Leslie Mahaffy
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Leslie Erin Mahaffy (July 1, 1976 – June 16, 1991) was a young female resident of Burlington, Ontario, Canada who was murdered by serial killers Paul Bernardo and Karla Homolka.[1] At the time of her abduction and subsequent murder in mid-June of 1991, she was a Grade 9 student at M.M. Robinson High School in Burlington, Ontario. She had openly rebelled against her parents during the school year and had skipped school and run away from home on at least two occasions; her academic standing had suffered as a result. She is also said to have shoplifted and repeatedly stayed out past her curfew. On the evening of June 14, 1991, Mahaffy went to a funeral home and later attended a wake, as Chris Evans, a close male friend of hers, had died in a car accident earlier that week.
Mahaffy had been locked out of her home by her parents because she had broken curfew. A male friend had walked her home, but she told him that it was okay that she couldn't get in through the front door; the back door would be unlocked. However, it was locked. Mahaffy walked to a Mac's convenience store and phoned the friend she had stayed with once when she had run away from home. She asked her if she could stay at her place for the night. The friend said she could not, as there had been tension between her family and Mahaffy's because her family had done nothing to return Mahaffy to her parents. Mahaffy then went home. She spotted Bernardo who was breaking into an adjacent home and asked what he was doing. Bernardo said he was breaking into the home and she said it was cool. She asked if he had any cigarettes and he said it was in his car. Mahaffy followed him back to the car, where he asked her to get in. Mahaffy said sure, but only if she could keep the door open. Once in the car, Bernardo told her to use an old sweater he had in the car as a blindfold, abducting her a knifepoint. The Mahaffy family did not report her missing because she had run away in the past. Her family suspected something was wrong when she didn't contact her mother on her birthday. Investigators later revealed to the Mahaffys as they were taking in birthday celebrations at a northern resort that their daughter's body was found dismembered and encased in cement on June 29, 1991 in Lake Gibson near St. Catharines, Ontario on the same day Bernardo and Homolka married in a lavish ceremony at Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ont. Investigators believed she was raped and tortured. This was confirmed when videotapes were discovered in the home of Bernardo and Homolka. The tapes show that she was held hostage for approximately twenty-four hours and repeatedly assaulted and sodomized multiple times. After the trial, the tapes that showed the torture of the girls were all destroyed by police.
Her disappearance was part of a perceived series of disappearances of Ontario schoolgirls (Kristen French was also a victim of Bernardo and Homolka). This was widely covered in Canadian media and remains one of the most well-known criminal cases in Canadian history.
[edit] Bernardo's statements
Several days before Homolka's release from prison, Bernardo was interviewed by police and his lawyer, Tony Bryant. Bryant was subsequently interviewed by the media, providing Bernardo's thoughts about the release.
According to Bryant, Bernardo claimed that he had always intended to free the girls he and Homolka had held captive. However since Leslie Mahaffy's blindfold, which had been placed on her fell off, resulting in her seeing Bernardo's face, made Homolka concerned that Mahaffy may have recognized Bernardo, and hence Homolka herself. Further, Bernardo claimed that Homolka's plan was to murder Mahaffy by injecting an air bubble into her bloodstream, eventually causing an embolism.[1]
[edit] References
- ^ Jenish, D Arcy. "Horror stories", Maclean's Magazine Vol.108, Iss. 22, Rogers Publishing Limited, 1995-05-29, pp. 14 – 18. Retrieved on 2006-12-12.
