong. And now he understood why, because he wasn't Kenneth's son. He was the product of his mother's affair, living proof of her betrayal. So the man who had raised him, the man whose footsteps he had followed into accounting, wasn't even his real father. And some who studied Paul later would point to this moment as a psychological turning point. The moment when whatever fragile sense of self he had constructed just came apart, and something darker took place. And he began calling his mother "the horror of the world", and she
19:19 Speaker 02 would call him "a bastard from hell". God, this family is just evil. Bad family. So the words just became weapons, and the damage was permanent. And control became the defining feature in his relationships. And girlfriends from those early years would later describe him as possessive and domineering. Because when a young woman tried to end things with Paul, Paul responded by violently destroying her things in a fire. Can't imagine why she broke up with you, Paul? That's crazy! But this behavior only intensified with time. And by his early twenties, a clear pattern started to emerge. Because Paul was everything a partner could want at the start. He was attentive, and generous, and charming, what we would call now love-bombing.
20:02 Speaker 02 And he impressed the families and warmed up to them, playing the role of the ideal boyfriend with precision. But once he felt secure in the relationship, and once he believed... He had control, the abuse would start, and he'd humiliate them in public, then he'd escalate his aggression in bed, and then the relationships would become more and more violent, and he'd threaten to kill them if they ever told people about the abuse. And some of the women he dated had the courage to go to the police, thank goodness, and restraining orders were filed, but still, nothing stopped him. So Paul's understanding of women was built entirely around domination. He was never looking for a partner, he only wanted someone to control. And during
20:43 Speaker 02 his university years, he shared fantasies with friends that went far beyond troubling, including the virgin farm fantasy, which he described to his friend Van initially as a, quote, "stockpile of women that he wanted to have sex with him," unquote. But eventually became a place that he would "breed virgin girls to rape." Fucking disgusting. So he spoke about women as though they were "objects." And a friend, Alex Smirnus, mentioned that Paul, quote, "preferred women who were petite, small, and not too bright," unquote. And also said that he, quote, "often had two or more girls on the go at the same time," unquote. So his
21:24 Speaker 02 real-world behavior grew increasingly more violent, and he'd demand total submission during sex, getting pleasure from causing pain, so he's a sadist. And he'd refer to himself as "the king" and expected his partners to treat themselves as servants. And their fear and their discomfort and their suffering excited him. But to the outside world, Paul appeared to be succeeding. After finishing his degree, he landed a position as a junior accountant at a respected firm, and he dressed well and spoke with confidence and invested heavily in his image. And he bought all sorts of self-improvement and get-rich materials, implementing them at his job and at bars when he would try out new pickup techniques. But behind the image, he had already become a
22:08 Speaker 02 predator. And before Carla ever entered his life, Paul had been attacking women, and not just the ones he was dating, young women, teenage girls. He stalked them after dark, often near bus stops in quiet neighborhoods. neighborhoods and he used a knife to make them cooperate. And during the assaults, he talked constantly, demanding specific words from his victims, just total incomplete submission from them. Because control alone wasn't enough for him. He needed absolute domination. And at a local bar one evening, an acquaintance recalled that he even, quote, "started talking about committing the perfect murder." And quote, "If you were ever to kill someone and wanted to dispose of the body, cut the body up, put it in cement, and drop it in the river."
22:52 Speaker 02 Unquote. That is what Paul would say to this acquaintance. So by day, he played the part of an ambitious young professional, but by night, he prowled the same Scarborough streets where he had grown up. So Paul and Carla first crossed paths in October of 1987 at a hotel restaurant in Scarborough. And Carla was there for a pet convention. And she was seventeen and Paul was twenty-three. And the attraction between them was immediate. And within hours of meeting, they were alone in a hotel room. And by the time the night ended, they had slept together. But unlike Paul's usual routine, he didn't disappear afterward. And he actually kept in touch. And to Carla, Paul seemed like everything she had been waiting for.
23:37 Speaker 02 He was older and successful, and he had money and spent it freely, making her feel chosen. And she'd later say that she knew almost immediately that she was going to marry him. And to Paul, Carla represented something he had never encountered before. She was young and eager, but most importantly, she was receptive. Other women backed away from his darker impulses, but Carla didn't resist. She leaned in, validating him. She participated willingly, just a couple of fucking psychopath monsters. Because Paul had spent years learning how to identify women who might embrace domination. And in Carla, he found a partner. And by the time their lives became intertwined, Paul was already a dangerous man living two lives.
24:22 Speaker 02 But now, for the first time, he wouldn't be operating alone. So the relationship between Paul and Carla outwardly looked like a whirlwind romance. They became ...separable almost from the moment they met. And Paul drove hours to see her and Carla rearranged her entire life to accommodate him. And Paul played his part flawlessly. He paid attention to her, showered her with gifts, took her to upscale restaurants and spoke to her as though she were the only woman in the world, love bombing. And Carla gave herself over to him completely and she described a perfect relationship in letters to her friends saying, quote, "Paul and I are happier than ever. He's being so great, so romantic, but that's typical of my honey," unquote.
25:05 Speaker 02 But there were no red flags in her own telling. She was all in. And early in the relationship, Paul even asked her, quote, "What would she think if he was a rapist?" No red flags there, Carla? Okay, you fucking monster. And she would think it was cool. I have no words. Um, and according to one account, he started to S.A. women in earnest after that conversation. But the relationship continued progressing quickly and the two were engaged on December 24th, 1989. And the Homolka family saw nothing alarming either, because Paul was always polite when he came around, charming not only Carla but all of them as well.
25:48 Speaker 02 And he fit right in to their family gatherings seamlessly. But what none of them could see was how quickly affection had already begun to turn into something else. And behind closed doors, things changed quickly. Paul introduced violence into their sex life almost from the beginning, framing it as exploration. And Carla went along with it willingly, even enthusiastically at times. And Paul documented what they did together and he took pictures of their acts and Carla happily posed for them. And none were taken without her awareness or consent. Note that, she consented to all of this and was enthusiastic about that, alright? And one picture in particular showed the two intimate while he strangled her with a
26:33 Speaker 02 rope and held a knife to her head. And Stephen Williams, author of Invisible Darkness, describes, quote, "Carla handcuffed on her knees and..." begging for him was scratching an itch unquote and friends of Carla's discovered handcuffs in her bedroom and when they asked about them she casually explained that Paul enjoys playing games in bed and the violence only escalated from there and Paul allegedly began hitting Carla during arguments in addition to during sexual encounters so his need for control bled into every corner of her life dictating what she wore how she styled herself what she ate and how she behaved and he constantly insulted her calling her
27:14 Speaker 02 ugly and fat and Carla absorbed those insults even writing them down so no I don't obviously agree with him calling her those names and I feel bad that he called her those names but I'm not letting her off just because she stayed in this relationship and we're gonna get into it more but I'm just I'm gonna let you paint your own picture of what's going on alright but she would treat these insults like instructions rules for how to stay in his good graces and she even wrote a self-improvement list quote be a perfect girlfriend for Paul remember you're stupid remember you're ugly remember you're fat I don't know why I tell you these things because you never change unquote very sad
27:55 Speaker 02 very sad but also I don't feel bad for her because what she's gonna do and I don't I don't know and because Carla never tried to leave she didn't go to the police or confide in friends or family she just adapted her behavior to meet his expectations and it wasn't in a Stockholm syndrome type way because I do have empathy for women that are stuck in relationships like that and they actually think those things about themselves and they feel like they can't get out this isn't this is not the same thing let me make that so very clear okay there might be a tiny little small element of that but that does not rid her of of the things that she will commit because Carla was not passive and she absolutely was not helpless and in other areas of her life she remained confident
28:35 Speaker 02 and assertive so the relationship was abusive no question but it was not a simple dynamic of predator and prey the motivation and participation seemed to run in both directions so as the relationship grew stronger Carla noticed something Paul paid special attention to And that was Tammy, her younger sister. He was always watching her and finding excuses to be near her. And Paul later confirmed that his attraction to Tammy, quote unquote, "began in July of 1990." So that summer, his demands escalated. And he told Carla he wanted to have sex with Tammy. And Carla would later testify that she was, quote, "totally against the idea," unquote.
29:18 Speaker 02 Bombastic side-eyeing Carla right now, and you'll understand that later on. But she claimed Paul threatened her and hit her and wore her down over time. "You... there's nothing you could do to me that would force me to let you do something to my sister. You would have to kill me before that happened. So shut the fuck up, Carla," you know?
29:43 Speaker 02 I... I'm getting angry in this one, I'm sorry. I'm getting angry in this one. Because the evidence tells a completely different story also. Because Paul's obsession with Tammy would deepen. And he started looking through Tammy's bedroom window. And he would enter her room at night to masturbate while she slept. And Carla even helped by breaking the windows in her sister's room to give him access. Monster. But Paul's focus was singular, and that was virginity. Because Carla wasn't a virgin when they met, and he never let her forget it. And he called her "used goods." And in his mind, this meant that Carla owed him something. And she had taken something from him, and now she needed to give it back.
30:27 Speaker 02 And he would actually make her wear Tammy's clothes during their sexual encounters, and had her say specific things like, "My name is Tammy, I'm 15 years old. I'm your virgin and I want to marry you." This, it, it just gets, it's just... If there wasn't already a trigger warning, I apologize. Here's a, here's a trigger warning, like, it, it will just get worse from here. But for a sister to be okay with that and to stay in a relationship with someone that is willing to just... Put their own sister in this situation, it just makes me, it makes me ill, it makes me sick to my stomach. But that resentment eventually turned into a demand, and so Carla agreed to give Paul what he wanted.
31:11 Speaker 02 And she promised him her sister as a gift to satisfy him and secure the relationship. And Paul insisted Tammy would never know, that it'd be brief and no real harm would come from it. And she believed him, and Carla later framed her reasoning as a way to minimize risk and take control and keep it all in the family, instead of allowing Paul to seek out other young girls who might expose him. So she's protecting him by letting him rape her sister, instead of letting him get exposed, instead of reporting him before he can do anything to anybody else. So yeah, you're equally the monster, Carla.
31:53 Speaker 02 And criminal profiler Candace Scrapick offered a different interpretation. And like myself, she believed Carla was a malignant narcissist who couldn't handle her fiance's attraction to her younger sister. Ding ding ding, we have a winner. And her solution was simple: remove Tammy from the equation. And Carla chose to prioritize her relationship with Paul over her sister's safety. But the first attempt came months before the final plan was set. And in July of 1990, they made a spaghetti dinner for Tammy and laced it with Valium that Carla had taken from her workplace. And while Tammy was sedated, Paul did SA her for roughly a minute.
32:35 Speaker 02 And it was only a minute because the meds weren't strong enough and she started waking up. And they had to stop then, but they didn't abandon the idea fully. They just knew they had to get stronger meds now. So Carla went back to the Martindale Animal Clinic in St. Catherine's and stole a bottle of Halothane, which is a liquid general anesthetic designed for use on animals. And it's been described as quote "twice as potent as chloroform and four times as potent as ether", unquote. And she also secured a supply of Halcyon, a strong sedative, by filling a ...prescription. So as someone who worked with these drugs, Carla understood what she was handling and she understood what she was about to put in her sister's body. And
33:17 Speaker 02 she knew the potency and the drugs and the risks. Yet she moved forward anyway. And Paul chose the night himself. December 23rd, 1990. Quote, "This is the day I want to do this." Unquote. He would tell Carla and quote, "It would be a great Christmas present for me." Unquote. Just, just chills in the worst way. So they would invite Tammy down to the basement while the whole family slept, just days away from Christmas, and they would drug Tammy and Paul would have his way with her. As to Paul, this was something he had earned, something Carla owed him. So the two of them made their preparations without any second
33:59 Speaker 02 thoughts. And the drugs were secured and the video camera was ready. And Tammy, now just over a week away from turning 16, suspected nothing. So December 23rd, 1990 began like any other holiday gathering at the Homolka household. The Christmas decorations were already up and the house hummed with conversation with everyone preparing for their favorite time of year. And the whole family was there that evening. Carol and Dorothy, Lori, Carla, and Carla's fiance, Paul. And Paul had brought his new video camera and he recorded the scene as it unfolded. Mr. And Mrs. Homolka, the three daughters, the tree and the decorations. And as a party wound down and it started getting late, Carol and Dorothy headed upstairs
34:42 Speaker 02 to bed and Lori would do the same. But Carla encouraged Tammy to stay up a little longer. They could watch a movie together, just the three of them in the basement rec room. And throughout the evening, Carla and Paul kept Tammy's glass full of rum and eggnog. And they would just hand it to her casually like it was nothing. And what Tammy didn't know was that her drinks had been spiked with crushed halcyon. And Tammy had no reason to feel afraid. She was in her own home. She felt the safest she ever felt, surrounded by the people she trusted most. She had no way of knowing that trust would be used against her. So the drug's effects began to take hold, and combined with the alcohol Tammy had been consuming throughout the evening, it completely knocked her out unconscious.
35:27 Speaker 02 So she slumped onto the basement couch. So everything was unfolding exactly as Carla and Paul had planned. And that's when Carla went to grab the halothane she had stolen, because it's supposed to be given using a vaporizer, inserting a breathing tube, and keeping resuscitation equipment nearby in case of emergency. That's how serious this drug is. But of course, she disregarded all of those protocols. And instead, she soaked a cloth in liquid anesthetic and pressed it directly against her younger sister's face. And both Paul and Carla would SA her. And they would also record it, passing the camera back and forth between them. And upstairs, the rest of the Homolka family slept through it all.
36:12 Speaker 02 And no one heard anything out of place, and no one came downstairs to check. And at some point during the assault, Tammy would stop breathing. In moments after they finished, Tammy started vomiting. And she was still unconscious, and the sedatives and the anesthetic had numbed her reflexes. So she tried to breathe, but only managed to draw vomit down into her lungs. So Carla and Paul would scramble to bring her back. And Carla would try the same technique used at the vet clinic, holding her sister upside down in an attempt to clear the blockage from her throat. But nothing helped, because Tammy was too drugged, and she would not wake up. And the vomiting, as Dr. Ray Matthews, an anesthesiologist later said in testimony,
36:55 Speaker 02 was most likely a direct result of the halothane exposure. And a pharmaceutical guidebook later recovered from the Bernardo residence explicitly identified nausea and vomiting as a known side effect of the drug. And on top of that, Tammy had been on her period that evening, and menstruating women face elevated risks of post-anesthetic vomiting. A fact that someone with Carla's veterinary background may have been aware of. As if all of this wasn't horrid enough. So Carla understood that halothane was a high-risk substance. And she knew full well that it required specialized equipment to be used safely. And she knew what could happen with those precautions. And among the documented outcomes of halothane overdose is death.
37:40 Speaker 02 And what Paul and Carla had treated as just a quick thing had become... Final, quote-unquote, "no real harm" had become the ultimate harm. But they did not call 911, at least not right away. And they didn't rush upstairs to alert her parents or Lori. Their attention turned almost immediately to self-preservation because they're raging, sadistic, narcissistic psychopaths. And saving Tammy was no longer their concern. The only priority was saving themselves. The assault most likely concluded sometime between 11:30 PM at midnight. But the call for the ambulance didn't go out until 1:18 AM, leaving roughly an hour unaccounted for. And during that window, Paul and Carla worked quickly.
38:25 Speaker 02 They dressed Tammy's body, carried her from the recreation room to her basement bedroom, hid the tape, ran laundry, and cleaned up everything that they could. And by the time they were finished, the basement told a different story than the one that had actually unfolded there. And paramedics arrived at the house at 1:25 AM to find Tammy, unresponsive. Quote, "All vital signs absent," unquote. And her pupils were, quote, "fully fixated and dilated," unquote. And they did what they could, inserting a breathing tube and connecting a heart monitor. And they delivered shocks to her heart at 1:29 AM, again at 1:31 AM, and once more at 1:33 AM. But the monitor never registered anything beyond a flat line.
39:07 Speaker 02 And Tammy was rushed to St. Catherine's General Hospital, where she would be pronounced dead without ever regaining consciousness. And Paul and Carla offered the same explanation to everyone who asked. Tammy had too much to drink, causing her to vomit in her sleep and stop breathing. And doctors initially accepted that explanation, and their own conclusion matched the story. And when investigators asked about the physical burn mark on Tammy's face, Paul had an answer ready. He said it was a carpet burn, caused by dragging her across the floor while trying to save her life. So what was supposed to be a wonderful holiday celebration had now taken an unthinkable turn. And Christmas passed, filled with shock and grief. So Tammy would be buried.
39:51 Speaker 02 And at the funeral, witnesses observed Paul standing beside the Open casket and they watched him stroke Tammy's body. But somehow no suspicion was on him or Carla. And the household slowly returned to routine, carrying this immense weight without understanding its true cause. So Tammy Lynn Homolka died on Christmas Eve inside of her own home, surrounded by the people she believed she could trust. And for years, no one knew what really happened. So immediately following Tammy's death, no one questioned the story they had been told. And three months later, local coroner Joseph Roslovsky made it official. The cause of death was recorded as, quote, "asphyxia due to aspiration of stomach contents",
40:36 Speaker 02 unquote. And the classification was accidental. Case closed. And medical professionals determined that Tammy choked on her own vomit after drinking, just as the story was told. A tragic accident and nothing more. And the halcyon that had been dissolved into her drinks was never detected. And the halothane that had been pressed against her face was never identified. And no criminal investigation followed and no suspicion fell on Paul or Carla. And no one seemed to question their involvement either. So the Homolkas were to bury their youngest daughter believing a lie and an incorrect determination of death. And Carol was barely functional in the aftermath. And Dorothy moved through each day in a fog of disbelief.
41:20 Speaker 02 And together, they buried Tammy at Victorian Lawn Cemetery in St. Catherine's. And the investigation ended almost as quickly as it had begun. And that, by all appearances, was supposed to be the end of it. But there were signs, questions that should have been asked, details that didn't quite fit. And the most glaring of them was the burn on Tammy's face. Because on Christmas Eve morning, Police Identification Officer George Onick photographed Tammy's body in the morgue. And the images showed a large, angry red mark covering nearly all of her left cheek. But the edges weren't soft, they were sharp, clearly an outline. That's not the kind of mark you'd expect from friction against carpet. But still, the police accepted Paul's
42:05 Speaker 02 explanation. But according to one account, the original police report suggests that neither Onick nor other officers fully believed the story. And they doubted that a perfectly healthy teenage girl had simply stopped breathing after drinking too much, and that the burn on her face was really caused by carpet. And yet, no one pursued it further. And the officer who ultimately closed the file made a single note, quote, "The source of the burn-like lesions about the face remained unexplained," unquote. So he wrote it down, and then he closed the case anyway. It's infuriating. And the drugs in Tammy's system went undetected because no one thought to even look for them. And the preliminary toxicology screen came
42:47 Speaker 02 back clean. Because her death had been treated as accidental from the start, there was no reason to dig deeper. But the burn told its own story. And years later, in 1993, Tammy's body was exhumed. Forensic pathologist Dr. Noel McAuliffe conducted a second autopsy and discovered traces of halcyon still present in her liver, kidneys, and intestines, evidence that had been missed entirely the first time around. And Dr. Vincent DiMaio, chief medical examiner for Bexar County, Texas, reviewed the case in 2001, examining the morgue photographs of Tammy's face closely. And his conclusion was clear: The injury was not caused by carpet. The "clearly demarcated edges," demarcated just means that they're clearly defined,
43:32 Speaker 02 he explained, indicated that halothane, quote-unquote, had pooled beneath Tammy's cheek, suggesting a significant amount of the drug had soaked through the cloth and made sustained contact with her skin. And the smaller lesions visible around her nose and mouth were consistent with a, quote, "a hand pushing the cloth against the face," unquote. And he further suggested that, quote, "an expiring Tammy may have lain in this condition for some time," unquote. And Dr. David King, the pathologist who signed Tammy's second autopsy report, came to a similar conclusion. And he confirmed that halothane had caused the chemical burn and directly contradicted Carla's later testimony.
44:12 Speaker 02 "You're not going to get halothane burn by waving a halothane-soaked rag several inches away from the skin," he would say. And as for the original ruling, asphyxiation due to aspiration of stomach contents, De Mayo was blunt, "Aspiration is a bullshit diagnosis. We never sign anybody out of here with that as the cause of death. As a finding, it's meaningless." Which, again, is infuriating that that went through. But sadly, none of this came to light at the time. And in 1991, every one of these threads went unpursued, and no one examined the circumstances with enough scrutiny to challenge the story that had been offered. So that lack of suspicion became self-perpetuating, because the death had been classified as
44:55 Speaker 02 accidental, so no deeper investigation was ever launched. And because no investigation was launched, no evidence of wrongdoing was ever uncovered. And much of the physical evidence from that night was eventually disposed of, and Onyx photo negatives were filed away and forgotten, much like the situation as a whole. So Paul and Carla faced no consequences whatsoever, and they resumed their lives almost immediately. Paul went back to his work and his routines, and Carla stayed by his side. And if anything, their relationship just grew stronger, which is fucking disgusting. Because what they had done together had forged a new kind of bond between them, a shared secret, a shared crime, and neither showed any visible sign of remorse.
45:39 Speaker 02 And less than two months after Tammy's death, Carla wrote a letter to a friend expressing frustration with her parents mourning, saying, "My father doesn't even want us to have a wedding anymore." She complained. "Screw that, we're having a good time. If he wants to sit at home and be miserable, he's welcome to. He's only worked a day since Tammy died. He's wallowing in his own misery." Just a beast of a woman. And some sources say they left willingly, and others say they were kicked out, but either way, they relocated to a rented bungalow in Port Dalhousie. And the fact that they weren't caught or even suspected just emboldened them. And the most terrible thing they had ever done had gone completely undetected. Because the
46:22 Speaker 02 had believed their story and the world had moved on and they had learned a dangerous lesson they could get away with it and according to author Stephen Williams that lesson was put into practice almost immediately and barely three weeks after Tammy's death after they murdered Tammy Paul abducted another girl during the weekend of January 12th 1991 and he would SA her while Carla watched and afterward he abandoned her on a deserted road near Lake Gibson and they referred to her as January girl and then on April 6th 1991 Paul targeted a 14-year-old girl who had been training for a local rowing team
47:04 Speaker 02 a blonde woman waved at the girl from a parked car catching her attention distracting her just long enough for Paul to drag her into a nearby shrubbery and SA her and the blonde woman was of course Carla so what happened to Tammy was only the beginning and no one was paying attention but before they had moved out while the family was still deep in mourning Paul and Carla recorded a video together and they called it the fireside chat and it was filmed in the basement recreation room the same room where Tammy had suffered and on camera Carla admitted to Paul that she had enjoyed watching him rape her sister and she told him she wanted to leave a rose at Tammy's gravesite and then the filming
47:47 Speaker 02 moved to Tammy's bedroom and Carla put on her dead sister's clothes pretending to be Tammy and she and Paul had relations on Tammy's bed and during the recording Carla pitched a new idea and she suggested they begin abducting girls together and keep them as sex slaves and Paul asked when they should start and Carla responded this summer because the winter time is too hard they're like this is like the epitome of evil like I like
48:18 Speaker 02 At the point of this recording, all this Epstein stuff is going on, and this is just like, this is evil doesn't seem believable, but it is so prevalent and so
48:29 Speaker 02 just widespread. It's, it makes me want to vomit. It is so sickening. So in 1991, there was a girl who moved within the same social circles as Carla, and she was someone Carla knew personally, someone who trusted her. Her identity has been shielded by court order, now referred to only as Jane Doe, so I will be referring to her as Jane Doe. And she was 15 years old at the time, the same age Tammy had been when she passed away. And like Carla, Jane worked at a pet shop. And they had met when Jane was just 13 and Carla was six years older. So to Jane, Carla seemed like just the kind of woman a young teenager might admire and want to emulate.
49:10 Speaker 02 And according to one account, Jane, quote, "idolized the pretty older woman," unquote. But she had no idea who Carla really was. And despite the relationship seeming strong on the outside, Carla had fears that she was losing Paul to a woman he had recently met on a trip. So naturally, her solution was to find another virgin to present to him as a wedding gift for their upcoming special day. Carla, Paul, and Jane began spending more time together, though Jane was unaware that she had been identified as a target. And Jane's mother, Mary Doe, felt uneasy from the beginning. And she couldn't figure out why a grown married couple would take such an interest in a teenage girl so much younger than themselves.
49:55 Speaker 02 Quote, "Where were their friends?" unquote, she'd later ask. And Mrs. Doe tried to intervene, and she screened her daughter's phone calls and monitored the answering machine. And she did what she could to limit contact between Jane and the couple. And when Paul began giving Jane gifts, her mother confronted him directly. "They didn't need his generosity," she told him. "They could afford to buy their daughter whatever she needed." And his reply unsettled her, and he said, quote, "I like to give gifts to my girlfriends," unquote. And Jane was a teenager who still operated under the assumption that adults, especially familiar ones, could be trusted. So she spent time with Carla and Paul without suspicion. And to her, Carla was friendly and warm, and there was nothing about their interactions
50:40 Speaker 02 that suggested danger. So three weeks before Paul and Carla were scheduled to marry on June 7, 1991, Carla invited Jane over for a girls' night out. And afterwards, she brought the teenager back to their house, and a familiar pattern began. Carla gave Jane drinks throughout the evening mixed with sedatives, the same method she used on Tammy six months earlier. And Jane trusted Carla and accepted the drinks willingly. And as the drugs took hold, Jane grew drowsy. And when she lost consciousness, Carla called for Paul, and his surprise wedding gift was ready. And together, they undressed her, and Carla essayed her first, and then Paul. And then again, they recorded the entire thing.
51:25 Speaker 02 And the videotapes captured later would show Carla glancing up at the camera during the assault, smiling and blowing kisses. There was zero evidence of hesitation or reluctance. And when the assault was over, Jane was allowed to regain consciousness, and she was returned to her normal surroundings as if nothing had happened. And the attack mirrored what had happened to Tammy in nearly every aspect, except that Jane survived, thankfully, but she had no idea what had occurred while she was unconscious. And Paul and Carla intended to keep it that way. So Jane woke up the following morning feeling sick and sore. Something felt wrong, but she didn't know why. The drugs had erased her memory entirely, so the friendship just continued.
52:10 Speaker 02 And Jane still believed Carla was someone she could trust, and she even accompanied Paul and Carla on a trip to Toronto in the weeks that followed. And then, in August, Carla invited Jane back to the house once again for another sleepover, and they drugged her again, but this time with both halcyon and halothane. And just like with Tammy, something went wrong. Jane stopped breathing, and Carla dialed 911 while Paul tried to resuscitate her. And this time, it worked. And Jane started breathing again. And Carla called back to cancel the ambulance, telling the dispatcher that everything was all right. And there was no follow-up and the 911 call was never investigated. And Jane still had no idea what had happened to her.
52:54 Speaker 02 And in the weeks that followed, Jane remained close to Carla, close enough to be invited to their wedding. So on June 29th, 1991, Jane attended Paul and Carla's ceremony at Saint Mark's Angelic and Church. And she watched them exchange vows and she celebrated with them at the reception. And she had no idea that just three weeks earlier, she had been drugged and violated by that very couple standing at the altar. And she had no idea that she was the wedding gift Carla had promised Paul. And she had no idea that somewhere across town, divers were pulling pieces of another young woman from a lake. She was just smiling in photographs at the wedding. And she went home that night believing she had witnessed the beginning of a fairy tale.
53:39 Speaker 02 But she couldn't have been more wrong. So from the fall of 1991 through Christmas of 1992, she continued visiting Carla and Paul, quote, unquote, "usually every weekend," according to her later testimony. And the visits included ongoing sexual contact. And Jane told the court that Paul had made it clear, quote, "If I didn't keep him happy, Carla wouldn't be happy, and I wanted to keep Carla happy," unquote. And at one point, Paul asked her to promise that he would be, quote, "the first man she had sex with," unquote. And she agreed, having no idea that he had already violated that promise while she was unconscious. So in December, Carla tried to pressure Jane into having sex with Paul while she was awake.
54:22 Speaker 02 And Jane refused and left the house upset. And the relationship finally ended around Christmas of 1992, when Jane told Paul she wasn't interested anymore. And he reacted with anger. And she said, quote, "He said he didn't want to see me again," unquote. And she walked away, still carrying confusion and discomfort she couldn't fully name. And at the time, no one understood how important her survival would become later. So Leslie Erin Mahaff. was born in Hamilton, Ontario on July 5th, 1976. And she lived in Burlington, Ontario with her mother, her father, and her younger brother, Ryan. And her father, Robert, or Dan Mahafi, worked as an oceanographer for Canada's Department of Fisheries and Oceans.
55:03 Speaker 02 And the job took him away from home for stretches at a time, sometimes even weeks. And her mother, Debbie Mahafi, was a teacher. And as a teenager, Debbie had undergone radiation treatment for ovarian cancer and had been told she would never conceive. So Leslie was a miracle baby, and she shared a close bond with her brother. And even during the times when she tested the limits or pushed back against her parents, their bond was strong. And she ran away on occasion, but she always called home and checked in with Ryan. And she was a grade nine student at MM Robinson High School. And Leslie and her circle of friends recently were struggling with a sudden devastating loss. His four people close to her had been killed in a car accident, and one of them was a boy named Chris Evans.
55:47 Speaker 02 And the weight of that tragedy hung over everything, and it would directly shape the events of the night to come. So on Friday, June 14th, 1991, Leslie attended a wake for Chris Evans at a local funeral home. And before she left, she promised her parents she would be back home by 11:00 PM. But the night did not go as planned. And after the service ended, Leslie and a group of teenagers made their way into the woods. And they drank, and they talked, and they leaned on each other as they tried to process the loss of their friend. And in the early morning hours, some of Leslie's friends walked home, and it was just before 2:00 AM. So they waited while she checked the side door of the house, but it was locked. And Leslie assumed the front door would still be open, so she told her friends to go ahead.
56:32 Speaker 02 But the front door was locked, too. And some sources say her parents had allegedly decided to teach her a lesson about missing curfew, so she walked to a Max Milk convenience store not far from her house and used the payphone to call a friend, asking if she could come over and spend the night. But there was no answer. And now she was alone in the middle of the night with nowhere to go. But she headed back towards her house anyway. And that same night, Paul was Cruising through Burlington neighborhoods, stealing license plates from parked cars. And he was looking for someone. And he spotted Leslie and approached her. And he told her he was trying to break into the house next door and offered her a cigarette, which was supposedly in his car.
57:14 Speaker 02 And sensing no danger because he was very charming and, you know, allegedly good-looking or whatever. I think he's evil and fucking ugly in my head, but, you know, to a teenage girl, this attractive guy is coming up and the red flags just weren't going off. So Leslie went towards the car. And when she got close enough, Paul wrapped his sweatshirt around her head, stuffed her in the car and drove away with her. And Paul would bring Leslie back to Carla at their place. And once inside, she was restrained, her hands bound with twine. And to keep her subdued, they used their typical method of sedatives that Carla got through work, just as they had with Tammy and Jane. And over the hours that followed, Leslie was essayed multiple times by both of them.
57:59 Speaker 02 And videotapes found later on would show them both actively participating in this abuse. And at various points, Leslie cried out in pain, pleading with Paul to stop. And the music of Bob Marley and David Bowie played in the background. And at one point during her captivity, Leslie was handed a teddy bear to hold, which would seem like a weirdly genuine gesture, were it not for the context of what was really occurring. And at another moment, Leslie told Bernardo that her blindfold was slipping, which meant that she might be able to see his face. And on the videotape, Paul is seen smiling directly into the camera while in the background, where Leslie can be heard screaming. And throughout the ordeal, Leslie remained alive and conscious, fully aware of what
58:44 Speaker 02 was happening to her. And she endured for as long as she could. But unfortunately, Leslie would be murdered sometime on June 15th, 1991, less than a day after she had been taken. And both Paul and Carla would later point the finger at each other for her death. Paul's version was that Carla gave Leslie a fatal dose of sedatives while he was elsewhere in the house preparing the car. And Carla's version was that Paul strangled Leslie with an electrical cord and left her unconscious, then returned and strangled her a second time. But the exact sequence of events in those final moments has never been definitively established. And what is certain is that by the end of the day, Leslie was no longer alive.
59:27 Speaker 02 And the following morning was Father's Day, and at some point, Leslie's body was moved from the upstairs bedroom down to the basement. And that same afternoon, the Homolka family arrived at the house for a Father's Day dinner. And they ate together on the main floor, laughing and talking, entirely unaware of what lay just beneath their feet. And throughout the gathering, Carla took special care to keep her mother from wandering downstairs. And after the family left, Paul went out and purchased a dozen bags of cement and saved the receipts. And using a circular saw that had belonged to his grandfather, they dismembered Leslie's body into ten pieces. And those pieces were then encased in eight concrete blocks.
1:00:10 Speaker 02 And over the course of multiple trips, Paul and Carla transported the blocks to Lake Gibson and dumped them in the water. But the heaviest one weighed over 200 pounds and proved to be difficult to lift, so it was left near the shoreline. So while Leslie's family searched frantically for any sign of their daughter, Paul and Carla turned their attention elsewhere because they had a wedding to plan. I... Ah, yeah, my heart breaks for that family. So on June 29th, 1991, a man named Michael Duquette and his son, Michael Jr., were paddling a canoe across Lake Gibson, when the large slab of concrete with a torso in it caught their attention.
1:00:54 Speaker 02 And authorities were notified, and police divers entered the lake and recovered additional slabs, and they found more human remains connected to the blocks. And Leslie was identified through her dental records and the braces she had been wearing when she disappeared. And investigators examining the remains immediately suspected- She had been subjected to essay and prolonged abuse before her death. And the discovery sent a wave of fear through Burlington and the surrounding communities. And parents were terrified because a teenage girl had been abducted, murdered, and discarded in pieces with no clue as to who was responsible. And Leslie would be laid to rest at Burlington Memorial Gardens. And in time, her school would honor her memory with a heart-shaped garden and a plaque bearing her name.
1:01:37 Speaker 02 But the people who killed her still remained free, living as if nothing had happened. So Paul and Carla got engaged on December 24th, 1989. And that date fell exactly one year before Tammy was murdered. But at the time, no one had any reason to see it as anything other than a happy moment. And from the start, Paul made clear that the wedding would be no modest affair. He wanted something extravagant. So Paul apparently viewed the whole thing not just as a business opportunity, but a chance to collect substantial sums of money and gifts from guests. And the planning began early and moved forward with intensity. And the ceremony would take place at St. Mark's Angelic Church in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario.
1:02:19 Speaker 02 And the reception would follow at Queen's Landing with a formal sit-down dinner for 150 guests, featuring a veal stuffed pheasant on the menu. And a white horse-drawn carriage was rented to transport the couple, costing $1,000. And Carla's wedding gown alone ran $2,000 USD. And they estimated the wedding would bring in as much as $50,000 in gifts. So the date was locked in, June 29th, 1991, just six short months after Tammy's death. And in the weeks leading up to the day, the violence surrounding the couple accelerated with Jane and Leslie. And during this time, Carla reported expressed frustration that her parents were still consumed by grief over Tammy.
1:03:02 Speaker 02 And she felt they weren't giving the wedding enough attention that it deserved. So the contrast between her expectations and the weight of recent loss caused tension within the family, naturally. But still, the wedding moved forward without delay. So when the big day finally arrived, Paul and Carla stood at the altar of St. Mark's Angelic Church. And exchanged their wedding vows, and the church was full of friends, family and colleagues. One hundred and fifty guests had gathered near Niagara Falls to witness what appeared to be the picture-perfect union. And photographs from the day captured the couple smiling side by side, radiating the energy that would later make the label Ken and Barbie impossible to shake. And every element of the ceremony had been carefully orchestrated.
1:03:46 Speaker 02 As he did for the relationship in general, Paul controlled most of the decisions. The menu, Carla's hair, the phrasing of the vows. He insisted the traditional language include the words "love, honor and obey", and he rejected "husband and wife", demanding instead that the officiant pronounce them "man and wife", and "Patience by Guns N' Roses" was to be their wedding song. And after the ceremony, they climbed into the rented white carriage and rode off together. So it looked like the final scene of a fairy tale, a storybook romance reaching its inevitable joyful end. But not everyone remembered the moment that way. And some witnesses would later recall that Carla looked visibly unhappy as she sat beside Paul on the carriage.
1:04:30 Speaker 02 And others described her body language as "stiff", and at the time, no one thought much of it. And the flowers Carla carried down the aisle and the bouquets held by her bridesmaids had been dedicated to the memory of Tammy. The guests smiled, the couple kissed, the carriage rolled away, and somewhere across town, police divers were searching for concrete blocks. So at the same moment that Paul and Carla were engaging vows, Leslie's body was being pulled from the water. Leslie had been dead for thirteen days at this point. And for two weeks, her family had been searching, pleading for information and hoping she had simply run away and would come home on her own, as she had done in the past. But on the day of the wedding, they learned the truth.
1:05:13 Speaker 02 And while celebration took place at a nearby reception, Leslie's remains were being recovered and identified. Yet, once again, not a soul suspected Paul and Carla. And they continued as planned. And Paul and Carla soon left for their honeymoon in Hawaii. And behind them, Niagara Regional Police launched a homicide investigation. With no suspects and no leads. So the wedding became the crowning achievement of the lie they had built. A flawless performance of youth, beauty, and romantic success. Kristen Dawn French came into the world on May 10th, 1976, in St. Catherine's, Ontario. And she was the second daughter born to Doug and Donna French. And Kristen had a brother, a family dog named Sasha, and two parents who made their children the center of their lives.
1:05:58 Speaker 02 And Donna described Kristen as, quote, "sweet, gentle, happy Kristen, the sweetheart of the family," unquote. And by the time she was 15, Kristen had already built a kind of reliable reputation. She was a student at Holy Cross Catholic Secondary School, where she consistently made the honor roll, and her grades were straight As, and teachers regarded her as responsible and focused, and friends knew her as someone who gave without hesitation. And when a classmate actually broke her leg, Kristen took it upon herself to bring home the girl's science and French homework. So that was just the kind of person she was. She didn't seek recognition for helping others, she just helped because she believed it was the right thing to do.
1:06:39 Speaker 02 And Kristen was also a dedicated athlete, and she skated on a precision ice skating team that had earned several medals in competition. And she also rode for her school girls' rowing team, pushing herself through grueling training sessions. And she managed the demands of school, sports, and social life masterfully. But on the afternoon of April 16th, 1992, Kristen French left school and started walking home. And it was Holy Thursday, the day before Good Friday and the start of Easter weekend. And classes at Holy Cross Secondary School had just let out, and students were spilling into the surrounding streets, heading off in different directions. And Kristen walked alone. And near the entrance to the Grace Lutheran Church parking lot, Kristen crossed paths with Paul and Carla.
1:07:24 Speaker 02 The couple had spent the afternoon driving through St. Catherine's during the hours when school was let out actively hunting for a target. And when they spotted Kristen walking by herself, they pulled into the church lot and waited. And Carla stepped out of the car first, and she was holding a map, pretending to be confused. Fused and needing directions, and Kristen stopped to help, as she always did. And that moment of kindness was the opening Paul needed. Because that's when he came at her from behind and forced her into the vehicle at knife point. And once Kristen was inside, Carla held a blade to her throat and grabbed a fistful of her hair from behind, keeping her pinned down while Paul sped away from the lot.
1:08:06 Speaker 02 And this all happened in broad daylight, in a public place with people nearby. Just highlighting their arrogance and their narcissism and confidence in themselves. But some people saw this, and several witnesses noticed something was wrong, though they didn't understand what they were looking at in the moment. But one of Kristen's shoes was found lying in the parking lot afterward, which was evidence of a struggle. And by that evening, Kristen French had been reported missing. So Kristen was held captive for three days, from April 16th through to April 19th, 1992. And she remained inside Paul and Carla's house. But unlike the others that met a similar fate, Kristen was never drugged. And she was conscious for all of it.
1:08:50 Speaker 02 And Paul and Carla once again recorded what they did to her. And the footage shows them torturing and assaying her over the course of those three days, forcing her to drink a lot of alcohol. And in the recordings, Kristen is still wearing her Holy Cross school uniform, and her wrists are bound with handcuffs. And her ankles are tied with cord. And on the tapes, Paul can be heard telling Carla to perform certain acts, quote unquote, "with force", reassuring her that, quote unquote, "it's okay if it hurts."
1:09:26 Speaker 02 And Kristen could be heard crying out in pain. And the recordings also capture Carla laughing and enjoying herself. And the footage further contradicts the image of a woman who participated only because she was afraid and had no choice. Shut the fuck up, you monster. And to Paul too. I mean, that goes without saying. But as we will see. In Carla's defense, she paints herself as something she is absolutely not, and that is innocent. So Kristin endured a longer captivity than any of the victims who came before her. And in the beginning, she cooperated, believing compliance was her only path to survival. But as her cruelty escalated, something in Kristin shifted, and she started to push back.
1:10:11 Speaker 02 And at some point during those three days, she came to understand the reality of her situation. And she had seen their faces, she knew where they lived and had seen their dog, and she knew too much. And she understood she was not going to be released. And still, she resisted. And she is remembered for looking at Bernardo and telling him, quote, "Some things are worth dying for," unquote. She would also tell him, quote, "I don't know how your wife can stand to be around you," unquote. And Paul didn't like that at all. Unfortunately, Kristin would be killed on Easter Sunday, April 19, 1992. And according to Carla's account, Paul wrapped a black electrical cord around Kristin's neck
1:10:56 Speaker 02 and strangled her. And the autopsy would later confirm strangulation as the official cause of death. And the medical examiner also documented extensive injuries across her body, consistent with days of sustained torture. And the murder itself was not captured on tape, but in the hours that followed, Carla testified that she styled her hair with a blow dryer before leaving the house, and she and Paul went to her parents' home for Easter dinner. And later that night, they loaded Kristin's body into their vehicle and drove approximately 50 kilometers to a secluded rural area near Burlington, Ontario. And they left her there, discarded in the brush, and turned back toward home, still suffering. No consequences.
1:11:40 Speaker 02 So Kristen's body was found by a man named Roger Boyer as he was out driving in Burlington. And he saw something odd about 20 feet off the road. And after checking it, realized there was a body. And he contacted authorities as quickly as he could, and they arrived shortly. As investigators examined her remains, they noticed the tip of her little finger was missing. And that detail helped confirm her identity. Because Kristen had lost part of that finger years earlier during a rowing accident. And her head had been shaved completely. And her body bore unmistakable signs of rape and prolonged physical abuse. So this discovery sent shockwaves across Ontario again.
1:12:21 Speaker 02 And authorities made a public announcement, saying they believed they were now dealing with a serial killer. And in response, police formed the Green Ribbon Task Force, a joint investigative unit dedicated to solving the murders of Leslie and Kristen. And at the same time, Kristen's classmates at Holy Cross began distributing green ribbons in her memory. And what started as a small gesture of grief eventually grew into a nationwide movement. And the Green Ribbon of Hope campaign created to raise awareness about missing and exploited children. And Kristen would be buried at Pleasantview Memorial Gardens in Font Hill, Ontario. And a scholarship fund was established in her name. And on the day that should have been her 16th birthday, Kristen's rowing team competed in a race.
1:13:03 Speaker 02 And they had fallen behind early, trailing in last place. But in the final stretch, they said that they felt Kristen's spirit and flew forward, crossing the finish line first. And they gave their medals to Doug and Donna French. And Kristen would never have the chance to turn 16. And she would never row another race or help another classmate. But she would never be forgotten. So for years, investigators had been hunting a predator they couldn't identify. And the search began in November of 1988, after a wave of brutal sexual assaults swept through Toronto's East End. And Metropolitan Police assembled a dedicated task force to track down the man the media had dubbed the Scarborough Rapist. And at its height, the unit included 50 officers.
1:13:48 Speaker 02 But over the course of the investigation, more than 41,000 tips poured in from the public. But none of them led to an arrest. And the predator remained a ghost. And then in 1990, the attacks stopped. And there was no explanation and no capture. But by 1991, the task force was quietly dissolved. And the unspoken assumption among investigators was that the danger had passed and whoever was responsible had moved on, or been incarcerated for something else, or simply stopped offending. But that assumption was wrong, and the man behind the Scarborough rapes just relocated. And in St. Catherine's, the nature of his crimes had changed, because the violence had gone from assault to murder.
1:14:29 Speaker 02 And in the wake of Kristen's abduction and killing in April of 1992, Niagara Regional Police reached out to the FBI for assistance. And within weeks, five criminal profilers from the Bureau's Behavioral Analysts Unit traveled north to consult on the case. And the assessment was direct: the perpetrator was a sexually motivated predator. And unless he was caught, he would almost certainly kill again. And by mid-May, investigators formed the Green Ribbon Task Force, a joint unit dedicated to solving both murders. And by this point, investigators understood they were pursuing a serial offender, and the geography alone pointed to a pattern: both abductions and body disposals had occurred along the same stretch between St. Catherine's and Burlington.
1:15:13 Speaker 02 So the murders of Leslie and Kristen bore undeniable similarities in method and victim selection. But what no one had yet pieced together was the connection that would eventually break the case wide open: the Scarborough rapist and the killer of those girls were the same person. And the Toronto investigation and the Niagara investigation continued to operate independently, totally unaware they were looking for the same person—or persons, as we know. The Scarborough predator had been a figure without a face for quite some time, and he had attacked his victims from behind, so most never got a clear look at him, and the descriptions that trickled in were vague and difficult to act on. Then, in May of 1990, one survivor changed everything.
1:15:58 Speaker 02 She had seen her attacker's face and remembered it, so working from her description, police developed a computer-generated composite portrait. And on May 28, 1990, the sketch appeared in newspapers across the region, and the headline read, quote, "Is this boy next door the Scarborough rapist?" The image depicted a Man with light blue eyes and blond hair, medium build and clean shaven. And alongside the sketch, investigators announced a 150,000 reward for any information leading to an arrest. And the public responded immediately, and within weeks, more than 16,000 tips flooded in. And among them was the same name, Paul Bernardo. And former colleagues at Price Waterhouse recognized the face in the composite.
1:16:42 Speaker 02 And one coworker brought the newspaper into the office and remarked openly that the sketched looked just like him. And meanwhile, fear had seeped into daily life across the city. And women stopped walking alone after dark, and one woman later recalled standing at a bus stop when a man passed by and said casually, quote, "You should be careful, I could be the Scarborough rapist," unquote. It's so fucked up. But the warning signs had been there for years, and the clues pointing to Paul had come up time and time again, only to be overlooked, deprioritized, or lost in the flood of incoming tips. And as far back as May 1988, a ununiformed officer conducting surveillance near a bus shelter noticed a man crouched beneath a tree, watching and waiting.
1:17:26 Speaker 02 And the officer chased the man, but the man got away. And the man was Paul. And one of Paul's former girlfriends, named Jennifer, had contacted police on multiple occasions to report him of violence and abuse. And reports were made, but nothing came of them. And there were other details that should have been noticed. Like the Scarborough predator was known to drive a white Capri, and Paul owned a white Capri. And he lived right next to the areas where the attacks had occurred, and his appearance matched the physical profile investigators had developed. And in June of 1990, a bank employee who had worked with Paul saw the composite sketch in the newspaper and immediately recognized him, and she reported him to the police. And later, in the summer, Tina Smirniss, the wife of one of Paul's closest friends,
1:18:11 Speaker 02 reached out to investigators with her own suspicions. And she and her husband Alex told detectives that Paul had previously been questioned in connection with a rape, mentioning that he frequently discussed his aggressive sexual preferences in disturbingly explicit terms. And in In May of 1992, another acquaintance named John Motel went to authorities and identified Paul as a potential suspect. So his name kept rising to the surface and every time it sank back down somehow. And despite the repeated tips from all sorts of people, Paul managed to avoid suspicion in the investigation far, far too long. But his time was finally coming. So after all the tips had continued to fly in, detectives finally sat down with him for
1:18:55 Speaker 02 an interview in July. And a second conversation took place in November lasting just 35 minutes. And when asked why he believed police had contacted him, Paul offered a casual explanation, acknowledging that he bore a resemblance to the composite sketch, and he laughed about it. And he agreed to provide biological samples for DNA comparisons. And the detectives that interviewed him came away impressed because he didn't match their expectations, saying, quote, "Such a well-educated, well-adjusted, congenial young man couldn't be responsible for these vicious crimes," unquote. What about Ted Bundy had happened? It was just not real, just because somebody's attractive and can speak words okay doesn't mean they can't fucking hurt people.
1:19:37 Speaker 02 But they found him far more credible than Alex Smirnus, the tipster who had reported him, who struck them as awkward and unreliable. So Paul walked out the interview a free man. And his DNA samples were submitted to the Centre of Forensic Sciences in Toronto, along with more than 130 other samples collected during the investigation. And at the time, forensic DNA testing was still in its infancy in Canada. And the lab responsible for processing the evidence employed just one scientist and one technician. An initial screening narrowed the pool to five samples, including Paul's that matched the blood factors of the Scarborough Predator. But by then, the Scarborough Predator case had lost its urgency.
1:20:19 Speaker 02 And Paul's DNA sat in a queue for 26 months untouched and untested. And during those 26 months, Tammy, Jane, Leslie, and Kristen would all be horrifically abused. Crimes that could have been prevented had his DNA been processed sooner. The evidence that would have identified him had been sitting in a lab the entire time.
1:20:45 Speaker 02 Incredibly frustrating and just horrific to think about those poor, poor, poor girls. So a sample was flagged for more comprehensive testing and resubmitted in April of 1992. So by that year, the carefully constructed image surrounding Paul and Carla had started to crack because things still appeared intact from the outside, but inside the house, the reality was something else entirely, and the dynamic between them had deteriorated. And the man Carla would later describe as charming, attentive, and romantic during their courtship had transformed into someone unrecognizable because he grew more controlling and more volatile and more demanding. And whatever balance had once existed between
1:21:27 Speaker 02 them had now fallen apart, tipping decisively in his favor. And Carla would later tell investigators that everything changed after December of 1990, when Tammy died. And according to her account, Paul began wielding Tammy's death as a weapon, threatening to expose the truth of what had happened that night if Carla ever tried to leave. And she claimed he manipulated her into participating in criminal acts, that he trapped her in a relationship defined by sex, physical violence, and emotional abuse. And yet, she stayed. And she continued writing Bernardo affectionate letters, and she continued indulging in his sexual fantasies, and she continued helping him commit crimes. So that contradiction between the helpless
1:22:11 Speaker 02 victim and the willing participant captured on video would sit at the center of everything that followed. And come summertime, allegedly, the abuse grew worse against Carla, where Paul began using Carla as a regular target for his rage. His grip on control was loosening, and the marriage became dangerous. And in June, Carla decided she wanted out. And she reached out to her parents and asked them to help her move her belongings out of the Port Dalhousie House. And when Carol and Dorothy arrived, the scene was tense. And Dorothy would later testify that Carla appeared distraught while Paul was drunk and belligerent. And as Carla's things were being loaded into the van, Paul asked her to step inside the house to talk, and she agreed and went in alone.
1:22:54 Speaker 02 And minutes later, she came back outside and told her parents that she and Paul would be able to settle things between them. So she stayed, yet again. Self-preservation. But the reconciliation attempt was short-lived, and by January of 1993, the violence was too much. And Paul attacked Carla with a heavy metal flashlight and stabbed her with a screwdriver. And he beat her repeatedly around the head and limbs with force so severe that she developed raccoon eyes, a condition caused by her brain being driven forward against the inside of her skull. And Carla arrived at the emergency room at St. Catherine's General Hospital with two blackened eyes and a wrist that appeared to be broken. And she could barely walk in a straight line and had difficulty recognizing where she was.
1:23:40 Speaker 02 And when the hospital staff asked what had happened, she told them she had been in a car accident. And she was treated and then released. And on January 4th, Carla returned to her work. And she told them the same story, but her coworkers weren't buying it. And shortly after, anonymous phone calls began reaching Dorothy Homolka. And the next day, Dorothy drove to the clinic and saw her daughter's face with her own eyes. And she would later testify about that moment, saying, quote, "I shook. I couldn't understand what was happening," unquote. And she wanted to bring Carla home immediately, but not without pushback. So in the days that followed, Carla's parents pushed harder, and they convinced her to take shelter at the home of one of Lori's friends, whose husband happened to be a
1:24:21 Speaker 02 police officer in Toronto. And when Carla's parents arrived to grab her belongings, she broke away from them and ran back inside, moving frantically through the house, searching for something. And when she finally emerged, her hands were empty. And she left reluctantly, visibly unsettled. And investigators would later come to believe she had been looking for the videotapes. The damning evidence that she was an active participant in all the horrid crimes that she did. And on January 6th, Carla was formally admitted to St. Catherine's General Hospital for treatment of her injuries. And this time, she filed charges as a battered spouse. And Paul was arrested and charged with assault with a weapon, only to be released on bail shortly afterward. And eventually, she relocated to Brampton.
1:25:04 Speaker 02 Moving in with her aunt and uncle, but the cracks in the facade were spreading fast. And on February 9th, Carla sat for an interview with the Metro Toronto Sexual Assault Squad, and their initial assumption was that she was simply a victim. And that night Carla told her aunt and uncle that Paul was the Scarborough Predator and that the two of them had been involved in the essay and murder of Leslie and Kristen, and that they recorded it. So on February 1st, just before Carla's interviews, the long wait finally came to an end. And at the center of Forensic Sciences in Toronto, technicians completed DNA analysis on a blood sample Paul had voluntarily provided more than two years earlier. And this time, the results left no room for interpretation.
1:25:47 Speaker 02 The DNA was a match, and semen recovered from victims of the Scarborough Predator corresponded directly to Bernardo's genetic profile. And conclusively, Paul Bernardo was the Scarborough Predator. And the evidence tied him to at least three confirmed essays where biological samples had been preserved. And investigators grasped the implications immediately. And the delay had given Paul all the time he needed to continue living freely and let the violence evolve into something far worse. And police moved quickly to make up for lost ground, and Paul was placed under around-the-clock surveillance, and his movements were tracked and his phone lines were tapped. And the man who had slipped through the law enforcement's grasp for years was finally being watched.
1:26:31 Speaker 02 And when Detective Steve Irwin, not that Steve Irwin, uncovered that Paul had recently been charged with assault by his own wife in St. Catherine's, the scattered pieces of the investigation clicked into place for the first time. The Scarborough Predator, the murders, the domestic violence complaint, they were one continuous story. And when Carla was brought in for questioning, she understood what police had pieced together. And now, they were looking at her. And detectives asked her to provide fingerprints, and they asked about a Mickey Mouse wristwatch that had been recovered from the house, one bearing a striking resemblance to a watch Kristen had been wearing the day she disappeared. And Carla became afraid. And in the days that followed, she began swallowing large quantities of painkillers ch-
1:27:14 Speaker 02 chasing them with alcohol, trying to dull a terror that had become very real. Because the walls she had helped build were closing in around her. So when Carla finally started talking, she spoke as someone who had been victimized. She presented herself as a woman who had spent years living under the thumb of a violent controlling man, as she described Paul as manipulative and domineering, and she said he had beaten her, threatened her, and dictated every detail of her daily existence. And she also mentioned that Paul bragged about raping as many as 30 women, which was twice as many as suspected, and placed the blame for her sister Tammy's death solely on Paul. And she told police that what happened to Tammy was all his doing.
1:27:57 Speaker 02 And over the course of a four-day interrogation, Carla constructed a narrative in which she had no choice, and she acknowledged knowing about the Scarborough assaults, and she acknowledged knowing about the murders of Leslie and Kristen, and she acknowledged being present when those crimes were committed, and she acknowledged playing a role in carrying them out. But at every turn, she minimized her own involvement. And investigators listened as she told her story, and as the hours passed, they began to see the full scope of what lay before them, the warped dynamic between the two people at the center of all the crimes. So on February 11th, two days after her police interview, Carla met with George Walker,
1:28:37 Speaker 02 a defense attorney based in Niagara Falls. And Walker's objective was clear: secure legal immunity from the Crown in exchange for Carla's testimony. And three days later, on February 14th, Walker sat down with Crown Prosecutor Murray Segal. And when Walker mentioned the existence of the videotapes, Segal said that full immunity was off the table, but a reduced sentence could be arranged, and the discussions continued. And over the following days, the framework of an agreement emerged, and Carla was presented with a plea bargain, and she had one week to decide. And out of the terms of the deal, she would be required to cooperate fully, providing what prosecutors described as "a full and complete truthful account of the deaths of
1:29:22 Speaker 02 Kristen French and Leslie Mahafi and..." Tammy Homolka, and she would testify against Paul and plead guilty to two counts of manslaughter rather than murder. In return, she would receive a 12-year sentence. And if she refused, she would face two counts of first-degree murder, one count of second-degree murder, and additional charges. And at the time, prosecutors operated under three key assumptions. First, that Carla Homolka was a battered woman. And second, that Paul was the dominant offender of the crimes. And third, that without Carla's testimony, obtaining a conviction against Paul for the murders would be extraordinarily difficult. And it is important to note that they had not yet seen these videotapes, like during
1:30:07 Speaker 02 the point of the deal. Like, the videotapes are damning. Like, she is a fucking monster. But all they're getting is her testimony at this point? So I don't know why they would make this deal without receiving the videotapes. I'm a YouTuber, what the fuck would I know? But that is the giant grain of salt that is being given to the prosecutors at this point. So when Crown Prosecutors signed Carla Homolka's plea agreement on May 14, 1993, they were operating essentially blind, and they had Carla's version of the events. And they had her testimony about being a battered wife coerced into participation. And they had the physical evidence of Paul's abuse. But they did not have the tapes.
1:30:49 Speaker 02 The tapes that would show Carla laughing during the assaults. And the tapes that would show her initiating acts of violence. And the tapes that would reveal her as an enthusiastic participant and not a reluctant victim. And those tapes were hidden above a bathroom light fixture exactly where Paul had left them. And Ken Murray, Paul's defense attorney, would retrieve them just eight days before the plea deal was finalized. And he watched them, and he made copies, and he said nothing.
1:31:29 Speaker 02 No words. For seventeen months, the prosecution built its case around a narrative that the tapes would have completely destroyed. By the time the truth emerged, it was too late. The deal was done, and there was no taking it back. So the deal moved forward regardless, and the Crown found itself with a dilemma. The DNA evidence was strong enough to prosecute Paul for the Scarborough assaults, but there was no concrete evidence to tie him to the murders other than Carla’s testimony. And the only real path to a murder conviction came directly through her testimony. In a later government inquiry would say, “The Crown had no alternative but to negotiate with an accomplice.” It was, in the inquiry’s assessment, “the lesser of two evils: to strike a deal with
1:32:14 Speaker 02 a participant in the crimes rather than risk letting a violent predator escape accountability altogether.” The media would eventually give the agreement a different name, and they called it “The Deal with the Devil,” which I fully agree with the media, for once in my life. So years later, prosecutors involved in the case would acknowledge what many had long suspected: Had they seen the videotapes before finalizing the agreement, they never would have signed it. So on February 17, 1993, Paul was taken into custody, and officers from Metro Toronto Sexual Assault Squad and the Green Ribbon Task Force made the arrest together. And he was charged in connection with the Scarborough assaults and formally identified as the prime suspect in the murders of Leslie and Kristen.
1:32:59 Speaker 02 So investigators secured a search warrant for his house, but the warrant came with severe limitations: His police were restricted to seizing only those items explicitly named in the document. Any videotapes discovered during the search had to be watched inside the house. And officers were forbidden from conducting destructive searches, so no tearing open walls, no pulling down ceilings, no dismantling fixtures. So the search stretched on for 71 days, and they found damning evidence: a handwritten list cataloging every one of the Scarborough SA’s and books on pornography, sexual devi- And serial murder and videos exploring similar subject matter, a hunting knife,
1:33:41 Speaker 02 handcuffs, and they also recovered a videotape depicting Paul and Carla engaged in sexual acts with two young women who had not been previously identified. And one of the women appeared to have been drugged, and the other seemed unaware of what was happening to her. But the tapes believed to document the murders themselves were nowhere to be found. And police searched the house for more than two months but never found them. But in the meantime, the legal process continued on, and on May 18, 1993, Carla appeared in court and was formally arraigned on two counts of manslaughter. And on July 6, 1993, Carla entered her guilty plea and was sentenced to two 12-year terms to be served concurrently. So the Crown had secured its star witness, and the prosecution of Paul Bernardo could
1:34:26 Speaker 02 now move ahead. But investigators were still unaware of just what was on the missing tapes, evidence that would prove Carla was no passive victim and would make the plea deal that much more controversial. So for 71 days, investigators had combed through every corner of Paul's place but came up empty. And Paul was the only person who knew exactly where they were. And from his jail cell, he wrote a two-page letter to his defense attorney, Ken Murray, including a hand-drawn diagram to find the hiding spot. And he told Ken to retrieve the tapes, but do not watch them yet. And if Murray succeeded, he was to say, quote, "How about those Jays?" unquote. And if he failed, he was to say, "How about those Leafs?" unquote. And Murray entered the house, bringing his junior counsel, Carolyn
1:35:11 Speaker 02 McDonald, and a law clerk. And the place was in ruins, rotting food had been left in the kitchen, cosmetic containers were scattered and emptied, and the upstairs bathroom was still in disarray, bearing the marks of a police search that had stretched on for weeks. And Murray went directly to the bathroom, reaching above the pot light, and he pulled out six videotapes. How this is allowed, I will never know. And McDonald would later describe what she observed in the moment, saying, quote, "I can see his leg vibrating, shaking a mile a minute," unquote. And Murray believed he had uncovered a bonanza for the defense. And he transported the tapes back to his office and secured them inside a safe. And 12 days later, acting on Paul's written instructions,
1:35:55 Speaker 02 Murray watched the tapes and he made a duplicate copy and stored it in a separate, secure location. And then he held on to the originals for 17 months. And the strategy was simple. Allow Carla to testify at the preliminary hearing, presenting the battered wife narrative, then release the tapes to destroy her credibility on the stand. Just evil here, evil there, evil here, evil fucking everywhere. But the prosecution bypassed the preliminary hearing altogether and proceeded directly to trial, so Murray's plan fell apart. And by the summer of 1994, he found himself with a serious ethical crisis. He sought counsel from his own attorney, who in turn consulted the Law Society of
1:36:39 Speaker 02 Upper Canada, and he was instructed to seal the tapes and surrender them to the trial judge. And in September, Murray withdrew from the case and he transferred the recordings to Bernardo's newly appointed lawyer, John Rossin, who retained possession for approximately two weeks. And then, on September 22nd, he turned them over to the police. So 16 months had passed since Carla's plea bargain was finalized. So the recordings amounted to roughly three and a half hours of footage documenting four victims. Tammy Homolka, Jane Doe, Leslie Mahafi, and Kristen French. And in graphic detail, the tapes captured the assaults of all of them, and the murders themselves were never recorded, but everything leading up to them was.
1:37:23 Speaker 02 And the tapes revealed the opposite of what Carla had been saying, and they showed active participation. Carla did not appear on those recordings as a terrified woman. It coerced into actions. She was a partner in the crimes. And Murray, who viewed the tapes before anyone else outside the couple, described what he saw in Carla's face as "feral joy" as she took part in the molestation and torture of the victims. She became known as "The Black Widow" by members of the defense team. And Murray testified that the recordings showed Carla sexually assaulting four different female victims, engaging in sexual activity with a female sex ex-worker during a trip to Atlantic City and they showed her administering drugs to an unconscious victim.
1:38:07 Speaker 02 Quote, "This wasn't a lady who had been subjugated," unquote, Murray said. Quote, "She was happy, compliant, suggestive, and willing. In my view, the tapes showed Carla as being often the person in control. Nothing on the tapes struck me that she was being dominated or coerced," unquote. And Carla's narrative began to crumble. In one tape bore a handwritten label, Carla, Tammy, and me. And the footage showed Carla dressed in her dead sister's clothing, having relations with Paul on Tammy's bed. And during the recording, she praised him for taking Tammy's virginity. And another part showed the couple intimate while Paul held a photograph of Tammy in
1:38:47 Speaker 02 his hands, saying, quote, "I saw somebody who could be shown as a complete liar," unquote, Murray would say. And the image of Carla as the cringing battered wife was exposed for the lie that it was. So by the time the videotapes finally came to light, the case had already consumed headlines across North America. And in Canada, a publication ban had shielded the public from the specifics of Carla's plea agreement. But America media outlets were free to report whatever they learned. And the internet rendered the ban effectively meaningless. Because when the full truth emerged, the reaction was furious. How you're feeling now while watching this? That was the reaction. Carla was a willing participant, active participant, in the torture and essay and murder of multiple
1:39:32 Speaker 02 young women, one of them being her sister. And by the time the public learned the extent of her involvement, she had already served a portion of her 12-year sentence. And the deal with the devil was known worldwide. And editorial boards accused prosecutors of handing Carla a lenient sentence for crimes described as, quote, "Nothing short of monstrous and depraved," unquote. And Crown attorney Ray Holahan acknowledged publicly that if investigators had recovered the tapes earlier, Carla might well have faced murder charges. But the Crown maintained it had no choice but to honor the agreement. Canada's court system, huh huh huh, fucking trash. Because Carla did her part. It couldn't be taken back now.
1:40:13 Speaker 02 And the outrage grew worse, persisting for more than a decade through appeals, parole hearings, and her highly-publicized release in July of 2005. And the legal and ethical fallout extended beyond Carla herself. And Murray was charged with obstruction of justice, thank God, in 2000, following a trial that lasted several weeks, and Murray was acquitted, unfortunately. And presiding Judge Patrick La Sage said that Murray had retained the recordings for an inordinate and improper period of time, but the case ultimately hinges on questions the legal system had never fully resolved. So this itself ignited a broader debate about the ethical responsibilities of defense counsel when in possession of incriminating physical evidence.
1:40:55 Speaker 02 And the government inquiry conducted in 1996 concluded that police had made numerous critical errors throughout the investigation, and it found that rivalries and poor coordination between law enforcement agencies had hampered progress at key moments. And it also concluded that some of the crimes might have been prevented fully and entirely if Paul's DNA sample had been fucking processed in a timely manner. So in December of 2001, Canadian authorities ordered the six videotapes be destroyed after their legal use had been fulfilled. And Donna French, Kristen's mother, said that when she learned of the decision, she mentally spoke to her daughter, telling her she, quote, "didn't have to worry anymore", unquote. And no one else would ever see what was on those tapes.
1:41:40 Speaker 02 Only the transcripts remain, and they have never been made available to the public, nor should they ever be made available to the public, in my opinion. So in 1995, Paul finally stood trial, and the proceedings became a national spectacle. The satellite trucks lined the streets outside the courthouse, and crowds gathered daily just for any glimpse of the accused. And security was tight, and the atmosphere was tense. And Paul faced a number of charges: two counts of first-degree murder for the deaths of Leslie and Kristen, along with two counts of kidnapping, forcible confinement, and aggravated SA. And the outcome would determine not only his fate, but whether he would ever be eligible for parole, or be designated a dangerous offender and locked away indefinitely.
1:42:23 Speaker 02 The prosecution's case was methodical and overwhelming, and the Crown attorneys walked the jury through the crimes in chronological sequence, constructing a timeline of escalating violence. But the centerpiece of their argument was the videotape evidence. But the recordings were not shown in open court. Given the extreme nature of their content, the presiding judge restricted viewing to the jury and legal counsel only. Instead, transcripts were read aloud and brief, carefully edited excerpts were displayed. And even in this controlled form, the footage was devastating. And the descriptions alone left no room for second guessing. And Paul's direct involvement in the crimes was undeniable. And another "critical" voice came from the surviving victim, known only as Jane Doe, who we talked about before.
1:43:07 Speaker 02 And she testified under a court-protected pseudonym. And her memories of the assaults were only fragments at best, as the drugs had erased most of what had been done to her. But her presence in the courtroom mattered. And her confirmation that she had lost consciousness in the presence of the couple, and later learned she had been violated while unconscious, reinforced the pattern of predatory serial behavior that prosecutors were working to establish. And Carla's time on the witness stand became one of the most anticipated and unsettling moments of the entire trial. So when she finally appeared before the jury, the courtroom fell silent. And her voice was steady, and she calmly walked through the sequence of horrors she had helped orchestrate. And she acknowledged stealing sedatives from the veterinary clinic at Paul's direction.
1:43:52 Speaker 02 And she admitted holding halothane-soaked cloth over her sister Tammy's face. And she confirmed participating in SA's of both Leslie and Kristen. And when cross-examination began, Paul's defense attorney went on the attack to destroy Carla's credibility and recast her as an equal partner in the crimes. And maybe even the instigator. And he highlighted contradictions between her early statements to police and what the videotapes had actually captured. And he pressed her on the question of enjoyment, reading aloud transcript passages in which Carla could be heard laughing, making enthusiastic remarks and expressing what sounded unmistakably like pleasure. And she began to crack and started seeming
1:44:33 Speaker 02 defensive. And when confronted with her own behavior on the recordings, she fell back on her own story, and she was, quote, "just saying what Paul wanted to hear," unquote. And observers in the courtroom noted the shift, and the mask she had worn so carefully started to slip. And for the first time, the jury and the public glimpsed something closer to the woman captured on those tapes. But still, her testimony achieved what the Crown needed it to achieve. And she provided details only someone on the inside could know and confirmed key facts. And she placed Paul at the center of every crime. And regardless of the doubts the defense raised about her character, her accounts of Paul's actions were damning enough. So the case against Paul was airtight. But what remained to be
1:45:16 Speaker 02 seen was whether the jury would deliver the verdict the evidence demanded. So following a trial that stretched over four months long, the jury reached its decision. And on September 1, 1995, Paul Bernardo was found guilty on every single charge he faced: two counts of first-degree murder, multiple counts of SA, and committing an indignity to a human body. And the deliberations lasted less than a single day. And the judge handed down the maximum sentence permitted under Canadian law, which was life imprisonment with no possibility of parole for 25 years. But the court went further. And in light of the exceptional brutality of the crimes, prosecutors had requested that Paul be designated a dangerous offender, which is a legal classification in Canada that allows a person to be jailed
1:46:01 Speaker 02 indefinitely without parole. And the request was thankfully granted. And it intended to ensure that Paul would, in all likelihood, never walk free again. But while Paul's punishment was being pronounced, Carla's fate had already been sealed years earlier by the terms of her plea agreement. And she had already served time at a women's correctional facility. And the massive distinction between their sentences struck the victims' families like a blow. And Doug French, Kristen's father, called Carla's punishment "in outrage." And still, he acknowledged that the family at least had the slight comfort from the knowledge that Paul Bernardo would never see daylight again. And the Mahaffys expressed a similar mixture of relief and lingering anguish.
1:46:43 Speaker 02 Because they were grateful that Bernardo had been convicted, but the wound left by Carla's deal and the sense that she had never truly been held accountable for what she had done remained open. So justice had been served for one of them. And for the other, the question of justice would haunt the public for years to come. So the verdict against Paul did little to quiet the fury surrounding Carla's plea deal. And across Canada, the outrage was widespread and unrelenting. And many believed Carla had manipulated the system in order to acquire her deal with the devil. And officials from the Ontario Attorney General's office defended the decision. Quote, "As distasteful as it is to bargain with an accomplice, it was necessary." Unquote. And this explanation did nothing to ease public anger, not shockingly.
1:47:26 Speaker 02 And in the years that followed, the case triggered legal reform. And in 2000, Canada established a national DNA database partly in response to the delay in identifying Paul's DNA and to prevent similar delays in the future. And police protocols for cross jurisdictional cooperation were overhauled, ensuring that information about suspects like Paul would be shared more broadly and more quickly. And the case became a staple example of the ethical complexities of plea bargaining in law courses. And culturally, the case left its mark on all of Canada. And it became a reference point in debates about sentencing policy, the ethics of publication bans, and the role of female accomplices in violent crimes. And the media restrictions imposed during the trial drew particular criticism as American
1:48:11 Speaker 02 outlets reported freely on the details while Canadian citizens were barred by court order from learning the full truth of the crimes committed in their own country. This still happens today, by the way. Very censored up there in Canada. I can speak to that. Love Canada, but it's got its flaws. All right? Just like, just like America. America's got a lot of flaws too. It's all shit, basically. But anyway, but the nickname Cannon Barbie Killers became well-known in criminal history, carrying with it an unsettling lesson. Monsters do not always look like monsters. And sometimes, they just look like the attractive, smiling young couple next door. And the wound that came... Case left in the Canadian justice system never fully healed. And for many, the outcome felt like justice half-served,
1:48:56 Speaker 02 with Paul's punishment to the fullest extent of the law and Carla given far less than she deserved. But as of now, Paul remains behind bars, still carrying the dangerous offender designation. And he can and most likely will be held indefinitely regardless of how many years pass. And even so, the legal system requires periodic review. And after 25 years, Paul became eligible to apply for parole. And his first hearing took place in 2018, where the board denied his request, citing a complete absence of remorse and high probability that he would re-offend if released. And he applied again in 2021 in another hearing, and in 2023 in another review, and each time he was rejected. And the decisions pointed to persistent psychopathic characteristics, no evidence of meaningful rehabilitation,
1:49:41 Speaker 02 and assessments indicating that his capacity for violence had not diminished with time. The documentation from the hearings noted that Paul continued to harbor sexual fantasies involving teenage girls. And for the families of his victims, every hearing has felt like a threat resurfacing. A sad reminder that a man responsible for destroying their lives is still alive and petitioning for freedom. And Doug French, Kristen's father, has publicly described Paul as "Canada's most dangerous predator." And the parole board's repeated denials have affirmed that assessment. And as of today, the status remains unchanged. And Paul is housed in a maximum-security facility where he is monitored closely. And Carla's story after prison is the part that still just doesn't sit right.
1:50:24 Speaker 02 Because she served the full 12 years she had negotiated, and on July 4th, 2005, she walked out of prison a free woman. And her release sparked protests, petitions, and public outcry. And the French and Mahafi families fought to keep her incarcerated, as mentioned. And thousands of Canadians demanded intervention, but legally, there was nothing anyone could do. Because she had fulfilled the terms of her plea agreement and completed her sentence. And after her release, Carla relocated to Quebec and began the process of erasing herself. And she adopted a new identity at one point. Going by the name Emily Chiara Tremblay. And in 2005, she married Thierry Bordelay, who was the brother of one of the lawyers involved in her case.
1:51:09 Speaker 02 I'm just gonna go ahead and assume that guy's a monster, too. What? The couple eventually had three children, which is disgusting to think about, because I weep for those children. Like, she's a predator. Like, are they not checking on them? I don't even understand how this is allowed. But, okay. Anyway, and in 2007, the family left Canada for Guadalupe, and they returned to Quebec sometime around 2014. But every time, her whereabouts became public, and the outrage flared up once more. And in 2017, news reports revealed that Carla had been volunteering at the children's elementary school in Chautauquet, Quebec. And parents were enraged at the idea that a convicted killer of children
1:51:53 Speaker 02 was chaperoning field trips alongside their own children. And the story made national headlines with immediate backlash. And since then, Carla has maintained a low profile. Just dig a hole, jump in it, and get someone to bury you in it. How about that, Carla? But she reportedly lives in the suburb of Montreal, occasionally using a different first name to avoid detection. And she had formal restrictions attached to her release, including no contact with Paul, victims' families, or any violent criminals, as well as a few regular check-ins that expired in 2012. So to public knowledge, she has not been involved in any further criminal activity, but the debate has never faded. So, I'll ask you. Should she be free? And the victims' families and much of the public
1:52:37 Speaker 02 have never stopped saying no. And also me. Because in their eyes, in my eyes, she got away with multiple murders, and her freedom remains a permanent stain on Canada's justice system. And Carla herself has offered little that resembles genuine accountability. And in an interview conducted shortly after her release in 2005, she acknowledged her role in the crimes, saying, "What I did was terrible. I regret it." Unquote. Shut the fuck up. No, you don't. But even then, she's kept up her victim facade. And the narrative she constructed decades ago has never truly changed. And now, more than 30 years after the murders, she lives quietly in Quebec. And her children are teenagers. And according to some reports, they remain unaware of their mother's past.
1:53:21 Speaker 02 Though the constant media attention makes that extremely hard to believe. Carla is legally free and she's rebuilt a life and started a family and avoided the spotlight as much as possible. But she remains one of the most despised women in Canadian history, essentially living in exile and bearing a name that will forever be synonymous with evil. And the Homolcos have never spoken publicly about their loss. Instead, they chose to retreat from view because some wounds just don't close and I do not blame them at all. And some families simply have to learn to live around the absence. I can't imagine how that family feels and I can't imagine having a daughter that would do that to your other daughter. I just can't imagine that.
1:54:05 Speaker 02 I would also like to say that this video, all the proceeds for this video will be going to victims to, I spread across multiple charities that give back to victims. I will tag those down below if you want to check them out. But that is the end of this case. This was a rough one. This was a rough one. But you guys suggested it and if you have any more cases you want me to deep dive into, let me know down below. And until next time, please be safe out there and I will see you beautiful face in the next one. All right. Bye.
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