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Karla Leanne Homolka, born May 4, 1970 in Port Credit, Ontario, Canada, is a notorious killer, kidnapper, and rapist.
Homolka's family moved to St. Catharines, Ontario when she was only a few years old. After high school there she took a job in a veterinary clinic and in October of 1987, she met Paul Bernardo while at a Toronto pet industry convention.
Holmolka and Bernardo began a relationship, discovering a mutual fascination with aberrant sexual behavior. Bernardo had already raped several girls in a Toronto suburb without being caught and together their ever increasing perversions led to their first murder. Stealing an anesthetic used on animals from the veterinary clinic where she worked, they administered it to her fifteen-year-old sister Tammy Lyn Homolka so they could have sex with her. After being raped, the helpless teenager became sick, then lost consciousness and died. The official cause of death was attributed to the girl having choked to death on her own vomit.
Indifferent at having killed her own sister, a happily engaged Karla Homolka and her fiancé rented a bungalow in the quiet suburb of Port Dalhousie and began prowling the city for young girls. On June 15, 1991 Paul Bernardo abducted 14-year-old Leslie Erin Mahaffy and brought her to their home where they held the girl hostage for several days, sexually assaulting her over and over. This, they recorded on video tape and in one scene, Homolka pretties herself for the camera before raping the girl. Soon tiring of the teenager, they killed her and Paul Bernardo cut up her body with a chainsaw. On June 29, a couple canoeing on a lake at the edge of the city of St. Catharines found parts of Mahaffy's body in shallow water, encased in cement. On the same day that the girl's body was found, Karla Homolka was married in a lavish ceremony, resplendent in an all-white wedding dress and riding with her husband in a horse-drawn carriage at Niagara-on-the-Lake.
On April 16, 1992, 15-year-old Kristen Dawn French was abducted from a church parking lot while on her way home from school. Homolka was with her husband for this abduction and she lured the unsuspecting girl over to their car on the pretense of asking directions. Paul Bernardo forced the girl into the backseat floor of the car at knifepoint. At their home, for days they sexually assaulted the girl, escalating it to abuse, torture and degradation. Finally, once again tired of their victim, they killed her just before going to Easter Sunday dinner at Homolkas parents' home. On April 30, the body of Kristen French was found in a ditch in the city of Burlington, Ontario.
Homolka herself was subjected to the violence of her husband and in 1993 decided to leave him. Eventually their crimes began to unfold but she presented herself as the abused victim and a plea-bargain was reached in exchange for her testimony against her husband that gave her a twelve year prison sentence as an accomplice. Eventually their video tapes came to light and her complete involvement and sickly participation was revealed. However, the plea-bargain protected Homolka from further prosecution. A court order exhumed her sister Tammy's body and Paul Bernardo was tried and convicted in the girl's murder.
The extent of Homolka's involvement in the murders has been controversial. Some believe that she was simply a victim of Bernardo, while others have noted that Bernardo -- who has also been subsequently convicted in a number of rape cases -- never killed his known victims when Homolka was not directly involved in the abduction.
Diagnosed as a psychopath, Karla Holmolka has never shown any remorse for her crimes, continuing to portray herself as a victim. She has been refused parole, but will be freed in 2005.
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