The Downfall of the Worst Serial Killer Couple | Ken & Barbie Killers

They were young, charming, newlyweds, beautiful and blonde. They had just had their fairy tale wedding and they had promising lives ahead of them, but it was all a lie. I don't know how this story could get any more tragic. We're supposed to warn women not to travel alone at night. The couple once nicknamed Ken and Barbie by their friends were actually one of the most brutal and sadistic serial killer couples in history and committed some of the most horrific crimes that Canada has ever seen. The idea that these were the bad guys that they were capable of doing anything so vile is something that's hard for us to comprehend. And one of them is currently walking free today. These are the sadistic crimes of Paul Bernardo and Carla Molca and my name is Brianna and I'm hot on the case. Really quick before we dive into this week's investigation, if you could please double check the make sure that you are subscribed on YouTube and following the show on Spotify and Apple podcasts. I actually recently checked this week and less than half of the people that watched my videos on YouTube in the past month have actually been subscribed and the percentage is even way lower on Spotify with less than 15% of people that tuned in to listen or watch on the case on Spotify were actually following the show. Subscribing and following liking rate and reviewing the show is the easiest and a free way to help support my show and I have really big plans for this upcoming year and all of this is only possible with your guys' support so it means so much and thank you so much. Paul Bernardo. Paul Kenneth Bernardo was born in Scarborough on Ontario on August 27, 1964. He was the youngest of three children born to married couple, Marilyn and Kenneth. Trouble in Paul's life began the moment that he was born. When he was born, his tongue was actually attached to the roof of his mouth and had to be detached through surgery. He was also born with aphasia which affected his brain's ability to communicate. He had a lot of issues reading or understanding what people were saying to him and a majority of Paul's early childhood years. He could only communicate through grunts or like pointing to what he wanted. Honestly, the issues in Paul's life began even way before he was born. His mother Marilyn was pressured by her father not to marry for love but to marry for money and security which is how she ended up in a unhappy, loveless and abusive marriage with Kenneth Bernardo. Allegedly, Kenneth was extremely abusive in more ways than one which we will get into all of that in a minute. Marilyn was so unhappy that she would have long stretches of time where she would suffer with really deep depression and agoraphobia which if you don't know is a very intense anxiety disorder which often causes people to be so afraid that they don't leave their homes. If you have ever seen the show shameless, spoilers, I guess Sheila suffered from agoraphobia in the early seasons. Paul's mother Marilyn began sleeping in the basement but it wasn't even just sleeping the basement. She would completely isolate herself just to get away from her husband. She would also leave the home for sometimes weeks at a time without telling her family where she was going. She also began having a decades-long affair with her high school sweetheart Bill who she actually loved and it was through this affair that she conceived Paul. And Paul would not know for a very long time that the man that raised him the man that he shared a middle name and a last name with wasn't actually his biological father. Kenneth Bernardo was an abuser. He was an alcoholic. He was a peeping Tom and he was also a pedophile that would commit incest and rape. When his wife would isolate herself or leave for long stretches of time he would not feed his children or make sure that they had clean clothes. He was also sexually abusing his daughter Debra so Paul's older sister. And Kenneth would sexually assault Debra in front of their entire family. It would be situations like he would tell the entire family that they were going to sit down and have a movie night. But instead while they're all in the living room he would take Debra and he would rape her in front of the entire family. And he would force his two sons to watch what was happening to their sister which I can only imagine how that would affect a child. When he wasn't sexually abusing his daughter Kenneth Bernardo would watch her from her window late at night and he would pleasure himself. He would also do the same thing in other girls' windows in the neighborhood. And in 1975 he was arrested for fondling a minor under the age of 14 years old. Growing up Paul seemed very normal. He seemed like a well-adjusted kid. No one had any idea of the extreme violence and horrors that were going on at home. Paul was a great student. He was friendly. He was charming. A lot of people saw him as attractive. He was popular and he had no trouble with the ladies. As a child he did Boy Scouts. As a teenager he volunteered as a summer camp counselor. Normal things for a kid his age. But he was actually signing up for so many afterschool activities just to get away from home and to get away from his father. Paul began setting fires which is one of the three indicators that a child might grow up to become a serial killer along with cruelty to animals and wedding the bed. But as a young teenager Paul also became a peeping Tom just like his father. And I actually believe that being a peeping Tom should become like the fourth indicator that a young male might grow up to become a serial killer because I swear when I'm covering these serial killer cases they always have that in their childhood being a peeping Tom. I don't need 10 years old Paul became obsessed with pornography. He began collecting pornography and then he began collecting more and more pornographic material. I don't need 10 years old. He was not into the vanilla stuff. He began becoming obsessed with BDSM adult content and also pornography that had urine and defecation. As a teenager Paul had extremely dark fantasies he became obsessed with virgins and taking virginities by force. So often when I cover serial killers these men grow up in homes with these truly evil father figures. Men that cause these individuals so much trauma as a child but then that child grows up to be just like these men. Kenneth Benardo was not Paul's biological father but he grew up believing that he was his father and this was the man that raised him. Kenneth would rape his own daughter in front of Paul. He would look through girls bedroom windows for his own pleasure. And instead of being disgusted by this behavior Paul mirrors it. As a teenager Paul had this goal. It was a dream of his to have a virgin farm. On this farm he would have a bunch of women that he kidnapped. He would rape these women so he could breed more women, more virgins for him to rape his own biological daughters. When Paul was 16 his mother confessed to him that the man that he grew up believing was his biological father was not his father. And at this point Paul already has a very disturbing view on women but I think this really escalated this view that he had. He started calling his mother a slut in a whore. If his mother ever asked him to help out around the house help out with chores he would tell her to fuck off and go fuck herself. Even if Paul seemed like an upstanding young man on the outside people that actually knew him knew the truth. His high school girlfriends would report extreme violence and controlling behaviors. After high school Paul attended Sir Wilfred before transferring to the University of Scarborough in 1982. There he was studying finance and sales. He joined like an MLM for a little bit and he had this huge dream of becoming very very rich. During these years he had a string of short term flings and one-nate stands. He liked to go out to bars to pick up girls. He was good with girls. He was handsome. He was friendly. He was charming. It wasn't until that he got them to the bedroom that his mask fell and his true nature was shown to them. You could say that Paul enjoyed being really dominant in sex. He wanted a submissive partner but he was really a textbook sexual sadist. Paul got off on humiliating and causing pain to his partner. And very rarely would Paul actually find a girl that would consent to what he wanted, so Paul would abuse these girls. He was very in to Sodomy. He would demand it. He would tell his friends that it was the ultimate control and way to show dominance. Sex with Paul was very violent and would more times than not cross the line into being non-consensual assault. In 1986, two women took restraining orders out against Paul also in 1986, while Paul was in his 20s. He had a short fling with a girl in high school that he severely abused. Paul would threaten to kill these women that he abused and assaulted if they ever told anyone what he did to them. Paul was really into taking photos. He was mainly into taking videos. He would actually film like absolutely everything which included his sexual assaults, and he would use this content that he took without consent of these women that he was sexually assaulting to blackmail them to keep them quiet. But Paul was about to meet a woman, a woman that would not only go along with whatever dark desires and deeply disturbing fantasies he had, but would encourage it. Carla Humolka. Carla Lianne Humolka was born on May 4th, 1970 in a small town in Ontario. She was the eldest of three daughters. Her two younger sisters were Tammy and Lori. Carla had a more stable childhood than Paul, but that doesn't mean that it was stable in general. Allegedly her father was also quite abusive. He was an abusive alcoholic and he would sometimes just like blow up whenever he got drunk and would yell and hit their mother. Carla really took on the role of the protective older sister and would shield her little sisters whenever this was happening so they wouldn't see it. Carla went through two major phases before graduating high school. In the early years, Carla was a very smart good student. She actually had an IQ of over 130. As a little girl she loved animals. It had this lifelong dream of becoming a vet. She was bubbly. She never knew a stranger and like most little girls Carla dreamed about the man that she was going to marry. Carla was really obsessed with Disney movies, Disney princesses. She loved Disney land. She thought that life was going to be like Disney and one day she would meet Prince Charming and he would come and sweep her off her feet. Carla, obviously very beautiful, was definitely in the popular crowd when she first entered high school. Not only that, she was considered the queen bee. She was a mean girl. One day at school, Carla saw a girl that had I guess short arms and she thought that she looked like a seal. So she got everyone in school to clap their hands and bark like a seal at this girl until she ran away crying. But as Carla got older, something switched. Most retellings of this case paint Carla as this innocent young girl until she met Paul when that actually was not the case. Like some teenagers do. Carla began rebelling. She began experimenting with drugs. She was having sex. She dated in high school, but she was very manipulative in these relationships. Carla would often tell her boyfriends that she would kill herself if she ever did not get her way. Carla became fascinated with death and the occult. She started playing with an oegy board. She started dressing in all black, wearing really heavy dark makeup and was dying her blonde hair a bunch of different colors. Carla's group of popular girlfriends saw this drastic change in Carla and at first they were very concerned, but then they just kind of started distancing themselves from Carla. And the behaviors just got more and more disturbing. One day, Carla told a male classmate that she was going to play Connect the dots with a knife on his face and then pour vinegar in the cuts. One day, Carla went to a friend's house and this friend had a pet hamster. Carla built this hamster a parachute and then threw the hamster from a second story balcony. The hamster died. Carla's friend buried her pet in the backyard. But then Carla went and dug up her friend's dead hamster so she could watch its corpse decompose. Despite the animal abuse, Carla still intended on becoming a vet. At 17 years old, Carla attended a vet-related conference in Scarborough. While staying at a hotel in Scarborough, Carla was approached and hit on by a really handsome guy. He was a little bit older than her and that was Paul Bernardo. A date with the devil. When Carla met Paul, there was an instant attraction on both sides. Carla thought that Paul looked like Prince Charming and Paul worked in finance and he told Carla that he was going to make all this money one day and he was going to be super, super rich. It was October of 1987. Paul would have been 23 years old and this was like right in the midst of him being like this smooth talking ladies man or at least trying to be and he's bringing home all of these girls to abuse them. The same day that Paul and Carla met, they went up to a hotel room and they had sex for four hours. And for the first time, Paul did not have to sexually assault a girl to fulfill his sexual sadism. Carla was a very willing and enthusiastic participant and throughout their entire relationship, she would play along in the sexual violence and perversions. Carla fell very hard for Paul and when they started their relationship, she would do literally anything to keep Paul happy. She started dressing more feminine again because that's what he wanted. She dyed her hair back to blonde and she kept it blonde because that's what Paul wanted. Throughout their entire relationship, Paul would threaten to leave Carla if he never got his way. And Carla would literally do anything to keep Paul from leaving her. And then one night, Paul turned to Carla and asked her what she would do if he was a rapist. The Scarborough rapist. During the mid to late 1980s, women in Scarborough were terrified and increasingly vicious serial rapists was attacking women in and around Scarborough from 1986 to 1990. His victims were as young as 15 years old and were no older than 22 years old. With the majority of his victims being teenage girls in high school and the cool down periods between sexual assaults would sometimes only be a few days. The Scarborough rapist would stalk his victims, follow them home from bus stops. He would often wait until they got all the way to their home and then right when they were like face the face with safety, that's when he would attack them. And he would rape them in front of their own family homes or in their backyards. The attacks were brutal and a lot of the time after the Scarborough rapist was done raping his victim, he would run a little bit but then hide nearby. He would wait for his young female victim to pull herself together, get up and try to flee, and that's when he would run out, attack her and rape her again. He would threaten them with knives, threaten to kill them if they ever told a soul. At least 10 young girls during this time period reported their rapes but there were likely many more victims out there that just did not report their attack. Since statistics show that less than half of rapes are ever actually reported. The Scarborough rapist would always attack his victims from behind so his victims never saw his face until May of 1990. When the Scarborough rapist got a little too confident and he attacked a girl from the front, she saw his face and she helped the investigators put together a composite sketch. When the sketch was shown to the public, co-workers, friends, and ex-girlfriends of Paul Bonardo all identified him as the man in the sketch. September of 1990 detectives called Paul into the station for a few questions. Paul gladly went to the station. He was cooperative, he was calm and he answered every one of the sheriff's questions with a smile. He was a well put together young man with a good job he told detectives that he was in a long-term relationship. Him and Carla have been dating for about like three years at this point. Paul told the detectives that he had no reason to be a rapist because he had such a beautiful girlfriend that would be giving it to him at home. detectives asked Paul before he left if he would give them a sample of his DNA and he agreed. They had the Scarborough rapists in their station and they let him go. He was cooperative, he was calm and charming not what they expected a serial rapist to be like. They took his DNA sample and then they put it on a shelf and they did not test it for over two years. Paul raped women before and throughout his entire relationship. with Carla and she did not care. She found out at some point that he was a Scarborough rapist and it actually made them closer. Carla in the sickest way is a pick me. It straightened their bond that they had this secret together. She liked knowing that he was assaulting and hurting other women. But Carla, she's not like other girls, she lets her man do whatever he wants. And the entire time that he was assaulting these high school girls. She would go around and tell everyone that he was her prince charming. From the outside looking in, Paul and Carla looked like this happy innocent sweet couple from the 1980s. They were this golden couple. They were young and attractive and Paul really seemed like a really good boyfriend. Carla's family absolutely adored Paul. Her parents called Paul. The son that they never had and Carla's two younger sisters, Tammy and Lori saw Paul as like this cool older brother. When Paul asked Carla to marry him, they began planning a June 1991 wedding and it really seemed like they were gonna have this fairy tale ending. But there was one major problem in the relationship other than the obvious. Paul liked virgins. He was obsessed with virgins and virgin Carla was not. It really upset Paul that Carla was not virgin when they met and he wanted her to offer him something to make up for it. And that's something was Carla's little sister, Tammy. Tammy homoka. Tammy looked like Carla but more young and more innocent. When Tammy was only 12 years old, her older sister Carla would allow her boyfriend Paul to watch her from her window as she got changed. Tammy really liked Paul. She thought that he was like this like cool older brother figure to her. He did a really good job hiding the monster that he really was. Paul was an aspiring rapper in his free time and he would lie to Carla's family saying that he was like this huge up-and-coming rapper and that multiple agencies and multiple like record labels were fighting to try and sign him. His debut album Deadly Innocence included lyrics like "I'm the solo creep. I make the girls weep. Act out my crimes while the others sleep." His songs often included sex, murder, being good looking and never getting caught. This is not replacing pick up kick. Deadly Innocence is a theme song to title track to the album, and it's based on establishing my secretability. This is a more of a, you know, your hardcore battling the world through your ways of getting your legal money or whatever you're doing, and you use everything, all your feelings and the real life feeling, joy, experience, including the experience and all the sparkling and all the other activities to make a buck on the street, which is important. That establishes your secretability. Paul made his fiancee's younger sister Tammy promise to never lose her virginity because he was obsessed with the idea of being the one that took it. It took a long time, but Carla eventually agreed to let her fiancee Paul rape her little sister. Tammy, at this point, was only in the 10th grade. She was 15 years old. In June of 1990 was the first attempt to sexually assault Tammy. Her older sister stole some volume from the vet clinic that she was not working at. One night Carla and Paul made some spaghetti for dinner, but they laced the surveying that they served it to Tammy, which knocked her out. Carla and Paul carried Tammy's unconscious body to her bedroom. Paul, who you remember, likes to film everything while he took out his video camera and began to film Tammy's unconscious body when Tammy started to wake up. Whatever dose Carla gave her wasn't enough to keep her knocked out for that long, so Paul did not sexually assault Tammy that night. It took a handful of months, but eventually Carla happily agreed to try again. Christmas was coming up. Paul bought Carla a bunch of really nice things which included a gold necklace. And in turn Carla wanted to give Paul her sister's virginity as a Christmas present, and they planned their second attempt for Christmas Eve 1990. This time Carla once again stole an anesthetic from her vet clinic, but it was a different kind this time. It seemed like a normal day. Paul was filming Carla's family and the video shows what appears to be a very happy normal family. They're sitting around, they're drinking, they're joking, Carla even tries on her wedding dress so the girls are all smiling. Since it was a holiday, and Tammy was only a few days away from turning 16, her parents allowed her to have, you know, a couple alcoholic beverages. She was drinking a few eggnogs that had some rum in it. But throughout the entire night, even after their parents went to bed, Paul and Carla kept pressuring Tammy to drink more and more. Paul is even pressuring the youngest daughter Lori to drink as well, but she was not interested. Carla gives a laced cocktail to her sister Tammy, and she actually realized right away that there was something wrong with the cocktail. And she realized that she remembers this taste, this feeling. It reminds her of the night that she randomly passed out after eating spaghetti that Paul and Carla cooked for her. So Tammy actually goes to their other sister Lori and tells her that she thinks that Paul and Carla might be trying to poison her. Lori was very young and she did not take Tammy seriously. And eventually, Paul and Carla were able to calm down Tammy and told her, you know, the cocktail is alcohol is going to taste a little bad. Eventually, Lori went off to bed leaving Tammy completely alone with Paul and Carla and Tammy eventually does finish the cocktail and she passes out. Carla and Paul brought Tammy, again, unconscious to her bedroom, and they took turns filming as Paul raped her. And Carla was right there watching the entire thing. Carla, this is the same older sister that would protect Tammy when their father was hitting their mother. And not once did she try to protect her now or try to stop Paul. In fact, Carla was holding a rag soaked in halifane, which is a chemical similar to chloroform over Tammy's mouth. At one point, while Tammy was being raped by her future brother-in-law, and her older sister was holding a chemical soaked rag over her face, Tammy began to throw up. She was being laid on her back with a rag over her face. So when she threw up, she began to choke. And then she started to turn blue and by the time that Carla and Paul organized that something was wrong, it was too late. 15-year-old Tammy Homoca choked to death on her own vomit. Paul and Carla quickly put Tammy's clothes back on her body, came up with a story, and then called 911. They said that Tammy drank too much. And then she went to bed, she got sick, threw up, choked, and that's how she died. And that does happen. That's why they say they put drunk people that might get sick on their side, not their. some other back. And they just said that this entire thing was a tragic accident. The death was quickly ruled accidental, and Carla and Paul got away with rape and murder. While the rest of her family mourned, Carla and Paul faked their grief. They actually got off on what they did to Tammy so much that they wanted to relive it. Within three weeks, a bus 15-year-old girl, Carla's sister, dying. Carla and Paul made another video. Carla dressed up in her dead sister's clothes. She did her hair like Tammy. She talked like Tammy and in Tammy's bedroom, the same bedroom where she was raped and killed. Carla and Paul had sex on camera, on her bed, the same bed where she was raped and killed. In the video, Carla says, "I loved when you fucked my sister while looking at Paul's penis." I really need you to understand, and I know this is graphic, but I need you to understand how deeply disturbed these two people are. We are talking about, like, true evil. Carla also says to Paul that she wants to have his children. She wants to give him four children, four daughters. She says that 13-years-old is the best age for Paul to have sex with their daughters and take their virginities. Paula and Carla, we're still planning their June wedding. The wedding would only be six months after Tammy's death and Carla was actually nervous that Tammy's death would overshadow her big fairy tale wedding that she was planning. She was also concerned that her parents paid too much money on Tammy's funeral and that they would not have enough money for her super expensive princess wedding that she was trying to plan. To save money for the wedding, Paul moved into Carla's family's home. After Tammy's death, Lori had a lot of trouble being in the home, so Lori went and she went and moved into their grandparents house for a little bit. Carla's parents also had a really hard time living in the same house where their daughter just lost her life in, so they would find any excuse to get out of the house leaving Carla and Paul, the whole house to themselves a lot of the time. One day, Paul brought home a young female hitchhiker to his fiance's parents' home where he violently assaulted her on camera and then he dropped her off in a deserted country road in the middle of nowhere. Paul and Carla's taste for violence only grew more and more, so they moved into their own homes, so they had their own place to act out the extreme sexual violence that they were craving, and soon another young girl would be dead. Six months after Tammy's death on June 29, 1981, Carla and Paul got married. It was a fairy tale wedding that Carla always wanted. They even had a horse-pulled carriage and, you know, everything. People were blown away by how beautiful Carla looked and the entire night people compared them to Cinderella and French Charming and Ken and Barbie. No one had any clue, the evil that was in that room. Or that the exact same moment that they were getting married just 15 miles away from their wedding, the remains of one of their victims was being discovered. Wesley Mahafi. Just two weeks before Carla and Paul's wedding, 14-year-old high school freshman, Leslie Mahafi vanished on June 14, 1991. Leslie was a normal teenage girl. She was a normal, small-town girl. She was a good girl, but she did rebel a little bit from time to time, like what teenager doesn't. But Leslie especially rebelled when it came to her curfew. Leslie's parents were really strict about the curfew, and I guess because she was late so often, her parents eventually started locking the front door as soon as it was past Leslie's curfew. So when she was late, she would have the knock on the door so they could come and unlock the door and let her in and then she would have to answer immediately as to why she was late. But that evening, Leslie went to a memorial for one of her friends that had recently passed away in a car accident, and then later that night, Leslie and her friends went into the woods and were drinking a lot together, and by the time Leslie walked home, it was past 2am way past her curfew. The door was locked obviously, and for whatever reason, Leslie did not knock on the door to wake up her parents. It's likely that she did not want to explain why she was so late and why she smelled like alcohol. So instead, Leslie walked to the nearby convenience store to use her payphone so she could call one of her friends and ask if she could crash there and buy herself a little bit of time before she had to face her parents, but her friend told her that she couldn't sleep over because her sister was really sick and her mom would be mad. The last thing that Leslie said before hanging up was that she was just going to suck it up, go home, wake up her parents and face them. That was around 2.30am, and that was the last time that anyone in Leslie's life ever heard from her. She never returned home. Leslie's friend's funeral was the next day, and Leslie did not attend, and her mother knew right away that something was wrong. The police were contacted, but they assumed that Leslie was a runaway. How many times have we heard that before? But Leslie was no runaway. She was just a cross-town. Tractically, Paul Benardo was just so happy to be out that night driving around Leslie's neighborhood at the exact same time that Leslie was walking home. Leslie made it all the way to her street and then all the way to right out front of her family's home. She was about to knock on the door and face the music when Paul drove up and pulled up next to her. He offered her a cigarette to end for whatever reason. Leslie took Paul up on his offer. She got into the passenger seat of his car and took the cigarette from him. She was a teenage girl, and like I've said multiple times, Paul did not seem like a threat. Leslie likely still had alcohol in her system and was probably trying to stall, having to actually face her parents. So for whatever reason, Leslie let her guard down, but she unfortunately trusted the wrong person. Let me know what you think, but I personally see a very strong resemblance between Leslie and Tammy. I'm not 100% sure, but I believe that that might be the reason that Paul actually pulled over and kidnapped Leslie Mahaffee. Paul took out a knife and threatened Leslie to keep quiet. He then put a sweater over her face that he had in his car and he threatened to kill her. If she made any noise or made a scene, Paul drove Leslie all the way to his home and then showed her to Carla. Together on camera, they raped Leslie. The rape abuse and torture lasted on and off for over 36 hours and the entire thing was filmed. Carla kept Leslie drugged and the entire time they kept the sweater over her head so she couldn't see either of their faces. Leslie had faith that because of that, that they were going to let her live, but they didn't. Paul and Carla tell very different stories on how Leslie died. Carla claims that the sweater that was over Leslie's head kind of slipped off and she saw Paul's face so he strangled her to death. Paul claims that Carla overdosed Leslie and that's how she died. Leslie was murdered on Father's Day. They dragged her body down to basement and they hid it there because they actually planned to host Carla's mom and dad at their place for Father's Day and they all celebrated with the body of a dead 14 year old girl just underneath their feet. Leslie's body was then dismembered into eight pieces. Paul bought concrete and encased Leslie's remains into eight separate concrete blocks and then dumped the concrete blocks at the bottom of Lake Gibson. What Paul and Carla did not know was that Lake Gibson's water level significantly dropped during the summer. Two weeks later, on their fucking wedding day, Leslie's remains were discovered by a father and son that were fishing on Lake Gibson. The water level had dropped practically overnight and they walked right up to the very horrific scene. Could you even imagine it? They literally saw human body parts encased in cement blocks. Leslie could only be identified through her dental records and a cause of death could not be determined but they knew that they were looking for a killer during the early days of the murder investigation. Paul and Carla were on their honeymoon in Hawaii and by the time they returned from Hawaii, they had already agreed that they were going to keep a sex slave at their home permanently. Carla wanted to start a family and have a baby. Paul wanted his wife to not worry about having a baby and focus on helping him acquire 50 virgin sex slaves. And together, they began hunting for their next victim. Kristen French. April 16, 1992, 15-year-old Kristen French was walking home alone from her Catholic school. After Leslie was murdered, Kristen was terrified and became extra cautious. Kristen would tell all of her friends to be extra aware of their surroundings and not to talk to strange men. That afternoon, as soon as school let out, Paul and Carla were right there hunting for their next victim. Paul really wanted to ensure that whoever they picked out for their permanent sex slave would be a virgin and they thought that the best odds would be kidnapping a Catholic schoolgirl. So they waited outside the local Catholic school waiting until classes let out and then they could get one of the girls alone. Paul and Carla drove right up next to 15-year-old Kristen French and they asked her for directions. Kristen was very overly cautious after the discovery of Leslie's remains, but this was a young attractive couple. They seemed sweet and Carla was a woman, so Kristen trusted her. Carla had a map in the car. She was pretending to be lost, so Kristen walked up to the car window to help Carla with the directions and that is when Paul jumped out the car. He grabbed Kristen, he threw in the car and they drew off. They abducted her in broad daylight in front of multiple witnesses. Kristen was a very responsible young girl and she always came home immediately after school, so the second that she was late, her mother knew that something was very, very wrong and she was reported missing right away. Unfortunately, I witnesses reported the wrong car that kidnapped Kristen. Police spoke as their attention on yet another missing team. 15-year-old Kristen French disappeared while walking home from Holy Cross Secondary's school in St. Catharines. Her disappearance was so out of character that police were notified almost immediately. Over the next two weeks, Police and citizen volunteers conducted an exhaustive search of the St. Catherine's area and followed up numerous leads. Back at their house, Paul and Carla made no attempt to shield Kristen from seeing their faces and on camera, they abused, tortured, and raped her for over three days on and off. During this time, they kept her intoxicated so she couldn't run away. At one point, Paul left the home leaving Kristen with Carla. Kristen tried to beg Carla for her life, beg Carla to let her go. Kristen assumed that Carla was one of Paul's victims as well. She had no idea that Carla was just as evil and to mentally torture Kristen because she begged Carla to let her go. Carla turned on the news and forced Kristen to watch her parents beg and cry for her safe return. But to know that we're thinking of you and that everything can be done, it'll be undone. And we'll get you back and we'll fight. During the abuse, Kristen would always fight back. And at one point, Paul threatened to kill her unless she stopped and just let him do what he wanted. And Kristen replied that some things were worth dying for. She was killed three days after she was abducted. Paul claims that Carla beat Kristen to death, Carla claims that Paul strangled her. They cleaned her body, they shaved all of her hair and then dumped her naked body on the side of a dirt road in a ditch like she was garbage. Her body wasn't discovered for over a week. April 30th, Kristen French's body was found on a side road in Rome. She had been sexually assaulted and is fixated. Her hair had been cut. Kristen came from a solid and post-Saint Catherine's family. She was keenly athletic with a passion for precision skating and rowing. Her unique mix of youthful innocence and strong sense of commitment made Kristen a rare individual. Those who knew her well admired both her maturity and her love of life. After the discovery of Kristen's remains, her murder was quickly connected to the murder of Leslie Mahaffey. Their killer was coined the schoolgirl killer in the media. The community was absolutely terrified first the Scarborough rapist and now the schoolgirl killer. Little did they know that they were looking for the exact same monsters. What kind of information are you looking for from our viewers? Dan tonight at our offices in Beamsville we have 41 trained volunteers who are ready to receive calls. Our number out there is 1-800-267-6357. We're trying to gather information about cars similar to the one we have in the studio tonight. And especially after the viewers see the information that's presented tonight, we're hoping to gather information about possible suspects. Someone out there has a clue that we're interested in talking to them. At this point, the man that raised Paul, the man that he believed was his biological father for the first 16 years of his life, Kenneth Benardo, finally went on trial for the sexual abuse of his daughter. 20 years later. This was only two very short years after Paul was questioned and given DNA samples in connection to Scarborough rapist investigation. And Paul started to get very paranoid that he was going to be connected to Kenneth. So Paul and Carla both changed their last name from Benardo to Teal. Paul also changed his middle name from Kenneth to Jason so they could kind of distance themselves from the man that was in the papers for being on trial for the rape of a young girl. At this point, Paul's anger and violence towards Carla also reached an all-time high. He blamed her for Leslie and Kristen's death and he blamed Carla for the fact that all of his sex slaves kept dying. So Paul beat his wife Carla really, really bad. The abuse actually lasted several days by the time it was over Carla's body was covered in bruises and she had two black eyes. Her parents convinced her to go to the hospital and the doctor that treated her actually said that it was the worst case of domestic violence that he had ever seen in his entire career. And this is when Carla has a change of heart. She used to just let Paul do whatever he wanted. But you know, that was back when he was just abusing young girls. But now that the abuse was happening to her, she had a problem with it so Carla went to the police. A monster unmasked. Carla reported the abuse and in early January 1993, Paul was arrested for a spousal abuse and then he was released on bond. And then over two years after giving a sample of his DNA in connection to the Scarborough rapist investigation, that DNA was finally tested and they got a match. Carla had left Paul at this point. She was staying with her aunt and uncle and one day she confessed to her aunt and uncle that Paul was the Scarborough rapist. And that together they murdered and raped Tammy Leslie and Kristen and that all of their crimes were filmed. She also later told the investigators that Paul raped at least over 30 women, which was over double close to three times what they initially thought they were looking for in terms of Scarborough rapist victims. Paul was arrested on February 17th, but without finding those videos that Carla said that there was, there really wasn't strong enough evidence against Paul to convict him of murder. Get that, you know, tough on crime, get that bad guy. But when you go to a certain point of line, it just, I mean, it affects me totally. You know, I made mistakes, I mean, mistakes, wrong title book. But don't say that today about me because then we're lying and then we got a big problem because I'm looking at you and you're the bad guys. Because I'm not doing anything wrong. I'm not telling the truth and you guys are walking around issuing statements that I lie here, I lie there. No. Did you kill Elizabeth Bane on June the 19th, 1890? Well, it's a load of question. I mean, are we going to go back and they go through the time sequence of what happened in my life? I mean, I could just give a yes or no answer, but you know, there's a lot of issues about that. Right. You know, you car those in my role. We did what? We're when this is why I said to you guys, you know, go down there to get a polygraph to get to see if she's telling the truth. Why didn't Kevin do it in the first place? I mean, he's polygraphed in a role in the Camaro, why would he make a deal with someone and not give them a polygraph? It's not incomprehensible to me. You know, because now I'm sick, my file says her version and it's a lie. You know, you know what I mean? You know, I'm not making frivolous points here. I mean, now you're asking me after you said peel regionals that I'm lying about this and then you're saying I'm lying about my profile. You're saying I'm lying if I'm better and now you're saying, hey, did you kill this person? I mean, well, you're saying I'm lying here and here. I could say no, I didn't. But I mean, you already said I'm lying here with PO just saying. I'm not saying anything about who's lying. I'm simply. And I'm giving you directions to go to find the truth. And I've told you that I've done investigation on information that you've told me. And as a result of that information, I've been able to verify my mind, for me the truth. So if peel region is lying about you or someone else is lying about you, I had no control over that. I mean, really, I'm a human being, when you guys do all these things, I've got to. It was all trying truncated a little bit more, but. And it was the answer to that is no, but. The 800-pound gorilla in the room is, that's a life-25 sentence, you know, is really comes down to credibility. And not my credibility, but then again, timeline. I mean, between what Carlos and my rules were respectably and this and that. The answer is no, onto that question. Did you have anything to do with your disappearance? No. Did you know Elizabeth B? I don't know. How'd you ever met her? I'm going to answer that with that, I don't remember, because if I did, I didn't, I don't remember. But I know an ex-girlfriend trying to say a minute, but I guess I don't remember. Do you obviously are aware of her disappearance? It's sort of. Would you recall when you became aware of this? That's, I can re-elect this after I was in town. The date, obviously, June the 19th, 1990 was. But, but, but, you know, other, other than that, I don't remember, you know, maybe I'm very boy with this one, but I can't recall. I hope to go through a bit of a timeline with you as to some things that may jog your memory as to. Or talk. Back in that time. I mean, he asked me what I was doing three weeks ago on Tuesday, I probably couldn't tell you unless you put some reference to it, so. It was awfully good to do that. And again, obviously, June the 19th, 1990, do you know what you were doing that day? I know what it does. Investigators got a search warrant of Paul and Carla's homes to try and find all these videos that Carla's had existed in the home. And they searched, and they searched for these videos. They searched that home for 71 days, and they did not find any of the videos. Carla told investigators that she was a battered wife, and she had no choice but to help her husband in these crimes, or else he would also kill her. And she just said over and over that she was an unwilling accomplice, and that she was also a victim of Paul's. He wasn't loving him. He asked about getting care that we got married. He told me he's a part of America. [BLANK_AUDIO] and verbally abusive to me at that time as you know and he strangled her after he was done. It stands out really clear in my mind because the night before I left him, he did this actually thing to me only he didn't kill me. He kept saying go through what we're gonna do. So I said well if we see a girl we're gonna stop I'm gonna I'm gonna ask her for directions I'm gonna try and get her over to the car so he wanted her right beside him so he could hold the knife to her and I sat in the back seat actually more in the middle of the two of the front seats and I held her hair and like I held her head down. So he went over to her and he did the same thing he strangled him more and I think I watched that time because I wasn't the hell she's dead anyway like if I didn't say the right thing you can't me he held knives to my throat he told me I better watch my back and I'm sure I got no no Kristen because you get emotionally involved with these people and it really hurts it hurts a lot more because I felt like I was friends with both of them especially Kristen because we did so much stuff together we put makeup on together um we talked you know just girl talking pulse when Paul was gone and getting us food and it just made it hurt even more. And then she offered it to testify against her husband in exchange for full immunity. The prosecution refused to accept this but they did offer her 12 years in prison if she would testify against her husband and she quickly accepted this plea deal. Unfortunately right after this deal was made the video tapes were uncovered that had all the evidence that they would have needed to put both Paul and Carla away for life. Turns out after Paul was arrested he told his lawyer Ken Murray exactly where he could find all of the video tapes that showed all of his crimes. His lawyer Ken Murray went and he hid those videos for over a year and a half and in that time they made a deal with Carla a deal with the devil when Ken Murray eventually resigned as Paul's lawyer he handed up all of those video tapes to Paul's new lawyer John Rossin who turned the videos to the police. Ken Murray was charged with obstruction of justice but he was acquitted which is very very frustrating definitely thinking he should have been punished for that for sure. After reviewing the videos it was clear that Carla had a lot more involvement in the rapes and murders and she said the videos prove that she was a liar she would say that certain things happened in the rapes and murders that were not true when they watched the videos like a one point she said that she had no involvement in actually like the rape and murder of her sister she said that she did not hold a rag over her sister's face which wasn't true they had the entire video. The videos proved that Carla was not an unwilling accomplice they showed Carla seemingly really enjoying what she was doing but at that point they already offered her the plea deal after being in a accomplice to multiple rapes and three murders she was only sentenced to 12 years behind bars. Most definitely whenever I speak to anyone out here no one asks about Paul Bernardo's fate everyone simply assumes that he's going to be convicted every person comes up to me and says what about Carla Hamalka how can we allow someone to be released at the age of 35 when she's responsible for at least three deaths. Now my position was that when she was sentenced she did not tell the court about her involvement with other minors she in fact was acting to procure young women to come to the house for Paul Bernardo she did not reveal that information so her 12 year sentence doesn't reflect the extent of her wrongdoing. Paul and Carla were divorced in February of 1994 Paul went on trial in 1995 where his ex-wife took the stand and testified against him during the trial Paul and Carla blamed each other for all of the murders by the end of the trial Paul was found guilty on a long list of charges which included the first degree murders of Leslie and Kristen and he was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole at their 25 years no one was ever held responsible for the murder of Tammy in 2006 behind bars Paul also confessed to over a dozen other rapes that the police did not know about one in which exonerated a man that was arrested and wrongfully convicted of the crime that Paul committed Paul became eligible for parole in 2018 where he was denied and then he was denied parole once again in 2021 and then denied a third time in 2024 at that last parole hearing Leslie's little brother Ryan made a victim impact statement just like the one that he made at Paul's trial when he was only 11 years old I'm going to read you part of that victim impact statement again this is from Ryan Leslie's little brother my partner and I agonized over what to name our kids we wanted to honor her by name but couldn't for fear of what they may find when they or others googled their names Bernardo's actions haunt the simplest details of my life including Father's Day the day he murdered her even tasks around my home like using a power saw or mixing concrete cannot be done without intrusive thoughts of what he did to my sister Kristen French's mother Donna also made a victim impact statement I want to read part of her victim impact statement as well 11,680 days that I've had to live without my sweet beautiful daughter each day I'm not able to hug her kiss her tell her how proud I am of her and how very much I love her for a mother that is an agony for which there are no words Carla was released from prison in July of 2005 she's been out of prison now for over 20 years and seven months which is much longer than any of her victims ever even got to live Carla was released without restrictions and she never had a register as a sex offender she sees herself as a victim of Paul's in 2012 she remarried she actually married her lawyer's brother Carla is a mother she's had two sons and one daughter by 2017 she was living under a false name in Quebec where she volunteers at a local school her plea deal is extremely controversial and it's actually considered the worst plea deal ever made in Canadian history all the videotapes that Paul and Carla took of them abusing torturing, raping and killing their victims was destroyed after Paul's trial and out of respect for the victims I truly do believe that that was the best move possible I'm extremely interested to hear all of your thoughts on this case specifically if you think that Paul and Carla would have ever become killers if they hadn't met each other obviously Paul was the rapist before he met Carla but he only ever became a killer after he met Carla and there's a lot of people that actually believe that because of that it was Carla that actually pushed them into becoming killers let me know all of your thoughts and before we wrap up this week's investigation I want to take a quick moment to say a little bit about the three victims in this case Tammy homoka Leslie Mahafi and Kristen French were vibrant young women whose lives were tragically cut short Tammy was only 15 years old about to turn 16 she did cross-country track and field but soccer was her favorite and she was known for her warm personality and she absolutely loved animals but especially she really loved her pets Leslie was only 14 years old she had a little brother her parents absolutely loved her she was creative and caring she loved music and she loved hanging out with her friends there's a heart-shaped garden with a plaque in Leslie's honor at her old high school and there's also a memorial bench close to her family's headstone Kristen was only 15 years old she was a very loved only child she came from a very good family she was very funny she loved ice skating and she was on the school's rowing team and she really cared about people she was a really good friend during the time that Kristen was missing students teachers and friends at her school adopted the green ribbon of hope as a sign of support and unity in their effort to find her attribute to her the green ribbon trail in St. Catharines was later named after her and a memorial honoring Kristen French was placed at the entrance of the trail so often true crime cases especially when it comes to serial killers I feel like the victims are often lost in their own case so when you remember this case please remember and honor the victims not the killers so interested to hear all of your thoughts in this one I feel like a very interesting discussion could go on in the comments and I read every single one of your comments so please let me know all of your thoughts I actually got the case suggestion for this week's investigation from the comments so while you're there please let me know what case you want to see covered next on hot in the case this was a very highly suggested case ever since I first opened up the podcast so I hope that I covered it Well, and I covered it in a way that honors the victims. I hope that all of you have a very happy and safe Valentine's Day. Have a very safe weekend, and I will see you guys all next time when we are hot in the case once again.