Major Characters Involved:

Paul Bernardo-
Paul Bernardo was born on Aug. 27, 1964, in Ontario. The Bernardos were a “financially
well-off,” stable middle-class family. In 1975, His father was charged with child molestation and
there were rumors he had even molested his own daughter. When he was 16, his mother
revealed to him that he was actually the result of an extramarital affair. After this his behaviour
started to change. He began to refer to his own mother as a “slob” and a “whore.” When he
went off to study at the University of Toronto, he started picking women up at bars only to later
humiliate and beat them.

Karla Holmoka-
Karla Homolka was born in Ontario in 1970 and was the eldest of three siblings. She was
described as a “well adjusted, pretty, smart, and popular” child with a fondness for animals that
led her to start working at a veterinary clinic after high school. Karla met Bernardo in October of
1987. They quickly began a sadomasochistic relationship The whole while they dated, Paul
Bernardo was brutally raping girls in Scarborough with Homolka’s knowledge and approval.

The Scarborough Rapist

Before Bernardo met Karla, he committed multiple sexual assaults, escalating in viciousness, in
and around Scarborough, Ontario. Most of the assaults were on young women whom he had
stalked after they exited buses late in the evening. Between 1987 and 1990, he raped and
sexually assaulted 11 teenage girls. In 1988, the Metro Police formed a task force dedicated to
finding and catching the Scarborough Rapist, but they didn’t find him. In July 1990, the police
received an anonymous tip saying that Bernardo fit the profile for the Scarborough Rapist and
was interviewed by two detectives. However, he was not convicted.

Timeline

- May 4, 1987, Bernardo committed his first rape in Scarborough against a 21-year-old
woman, in front of her parents' house, after following her home. The attack lasted more
than half an hour.

- May 14, 1987, Bernardo committed his second rape. He attacked a 19-year-old woman
in the backyard of her parents' house. This incident lasted over an hour.

- July 27, 1987, Bernardo attempted his third rape. Although he beat the young woman,
he abandoned the attack after she fought back.

- December 16, 1987, Bernardo committed his third rape, against a 15-year-old girl. This
rape lasted about one hour. The following day, the Toronto Police Service issued a
warning to women in Scarborough travelling alone at night, especially those taking
buses.
- December 23, 1987, Bernardo committed his fourth rape. During this attack, Bernardo
raped the 17-year-old with the knife he used to threaten his victims. It was at this point
he began to be referred to as the 'Scarborough Rapist'.

- April 18, 1988, Bernardo attacked a 17-year-old. The fifth assault, this one lasted 45
minutes.

- May 25, 1988, Bernardo was nearly caught by a uniformed Metro Toronto investigator
staking out a bus shelter. The investigator noticed him hiding under a tree and pursued
him on foot, but Bernardo escaped.

- May 30, 1988, Bernardo committed his sixth rape, this time in Clarkson, about 25 miles
southwest of Scarborough. This attack, against an 18-year-old, lasted 30 minutes.

- October 4, 1988, Bernardo attempted a seventh Scarborough rape. His intended victim
fought him off but he inflicted two stab wounds to her thigh and buttock which required
12 stitches.

- November 16, 1988, Bernardo committed his seventh rape against an 18-year-old in the
backyard of her parents' house.

- November 17, 1988, Metro Police formed a special task force dedicated to capturing the
Scarborough Rapist.

- December 27, 1988, an alerted neighbor chased Bernardo off after he had begun his
attempted eighth rape.

- June 20, 1989, Bernardo attempted to rape another young woman. She fought against
him and her screams alerted neighbors. Bernardo fled with scratches on his face.

- August 15, 1989, Bernardo committed his eighth rape, against a 22-year-old woman. He
had stalked her the previous night from outside the window of her apartment and waited
for her to arrive home. This particularly vicious attack lasted two hours.

- November 21, 1989, Bernardo committed his ninth rape, against a 15-year-old whom he
saw in a bus shelter. This attack lasted 45 minutes.

- December 22, 1989, Bernardo committed his tenth rape, against a 19-year-old. This
attack occurred in a stairwell of an underground parking lot and lasted 30 minutes.

- May 26, 1990, Bernardo committed his eleventh rape. This rape lasted over an hour.
However, his 19-year-old victim's vivid recollection of her attacker permitted police to
 make a computer composite photograph, which was released two days later by police
and published in Toronto and area newspapers.

- July 1990, two months after receiving tips that Bernardo fit the Scarborough Rapist
composite, he was interviewed by two police detectives.

“Jane Doe”-
While Karla was working at a veterinary clinic, she befriended a then 15-year-old girl. Her
identity remains unknown and protected by the law, so we refer to her as “Jane Doe.” Homolka
invited "Jane Doe'' to her house, where she laced her alcohol with Halcion, which is a system
depressant. After "Jane Doe'' lost consciousness, Homolka called Bernardo, Bernardo
videotaped Homolka as she raped the girl. The next morning, the teenager was nauseous. She
believed her vomiting was due to having drunk alcohol for the first time. She did not realize she
had been raped. “Jane Doe'' was invited back to Port Dalhousie in August this time to "spend
the night." "Jane Doe" stopped breathing after she was drugged and Bernardo had begun to
rape her. Homolka called 911 for help and “Jane Doe'' survived.

The schoolgirl killer murders

Tammy Holmoka- (Sister of Karla Holmoka)

Paul Bernardo became obsessed with Karla’s sister, Tammy. He would sneak into her room to
‘watch’ her while she slept. Karla broke the blinds for her sister's window so that he had easy
access to her room. Karla laced her sisters food with Valium, which is a sedative and she soon
lost consciousness, he went on to rape her while Karla watched. Six months before their 1991
wedding, Karla Homolka stole the anaesthetic agent Halothane from the clinic. On December
23, 1990, Homolka and Bernardo administered sleeping pills to the 15-year-old in a cocktail.
After Tammy was unconscious, Homolka and Bernardo applied a Halothane soaked cloth to her
sister's nose and mouth. They videotaped themselves as they raped Tammy in their basement.
Tammy began to vomit. The pair tried to revive her, then called 911, but not before they hid the
evidence. A few hours later Tammy Homolka was pronounced dead at St. Catharines General
Hospital.

Leslie Mahaffy-
Early in the morning on June 15, 1991, Bernardo took a detour through Burlington, halfway
between Toronto and St. Catharines, to steal license plates. He found Leslie Mahaffy. The
14-year-old had missed her curfew after attending a funeral, was locked out of her house and
had been unable to find anyone with whom she could stay overnight. Bernardo led her to his
car; he blindfolded her, forced her into the vehicle and drove her to Port Dalhousie, where
Bernardo and Homolka videotaped themselves, torturing and sexually abusing Mahaffy The
following day, Bernardo claimed Homolka fed her a lethal dose of Halcion. Homolka claimed
that, instead, Bernardo strangled her. The pair put her body in their basement.
Bernardo and Homolka decided the best way to dispose of the evidence would be to dismember
Leslie Mahaffy and encase each piece in cement. Bernardo used his grandfather's circular saw
to cut the body. Bernardo and Homolka then made numerous trips to dump the cement blocks in
Lake Gibson, 18 kilometers south of Port Dalhousie. It rested near the shore, where a father
and son on a fishing expedition discovered it on June 29, 1991. Leslie Mahaffy's orthodontic
appliance proved instrumental in identifying her.

Kristen French-
April 16, 1992, Bernardo and Homolka were driving through St. Catharines to look for potential
victims. It was after school hours on the day before Good Friday. As they passed a Catholic
High school they found Kristen French.The couple pulled into the parking lot of a nearby Church
and Homolka got out of the car, map in hand, pretending to need assistance. As French looked
at the map, Bernardo attacked from behind, waving a knife and forcing her into the front seat of
their car.Within 24 hours, Niagara Regional Police ("NRP") had assembled a team and
searched the area along her route and found several witnesses who had seen the abduction
from different aspects, thus giving police a fairly clear picture. In addition, one of Kristen's
shoes, recovered from the parking lot, underscored the seriousness of the abduction. Bernardo
and Homolka videotaped themselves as they tortured, and raped Kristen French. They also
forced her to drink large amounts of alcohol. At Bernardo's trial, Crown prosecutor Ray
Houlahan said that Bernardo always intended to kill her because she was never blindfolded and
was capable of identifying them.

Other potential or possible victims

In addition to the confirmed murders of Tammy Homolka, Leslie Mahaffy and Kristen French,
suspicions remain about other possible victims or intended victims of Bernardo and/or Homolka.
Between 1991 and 2006, there are 8 other victims of rape and sexual aussult who are
suspected to be victims of the Ken and Barbie Killers.

Names of other possible victims:

- 1991, “January Girl” (her identity remains unknown) She was abducted near Lake
Gibson
- 1991, Bernardo sexually assaulted a 14 year old girl
- 1991, Bernardo stalked Sydney Kershen
- A newspaper clipping found during the police search of the Bernardo house described a
rape that occurred in Hawaii during the couple's honeymoon there
- In 1997, Derek Finkle's book No Claim to Mercy was published, which presented
evidence tying Bernardo to the murder of Elizabeth Bain, who disappeared on June 19,
1990
- In 1992, Bernardo stalked and videotaped Shanna and Kerry Patrich from his car and
followed them to their parents' house
- In 2006, Bernardo confessed to a 1987 assault against a 15-year-old girl
Crimes Committed:

First Degree Murder- Paul and Karla murdured 3 teens, including her sister and 2 other school
girls.
Rape and Child Pornography - They made videos of raping the teens.

Kidnapping- They would shove a knife in their faces or drug them with sedatives.

Unlawful Confinement- They tied a noose around Kristen French’s neck and tied it to a hope
chest.

Dismemberment- When they were done with the bodies they would throw them into smaller
pieces, they would stuff the pieces into a cement block and throw them into the Gibson river.

Investigation and Outcomes:

Bernardo's trial for the murders of French and Mahaffy took place in 1995, and included detailed
testimony from Homolka and videotapes of the rapes. The trial was subject to a publication ban
which applied to Canadian newspapers and media, and the venue was moved to Toronto from
St. Catharines, where the murders occurred. During the trial, Bernardo claimed the deaths were
accidental, and later claimed that his wife was the actual killer. On September 1, 1995, Bernardo
was convicted of a number of offences, including the two first-degree murders and two
aggravated sexual assaults, and sentenced to 25 years in prison. Later, Bernardo was also
declared a "Dangerous Offender", making it unlikely he will ever be released.

In return for a plea bargain (12 years in prison for manslaughter), Homolka testified against
Bernardo in his murder trial. This plea bargain received much public criticism from Canadians as
Homolka's first defense lawyer Ken Murray had withheld for 17 months videotapes that
Bernardo made. This was considered crucial evidence, and prosecutors said that they would
have never agreed to the plea bargain if they had seen the tapes. Murray was later charged with
obstruction of justice, which he was acquitted of, and he also faced a disciplinary hearing from
the law society.
During her interrogation in 1993, Homolka told police Bernardo once bragged to her that he had
raped as many as 30 women, double the 15 assaults police suspected he had committed. She
described him as "the happy rapist."

Bernardo has been kept in the segregation unit at the penitentiary for his own safety,
nonetheless he has been attacked and harassed. Once he was punched in the face by another
inmate while returning from a shower in 1996. In June 1999, five convicts tried to storm the
segregation range where Bernardo lived and a riot squad had to use gas to disperse them.

The Toronto Star reported on February 21, 2006, that Bernardo had admitted having sexually
assaulted at least 10 other women in attacks not previously blamed on him. The majority of
those assaults took place in 1986, a year before what police termed the reign of terror by the
Scarborough Rapist. Authorities suspected Bernardo was the culprit in other crimes, such as a
string of rapes in Amherst, N.Y., and the drowning death of Terri Anderson in St. Catharines, he
had never acknowledged his involvement. It was reported that Bernardo's lawyer, Anthony G.
Bryant, had forwarded this information to legal authorities the previous November.

In 2006, Paul Bernardo gave an interview in prison suggesting he had reformed and would
make a good parole candidate. He is not eligible for release in 2010 under the "faint hope"
clause, since he was convicted of multiple murders. Bernardo is currently serving his term in the
maximum security prison at Kingston Penitentiary, in the segregation unit. He spends 23 hours a
day in an 8' x 4' jail cell.

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