 Paul Bernardo and Carla Homulca, known in a media as Ken and Barbie, are two of the most twisted criminals that Canada has ever seen. And after hearing this story, I think you'll agree. Paul Bernardo is a particularly disturbing man, who along with the help of Carla, committed a series of crimes against young women in Ontario between 1986 and 1992. When the two were eventually apprehended, Carla struck a controversial plea bargain with prosecutors. Where she claimed she was an unwilling participant in the crime. But investigators would later find out this wasn't exactly true, but their deal had already been made. In more recent years, this plea bargain has been described as a deal with the devil. A total of 23 victims are involved in this case, making it an incredibly important story to tell and one that you can afford to miss. This story is so convoluted and filled with so many twists and turns that it's difficult to determine even where to begin, but I want to begin with a word of caution. Typically, I make these videos in remembrance of the victims. If you watch true crime stories for any length of time, you know that the victims are always my prime focus, but today's video will be a bit different. The sheer brutality of this case is something that needs to be spoken about so that the crimes that these two people committed will not be forgotten, especially considering one of these monsters is no longer even behind bars. This video, rather than focusing on the victims, will be particularly focused on the criminals and the awful crimes they committed. So with that said, let's begin with the story of Paul Bernardo and Carla Homolka, the Ken and Barbie killers. Paul Bernardo was born in Ontario in 1964 to his parents Kenneth and Marilyn. Paul's father was a seriously sick man. It's been reported that Kenneth had an unusual fascination with his daughter, Paul's sister. Kenneth would reportedly abuse the girl in front of the entire family, including Paul, his brother and their mother. The details of this abuse haven't been clarified, but it's safe to say that whatever went on in the Bernardo household wasn't pretty. Thankfully, Paul's father would eventually be held accountable for his crimes, but the family never recovered. Even years after the abuse that ended, Marilyn, Paul's mother, suffered from severe mental health issues, including depression and uncontrollable anxiety. During the time that her husband still lived in the family home, Marilyn grew so afraid and paranoid that she packed up her things and moved into the basement just to have some physical distance between herself and her husband. The natural question many people may be asking is why didn't she just leave it? Well, you have to keep in mind when you're living alongside a ticking time bomb and also a proven psychopath, you can't really afford to rock the boat, so to speak. Marilyn was likely just doing the best she could to make sure that she didn't end up six feet under. Regardless of his troubles at home for much of his childhood, Paul didn't really present himself as being someone with a troublesome home life. All in all, he was a fairly ordinary kid, but as he entered his teenage years and young adult years, things began to change. While he grew up being a very outgoing boy, taking pride in his enrollment with the Boy Scouts, underneath the cracks had begun to show. He began to develop an obsession with fire. By the time he was 16, his parents had gotten into a monumental argument after Kenneth, Paul's father, discovered that Marilyn had been having an affair. Soon after, Paul found out that Kenneth may not even be his biological father. This planted a seed of resentment in Paul, who had now developed a hatred for his mother. The two would often curse at one another, call each other names, and ultimately make an already difficult childhood just that much worse. Around this same time, Paul had been dating a girl from his school. Paul was head over heels for this girl, but then she unexpectedly left him for one of his best friends. This rather obviously only made Paul's hatred that much stronger. But now, he didn't just hate his mother, he hated all women, seeing them as little more than objects that he could take advantage of. He later took several of his ex-girlfriend's belongings and set them on fire in retaliation for what she had done to him. As years passed by, somehow Paul managed to get into college. He was here that his behavior towards women reached a worrisome peak, and Paul was soon headed down a path that very few ever returned from. He and his college friends were now of drinking age and begun concocting new ways to pick up women from local bars. Paul's attempts were unfortunately fairly successful. He would convince his dates to come back home with him, where he would engage in disturbingly aggressive behavior in the bedroom, often without the consent of these women. This eventually led to two women getting restraining orders against him. But many of the other women were too afraid to go to the police, as Paul had already threatened their lives if they were to do so. But it was around the same time that Paul met someone new, a woman named Carla Hamulca. While many of the other women that Paula dated were resistant to his behaviors, so to speak, Carla encouraged them. The two had an immediate attraction for one another, and overall, their compatibility was undeniable. This all took place in 1987, and as the years passed by, the relationship between Carla and Paul only got stronger. But something else was taking place during this time as well. A series of attacks against women have been sweeping across the Scarborough area. The bulk of these attacks occurred between 1987 and 1990, with many of these victims being underage. The criminal would wait near bus stops and wait for lonely women to exit the bus, and bushing the victims when they were most vulnerable, often completely unaware that someone had even been following them. At least 19 of these cases were reported to the police, but it's possible there were many more that were never spoken of. Police caught on to this series of crimes quite quickly, and DNA samples were taken from each confirmed report. Police spoke with Paul about these crimes, and he even voluntarily submitted his DNA for comparison. But for reasons that remain unclear, his DNA was never actually tested. This would prove to be a fatal mistake. By 1990, Paul and Carla had gotten engaged. Not too long after this, Paul lost his job as an accountant, and Carla's family allowed him to move into their home. Carla lived at home with her parents and younger sister, Tammy. Tammy was just 15 years old at the time, and Paul was about 26 or so. No sooner than Paul moved in, he became fixated with Tammy. Even though he was set to marry Tammy's older sister, he couldn't control his lust for her. In the end, Carla and Paul worked together to get Paul exactly what he wanted. Unrestricted access to Tammy's bedroom. The two concocted a plan to feed Tammy spaghetti that had been laced with a sedative. And once Tammy passed out, well, I think you can infer what happened next. All the while, Carla was seemingly a willful participant in the crime against her sister, with some rumors saying that Carla sat back and watched the whole crime take place, while others say that she joined in. At the same time, Carla was working for a local animal clinic. When working one day, Carla was left alone with prescription medications, long enough that she was able to grab a few additional sedatives, bringing them home to Paul. This was around December. In Carla's own words, she wanted to sedate Tammy and give her to Paul as a Christmas present. Thus, she dosed her sister up once again, but this time, things wouldn't go according to plan. The two had moved Tammy down into the basement so that Paul's so-called gift wouldn't be witnessed by Carla's parents. But while in the basement, Tammy, still unconscious, began to vomit. Considering she had no control over her body, there is nothing she could do to keep from choking, and she very quickly stopped breathing. Paul and Carla began to panic. So before calling an ambulance for help, the two cleaned up the scene of the crime, vacuumed the basement, washed and changed clothes, and got themselves cleaned up. And only then did they call an ambulance for help. But by this point, it was far too late, and Tammy had lost her life. Somehow, despite being witnessed cleaning the basement from top to bottom in the middle of the night, police accepted the theory that Tammy passed away after drinking heavily, then choking on her own vomit. The case wasn't investigated any further, and Carla and Paul got away with it. Soon after this crime took place, Paul and Carla moved out of the Hamulka household and got a place of their own, allowing them even more privacy to carry out their disturbing crimes. By now, it was June of 1991. Paul had been traveling through Burlington while looking for license plates that he could steal. While driving around, he came across a young girl who had been locked out of her house after she had missed curfew. Paul approached the girl and, rather strangely, openly told the girl that he was planning on breaking into her neighbor's house. Even more strange, the girl didn't even bat an eye, she didn't even question it. She just asked Paul if he had any cigarettes. Paul then led the girl back to his car where he blindfolded her, forced her into the car, then drove her back to his home where he informed Carla that he'd found their next victim. Over the following few days, Carla and Paul videotaped themselves doing all sorts of things to the girl. The situation was far, far too graphic to mention here, and I know that's not something you guys want to hear, but I just can't get into these sorts of details when these victims are so young and the crimes are just so unnaturally terrible. After the crime had been completed, Paul and Carla encased the victims' remains in cement and dumped the evidence in Lake Gibson, about 11 miles from their home. The dump site was discovered just two weeks later, but there wasn't enough evidence to immediately link the crime to Paul and Carla. This brings us to April 16th, 1992. Paul and Carla were driving around your St. Catherine School looking for other potential victims. As they drove past the Holy Cross Secondary School, they spotted someone. Now, again, due to the girl's age and the circumstances of the crime, I won't be revealing her name as it really doesn't add anything for the story here. For this reason, we'll just call the girl Kay. Paul and Carla pulled into a parking lot just a short distance away from Kay. Carla then got out of the car with a map in hand pretending to be lost, hoping for some assistance. When Kay grabbed the map to help Carla out, Paul ran up from behind, forcing her into the front seat of the car, restraining her and driving away. When Kay didn't return home that afternoon, her parents knew something was wrong. Around 24 hours later, her shoe was found in the parking lot where she was abducted, and investigators knew they had a crime on their hands. Once again, for the few days that the girl was held captive by Carla and Paul, they videotaped themselves doing whatever they wanted to the girl. Kay was found in a ditch just two weeks later, about 40 minutes away from her school. All evidence had been washed away before she was abandoned, meaning investigators had very little evidence to go on. Her hair had all been cut off as well, so identification was a bit more difficult than it needed to be. Keep in mind, the victims we've just covered only account for three of a total of 23 crimes, meaning there are confirmed to have been at least 20 other crime scenes connected to the couple. But there are likely dozens more that officers simply don't know about. But by 1992, things were beginning to heat up and the police were hot on the trail of these two. Both Carla and Paul were questioned several times in connection to the crimes. But at this point, the investigation was well underway. While investigators only had two confirmed victims at this moment, the unexpected demise of Tammy, Carla's sister, was beginning to look a bit suspicious as well. But without any hard evidence, there wasn't much that could be done. It was December of 1992 when all of that changed. Carla and Paul had gotten into a heated argument, leading Paul to attack Carla with a flashlight, hitting her over and over again, and causing her to become so badly injured that she told her friends that she'd gotten into a car accident. And some of them believed this to be a plausible excuse, meaning the extent of her injuries must have been pretty severe. But when Carla's parents found out, they weren't so easily convinced. They showed up to the couple's home and physically removed Carla from the situation. They took her to a local hospital where she revealed that Paul had done this to her. She was treated for her injuries and a police report was filed. Paul was arrested but was released a short while later. Now, if you remember a while ago, I mentioned that Paul voluntarily submitted his DNA to the police, but they didn't really do anything else about the cases they'd been piling up. Well, 26 months later, more than two years later, they finally submitted Paul's DNA for comparison and found that it was a match. Paul was then placed on a secret 24-hour surveillance by investigators. Around the same time, Carla opened up to her family about the extent of Paul's abuse, revealing that he was not only abusive towards her but that she knew, without a doubt, that Paul was the man who had harmed all 23 of those girls. But in a shocking twist, she revealed that she'd been involved in some of the crimes as well, though she explained that she'd been forced into compliance by Paul, who had allegedly threatened to harm her if she didn't do exactly as he had asked. Police arrested Paul almost immediately after this confession, and they began an intense search of his home. They had caught wind of their allegedly being videotapes that documented some of the crimes, but when they searched the home, only one of these tapes was found. Now, normally in cases like this, police will tear a house apart while looking for evidence, but for some weird reason, police weren't allowed to conduct any level of demolition inside the home, meaning they were incredibly limited in their abilities to search. Their search of the home took a total of 71 days. After this search was concluded, the evidence against Paul was minimal. Police only found the one aforementioned tape, but the only evidence that it contained would have implicated Carla, not Paul. And this is where things get a bit strange. See, before the discovery of this tape, Carla had struck a deal with police. In exchange for a dramatically lesser sentence than Paul was facing, Carla spoke with police and revealed the extent of their crimes against these girls and young women. Police agreed to this plea bargain with Carla. They were under the assumption that Carla had been forced to commit these crimes after being threatened by her husband. But even though Carla had been forced to commit the crimes, the fact of the matter is, she still committed them. This meant that she wasn't completely immune from charges, but police assured her that her sentence would be far less severe. Carla agreed to the terms of this bargain and police drew up a contract for her, and she revealed everything she knew about the victims, helping police in their search of Paul's home. But after this search was concluded, as mentioned, they found minimal evidence. But that's when Paul told his lawyer where he had hidden all of the secret tapes. Paul instructed his lawyer to remove a light fixture from the upstairs bathroom. And inside of this fixture, all of the tapes were hidden away. The lawyer hid these tapes from investigators, but soon after this discovery and the realization of the extent of Paul's crimes, the lawyer resigned. Paul's new attorney was then given access to the tapes, which he immediately handed over to the authorities. When police viewed these tapes, they found all the evidence they needed to put Paul away for life. But there was only one problem. They also found enough evidence to put Carla away for life as well. Despite claiming that Paul forced her into submission, investigators quickly learned that this was all a ruse. The tapes clearly revealed that Carla played an almost equal role in these crimes. She wasn't forced at all. She was a willing participant. But the fact is they'd already signed a plea bargain with Carla. This meant that regardless of what the tapes documented, there was little they could do. Paul was eventually handed a life sentence though he was given the possibility of parole after 25 years. Thankfully, parole has never been granted. Carla, on the other hand, was given a maximum sentence of just 12 years behind bars. As a result, she was released almost 20 years ago, back in 2005. Despite her release, Carla was still kept under pretty strict supervision. She was required to submit a DNA sample to police, as well as required to tell police if she planned to be away from her home for more than 48 hours. She was also required to attend regular counseling and therapy and has been prohibited from being in an isolated presence of anyone under the age of 16. She's also been barred from contacting Paul or any of the victim's families. When she was analyzed by a psychiatrist, Carla was, by all means, determined to be a relatively normal person. She doesn't have a particularly disturbing past, nor does she show any of the usual markers of being a volatile person. But one of her psychiatrists remarked that, while Carla comes across as a perfectly normal person, her morality is questionable at best. She was ultimately declared as being a normal person, albeit one with particularly dark desires, which is likely how she was able to be so complicit in so many of these chilling crimes. In the end, this is a case that's just truly bizarre. Carla and Paul were subsequently described in the media as being Ken and Barbie, the perfect partners for one another. There isn't really much commentary to add to this case. Outside of the obvious, what the heck? I mean, seriously. Thankfully, Paula has since been locked away for life. Carla, on the other hand, remarried immediately after her release and has been married to the same man since 2005. All we can really do is hope that her dark desires don't reemerge as time passes by. Thank you guys for tuning into another episode of True Crime Stories. If you want to see more true crime documentaries like this, be sure to hit the like button and subscribe. If you'd like to help support the channel, the best way you can do that is simply by leaving a comment below, any comment at all. It helps out the channel a lot more than you may realize. If you want to help out financially, you can do that by clicking the blue join button below or by picking up a True Crime Stories mug from tieknotes.com. But with that, my name is Tie Knotes and I'll catch you guys in the next video.