Death of Tammy Homolka

Tammy Lyn Homolka (January 1, 1975 – December 24, 1990) was a 15-year-old Canadian student who grew up in Port Credit and was a grade 10 student at Sir Winston Churchill Secondary School in St. Catharines, Ontario. She was known for her involvement in athletics, including track and field, cross country running, and soccer, her favourite sport.

From early in her relationship with Karla Homolka, Paul Bernardo showed particular interest in Tammy, at one point having Karla pretend to be her sister during sex. In September 1990, Karla agreed to allow Bernardo to rape Tammy and obtained a bottle of Halothane from the veterinary clinic where she worked, intending to use it to sedate Tammy.

On December 24, 1990, Tammy was drugged with a combination of Halcion and alcohol and lost consciousness in the family room in the basement of the Homolka house while her parents and sister Lori slept upstairs. Bernardo and Karla filmed themselves raping her while pressing a halothane-soaked cloth to her nose and mouth to keep her sedated. During the assault, Tammy began to vomit, and the two were unable to revive her. After attempting to conceal evidence of the assault, they dressed her, moved her to her bedroom, and called an ambulance. Tammy did not regain consciousness and was pronounced dead a few hours later at St. Catharines General Hospital. Her official cause of death was listed as choking on her own vomit and was initially ruled an accident.

Approximately three weeks after Tammy's death, Karla and Bernardo recorded a video referred to as "The Fireside Chat" inside the Homolka residence, later shown as evidence at their trial. In the recording, Karla told Bernardo she had enjoyed his rape of Tammy and expressed a wish to leave a rose at Tammy's grave. In another portion filmed in Tammy's bedroom, Karla dressed in her sister's clothing and imitated her while she and Bernardo had sex on Tammy's bed.

The case was reopened after Karla disclosed to her aunt and uncle that Bernardo was responsible for a series of rapes and that she and Bernardo were involved in the murders of Leslie Mahaffy and Kristen French, prompting the Niagara Regional Police Service to reexamine Tammy's death. Plea negotiations for Karla began on February 26, 1993, initially concerning a 10-year sentence in exchange for her testimony; at that time, her role in Tammy's death was not yet known to negotiators. During a March 1993 psychiatric assessment, Karla confessed in a letter to her parents about her involvement in Tammy's death. Two years were added to her sentence for this, and she was formally sentenced to 12 years on July 6, 1993. Bernardo was later convicted of two first-degree murders and two aggravated sexual assaults and sentenced to life in prison without parole.

On July 20, 1993, Tammy's body was exhumed; a wedding invitation for Karla and Bernardo's wedding and some notes were found inside her casket, which other Homolka family members asked to have removed before reinterment. Tammy is interred at Victoria Lawn Cemetery in St. Catharines, Ontario. A 2001 Elm Street magazine article suggested forensic evidence indicated Tammy's death was not accidental and that Karla had deliberately administered an overdose of halothane.