f Lake Ontario. While living there, she allegedly began helping him find girls for sex, some of who were friends of Karla's 14-year-old sister, Tammy. At Karla's trial, it was allegedly revealed that on December 23, 1990, Karla slipped an animal tranquilizer into Tammy's drink. While Tammy was unconscious, both Paul and Karla had sex with her, videotaping their activities. But Tammy reacted to the drug violently and choked to death on her own vomit. Six months later, Paul allegedly abducted 14-year-old Leslie Mahaffy, brought her to the couple's home, tortured her for two days, then strangled her. Ten months later, Karla allegedly helped Paul abduct 15-year-old Kristen French, who was tortured for two weeks and finally strangled.
During this period of time, Paul began inflicting increasingly brutal beatings upon Karla, until January of 1993, when Karla left him and checked into a hospital to recover from her injuries. She then contacted the police and began talking. Paul was arrested in February of 1993 and initially charged with 43 counts of sex-related offenses allegedly committed in his hometown; in May of that year, he was charged with two counts each of murder, forcible confinement, and aggravated sexual assault, and one count of committing an indignity to Leslie Mahaffy's body. In a search of the couple's home, 900 pieces of evidence were removed, including videotapes allegedly made of the couple's activities.
During Karla's trial the details of the slayings were related to the court. The courtroom was filled with members of the media, as well as family members of the defendant and the victims, attorneys, and members of the court staff. The judge had already issued a sweeping ban which prohibited everyone in the courtroom from revealing the account given to the court of the slayings and prohibited any of these details from being published in Canada. In an attempt to prevent the details from being published in ...