Crime Junkie - SERIAL KILLER: Paul Bernardo & Karla Homolka

Episode Date: August 8, 2024

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Hi, Crime Junkies, and happy Crime Junkie Thursday. All summer long, we've been giving you twice the Crime Junkie time by unlocking some of our Fan Club Vault episodes to celebrate five years of having a Crime Junkie fan club. In the fan club, you get a lot of stuff, but the most important thing you get is more episodes, just like the ones you hear every Monday. This is meant to be a huge thank you to our fans for being fans. The fan club is often where we tell stories of the most infamous cases,

the ones you guys request a lot, like this episode from The Vault that we did back in February of 2020. Enjoy. Hi, Crime Junkies. I'm your host, Ashley Flowers. And I'm Britt. And today's story is about a series of murders that both shocked and horrified Canadians

and the rest of the world. This was in the early 1990s, and this is a long-awaited episode because so many listeners have requested this one more times than I can even count. Now, most of our North American crime junkies will know at least some of the details of their crimes. And listen, you guys, this is not going to be easy to hear. It's not easy to talk about either. So as always, take caution when listening because we are, of course, talking about the story of Paul Bernardo and Carla Homolka. I'm out. Carla Homolka was just 17 years old when she met Paul Bernardo.

Now he was 23 working as an accountant and according to Paul Bernardo and Carla Homolka, the Ken and Barbie killers by Peter Vronsky, Carla was sitting in the lobby of a hotel in Toronto in her pajamas just grabbing a late night snack when Paul and his friend walked in. Was she just alone at the bar? Where were her parents? Well, she wasn't alone, but her parents weren't there either.

Carla was actually with a friend and they were in town for this pet store convention because throughout high school, Carla had worked part-time at a pet store. So here she is, her and her friends sitting at this table when Paul and his friend walk in and right away it's like heart-eye emojis, before emojis were a thing. Like the two are instantly drawn to one another, so much so that they end up sleeping together that very first night up in her hotel room.

And from that night on, Carla and Paul were an item. Carla was a doting girlfriend. She was head over heels for him. He was older and successful. He was a university graduate with a promising future. And according to a 1995 article from McLean Magazine, in those early days, Paul treated her like a princess. He took her to fancy dinners, gave her these lavish gifts,

and he made the two hour drive every weekend to visit Carla at her parents' house. And they really loved him too. They thought that their daughter had finally found a wonderful, nice boy to settle down with. But like so many relationships, those around them only saw them at a distance, and they didn't know what happened behind closed doors. Because Paul and Carla both had wild sexual fantasies.

And Carla in particular indulged those for Paul. Now listen, a certain amount of fantasy is healthy and to be expected, but their fantasies were on another level. Just four months after they began dating, Paul asked Carla to pose for explicit polaroids, and she agreed. But these aren't just like racy pictures. Their fantasy is darker here. In one of the photos, he has ropes wrapped tightly

around her neck and is holding a knife to the side of her head. Now for every demand that he made and she agreed to, he upped the ante the next time. But there was at least one fantasy that she couldn't make happen for Paul. From the very beginning of his relationship with Carla, Paul took a liking to her little sister, Tammy. And actually, a liking is kind of an understatement. He more than liked her.

Now, mind you, Tammy is 12 years old when Paul is starting to like come around and be around her, and he becomes obsessed with Tammy. According to that Peter Ronsky book I mentioned on the case, he would sneak into her room and masturbate on her pillow while she slept. Oh my god. And other times he would have Carla dress in Tammy's clothes and then have sex with her in Tammy's bed. Other times when he couldn't act out his fantasies in Tammy's room, Paul would often stare at a photo of Tammy while he had sex with her sister Carla. And listen, it wasn't just enough for Paul to just like do the act. Like

the Polaroid he took of Carla, part of the pleasure that he got was from like capturing these moments on film. And Paul had eventually graduated from Polaroids to videotaping everything that he did. Now obviously Paul wasn't shy about telling Carla how he felt about her sister, and she willingly played along, but after a while, his obsession was starting to drive a wedge between them. I mean, I would think so. Not only is he obsessing about another person, but that person is your child sister. Yeah, any sister. Yeah, he's bizarre

Well, here's the thing though It wasn't just what they were already doing that was driving the wedge The problem was the longer that this fantasy went on and the more they acted on it the less it satisfied him anymore And he wanted the real thing because what Paul really wanted was Tammy's virginity. Wait, what? Yeah, apparently, it was a sore spot between Paul and Carla that he wasn't her first the night that they met. And he would literally not shut up about this, like, all the time.

Now by this time, Paul and Carla are engaged, and they're living together at Carla's family's home in St. Catharines. This means that Paul's seeing a lot of Tammy and he's talking about his desires all the time with his fiance Carla. And eventually, Carla gives in. She agreed to give him her now 15-year-old sister's virginity. Which isn't hers to give to anybody. Correct, but she feels that this is something she can give or take. So on December 24th, 1990, that's exactly what she did.

She called it a Christmas slash wedding present to him. I can't get past that she's even okay with this happening, let alone like encouraging it. Like every part of it, every part of it makes me just want to scream. Like we both have sisters and I cannot imagine putting my sister in that situation or having a sister put me in that situation. Well, it's interesting. You know, I think it shows you a glimpse into a mind that we can't understand when we use rational thought.

Like I was reading McLean's magazine who talked about this very thing and how she could allow this and how she was okay with it. And they actually quoted Carla's court testimony and this is what she said about it. She said, quote, "'He said he would wear a condom, "'that nobody would get hurt

"'and Tammy would never know about it. "'In the future, he would be able to look at her "'and think he was the one who had taken her virginity. I finally agree to it." End quote. So she's like kind of making these concessions like because he's wearing a condom and she's never gonna know, everything's fine.

Now again, I don't think you can like rationalize it with a normal brain, cause nothing about this is normal. But it was normal enough for her and she was fine with the arrangement. So on the night of December 23rd, while Carla's mother, father, and older sister slept upstairs, Paul, Carla, and Tammy stayed up to watch a movie.

Now, Tammy was drinking this boozy eggnog, so Carla crushed up a drug called Halcyon, which is this powerful sedative, and she added that to her drink. But Halcyon and booze alone would not be enough to ensure that she would stay unconscious. So in addition to drugging her, Carla also soaked a cloth in halothane, which is this general anesthetic, like the kind of drug a doctor would give you if you were being put under for surgery.

Where is she even getting these sedatives and drugs? Well, so at the time, she was working as a vet's assistant, which gave her easy access to all kinds of medications. Like everything she got she stole from the vet clinic where she worked. And granted they're all four animals, but they're all the same drugs that are used on humans as well. Now once Tammy was unconscious, they set up Paul's video camera and began their assault. Now listen, all of this is sick and depraved,

but the part that was exceptionally hard for me to comprehend is that Paul directed Carla to participate in the assault too, and she willingly did. But sometime during the assault, Tammy began to vomit. Now, I don't know how well versed Carla was in the medication that she was administering to her sister, but to to me it should have come as not a huge shock that she would have thrown up and gotten sick But I like don't you usually have to fast before you go under for like a surgery? Right and it's the same approach with animals like they have to fast too before going under general anesthesia And like again, she worked at a vet clinic So you would think that she would have known this, but Tammy had food and alcohol

in her stomach when she took these medications, which didn't mix well and that's what's causing her to get sick. Now, after she vomits, Tammy was unresponsive. The couple tried to revive her using CPR, but when that didn't work, they decided that they would stage the scene rather than call for professional help. So Paul and Carla dressed Tammy and carried her back up to her bedroom. Carla flushed all of the drugs and hid the other supplies, and it was then that they called 911. When first responders arrived, it was 1.25 in the morning on Christmas Eve, and it was clear

that Tammy was already deceased. There was nothing that they could do. But as first responders looked at the scene, there were signs that all wasn't as it seemed. Like, for instance, there were these huge cherry red burn marks around Tammy's nose, mouth, and cheeks. Like, literally severe burn marks. Brett, I'm going to send you a picture. It's actually Tammy's autopsy photo so you can see what it is, I'm going to send you a picture. It's actually Tammy's autopsy photo, so you can see what it is that I'm talking about. Oh yeah, they're like really, really red. Cherry red is exactly the right way to describe it.

And it does look like an acid burn almost. Yeah, all around her mouth, on her cheeks. Like it's not even one tiny spot. I'm surprised at how much there is. Yeah. So police who respond that night question Paul and Carla and the rest of the Homolka family about what happened there. And specifically about those burn marks.

And Paul said that the marks were likely made from when he dragged Tammy from the living room to her bedroom so that they had better light. Those aren't carpet burns though. They're not. And I mean, this is a suspicious story. And police were suspicious about it too. But Carla and Paul, like, didn't fit the picture of deviant killers. Like, they were this picture perfect young couple.

And again, this is Carla's sister. Like, I don't think the reality of what happened could fit into the context of anything that these officers had ever encountered. I mean, I have to imagine that in their minds, they're not even thinking that Carla could assault her sister. Like, maybe they're looking at Paul, but Carla is saying like, well, he was with me and she's vouching for him. And even Tammy's parents had nothing but good things to say to the officers about their

future son-in-law. So basically, everyone came to the conclusion that this was just a horrible accident. There was a full autopsy performed after Tammy's death, and the pathologist found that the burn marks were from acidity from her vomiting. Now, had he ever seen this before? No, but it was the only thing that made sense to him. Now, they look for evidence of drugs in her system, but the tox screens I guess that they do at autopsies don't cover actual prescription drugs unless you know to look for them. The regular tox screen that they do just covers the illicit drugs. So the two drugs that were used on her sister weren't even detected.

Now for the Homoka family, the community in St. Catharines, Tammy's death was a terrible tragedy and just a life that was lost too soon. But for Paul and for Carla, it was the beginning of a whole new shift in their relationship and a new pattern. One where Paul's fantasies start to become reality. Paul's fantasies start to become reality. After Tammy's death, Carla's parents and older sister went away for a couple of weeks. Like, they just needed to clear their heads and try and make sense of their youngest daughter's death. But Paul and Carla didn't join them. They stayed behind at home.

And you might think that the two were grief-stricken, guilt-ridden, but you'd be very wrong. Paul's obsession with Tammy continued even after her death. And all those same things he and Carla had done before, her dressing in Tammy's clothes, him holding a picture of Tammy while they had sex in her bed, all of those things continued. With Tammy gone, though, Paul needed a new way to satisfy his increasing urges, so he and Carla knew what to do. On the weekend of January 12th, with Carla's mom, dad, and older sister out of the house, Paul went out and picked up a 16-year-old girl, brought her back to the Homolka home, and raped her. The entire time, Carla was there hiding behind the drapes.

By February 1991, five weeks or so after Tammy's death, Paul and Carla moved into their own home and began their life together. And to be very clear, they didn't just move out on their own. The homolkas had to ask them to leave. They said that they basically needed space to grieve their dead daughter. Because if Carla was grieving, she wasn't showing it. Like to give you an idea of how little she cared about her sister's death, the CBC's The Fifth Estate did a show on

Carla Homoco, which aired back in 1997. And in that piece, they read from a letter that Carla wrote to a friend where she complained about how her parents used half of the money set aside for her wedding to help finance Tammy's funeral. And she wrote about how angry and annoyed she was that they weren't more excited about her wedding because they were still so obsessed with Tammy's death. Like, this is not registering for her at all. She has no grief. She has no remorse and absolutely no guilt. It is still registering for her at all. She has no grief, she has no remorse, and absolutely no guilt.

It is still all about her. And remember how I said that there was this shift in their dynamic when Paul started openly sleeping with other women? Well, other girls, really? Well, another shift happened at around this time too, because all the things that they've been doing together sexually as a couple, like their assault on Tammy,

the sex, consensual or otherwise, with girls and women outside of his marriage, it just wasn't enough anymore. And the older Carla got, like again, she's just the ripe old age of 21, that May, the more Paul needed younger women. So according to an article published by ThoughtCo, Paul started blaming Carla for Tammy's death.

She was the one that administered the drugs after all. She had to be the person responsible. And Paul complained that because of Carla's actions, Tammy wasn't around anymore for him to enjoy sexually. So that's when Carla started thinking, if she was going to keep her man happy, she had to do something. So on June 6, 1991, she invited this 15-year-old girl over. And it was a girl that she'd befriended at work.

And she just asked her over for like a girls night. Now the girl's identity is protected. She's known only to us in the public as Jane Doe. But Carla and Jane Doe spent hours together that evening that she invited her over. They're having drinks, just talking, laughing. Then Carla did just what she did with Tammy six months prior. She spiked her drinks with a sedative and then dug out the halothane. Then she called Paul, who was out that night, to tell him that she had a surprise wedding gift for him. Just as they had done with Tammy, they videotaped themselves raping Jane Doe.

But Carla had learned from her last experience and knew better how to administer that drug. So the next day, Jane actually woke up. She was groggy, sick, sore, but she had no idea what happened to her. Now here's the thing, this incident, instead of satisfying Paul's urges, this assault seemed to fuel his appetite. And just one week after he raped Jane Doe, Paul was prowling around backyards in Burlington, Ontario looking for license plates to steal. Now, this is during the overnight hours between June 14th and June 15th, and by this time, Paul was making his living

smuggling cigarettes across the border from the US duty free, like he was stealing license plates as a way to disguise his car to try to avoid patrol. Like his life is clearly falling apart like he's not an accountant anymore. But he's prowling the yards at this time and it's around 2.30 in the morning. And while he's creeping around,

he comes upon a 14 year old girl named Leslie Mahaffey and she's sitting on a picnic bench in her backyard So she was just sitting outside in her yard at 2 30 in the morning like every normal 14 year old does Yeah, it's weird that she's out there the short story around why she was is basically she was like several hours late coming home for curfew that night and so when she arrived she found that all of the doors were locked like even the ones that were usually left unlocked and Her relationship with her parents at this time was pretty tumultuous like she had moved out for a while And she'd been staying with her friend now She was back home and things were getting better with her parents

But when she left they'd actually changed the locks, and I'm not sure if that has anything to do with it. Like maybe they hadn't given her a key yet. Maybe they were mad that she was out, but either way, this is why Leslie didn't have a key. She couldn't get in, and she didn't want to wake her parents in the middle of the night, like banging on the doors, because she was worried about that,

making them even more mad about her not being home on time. Leslie had already been to a nearby payphone and phoned a friend looking for a place to stay. But, again, she didn't have a ride there in the middle of the night, and she didn't want to wake her friend's mom either. So she was basically just kind of sitting in her backyard trying to come up with an option or at least waiting until the sun came up till she could go inside, which is why she's sitting there on that bench when Paul Bernardo literally

comes out of the bushes. Oh my gosh, that would be terrifying. Well, that's the thing. I don't think she was terrified so much as she was surprised to see this guy standing there in the middle of the night. But remember, Paul is 26 at the time, but he looks much younger. He has this very boyish face, and he looks so nice and so harmless.

And so she's like, what are you doing here? And he tells her that he's burglarizing homes. And even that, though, doesn't faze her. She's like, OK, cool. And then she asks if she can like bum a cigarette off of him. And he's like, yeah, well, I do have a cigarette, but they're in my car. Come get one in my car.

Come get one in my car with me. So Leslie follows him there. She sat in the front seat with him, like legs kind of dangling outside while they talked. But in a flash, Paul pulled a knife and ordered her into the backseat of his car. He threw a blanket over her so she wouldn't be seen and told her that if she listened to what he said, she would be just fine. Then he drove 35 long minutes to his home, where Carla was waiting. When they got Leslie inside, Paul set up his video camera and began what would be the 24-hour sexual assault and torture of this 14-year-old girl. But Carla didn't just stand by and watch this happen.

Sometimes she would hold the camera while Paul raped Leslie. Sometimes she herself participated. And other times, Carla sat downstairs reading a book. She even took their dog for a walk, all while this was happening. In the very early morning hours of June 16th, this is 24 hours after Leslie's kidnapping, Paul and Carla realized that they had a problem. It was Father's Day and Carla's parents were supposed to be coming over for dinner. They had to get Leslie out of there.

But the question in their mind was could they release her? Did she see what they looked like and would she be able to identify them? Ultimately, they decided that the risk would be too great if they let her? Did she see what they looked like, and would she be able to identify them? Ultimately, they decided that the risk would be too great if they let her just walk away. And Leslie was strangled to death with a black electric cord, and she died right there on the floor of their master bedroom.

Now, Paul hid her body in a cold corner of their basement, and then he and Carla went to sleep, never losing a wink over what they had just done. The next day, when Carla's parents came over, it was super busy. They gave them a tour of the new house, you know, Sam's basement, of course. They did their Father's Day dinner. And for those who didn't know, it was a lovely day.

The next day, while Carla worked, Paul cut Leslie's body into ten pieces and then encased each piece in this ready-mix cement. Then the day after that, he loaded the blocks into the trunk of his car, picked up Carla from work, and they drove to a lake called Lake Gibson. And that is where they tossed the blocks into the water and drove home never looking back. Because there was no time to stop and think about what they had just done a second time. Their wedding was just 10 days away and they had work to do. So 10 days later, on June 29th, the day Paul and Carla said I do, is the very day that

Leslie's remains were discovered. But as picture perfect as Carla and Paul look in their wedding photos, that day was far from perfect to Carla because it didn't go at all like she planned because on that night her husband told her that he was hiding a secret. Paul told Carla that Tammy and Leslie were not his first victims. There were many, many more. For years, since like late 1987, just after Paul and Carla had met, the town of Scarborough, Ontario, which is like a suburb of Toronto, was being terrorized by a serial rapist. Now this man would wait in the shadows after dark for young women, like really like any

young woman, to step off of a city bus alone. And when he found a target, he would jump from behind, force them face down to the ground, and demand that they keep their eyes closed. The assaults were violent and brutal. I read this article in The Walrus written by Stacey Mae Fowles, who grew up in that area at the time, and she talks about how the rapist would punch his victims in the face, choke them, and then use a knife to cut and even penetrate them. That's horrifying.

Well, it gets even worse. So the attacks would often happen in the victim's own backyards or their parents' backyards, in the case of some of the younger women, which must have been horrible for them to be so close to help and to safety. And according to the Canadian Encyclopedia, in at least one instance, the Scarborough rapist broke into the victim's own bedroom and assaulted her right there. Local police knew right away that they were hunting a real-life monster, someone who hid in the shadows after dark, who preyed on women and girls that were alone and vulnerable.

And these rapes had continued month after month, victim after victim, and each time that he attacked, this rapist got more confident and more violent. He would even threaten to kill victims and their families. He broke one victim's arm, and many were left with stab wounds that needed medical attention. Police investigated every assault. They were collecting rape kits. They were listening to victim stories.

And through all of this, they knew that they were dealing with one guy. They had a serial rapist on their hands. Dozens of women were being attacked by the same guy with the same MO, but they just couldn't catch him. And even though police had his DNA, they didn't have any suspects or persons of interest to match it to. So, I mean, they would wait for somebody to like come on their radar, but it was like hit after hit just like wasn't matching to anyone. They even tried bringing the FBI in at one point, like their behavioral science unit to create a profile of this rapist. And you know, because they have this like MO down to a science, they thought they could learn a lot about him,

but there was just no way to narrow down the suspect pool, even with this profile. Until May of 1990, this is two and a half years There was just no way to narrow down the suspect pool, even with this profile. Until May of 1990, this is two and a half years from when the rapist attacks began, when one of the victims finally saw his face. Now, police created a composite sketch based on her description and pushed it out to newspapers and TV stations. It hung in high schools and grocery stores stores like literally all throughout the area.

And police got a ton of tips from the composite over the next several months, more than 40,000 by the end of the investigation. And interestingly, they had gotten three separate tips from three different people who all said the same thing. The guy that you're looking for is Paul Bernardo. Now early on, police took the tips about Paul Bernardo seriously. He was a dead ringer for the composite. He fit the profile.

He was young, white, probably single, living in the area. And they were suspicious enough to even talk to him. Now Paul is questioned by investigators not once, but twice during their search for their serial rapist. Now, he was living at home with his parents at the time, and he told the police that came, listen, I'm an accountant, I have this soon-to-be wife named Carla, our wedding's coming up. And he even joked with the officers about how much he actually looked like the composite drawing.. Britt, I'm going to send this to you because you're not going to believe it.

Oh my gosh, identical. It's a drawing of Paul Bernardo. I mean, this had to have sealed the deal for the police, right? I wish it had, but he was so charming, seemed so normal, so confident, and in like so many other investigations that we've talked about on this show, he just got cleared, or at least wasn't arrested

because in their interview they did not feel like he could be the person that they were looking for. But they did ask him for a DNA sample. Now Paul willingly agreed to provide one and according to the Canadian Encyclopedia, they took samples of his hair, blood, and saliva, all to test against the DNA found on the rape victims. Now, they send this off to the lab, and then they wait. You have to think about the backlog that they must have had, having 40,000 potential suspects. It's going to take a long time to get those results back.

While they waited, Paul Bernardo, with Carla by his side, raped and killed Tammy Homolka, assaulted Jane Doe, kidnapped, raped, and killed Leslie Mahaffey, and encased her remains in concrete and drowned them in the lake. And Paul continued to prowl the streets, stalking and violently assaulting young women in the area, because he was not done yet. On April 16th, just before the Easter weekend, Paul decided that he'd waited long enough. He needed another girl, another virgin specifically, and he knew where he wanted to go. Holy Cross Catholic High School, where the girls wore these uniforms that Paul really liked. Now this time Carla came with him to help with the kidnapping. As the

dismissal bell rang and the girls left school, Paul searched the crowd for one that he liked best and his eyes found 15 year old Kristen French. So Carla gets out of the car and asked Kristen for directions. She spreads the map on the roof of the car. This does this whole charade. Kristen walks over to help her because why wouldn't you help a nice young couple lost in your city? And Paul circled behind and then just pushed her into the back seat. And Carla held her down out of sight while Paul drove them all home.

For the next three days, Paul and Carla held Kristin captive at their home, taking turns assaulting and raping her during the day and keeping her drugged on sleeping pills tied in a closet at night. Now, just like the assault on Tammy, Jane Doe, and Leslie, Paul couldn't help but document this experience on tape too. Now the entire time, Kristen was smart.

She stayed calm. She did as she was ordered. And in return, Paul told her that he was going to let her leave. But by the third day, seeing no logical end in sight, she began to resist him. She started to say no. She refused to do what she was told. And you know what he did? He showed her the video that he had of Carla assaulting Leslie.

And according to Vronsky's book, said basically, if you don't do what I say, the same thing is going to happen to you. But still, she refused. She was a fighter. But she was no match for the aggressive and violent Paul Bernardo. He began to beat her, punching and kicking her. The sexual assaults continued, followed by more brutal beatings, and it went on like this. Now, at two points during her three-day captivity, Paul did leave the house. So, two times he left Carla guarding her, and two times she had the opportunity to let her go and the entire time

Kristen is begging and pleading with Carla, but two times Carla refused her. On Easter Sunday, Paul and Carla had the same discussion that they'd had ten months earlier about Leslie. What do we do next? Now during a police interview Carla gave much later, which was aired on the CBC show I mentioned, Carla said the following thing about that conversation. Quote, I said, well we have to go to my parents for Easter dinner and he said, why don't we just not go? And I said, well I don't think it would look very good if we don't go. How's it going to look if this girl's missing and we have no alibi? We haven't gone anywhere, we haven't done

anything." And he said, well, I guess you're right because he wanted to keep her for longer and I didn't want to. I didn't want to go to work knowing this girl was in my house and could escape so easily. I was afraid. So I didn't suggest to him that he'd kill her on Sunday, but I knew that she had to be gone." Like it's one thing to be complicit, but this is like so cold-hearted and savage really. Yeah. And Kristen French died the same way that Leslie did. She was strangled to death with a black electrical cord.

Following her death, Carla and Paul cut off her long dark hair, washed her corpse in the bathtub to remove any traces of evidence, and then they burned everything Kristin had with her when they kidnapped her, and collected all of the ashes for disposal. Now, their plan was to dump her body on Leslie's grave. I guess they wanted it to look like the killer was living in the area, which was like Leslie's hometown

and not where they lived, I think they were trying to divert suspicion, but they couldn't actually in the area, which was like Leslie's hometown and not where they lived. I think they were trying to divert suspicion, but they couldn't actually find the grave, so they had to come up with a plan B. On April 30th, two weeks after she had disappeared, a man out looking for scrap metal found Kristen's naked body in a ditch along a rural road in the north end of Burlington. And that's, again, the town where Leslie had lived. The girl he found was badly beaten.

She had bruises all over her face, blood coming from her nose. She had marks across her back. And he also noticed that her hair had been completely shaved off. Now, police suspected right away that this was their missing teenager. And in an article I read in the Buffalo News

said that as more officers arrived and the body was slowly and carefully uncovered, they noticed that the tip of her little finger was missing and that's when they knew for sure that it was Kristin who had gotten that injury in a rowing accident years before. Now by the time her body was discovered, police had already set up what they called the Green Ribbon Task Force to look into several of these unsolved disappearances and murders in the area, which included Kristin and Leslie.

Leslie was kidnapped from her backyard in the middle of the night, but Kristin, she was abducted in broad daylight in a church parking lot near her school, and there were witnesses. Now, one of those witnesses reported seeing an older model cream-colored Camaro in the area, and that wasn't much of a tip, but at least it was something to go on. Right. So police and everyone in the community started looking. And it was just a few weeks after this that police got their next really good tip pointing

to Paul Bernardo. Now, remember how I said that composite sketch led to a couple of separate people calling tips in about him because he looked so familiar? Yeah. Well, one of those tips the first time had come from an ex-girlfriend. Another had come from a bank teller, and the third was actually from Paul's childhood friend Alex and his wife Tina. Now Alex and Tina once again spoke to a police officer that they knew.

They said, you need to look at Paul Bernardo for this. He was a suspect in the rape cases. He is violent, he's hostile, he's aggressive towards women, and we know that he's hit women before. He has admitted to us to beating his wife. So on May 12, 1992, police went to see Paul Bernardo again, and this time for what they were calling the, quote, schoolgirl murders. So they go to his house, the same house where Leslie and Kristen had been raped and murdered, and they did a criminal

records check. Comes back totally clean. He even admits to being called in for questioning during the whole rape investigation. And he said, listen, I came in, I talked, I gave you guys DNA. I know I look like the composite sketch, but gosh, what a weird coincidence. And so police again are looking at this guy and being like, my God, he's, he's polite. He's intelligent. He's cooperating with us. He's got this lovely wife with a lovely wife. There's no reason not to believe him. Yeah. I mean, he's got clean house. He's like the car he has isn't a Camaro. It's like a Nissan. He couldn't necessarily provide alibis, but like, he, you know, he said, I'm likely with my wife.

She says, yeah, I totally corroborate that. She seems like a totally nice lady. So they just don't seem like the kind of people that could assault, murder, and cut up a girl into pieces. You know what I mean? So for the second time, police decided Paul Bernardo wasn't their guy. As soon as they left, Paul and Carla hid all of the videotapes that they made of the assaults along with Paul's favorite knife. And they hid all of this in the rafters of their garage, which I also think says something about them that they would hide this stuff instead of just throwing it away. And they hid all of this in the rafters of their garage, which I also think says something

about them that they would hide this stuff instead of just throwing it away. You know police are so close to you. This is the second time you've been interviewed and he still can't part with it. But Paul does tell Carla, like, if they come back, you have to destroy all of it. For another eight months, Paul and Carla's life went on. Now, during this time, he continued to stalk and rape women, and together they engaged sex workers to help meet Paul's needs, or I guess at this point maybe it's their needs in the bedroom. And sometimes he took Carla with him in the car to point out women that he was stalking, and he would have Carla perform oral sex on him

while he watched these other women. But this horrible fairy tale that Paul and Carla were living in, it was about to come crashing down. Because remember that DNA sample Paul gave to police when they were investigating the rape cases? I mean, this at that point was years old, and I'm sure Paul thought that he was in the clear. Well, those samples finally made their way to the front line of the Forensic Science

Unit, and Paul was finally about to be exposed for the monster he truly was. On January 6, this is 1993 now, Carla is admitted to St. Catherine's General Hospital. Paul had beat her so viciously in the face with a mag light, like one of those long heavy flashlights that police officers sometimes carry. He had beat her so profusely that she had to be admitted to the hospital. And I didn't think Carla had a limit, but it turns out this was it. Paul had gotten arrested by police and charged with domestic assault and eventually, like

so many times before, ends up just getting released again. Now Carla didn't actually return home to him. She went to stay with family in Toronto because she was worried that Paul's going to come after her again. Now while this is going on, this is when the DNA results come back. It's on February 1st, it's three weeks after her Maglite assault, the DNA results come back. Paul Bernardo, polite, cooperative Paul Bernardo with the nice little house and the nice little wife and the nice little life, in fact was the Scarborough rapist. And now, because they knew he was the rapist, they

also had to wonder if he might also be responsible for the schoolgirl murders. And to find out, they put surveillance on him right away. And then, they decide that they need to go talk to Carla. When police spoke to Carla the first time, they were mostly there to ask about her husband, the one that they had been watching as he stalked women around the area. But they also had some other questions, like had she ever cut anyone's hair?

Or if she'd been in the church parking lot near Holy Cross School ever? Now they didn't tell her why they were asking those questions, but she knew and she panicked. As soon as police left, she told her aunt and uncle that Paul had videotaped them having sex with Leslie and Kristen, the two girls that were deceased. And she told them that she had looked for the tapes before she fled Paul, but that she couldn't find them and they weren't where she thought that they would be. So fearful of the repercussions their investigation would have on her, Carla hires a lawyer. And on Valentine's Day, Carla's lawyer told police that their suspect was not only

a violent serial rapist, as they had confirmed through DNA testing, but also a serial murderer, and that the assaults on Leslie and Kristen had been videotaped and that those tapes were hidden somewhere in the house. So Paul is finally arrested on February 17th and charged with the murders of Leslie and Kristen and all of the rapes. And police immediately begin what would be a thorough 71 day search of his and Carla's home. And when I say thorough, I mean they tore out walls, they were drilling holes in the

floor, they ripped out the plumbing, tore out carpets, they vacuumed up every single hair, fiber, and speck that they found and dusted every inch of that place for fingerprints. But they could not find the videotapes of Leslie or Kristen. However, they did find one tape, an edited two-minute video clip of Paul and Carla sexually assaulting an unconscious teenage girl. Oh my god, another one? Actually, at first, police thought that it might be the tape they were looking for for Leslie, but this tape actually turned out to be the assault on who we've been calling Jane Doe.

And using this, police were able to actually track her down alive and were able to get her story. Now, without those tapes, police had almost no physical evidence tying Paul Bernardo to the crimes that he was suspected of committing. They needed a way to nail this guy to the wall. And they thought that their best way was through his wife. Because now, she was willing to talk and to tell her story on the stand and testify against her husband.

Now with very few options and time racing past, they start to talk to Carla's lawyer. And in mid-May of 1993, after weeks of negotiations, they finally come to a deal. According to the Canadian Encyclopedia, Carla spent four days talking to police. She told them about Tammy's death, about how Paul kidnapped Leslie in the backyard of her home, and about how they, together, kidnapped Kristen in broad daylight. And she told police about how Paul used these girls as sex slaves before he strangled them to death. Now mixed in with telling them about the other crimes that they had committed, she also tells police about the years that she says she suffered mental and physical abuse at the hands of

her husband. She said she was in isolation, he used threats, humiliation, and Carla described herself basically as a battered wife who was forced to participate in her husband's crimes, and she said she lived in fear of him every single day of their marriage. Now I'm not refuting her accounts of the abuse. There is no question in my mind that Paul Bernardo is a violent and abusive man. But I can tell you this, like in the search that they did of their home and in the videotape

they have of Jane Doe specifically, it showed Carla as a willing participant. And in addition to that one tape that they found, I mean they found a ton of stuff in their homes like books on deviant sex, hunting knives, handcuffs, all of that stuff, whatever. But they also found a videotape of Paul and Carla having sex with two unidentified young women. Like, she's tied to this, I would say, almost the same way he is. Now, in exchange for testifying against her husband, Carla pled guilty to two counts of manslaughter for the deaths of Leslie Mahaffey and Kristen French, and she got a sentence of 10 years each to be served consecutively.

Now, they added just two more years to her sentence for the role of her sister's death, which she accepted responsibility for in letters to her parents. Okay, so I don't know much about the Canadian legal system. So maybe you can fill me in but 12 years total for being part and parcel of multiple Just truly heinous crimes that resulted in the deaths of three women doesn't really seem like enough No, no, I totally agree. But here's the thing and it's it's so hard to piece together in hindsight, but at the time, it's

my understanding that police didn't really know how much Carla had been involved in the rapes and murders, specifically of Tammy, Leslie, and Kristin. As far as they knew, Carla was just as much of a victim as the other girls. So I don't think it came out how much she was involved until they had already made this deal. Like at one point during the investigation, during the time that she was making this deal with prosecutors, she was actually hospitalized for depression and PTSD. And the psychiatrist who treated her said that she had a classic case of battered spouse syndrome. So that's the information that they're working off of.

And that was her story that she she had been systematically manipulated, beaten, and coerced for years by her sadistic sociopathic husband. What police didn't know until they finalized her plea agreement was that despite how thorough their 70-day-one search had been, they had missed something significant. Hidden inside a light fixture in their master bedroom was a stash of six video tapes. Tapes that clearly showed the rape and torture of Leslie, Kristen, and Tammy, and Jane Doe. And Carla plays a very active role in every single one of those. So how did police end up finding those tapes?

So this is the thing, police didn't find them. It was Paul's lawyer who found the tapes. So on May 6, this was just after the 70-day one search that the police had done, Paul's lawyer and two of his colleagues entered the Bernardo house where Paul, by phone, led them straight to where the tapes were hidden. And the lawyer took them back to his office where they would stay for the next 17 months. What? I know.

So what he was supposed to do legally and ethically was to turn those tapes over to police. Right. That's like the rule of discovery. Yeah. Physical evidence has to be handed over. And Paul's written instructions to his lawyer were to get the tapes, but to not watch the tapes. And so he didn't watch them, at least not right away. So I don't know if this gave him like some loophole. Like we found this thing, but I didn't watch them. So I didn't know that they were important.

I didn't know it was connected to the case. So how could I have known, et cetera, et cetera? Yeah, he didn't, I guess, watch them until like May 18th. And this is after the plea deal that Carla had gotten. And I mean, it was totally finalized by this point and after Paul had been charged with murder. Now, as soon as he saw the tapes, he knew he messed up. Like he knew he should have handed them over as soon as he found them.

Now his lawyer ended up resigning from the case before Paul went to trial. he messed up, like he knew he should have handed them over as soon as he found them. Now his lawyer ended up resigning from the case before Paul went to trial and the tapes did make it to police and prosecutors eventually. Now he actually ended up being charged with obstruction of justice and possession of child pornography and was tried in court but ultimately, I don't know how, ended up being acquitted. In May of 1995, Paul Bernardo's murder trial finally began, and as you can imagine, it was sensational. This was very much like, you know, in 1994, the US had O.J., 1995, Canada had the Paul Bernardo trial.

People were lined up around the block to snag one of these limited seats available in the public courthouse. And the trial began with viewing some of these home videotapes. So anyone with a seat in that courtroom, like the jury, the media, the public, just sat transfixed watching the two of them perform. Now to be super clear, like they saw a lot of home tapes, the public didn't get to see the video footage of Paul and Carla as they raped or tortured Tammy, Leslie, and Kristen. The jury had

to see that, but they did let everyone in the courtroom hear the audio of the tapes. Additionally, everyone in the court heard directly from Carla, who talked about years of mental and physical abuse at the hands of her husband, and Carla, who said she was the victim, but who they had just watched with their own eyes, enthusiastically participating in all of these rape videos. Now for his part, Paul ended up admitting to raping many, many women, Leslie and Kristen included. And according to Vronsky's book, he told the courtroom that he basically had problems with his sexuality

and he was quote, going to have to seek professional help, end quote. But despite all of that, he would not admit to killing anyone. He insisted that both girls were killed under Carla's supervision. And the truth is, we don't know. insisted that both girls were killed under Carla's supervision. And the truth is, we don't know.

The hundreds of hours of videotape gave us all information about Paul and about Carla and the last minutes of Tammy and Leslie and Kristen's life. But I guess it's not on tape to show which one of them actually murdered the girls. So we still don't know. But here's what I find interesting. Now, I mean, we know that criminals can escalate, and the type of behavior that Paul was exhibiting is exactly the kind that would escalate.

But it's interesting to me, at least, that we know that he was stalking and raping women for years. And then he meets Carla, and it's after he meets Carla that the women start dying. And I don't know if that's a coincidence. I don't know if it really speaks to Carla being more involved or if she brought something out in him that was already there. Paul Bernardo was found guilty of two counts each of first degree murder

among other charges. And the question I think everyone's left with on this is, was Carla a victim? Was she this young woman who is enamored with an older man, willing to do whatever he asked just to make him happy, basically a battered spouse who was afraid for her life? Or was she more than that, an equal partner in Paul Bernardo's psycho sex machine, like fanning and fueling the flames? Most people believe that it was the latter, that she at the very least, the Barbie to his Ken, maybe was the driving force behind all of it.

And the fact that she served only 12 years for her role still frustrates so many. Police and prosecutors are still taking heat for the plea agreement that they made. They call it, you know, in like the press and stuff, they call it the deal with the devil. Now, this is the shocking part for those of you who aren't intimately familiar with the story. Carla Hamoka was released back in 2005. She actually settled in Montreal before moving to the Caribbean with her new husband. She has three children now. And by 2016, she was back in Quebec making headlines once again when the media found out that she was volunteering at her kid's school.

Paul Bernardo is still behind bars at a maximum security prison in Ontario serving a life sentence. So far, all of his parole applications have been denied. He has been designated a dangerous offender, which is basically the sentencing equivalent of don't call us, we'll call you. But I wouldn't wait up. It is unlikely that he will ever be free. And he's 55 years old today and counting. If you want to see any of the pictures we've talked about in this case or to see our sources for this episode, you can find all of that on our website, crimejunkiepodcast.com. And be sure to follow us on Instagram at crimejunkiepodcast. See you next time.

Don't forget if you want more Crime Junkie episodes just like this one, new members can get the rest of the month of August for free to try the fan club. Head to the link right there in the show notes to sign up and use code FREESUMMER and you won't be billed for the rest of August. And make sure you hit the follow button here so you don't miss any bonus content that we put out. I'll be popping back in your feed next Thursday with another episode. So I'll see you then. Bye. Crime Junkie is an AudioChuck production. So what do you think Chuck? Do you approve? OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO