Authors: Tammy Cohen
Of course, the longer he carried on getting away with his sick crimes, the more convinced he became of his own superiority and invincibility. They couldn’t catch him for the simple reason that he was too quick for them, too clever. He could do anything
he wanted, and, more to the point, he had the right to do so. In his eyes, he was above the law of normal men – he was in a league of his own.
As his confidence in his own supremacy skyrocketed, so too did his need to have this fact recognised by the people around him, particularly Karla. He devoted himself to training his young girlfriend. Karla, in thrall to her older, more sophisticated lover and still reeling from the shock of having his affections suddenly withdrawn from her, determined to be everything he wanted.
Sexually, she denied him nothing, whole-heartedly joining in, even as his demands became increasingly disturbing. She cheerfully ‘performed’ on camera while he videoed their sex sessions, directing her every move, and she encouraged him in his fantasies, where inevitably domination and desire invariably went hand in hand.
When one of Karla’s school friends visited, she was shocked to see a hand-written note pinned to her friend’s bedroom wall. In her childish, looping writing, Karla had compiled a list of ways to improve herself in order to make herself into the ‘perfect’ girlfriend.
‘Don’t talk back to Paul,’ the formerly assertive, feisty teen had written. ‘Always smile when you’re with Paul. Be a perfect girlfriend for Paul. If Paul asks for a drink, bring him one quickly and happily. Remember you’re stupid. Remember you’re ugly. Remember you’re fat.’
Under Paul’s ‘guidance’, Karla changed not only her
demeanour but also her image, swapping her previously untamed permed hair for a sleeker style and her individualistic clothes for more demure, conservative look.
But any misgivings her friends or family might have had about her sudden transformation were quickly quelled in the face of her obvious adoration. She was forever telling people how happy the two of them were, and how good Paul was to her, how lucky she was to have found him. And when they got engaged in 1989, you’d have thought Prince Charming himself had asked her to marry him.
‘I’d do anything for that man,’ she’d gush to her envious friends, as they pored over wedding magazines and catalogues. ‘I never want to lose him.’
No one, not even Karla herself, could have had any idea then just how much she would be called upon to do to keep from losing her domineering boyfriend and how dearly it would cost her.
While Paul was congratulating himself on his own cleverness in continuing to evade capture, despite sexually attacking over a dozen women, and in successfully moulding Karla into his own personal sex slave and fan club combined, he couldn’t shake off his low-level anger at her for not having saved herself for him.
‘I don’t love you,’ he’d frequently hiss at her, reminding her that she was a slut for having lost her virginity before she met him. ‘You disgust me!’
To Karla, by now conditioned to need his love and approval, desperate not to relinquish the status that being one half of the ‘golden couple’ afforded, this was an unbearable blow.
‘Tell me what to do,’ she’d beg him. ‘I’ll do anything. You’re my king. Tell me how to make you love me again.’
Offering herself to him, she’d tell him all the things she wanted to do with him in bed – and out of it: the dressing up as a schoolgirl, the bondage, the home-made X-rated movies… all the stuff she knew excited him. But all too often Paul would look down at her with the same expression of disdain he’d so often seen his ‘father’ Ken use with his mother. ‘I don’t want you,’ he’d all but spit. ‘You’re soiled goods! I want a virgin, someone untouched – someone like Tammy.’
By the time she was 15, Paul’s feelings for Karla’s little sister had gone from affection to obsession. Like her older sibling, Tammy was lively, extrovert and pretty, but unlike Karla, she was still sexually inexperienced. Paul grew increasingly fixated on being the one to take her virginity.
Karla, meanwhile, was overrun with conflicting emotions. On one hand, she felt protective of her younger sister, but on the other she was deeply jealous of her and of the hold she had over Paul. Tammy, proud of the bond she had with her sister’s cute, handsome boyfriend, was happy to spend time with him, flirting with him in that innocent, unknowing way that teenage girls, not yet unaware of their sexual power, sometimes do.
With growing uneasiness, Karla looked on. Could her little sister really steal her man away from her? It wasn’t fair. If she’d known she’d meet someone as incredible as Paul, of course she’d have waited for him, but she was being punished for something she could never have anticipated, while Tammy
could do no wrong. What could she do to prove to Paul how sorry she was and how much she loved him?
The answer was simple: she could give Tammy to Paul.
By this stage, late in 1990, Karla was working at a veterinary clinic where she had easy access to powerful tranquilisers. Paul was sure they could drug Tammy’s drink with a sedative that would mean he could rape her without her feeling a thing, or even waking up. At first Karla had dismissed his outlandish and perverted fantasy, but when he kept pestering her, she’d started to think more about it. Careful research convinced her that ground-up Halcion tablets would be undetectable in a drink and enough to render someone unconscious, while a cloth soaked in halothane held over the mouth would keep them that way too.
With Karla’s assistance, Paul could have sex with Tammy and when she woke up the next morning, she’d be none the wiser and they could all go on as if nothing had happened. Reluctant at first, Karla came to believe it was a win-win situation on so many levels – Paul would stop obsessing about Tammy’s virginity and using it against her, it would reduce the chances of Paul and Tammy actually starting up a consenting sexual relationship at some point in the future, and it would strengthen the bond between herself and Paul.
When she told him what she’d found out, and agreed to steal the drugs, Paul was delighted with her and Karla basked in his approval and approbation. Once again she was his cute, clever Karla-Curls, his perfect girlfriend, his soul mate.
Tammy would never know anything about it, Karla convinced herself. It wasn’t doing her any real harm, was it? And Paul would be so very grateful to her, it would all be worth it.
December 1990 was the perfect opportunity. Not only would the Homolka family be spending a lot of time together, most likely drinking quite heavily, but this would also count as the ideal Christmas present for Paul.
Accustomed by now to focusing on her man’s happiness above all others, and wary of provoking his displeasure, which had started to show itself in physical violence, Karla didn’t dwell too much on any potential problems or threats to her little sister’s wellbeing. Instead, she indulged Paul in constructing endless fantasies about the forthcoming rape, fuelling his anticipation and mounting excitement. Lucky Tammy would be introduced to sex by a master, the couple agreed. What a shame she’d never know how good it had been!
But of all the twisted scenarios that the couple came up with, discussing the rape of Tammy Homolka, nothing would match the actual horror of the events that unfolded on the evening of 23 December 1990.
At first, it seemed as everything was going to plan. All the Homolkas were drinking quite heavily and although Tammy was still a couple of weeks’ shy of her sixteenth birthday, no one was about to deny her a few celebratory cocktails this close to Christmas. As Paul and Karla mixed the drinks, it was easy enough to slip a sprinkling of crushed Halcion into Tammy’s glass.
For an agonising few hours, Karla and Paul thought the drug wasn’t working. Tammy was relaxed, as they all were, but she didn’t seem particularly sleepy. Just when they were beginning to give up hope of being able to put their plan into action, things started to fall into place, however. As Paul and Karla settled down to watch a video in the basement den, the rest of the Homolka clan decided they were ready for bed, all except Tammy, who stayed to watch the movie. That decision was to cost her life.
The film hadn’t been playing long when Karla nudged Paul. Tammy, who was lying on the sofa, had fallen asleep. This was their big chance. Karla bent over Tammy, lifting her arm and then dropping it to test how soundly she was asleep. The younger girl didn’t stir; she was out cold. So, now for the second part of the plan…
After helping Paul roughly pull up Tammy’s shirt and tug her trousers down, Karla swiftly got the halothane and a cloth she’d prepared earlier. While she stood at her sister’s head, holding the halothane doused rag over her Tammy’s face, Paul acted out every unspeakable, twisted fantasy he’d been imagining over the past weeks and months – all captured by his new video camera so they’d be able to relive the experience again and again.
It was amazing, better than he’d ever envisaged. The knowledge of Tammy’s virgin status excited him even more than he’d anticipated. She was all his, no one else could ever say they’d been there before him. He was the man all right: he was King!
Nervously, Karla kept an eye on her sleeping sister. Although
she’d been present at numerous animal operations, she had no idea how much halothane she needed to administer to keep Tammy unconscious.
Then all of a sudden, in a departure from the prepared script, Paul ordered Karla to take part in the rape. At first she demurred, particularly when she realised Tammy had her period. But she couldn’t deny Paul anything for long and within minutes the camera caught her sexually violating her own sister, following commands from her boyfriend, of course – but looking as if she was enjoying it too.
It was all too much for Paul – he wanted another go. As Karla once again assumed her position holding the drug-soaked cloth over her sister’s face, Paul was back to re-enacting the fantasy he’d had for so long.
Then suddenly everything went wrong.
Tammy made a movement and Karla realised she was choking on her own vomit. ‘Shit! Do something!’ she cried. But Paul, who normally prided himself on being in control of any situation, was panicking.
With a growing sense of foreboding Karla tried to remember what they would do in the veterinary surgery in case of an emergency. Roughly she manoeuvred her unresisting sister until her head was upside down, trying in vain to clear her airways, but nothing seemed to work.
‘We’ve got to get her out of here!’
Karla wasn’t thinking straight. This wasn’t supposed to have happened. All she could think was that Tammy needed to be
taken away from the sofa, and all the evidence of what they’d just done to her, and laid out somewhere they could look after her properly. Trying to quell their panic, the couple dragged the lifeless girl into Karla’s bedroom which was just off the den but they quickly realised all their efforts at resuscitation were in vain.
‘We need an ambulance. Quick!’
Karla’s frantic 911 call betrayed her utter desperation: she hadn’t meant for Tammy to be hurt, this wasn’t supposed to happen. And yet, while the couple waited for the emergency services to arrive, Karla didn’t exactly act the grief-stricken, older sister. As well as washing and re-dressing Tammy, she took the time out to dispose of the halothane and the cloth – and of course the video tape.
The shocked Homolka parents, who’d been woken from their sleep by the ambulance sirens accompanying their youngest daughter to the hospital, left Karla, Paul and Lori at home waiting anxiously for news. A short while later it came, but it wasn’t what anyone wanted to hear: Tammy Homolka was declared dead on arrival at the hospital.
The policeman who had stayed behind with Paul, Karla and Lori while Tammy was rushed to hospital was saddled with the unenviable task of breaking the news.
‘No, no,
no
!’ Paul screamed in anguish, as the reality of Tammy’s death sank in. Karla and her only surviving sister clung to each other in mute misery. There was no doubting the genuineness of their grief. And yet, just a short while later, the policeman was stunned to discover Karla about to do a load of
washing, cramming the vomit-caked covers on which Tammy had been lying into the washing machine.
‘You can’t do that,’ he told her. ‘Everything has to stay just as it is.’
Inevitably, there would have to be a postmortem. So much of what had happened seemed strange. Why had a healthy young girl choked after a relatively small amount of alcohol? And why had Paul and Karla dragged her into the bedroom, causing a burn to appear around her mouth?
For an agonising few days, Paul and Karla waited to hear the coroner’s ruling. Would they find out that Tammy had been raped? And would they discover evidence of the halothane in her system?
Incredibly, when the results of the autopsy came out, they revealed the official cause of death to be aspiration – fluid on the lungs – caused by Tammy choking on her own vomit, just as Karla and Paul had said.
But even though the couple seemed to have got away
Scot-free
, they were far from happy. In their own warped way they’d loved Tammy, and more to the point they’d believed they were completely in control. How could things have gone so terribly wrong?
Inevitably, Paul blamed the whole fiasco on Karla.
‘You must have given her too much halothane,’ he raged at her in private, away from the grieving relatives. ‘It was all going so well and then you ruined it, you stupid bitch!’
Even viewing the tape of the attack wasn’t the consolation it
should have been to Paul Bernardo. Sure, there was all the good stuff at the beginning, showing him and Karla having fun with the unconscious Tammy, but then it all went horribly wrong and no amount of editing was going to change the fact that the script had been completely forgotten and Tammy was dead.
Karla was desperate. She knew Paul was going to continue punishing her for her ‘mistake’. She had to make it up to him. Three weeks after Tammy’s death, while the Homolka parents were away, trying to come to terms with their grief, Paul kidnapped a girl and brought her back to the Homolka house. While he raped her on the floor of the bedroom, Karla looked on approvingly. Afterwards she cleaned up while he dumped the never-identified girl on a deserted road, leaving her traumatised and bewildered, but nevertheless somehow still alive. Though she would never have believed it then, the ‘January Girl’ as she became known to the couple was one of the lucky ones.