Early life

Homolka is the eldest of three daughters (the others being Lori (b. 1971), and Tammy (1975–1990)). Her parents are Karel and Dorothy Homolka of St. Catharines, Ontario. Homolka attended Sir Winston Churchill Secondary School and began working part time in a pet shop at a nearby mall. In October, 1987, she attended a convention in Toronto where she met her husband-to-be, Paul Bernardo. After Karla received her high school diploma in 1988 she was hired as a veterinary assistant by Thorold Veterinary Clinic, from which she was terminated after being hired for a similar job at the Martindale Animal Clinic.

[edit]Homolka meets Bernardo

On 17 October 1987, Homolka, then 17, met 23-year-old Bernardo at a Scarborough restaurant. Bernardo proposed to Homolka on 24 December.

[edit]Victims

Main article: Paul_Bernardo#Schoolgirl_Killer_murders

[edit]Tammy Homolka

During the summer of 1990, Bernardo became obsessed with Karla's sister. Bernardo had told Karla that if she really loved him she would let him deflower her sister. Homolka agreed, seeing "an opportunity to minimize risk, take control, and keep it all in the family".^[5]In July, "according to Bernardo's testimony, he and Karla served her younger sister, Tammy, a spaghetti dinner spiked with valiumstolen from Karla's workplace. Bernardo raped Tammy for about a minute before she started to wake up".^[6]

Six months before their wedding in 1991, Homolka stole the anesthetic agent halothane from the Martindale Veterinarian Clinic where she worked. On 23 December 1990, "after a Homolka family Christmas party, Bernardo and Karla Homolka drugged Tammy Homolka with the animal tranquilizers. Bernardo and Karla Homolka raped Tammy while she was unconscious. Tammy later choked on her own vomit and died. Bernardo told police he tried to revive her, but failed, and her death was ruled an accident.^[6] Before calling 911 they hid the evidence, redressed Tammy, who had a chemical burn on her face, and moved her into her basement bedroom. A few hours later Tammy was pronounced dead at St. Catharines General Hospital without having regained consciousness.

[edit]Leslie Mahaffy

On 15 June 1991, two weeks before his wedding, Bernardo — while stealing license plates to aid in a cigarette smuggling scheme he had devised — met Leslie Mahaffy, who was standing at the door of her Burlington home. Leslie had told her parents she would be home by 11 p.m., after attending the wake of her friend who had died in a car crash — she arrived home at 2 a.m. The two spoke for some time and went back to Bernardo's car for a cigarette, at which point he forced her into the car and drove her to his house, 53 kilometres away. There, Homolka and Bernardo held Leslie Mahaffy hostage for 24 hours, repeatedly sexually assaulting her. They recorded the assaults on videotape, including one scene in which Homolka pretties herself for the camera before raping the girl. Eventually, they killed her.

Homolka claimed later that Bernardo had strangled the heavily drugged Mahaffy with an electrical cord. Bernardo said that she died while he was out of the room, that Homolka had killed her with an overdose of Halcion. They put her body into the basement until they could decide how to get rid of it