A Canadian serial killer who targeted schoolgirls with her husband was spotted earlier this year doing volunteer work — for an elementary school.
Karla Homolka served a dozen years in prison in the rape and murder of teens Kristen French and Leslie Mahaffy in Ontario, and authorities say she and her husband also drugged, raped and murdered Karla’s 15-year-old sister Tammy. Husband Paul Bernardo is serving life in prison for the murders.
Homolka has been out of prison since 2005 and has children with husband Thierry Bordelais, according to City News. She has been seen at Greaves Adventist Academy in Montreal, and parents at the Christian school were alarmed to find out she was allowed to help out on a field trip in March.
“When I first read the (leaflet), I thought it was a hoax,” parent Andy Maraj told the Montreal Gazette. “But then I saw her and I saw her walking around with her dog for the children to play with. I told my daughter: ‘This lady, I don’t want you to go near her please. If she calls you, don’t go near her and call me,’ because I don’t trust the school.”
“It’s really unacceptable,” parent Stephanie Deligne told the Gazette. “My daughter was playing with the dog of Karla Homolka, and I was right next to her, but I didn’t know who she was.”
Seventh-day Adventist Church spokesman Stan Jensen told City News earlier this week that “the school board was fully aware of who she is.”
“She is not a regular volunteer, and can never be alone with any children, either in school or churches,” he told the paper.
However, it appears the school has now reversed its decision. Greaves Adventist Academy said in a statement on Thursday that “no one with a criminal record will be allowed to volunteer in any capacity on school grounds,” according to the Gazette.
Homolka, now 47, and Bernardo were arrested in 1993. After claiming that she was an unwilling accomplice, she was able to get a plea deal for the 1991 and 1992 murders and was given a 12-year prison sentence.
“She is a psychopath, and there is no cure for psychopathy,” Tim Danson, a lawyer for the French and Mahaffy families, told the Gazette. “And there could be a sequence of events that could come into play that could trigger her psychopathy.”
