On December 12, Discovery+ put out the latest genuine crime documentary series that has the globe observing.
Dubbed “The Ken & Barbie Criminals: The Misplaced Recordings,” the series retells the dreadful events leading up to the detentions of Karla Homolka and Paul Bernardo. This ex-spouse couple documented and allowed to a series of killings.
The series exploits recordings the two had documented that led to their detentions, but the footage was not published to the public up till now.
From 1990 to 1992, Homolka and Bernardo documented themselves before, during, and after the brutal rape and murder cases of three young women, one of them being Homolka’s sister.
Labeled “The Ken and Barbie Killers” due to their attractiveness as a couple, the chain of killings committed is particularly more distressing.
The narrative, nonetheless, starts much before the two had ever encountered.
The Scarborough Attacker
From May 1987 to July 1990, Toronto Police examined numerous sexual assault lawsuits within the Scarborough suburb of the city.
The first of 24 recognized rapes or attempted rapes took place On May 4, 1987, where a 21-year-old was attacked and raped on her way home after getting off the bus.
Related Story: Brutal Homicide Lawsuit Of Skylar Neese By Her Friends
The targets of this unknown perpetrator were always young women and teenagers, who were in the suburb by themselves.
Most attacks took place outdoors, but the perpetrator broke into a 15-year-old’s home in one instance. He fled after hearing the victim’s mother screaming.
According to The Canadian Encyclopedia, the attacks were “accompanied by beatings, intense verbal abuse, and dire threats to discourage victims from going to the police.”
On one rare occasion, a uniformed officer staking out the bus shelter noticed a suspect under a tree but lost him during the pursuit.
After 11 cases of rape and attempted rape, the Metropolitan Toronto Police assembled a task force that was committed to the search and arrest of the Scarborough Attacker in November 1988.
The first significant lead on the case was in May 1990, when a victim provided the police with a description of the assailant’s face.
The computer-generated image was published in newspapers and widely circulated, encouraging people to provide the police with any and all information they could.
Among approximately 16,000 responses sent in, three reported that the portrait resembled a man called Paul Bernardo.
Bernardo, who had grown up in an abusive household and was the result of an illegitimate affair, had once been a happy child.
His tragic upbringing led to the development of dark sexual fantasies, which he enacted on the women he dated. He relished humiliating them in public and was open about his gratification from beating them.
Investigators picked up on the fact that Bernardo had been attributed to the computer-generated image thrice. He was questioned twice and provided samples of his hair, blood, and saliva for DNA testing as a matter of routine. The task force did not consider him a suspect.
As for why the samples were not tested immediately, case files note that DNA testing was new in Canada, and Toronto’s Centre of Forensic Sciences only has one qualified scientist and one technician. Human error, ultimately, assisted the Scarborough Attacker.
Bernardo was only one of 50,000 men investigated in multiple cases across Ontario in that time frame.
The Homolka Sisters
In October 1987, Bernardo had just turned 23 when he encountered Karla Homolka. His attraction to the 17-year-old was instantaneous, and she reciprocated his desire.
Unlike the women he had previously been involved with, Homolka embraced and encouraged his sadistic behavior, eventually becoming his partner in crime.
Three years later, the two were engaged and residing in her family home in St. Catharines, Ontario.
Bernardo expressed his sexual desire towards his fiancée’s 15-year-old sister, and Homolka decided to gift him Tammy’s virginity as a Christmas present.
Homolka stole anesthetic halothane from the veterinary clinic she worked at and spiked her sister’s drink with it at the family Christmas party.
While Homolka’s parents and sister Lori slept, the couple drugged Tammy so Bernardo could rape her while Homolka taped the assault.
The following morning, Tammy was still unconscious and had stopped breathing.
Bernardo and Homolka dressed her and cleaned the crime scene, hiding the videotape in the process. They then called 911, but Tammy was pronounced dead upon her arrival at St. Catharines General Hospital.
The strange burn mark on Tammy’s face prompted Niagara Regional Police to question her sister and Homolka. They accepted the explanation that it was the result of carpet burn when Bernardo claimed to drag her to the bedroom after the party.
Doctors concluded Tammy had choked on her own vomit after excessively consuming alcohol. The anesthetic went undetected in the autopsy, keeping the couple in the clear.
Leslie Mahaffy & Kristen French
After Tammy’s murder, the couple’s appetite for committing crime did not cease. They moved into their own bungalow in Port Dalhousie on February 1, 1991. They were married on June 29.
On their wedding day, fishermen discovered concrete blocks containing a dismembered human body.
They were identified as those of 14-year-old Leslie Mahaffy, who had been reported missing two weeks prior. Her orthodontic appliance was the key to identifying her. The investigation occurred while the Bernardos were on their honeymoon in Hawaii.
The case was not linked to the couple at the time, but later details reveal Homolka and Bernardo assaulted her, and her rape was recorded.
They had initially planned to let her go, but due to her blindfold slipping, they realized they had to kill her before she could identify them to the police.
The FBI was involved in the search to profile the criminal in 1992.
The body of Kristen French was discovered in April 1992 in a ditch in the north of Burlington.
The 15-year-old had been reported missing after not on April 16. Her shoe was found in the Grace Lutheran Church parking lot, which she passed by on her way home from school every day.
A witness reported a scuffle that occurred in the parking lot on the afternoon she went missing, where two people were forcing a girl into what they thought was a cream-colored Chevrolet Camaro.
This turned out to be a mistaken lead (Bernardo had a gold Nissan). Still, DNA found at the scene matched the samples taken from Bernardo during the Scarborough Attacker investigation, making him the prime suspect.
The Lawsuit & Conviction of The Ken & Barbie Criminals
On January 6, 1993, Karla Homolka was admitted to St. Catharine’s General Hospital after Bernardo violently beat her.
He was arrested and charged with domestic violence but was released on bail.
Despite Homolka’s initial lack of cooperation with the police and her rejected immunity plea, she admitted to partaking in all three murders. Her cooperation during numerous interrogations resulted in a reduced sentence.
Homolka received a twelve-year sentence, while Bernardo was found guilty of all charges against him – two counts of first-degree murder, kidnapping, forcible confinement, and sexual assault – and sentenced to life imprisonment.
He was immediately declared a dangerous offender, hence the constant rejection of parole.
The videotapes, which contain all the footage Homolka recorded of violent, graphic assault, have been kept away from the public eye until now.
With the Discovery+ documentary, specific footage is included in the series; however, this has been limited to clips of the couple to explore the psychotic nature of their crimes.
The reader may find the text intriguing and captivating, as it mentions the notorious “Ken & Barbie Killers” and the use of their footage in a new docuseries. The mention of new evidence potentially coming to light would likely pique the reader’s curiosity, as they may be interested in learning more about the case and any potential developments.