Tammy Homolka

Tammy Homolka

Tammy Lyn Homolka (January 1, 1975 – December 24, 1990) was the younger sister and victim of Canadian murderer Karla Homolka and her partner, Paul Bernardo.

Tammy grew up in the city of St. Catharines, Ontario. She was known for her athletic abilities and she avidly participated in a variety of sports, including track and field, cross country running, and soccer, with soccer being her favourite. She was a Grade 10 student at Sir Winston Churchill Secondary School in St. Catharines at the time of her death.

On 24 December 1990, less than two weeks before Tammy's 16th birthday, Karla Homolka and her fiancé, Paul Bernardo, plied Tammy with alcoholic drinks laced with Halcion, a sedative. When she fell unconscious, the two raped her. Tammy Homolka became sick while sedated and died. After failed attempts to revive her, Karla covered up evidence of the assault and called an ambulance. Her official cause of death was listed as choking to death on her own vomit, and was believed at the time to have been an accident.

After Paul Bernardo and Karla Homolka were arrested for the murders of Leslie Mahaffy and Kristen French, Tammy Homolka's body was exhumed on July 20, 1993.