Invisible darkness : the strange case of Paul Bernardo and Karla Homolka

by Williams, Stephen, 1949-

  There was a Canada-wide warrant out for Jonathan Yeo with respect to the murder of a woman in Moncton, New Brunswick. But before the police could move, another Burlington teenager, Nina deVilliers. would vanish on Saturday, August 10. On August 14, Bevan would discover that Yeo had disappeared

  from his house on August 9. On August 17, the body of Nina deVilliers would be pulled from a creek in Napanee, very close to where John Peter Stark was now living.

  Yeo had killed deVilliers, but Bevan was too slow and Yeo too fast. A few days later, Jonathan Yeo blew his brains out after American Customs prevented him from entering the United States at Niagara Falls.

  Stark continued to hold the interest of the police, but they had also been very interested in Yeo—because of the black paint—in relation to the Mahaffy case. Unless they got something from the crushed cement that linked Jonathan Yeo to LesHe Mahaffy, they might never resolve the case.

  Bevan had some of the cement casings crushed at nearby Brock University. He kept one block intact. A number of items in the debris were not related to either the manufacture of cement or to Leslie Mahaffy. The length and characteristics of some of the hair led Bevan to believe they belonged to the assailant—someone other than Jonathan Yeo.

  At 3:30 A.M. on August 10, 1991, Karla called 911.

  “Please hurry,” she said. “My friend has stopped breathing.” She gave the address and hung up. She went over to Jane’s lifeless body and slapped her a couple of times, hard. Jane started breathing again.

  “Oh, shit,” Karla mumbled under her breath. She ran to the phone and canceled her earlier call. They asked her if she was sure. She was quite sure. It was a false alarm. Her friend was fme.

  Jane was far from fme. She was comatose. But she was breathing. Karla got Jane up on the bed and told Paul to watch her. When she came back downstairs she heard a loud crash. Jane had fallen off” the bed and Paul was sitting in his music room.

  “I told you to watch her,” Karla screeched.

  All summer long, Jane and Paul had been having fun. Jane appeared to like Paul. Paul took Karla and Jane out together. Paul bought Jane things. She was developing nicely into a “sex

  slave,” when a few unexpected things happened. Firstly, she refused to let Paul have intercourse with her. Jane would perform orally—and had half a dozen times—but she would go no further.

  Secondly, Jane had told her horseback-riding instructor that Paul had touched her breasts. In turn, the riding instructor had told Jane’s mother, who came over to the house in a rage and accused Paul. Although Paul categorically denied it, he was shaken by the experience and their access to Jane was somewhat curtailed.

  Jane had not been a lot of flin for Karla. It was difficult to find a willing female participant who would have sex with both of them. Jane was young and naive. If she snitched on Paul, what would Jane do if Karla approached her? It was time to put Jane down again. Then they could both have fun with Jane.

  Karla laced her drinks with the ever-ready Halcion. Paul got the video camera ready. Karla got out the botde of halothane and started to administer it. Just as they started to take off Jane’s pants, she stopped breathing and they both panicked. They had no intention of kiUing Jane. Paul was frantic. He had hit Karla in June because he was conflised about why Jane had Hved when Tammy had died. This time they sat up all night with Jane to make sure she kept breathing.

  After their honeymoon, Karla’s parents started coming over for dinner every second Sunday. At work, Karla appeared lovesick. All she talked about was how much she loved Paul and how much she wanted to have his baby.

  Paul and Karla’s relationship was a httle turbulent, as is often the way with spirited young couples. Karla sent Paul a letter on the first of October: “Once we were an unbeatable team, you and me against the world. We are the perfect couple, we’ve just gotten sidetracked … some couples were meant to be and we’re one of those … Please, honey, let’s try and have a fair>-tale marriage Hke we were meant to … I know what happened to us is all my fault and believe me I’m changing. I love you too much to lose you.”

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  They celebrated the fourth anniversary of their meeting on October 17, 1991. Karla sent Paul an anniversary card: On the front there was a cartoon cat and the words I WOKE UP WITH A WONDERFUL THOUGHT TODAY … On the inside front cover Karla had printed in little mice type, in a number of cartoonlike baUoons she had drawn, the messages: “Break open the champagne [with a little drawing of a champagne bottle]; 4 lovely years ago that we met; I can’t wait until 4 more years of marriage has happened; Remember, Your princess … Your little fantasy … Your httle rat … Your little Karly Curls … Your little cocksucker … Your little cunt … Your little slut … (heh, heh, heh),” “1 love you more and more with each day that passes!, 4 wonderful truly happy years of togetherness, I love you”.

  On the facing page the word US is printed and framed by another message: “Dear Paul, Oh? Happy Anniversary? Happy Anniversary? Happy Anniversary? Happy Anniversary? Oh, Happy 4th Anniversary to my most terrific, wonderful, best friend and husband in the whole wide world. I love you! Karly Curls XOXO”

  Karla was writing to all her friends, telling them she was blissfrilly happy, and to those among them such as Debbie Pur-die who were lovelorn, she freely gave advice.

  Kim Johnston gave all the samples from the Scarborough rape investigation back to Detective Steve Irwin on November 6. There were approximately 230 exhibits dating back to 1987. The Center for Forensic Science was not a warehouse. All the samples had been tested and the reports were included. Detective Irwin was to sort through them and determine which ones fit the non-secretor status with the proper phosphoglucomutase, or PGM, type. Phosphoglucomutase is a unique enzyme involved in cellular-energy production, found in blood, semen and hair. Irwin would resubmit those whose status was right for DNA testing. There could be no more than fourteen or fifteen individuals who fit that profile. But Detective Irwin was now working on another investigation.

  There were still only ten police officers with the “elite” sexual assault squad, which had to handle all of the sexual assaults in Toronto. Since there hadn’t been a rape with the Scarborough rapist’s modus operandi since the end of May, 1990, the pressure was off that file.

  On November 30, 1991, fourteen-year-old St. Catharines teenager Terri Anderson disappeared without a trace. An elfin blonde, she was a cheerleader and honor student at Lakeport Secondary School. She lived on Linwell Road with her father. Her mother lived out west. At first, the poHce were skeptical about the father. He was rumored to be a big-time drug dealer from an unconventional family. He quickly became the chief suspect in his daughter’s disappearance.

  The police reconstructed Terri’s movements. That night she had drunk some beer and popped a tab of blotter acid with her friends. She started around 7:00 p.m.. At 9:30 p.m. she was noticeably intoxicated. But by the time Terri went home around midnight, her friends said she appeared to be fine. Her father saw her at their townhouse around 1:00 a.m. Terri seemed fine to him. When he woke up the next morning the front door was ajar and she was gone.

  Vince Bevan was promoted to the rank of inspector that fall. At thirty-four, Bevan was almost the youngest inspector in Niagara Regional Police history. Big Jim Moody had been made an inspector when he was thirty-two.

  In December, Paul’s sister, Debbie, formally laid sexual assault charges against her father. She discovered he was doing to her four-year-old daughter what he had once done to her. Only this time it was not while they watched “Walt Disney” on Sunday nights.

  Marilyn Bernardo tried to talk some sense into her daughter. Debbie’s brother David tried to explain that once the charges were laid, there would be no reprieve; the system would take

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  over. But her daughter, Samantha, was the last straw. Debbie went to the pohce. They laid the charges.

  Jane sat alone, waiting for her mo
ther, wondering what had happened. Paul and Karla had been so much fun. Jane loved going to 57 Bayview. She thought of Karla as her older sister. Jane had no idea about what Paul and Karla had done to her in June and August. Short-term memory loss is a side effect of Halcion. Karla read the contraindications in the Compendium. Halothane had been the insurance. When Paul and Karla really had fun with Jane, Jane was unconscious.

  Jane remembered the other things they did together over the summer and into the fall. They went shoppmg at the Eaton’s Center in Toronto. Jane wore one of Karla’s dresses and Paul bought them both new clothes.

  They went to the CNE. They went to the CN Tower for dinner. Karla was on one side of the table and Paul sat beside Jane. She was really cold and Paul was trying to warm her up. Itahan people came up to the table and started singing and videotaping Karla, and then Paul said to Jane, “Let’s pretend you’re my girlfriend,” and he started kissing her.

  They stayed in a hotel overnight. Karla fell asleep on the couch and Paul got into bed with Jane. He tried to touch her between the legs. She would not let him. Jane said she did not want to have sex with him, because Karla was there. He kissed her and touched her breasts and made her promise that he would be the first one she had sex with.

  He took them to see Phantom of the Opera. Jane wanted to sit with Karla, but Paul sandwiched himself between them. During the show he kept touching Jane. They went to see the Royal Lipizanner stallions at Copp’s Coliseum in Hamilton. Paul and Karla liked horses. Karla even rode. They aU went to one of Jane’s horse shows.

  They rented and watched all kinds of videos. They listened to great music. Jane played with Buddy. They would go up into Paul’s studio. There were posters on the wall—the Budweiser people, cars and pictures of Paul and Karla in Florida; the other

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  wall was covered with piles of tapes. Paul said he was producing a rap album.

  Paul was always nice to Karla when Jane was around. Only once, when they were outside in the backyard, Paul told Karla to shut up and go in the house and she was almost in tears and then she said to Jane, “I think Paul needs a hug—why don’t you give him a hug and a kiss?”

  Paul would tell Karla that he was going to have a talk with Jane and then take her into the guest bedroom, shut the door and persuade her to give him oral sex. When they came out, Karla would say, “Did you guys have a nice talk?”

  It was Friday, December 13, 1991. That afternoon they had gone to the Credit Valley dog show. When they got home, Jane helped Paul and Karla wrap Christmas gifts. Jane had bought Paul the Guns N’ Roses Lies CD, and Karla napkin rings, with litde dots in the shape of bows, and candy canes. Karla had a thing for candy canes—the first time Karla had called Jane, they went to Port Dalhousie and had candy canes, even though it was June.

  Karla suggested they open their presents right then and there and Paul said that he had searched for Jane’s presents far and w^ide and one of them was even a “boyfriend/girlfriend” present.

  Even though Jane had kissed Paul in front of Karla and had fellated him frequently over the summer and been told by Karla that everything was all right, Jane was still disgusted when he did stufr”like that in front of his wife. She looked at him and said something like, “Can’t you just shut up?”

  Then they went into the family room and sat down by the Christmas tree. Jane opened her presents. They had i^iven her a large Gund shaggy dog. Karla had a whole collection of Gund stuffed animals upstairs in the bedroom.

  All the time Jane was opening her presents Paul kept telling her that the stuffed toy cost three hundred dollars; it was top of the line, brand-new; it was on the cover of the new Gund magazine. He told her that he just wanted the best for her.

  First they gave her the stuffed toy, with a card, signed from Paul and Karla. The gold necklace was just from Paul. He did all

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  the shopping, but Jane had wanted Karla to do it. Karla kept saying to Jane, “You’re going to love your presents.”

  When Jane opened the package containing the Swatch watch, Paul said, “Do you like it? I looked everywhere. You can take it back if you want …”

  Later, Paul went up to his music room and Jane was left alone with Karla. All summer, Paul had threatened her with Karla. He never forced himself on her, but he would just say things like, “If you want to stay friends with Karla, you will suck my dick.” So she would, and then he would want her to swallow It.

  The first couple of times she comphed, but then she would not.

  “There goes your friendship with Karla,” he would say. “One minute you say ‘yes,’ next thing you’re saying ‘no.’ Why do you play these stupid mind games with me?”

  One night Karla, Jane and Paul went out for supper and they started talking about Tammy Lyn. Jane felt badly for Karla. Karla did not deserve so much pain. Why did it have to happen to Karla? That was how Jane thought.

  Karla told Jane that Tammy had died in her bedroom, that she had mononucleosis. Karla said Tammy had thrown up and inhaled her stomach contents, but Jane’s friends at school had told her that nobody dies from mononucleosis, there must be more to it than that. When they got back to the house Paul was outside drinking, and he said she and Tammy had screwed up his hfe.

  Paul was always saying really weird things to Jane. He was always comparing her to Tammy Lyn. There were pictures of Tammy all over Paul and Karla’s house, but Jane had never known Tammy Lyn. It made Jane wonder if Paul had done with Tammy the stuff he was doing with her. He would ask her if she was really a virgin. She would say yes, and he would say, “Well, have you seen the light? What it’s like, what is death like?” Jane was finally coming to her senses.

  Karla always seemed to be pushing her toward Paul. Jane would sleep in the same room with Paul and Karla. Paul would sleep on the floor and Karla would sleep on the bed, and Paul

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  would try-and fool around with Jane. Jane could not believe it. Once, she relented in the bedroom and gave hmi a blow job. For all Jane knew, Karla had been watching. It was all getting to be too much. Karla said that she and Paul did not sleep m the same bed anymore. She told Jane that she was too conservative, that she should be more liberal.

  When Jane told Karla that she did not feel the same feelings for Paul as he did for her—after all, he was twenty-eight and she was seventeen—Karla said, “Well, he’s the best thing that could ever happen to you. You don’t know what you’re missing.’

  Karla was not going to be the one to tell Paul; Jane would have to do it herself Resolved, Jane marched upstairs and told him.

  “The bad thing about you is you said I’d be the first one you had sex with and now this,” Paul told her. Then he went downstairs, picked Karla up and started to carry her back up the stairs.

  Karla seemed tired that night. She had a headache. Paul smoked some dope and he was probably drunk. He had certainly been drinking, teUing Jane she was worth nothing; that she had no value in life. Because it looked as if they were going to ignore her now, Jane asked Karla if she was mad.

  “No,” said Karla, “but I’m a little bit upset at you.”

  Paul carried Karla upstairs and neither of them came back down again. Jane’s mother arrived forty-five minutes later, at eleven o’clock. All that time Jane sat alone, waiting. She reabzed that Karla was not her friend at all. Karla had meant the world to Jane. She had been Jane’s best friend. Jane had trusted her. Now she knew Karla had just been using her. Jane never went back to 57 Bayview Drive.

  When Janine Rothsay got to the Bernardo’s house, ten days after Jane left, everyone was doing bombs—drinking beer out of straws. Karla was upstairs, so Janine sat down with Joann Fuller and had a few shots of vodka.

  Janine and Joann were friends. They were both seventeen. Janine worked for Joann’s fiance. Van Smirnis, at his video store

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  in Youngstown. Janine
thought Van was cool. It was December 23, and Paul and Karla Bernardo were having a little impromptu Christmas party. Janine had never met Paul and Karla, but she had talked to Paul many times on the phone when he called the store. Van and Joann brought Janine with them.

  Paul was in the living room with Lori Homolka’s ex-boyfriend, Mike Donald, and Van. They were making a video, so Joann and Janine just sat there. Janine was wearing a blue sweater and jeans. When Janine had to go to the bathroom, she got up and asked where it was.

  She closed the bathroom door, but did not think to lock it. The next thing Janine knew, Paul was in the bathroom with her. She told him to leave because she had to go. Paul said he did not mind.

  Janine was sitting on the toilet. Paul got down on his knees and started to kiss her and tried to push her legs apart. Janine told him to stop—she already had a boyfriend, he was married, his wife was upstairs. Paul told Janine that he knew she wanted him. Then Paul locked the bathroom door. Janine yelled for Joann. Later Joann said she had tried to come for her, but Janine never heard anybody. Paul raped Janine on the bathroom floor and then Janine threw up.

  Outside the bathroom, Mike Donald heard the commotion.

  “The fuckin idiot’s in the bathroom with Joann’s friend,” he said to Van. “I should teach him a lesson and go to bed with Karla.”

  Van and Mike thought Janine’s calls for help were expressions of her passion.

  After Janine vomited, Paul got mad and let her out. Janine ran out, half dressed, and went into the guest bedroom with Joann and Van. Paul came out and told Mike that he had “licked her all over.” It was really erotic, he said.