When a handsome man from Canada met an equally attractive, albeit younger teen girl in 1987, no one, including their closest friends, could have predicted they would one day be known worldwide as the “Ken and Barbie Killers.”
Paul Bernardo was an intelligent and popular 23-year-old from the Scarborough area of Toronto, and appeared to be on the path to success. After graduating from the Sir Wilfrid Laurier Collegiate Institute, he attended the University of Toronto Scarborough while working as an Amway consultant.
Yet behind his blonde locks, deep dimples, and charming personality, Bernardo was dabbling in dark fantasies of rape and torture. He began to indulge these sadistic urges by humiliating women in public and hitting his dates, but when his desires weren’t satiated, he began prowling at night, searching for girls walking alone. He would eventually rape at least 13 women, yet his thirst for dark perversion was never quenched.
Scarborough detectives began looking for someone who became known as the Scarborough Rapist, and although Paul was an almost identical match to the sketch police made from victims’s accounts of the assaults, he wasn’t arrested when initially questioned. He cleverly talked his way out of an interrogation, even voluntarily giving a DNA sample to police.
Meanwhile, Karla Homolka was a 17-year-old living in Châteauguay. As the eldest of her parent’s three children, Karla set a good example for her younger sisters by working part-time at an animal hospital, volunteering, and maintaining good grades. She came from a seemingly normal background that included pool parties, dances, and other typical suburban activities. more