She’s out there in line with you in the grocery store.
Volunteering in your school, working closely with children. Laughing at luncheons in the park.
But she once shocked the world as the infamous “Barbie Killer”, along with her Ken.
And now she runs free, hiding under the mask of a normal life.
Despite evidence that points to her involvement in the horrid deaths of three teenage girls,
including her own sister.
Karla Homolka grew up in a regular middle class household in St. Catherine’s, Canada.
She was described as a beautiful young girl, always wearing frilly clothes and playing with her Barbies.
Around the age of 14, she shed her angelic clothing for a darker, punk style.
In 1987, Karla, aged 17, who was working at a vet clinic,
met Paul Bernardo, 23, in Howard Johnson Hotel during a pet food convention.
They immediately hit it off and went back to her hotel room.
The night ended, but this was just the beginning of their liaison.
She began calling him everyday and writing love letters.
She described him as being more mature than her exes and was enamored with his striking good looks.
On the outside, he was the Ken to her Barbie, but darkness twisted their relationship.
Two days before the Christmas of 1990,
the Homolka family and Paul were enjoying the holidays together.
Tired from the long day, parents Karel and Dorothy decided to go upstairs to rest.
Eager to stay up to watch a movie with her older sister Karla
and her handsome boyfriend, Tammy Lyn opted to join them for some drinks.
Later into the night, she stopped breathing.
Karla and Paul frantically tried to resuscitate her but it was too late.
The two called 911.
St. Catherine’s police determined that Tammy had passed out from the alcohol and choked on her own vomit.
Tammy Lyn Homolka was buried near her family home, in Victoria Lawn Cemetery.
A soccer ball was carved on her tombstone with the words
“You were loved very much. And now you’ve gone away.
Memories will keep you near. We miss you every day.”
In her casket, two notes can be found. Paul Bernardo wrote,
“My dearest little sister. Words cannot express the deep sorrow and regret that I now feel.
You gave me your love and trusted me like your big brother...
If I ever caused you any harm or pain, Tammy, please forgive me.
I only wanted the best for you, just for you to be happy and
to experience the joys of this world. Please forgive me, Tammy.”
Her sister Karla wrote, “Dear Tammy, I have so much to say to you that words cannot express.
I've talked to you every night, and you know how I feel about everything.
I won't write everything I want to say, you know it already...
I love you deeply, and I will hold you in my heart, forever.
All my love, your big sister, Karla XOXO.”
Since the funeral had happened over Christmas Break,
many of Tammy’s friends and classmates were unable to attend.
Sir Winston Churchill Highschool held a memorial service in her honour,
playing her favourite song “Stairway to Heaven'' over the loudspeakers.
The Homolka family was devastated after losing their youngest daughter,
choosing to isolate themselves in their family home and postponing family events.
The Bernardo-Homolka wedding was set to happen later that year,
which Karla’s parents wanted to postpone as well.
Karla wrote letters to her friends, calling her parents a__holes
for wanting to move the event, and not being able to cover the full cost of her extravagant dream wedding.
Little did anyone know, Karla had ordered halcion, a tranquilizer, from the pharmacy
in the guise it was for the clinic she worked at, and had stolen halothane, an anaesthetic, from work.
She had laced her sister’s drink with pills, making her groggy.
In order to present her to Bernardo, she held halothane to her sister’s face
as Paul had his way with her unconscious sister.
Although she didn’t initially mean to kill her sister, Karla’s actions had backfired.
On the night of June 15th 1991, 14-year old Leslie Mahaffy went missing.
Leslie was with friends, mourning the death of her close friend Chris Evans, who passed away in a car crash.
With what would become their final hug and “I love you”, her mother Deborah told Leslie to be home at 11pm.
What the mother didn’t know was that she would later accidentally lock her daughter out of the house.
That night, Leslie had gone out well beyond her curfew and was trying to sneak into the house.
When the door wouldn’t budge, she sat at the picnic table in their backyard,
when she was approached by Paul Bernardo.
After asking to bum a cigarette off him, Leslie followed Paul to his car,
and was kidnapped, r____, and tortured for three days.
As Leslie was known as a “troubled child” and had run away for 10 days
not too long before her disappearance, the police and media were slow to investigate.
Media coverage was also overshadowed by another kidnapping at the time.
Deborah’s initial thought was that her daughter had run away again,
but when she learned Leslie never showed up for her friend Chris’ funeral,
which was scheduled the day after her disappearance, she became worried.
The reluctance allowed more time for Paul and Karla to drug Leslie,
dismember the body and encase it in concrete.
On June 29th, 1991, Michael Doucette and his son were fishing in
Lake Gibson when they came across what appeared to be human body parts.
Doucette garnered the attention of a firefighter who then called the police.
Cruisers were on the scene within minutes and the area was roped off.
Leslie was later identified by her braces.
On April 16th, 1992, 15-year old Kristen French disappeared after school.
Kristen was a popular grade 10 student who participated in a team of precision ice skaters.
Her parents were suspicious when she didn’t arrive home at 4pm
and Niagara Regional Police were immediately notified.
An investigator, Gary Bolo, claimed they found one of her shoes
and a strain of hair in a church parking lot.
For three days, she was r____ and tortured until April 19th, when it was decided they would kill her.
Paul strangled her with rope.
Her last words were to Paul, saying “I don’t know how your wife can stand being around you.”
Her body was found on the side of the road in Burlington.
Shortly afterwards, a task force called Project Green Ribbon was created,
named after the green ribbons that her classmates wore in solidarity for two weeks after her kidnapping.
Paul was very close to being caught during the investigation
as he was interviewed by police on May 12th, however when the police came to speak to him,
they saw Paul and Karla’s wedding photos on the mantle
and thought it was unfathomable that she would allow such torture to happen.
He was let go, as a result.
Stressed from the close encounter with the law,
he began beating Karla on a more regular basis.
Her friends, family, and coworkers began to become suspicious of the bruises,
but she blamed them on the family dog Buddy.
On January 5th 1993, Dorothy Homolka was anonymously tipped off
that she needed to check on her daughter at work.
Devastated by the state of Karla, Dorothy emitted her to the St. Catherine’s General Hospital.
After years of suffering, Karla finally filed an assault report against Paul,
and left him to live with her aunt and uncle.
Paul was later charged with marital abuse.
Less than a month later, DNA evidence matched three of the Scarborough r____
to Paul so he was put on 24hr police surveillance to ensure
he didn’t have any more criminal offences or victims.
Around the same time, Toronto Police noticed Karla’s watch in her case file’s photo
was similar to that the watch Kristen was wearing at the time of her disappearance.
The police decided it was time to interview Ms. Homolka and unmask the truth.
One of the more interesting of the several interviews took place in Karla and Paul’s home.
The video itself garnered severe criticism as she didn’t appear remorseful
when speaking about their victims, but unsettlingly focused on champagne glasses
that Paul used to serve his victims, rather than the acts that followed.
Karla’s lawyer George Walker argued that “twelve years may appear to be a
lenient sentence but this is a lengthy period of time, and Karla Homoka has been
trying to undo some of the harm she has caused.”
He said that due to the circumstance of being an abused wife,
“once her sister died, there was no returning. In her mind, there was very little she could do.”
Dr. Fred Berlin, associate professor of psychiatry and behavioural sciences at
John Hopkins University of Medicine who studied the theory of battered wife syndrome,
believes that Karla doesn’t qualify for this syndrome,
since she had actively stood by and participated in the killing of innocent victims.
During the 1993 trial, Attorney Murray Segal stated,
“A guilty plea is the traditional hallmark of remorse.
Her age, her lack of criminal record, the abuse, and influence of her husband’s,
and her somewhat secondary role were factors. She is unlikely to reoffend.”
Despite this, the public is reluctant to agree she is entirely guilt free.
Karla Homolka was charged 12 years for second degree murder—
five for Leslie Mahaffy, five for Kristen French, and only two for her own sister, Tammy Lyn.
Many believed this was too lenient of a sentence, especially after videos
that they had filmed surfaced of her actively participating in the crimes.
Karla had not mentioned her involvement, solely focusing on her victimization.
However, the plea deal had already been decided,
and the court didn’t want to cause anymore trouble in the investigation.
Karla’s release in 2005 resulted in severe public backlash.
Over 300,000 people signed a petition to keep her in jail, which was put under judicial review.
The result was that the prosecutors had done nothing wrong in regards
to their “Sweetheart Deal with the Devil.”
Another uproar happened when the Montreal Gazette leaked photos taken by her cellmate—
of Karla wearing a fancy black dress for an inmate’s birthday party.
She was also seen gardening and cooking in their communal kitchen,
and gained backlash as a convicted killer was being treated so normally, even as part of rehabilitation.
In contrast, Paul resided in Kingston Penitentiary and Millhaven Institution,
both maximum security facilities for violent offenders.
Despite participating in at least three of the violent crimes that Paul was convicted for,
Karla served less than half of the time he did, in a much more open facility.
According to Kim Pate, the executive director of the Canadian Association of Elizabeth Fry Societies,
women in comparison to men, have a more difficult time re-entering society after release.
Women also have more trouble financially due to unskilled labour jobs geared towards them pay less.
Pate argues that we should allow Karla to live a normal life without interference
as our society values rehabilitation. Being sentenced at a low security facility
allowed Karla to complete a degree and focus on learning French,
something that would help her accumulate to normal society.
As early as 2017, Karla was seen volunteering at her children’s elementary school.
City News interviewed a concerned mother named Lily at Greaves Adventist Academy,
a private Christian school her children attend,
claiming that Karla volunteered on a trip to the Montreal Science Centre.
However, when questioned why a background check wasn’t done,
the school claims that Karla Homolka wasn’t a regular volunteer, and they were well-aware who she was.
Now that Karla is free among us, living a normal life, having kept a low profile,
it’s hard to say if she is still dangerous, but it is impossible to change her horrific past,
nor make the public forget the crimes she has committed.
It’s easy to be fooled by a pretty face, but what lies behind the mask
can be even more gruesome than you could ever imagine.