Journalist Paula Todd has tracked down Karla Homolka and discovered the convicted killer is now a mother of three living on the Caribbean island of Guadeloupe.
Todd released an e-book this week, titled “Finding Karla.”
In the short 46-page book, Todd describes how she followed a tip she found on the Internet that Homolka was living in Guadeloupe for several years.
Last month, Todd discovered the tip was right. After flying down and wandering the streets of the island nation, she finally tracked the notorious schoolgirl killer down.
The ensuing conversation is detailed in Todd’s book, which is available on Kindle Singles, Kobo, iBooks and Nook for $2.99.
In the early 1990s, Homolka and her then-husband, Paul Bernardo, were convicted of crimes related to the rape and murder of two schoolgirls, Kristen French and Leslie Mahaffy.
While Bernardo went on to be sentenced to life in prison, the nation was horrified to learn that Homolka had struck a deal with prosecutors in 1993 in which she pleaded guilty to manslaughter.
She served 12 years in prison and after her release in 2005, moved to Quebec. She gave one TV interview and then seemed to disappear. Little has been known about her life since 2007, beyond a report that she had married and had one child.
Todd writes that she stumbled on Homolka’s home while walking along a gravel side road. She found herself staring at a residence with mailbox that read, “Leanne Bordelais,” the name that Homolka now goes by.
In the window on the second floor, she spotted Homolka in the window
“I look through it into a tiny, tidy kitchen,” Todd writes. “There, bent over the sink, is a petite woman with light hair. She turns her face sideways to see who’s arriving. Then she freezes…
“I have found Karla Homolka, and I’m not sure which of us is more shocked,” Todd writes.
The journalist was surprised to find Homolka let her in and agreed to speak to her for close to an hour. But Todd says it was a tense interview.
“The tension started from the moment I realized I had actually found her, and it continued like a tight, tight string, all the way through until I left about an hour later,” Todd told The Canadian Press.
Homolka appeared to have made a life for herself in Guadaloupe, living in a tidy, clean home with her husband, Thierry Bordelais, Todd said. She seemed to have a healthy relationship with her three children, one of whom she breastfed while Todd visited.
But Todd said it was clear that Homolka still worries about her safety.
“She said to me, ‘What makes you think I feel safe?’…She said to me, ‘Nobody cares about me. People only care about me in a negative way’,” Todd said.
It was made clear during their conversation that Homolka didn’t want to talk about the past. Eventually, Homolka’s husband ended the conversation by holding a phone with their lawyer on the line.
In the interest of Homolka’s children, Todd does not reveal in the book Homolka’s exact address, nor the names of her children.
Todd is now writing a longer book called “Inside Out” that will describe her experience tracking and meeting the schoolgirl killer.
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