handwriting of all the murders and rapes, as well as books on serial killers, and perverted sex magazines. The much-wanted videotapes were in the possession of Bernardo’s lawyer who surrendered them when he withdrew from the case.
Before the tapes were handed to the police, a plea bargain was arranged based on Homolka’s testimony. She would receive twelve years for each of the two victims (not her sister). The prosecutor said that it had to be done in order to nail Bernardo. Her earliest release date would be June, 2001. Once the videotapes were obtained from Bernardo’s lawyer, it clearly showed that Homolka was heavily involved in cruel sex acts with both of the girls. Her lawyer could see for himself that she was a willing and eager participant in the crimes. As this news broke, public outraged for her plea bargain grew. The media dubbed it the worst deal the Canadian government had ever made with a criminal witness.
Bernardo’s trial started in May of 1995. He was charged with two counts of murder in the 1 degree, two counts of aggravated sexual assault, two counts of kidnapping, two counts of forcible confinement, and one count of dismembering a body. He pleaded not guilty.
The prosecutor, Ray Houlahan, first rolled a tape of Homolka, naked and masturbating with a flashlight inside her. The jury was disgusted. They knew there would be pornography, but they hadn’t thought it would be so explicit. The prosecutor’s intention, however, was to show the court how Bernardo forced women to do anything for him, even kill a sibling. A pin drop could be heard in court when Homolka testified, showing how they had drugged and raped her sister Tammy in order to demonstrate how terrified she was of Bernardo’s violence and control.
Homolka was asked why she committed these horrifying crimes. She explained “Paul was very upset when he discovered she was not a virgin the first time they had sex. It was therefore, her responsibility to make it possible for him to take the virginity of her pretty younger sister Tammy. It would have to be videotaped without Tammy's knowing anything about it so I decided to give her to Paul as a Christmas present.” This was the first time that the Homolka parents ever heard the details surrounding what had happened to their fifteen-year-old daughter, Tammy. They could not believe what they were hearing.
In the end, Bernardo got a life sentence and was classified as a dangerous offender, meaning he would never get out of prison. Bernardo is currently serving his term at the maximum-security prison at Kingston Penitentiary, in the segregation unit. He spends twenty-three hours every day in a four by eight-prison cell.
Homolka was released from prison in June of 2005. Since her release, she’s remarried and now goes by the name, Emily Bordelais, and is awaiting a pardon. There is a Cause set up petitioning to stop her from obtaining this pardon. The website is:
http://www.causes.com/causes/475014-stop-karla-homolka-from-getting-a-pardon
Dorothea Puente
Dorothea Puente was born on January 9, 1929, in Bernardino County, California. In 1945, she married a soldier named Fred McFaul who had just returned from the war. Their marriage, though, only last three years. Puente became desperate for money and started forging checks which landed her in jail for six months.
Puente got pregnant just after being released, but gave the baby up for adoption. In 1952, she again married, and this time the marriage lasted for fourteen years. She had a few scrapes with the law in the 60s, operating a brothel and being arrested for vagrancy. She divorced her husband of fourteen years and married Robert Puente, who was nineteen years her junior. That marriage lasted but two years.
In 1981, Puente started renting a boarding home with her friend Ruth Monroe. There, the murdering began. They went into business together attending to the elderly and mentally handicapped people. After a short time in business together, Ruth Monroe died suddenly and her death was ruled a suicide by the police. Apparently, the cause was an overdose of Codeine and Tylenol.
Just four weeks later, Puente was arrested and subsequently sent to prison for five years after a seventy- four-year-old man claimed she was drugging and stealing from him. She served only a few years for good behavior. While she was in jail, she had a pen pal, Everson Gillmouth, seventy-seven, who picked her up after her release. They planned to marry, and rented an apartment on F Street in Sacramento, California.
Once they were settled in their new place, a repairperson named Ismael Florez was hired by Puente in November of 1985 to do some woodwork for her. For his efforts, she gave him Gillmouth’s 1980 Ford pickup as well as $800 cash. She hired Florez build her a box, allegedly to store papers and books, and instructed him to make it two feet by three feet by six feet long.
Once it was built and she had it filled and nailed shut, she asked her repairperson to help bring it to a storage depot. On the way, however, she told him to stop in Sutter County and dump the box on the riverbank in an unofficial household dumping site. Florez had assumed she wanted to keep the contents – that is why she had him build it – but Puente told him the contents of the box were just junk.
It was not until New Years Day, 1986 when the box and body within was discovered. The body of an elderly man was so decomposed that, according to the police, they could not identify him. It would be another three years before the body of Everson Gillmouth would be identified. Even in death, the pension checks would continue being cashed by Puente.
Puente continued looking after elderly residents, intercepting their mail, cashing their checks, and pocketing a good portion of them. In total, she took in another forty boarders after killing Gillmouth. She had her repairperson cover the basement with a cement slab and had the garage torn down and replaced with another cement slab. Shortly after he did all of this, he too disappeared.
When Alvaro Montoya was reported missing by his family on November 11, 1988, the police went to the boarding house to have a look around. Upon searching the property, they found former tenant Leona Carpenter, seventy-eight, along with seven other bodies buried in the basement and even the flower garden.
Puente was charged and convicted of only three of the murders, as the prosecution could not produce enough
