KARLA HOMOLKA: GIRL NEXT DOOR.

This article focuses on Karla Homolka, who is soon to be released from jail for her involvement in several murders. Outrage, fear, overreaction and -- let's admit it -- prurient fascination all rise to the surface each time the words "Karla Homolka" surface in the national conversation, each time her face smiles mockingly from our morning paper. The price of convicting Paul Bernardo for the murders of Kristen French and Leslie Mahaffy was Homolka's plea bargain, and we now know that price was sickeningly high. Videos that emerged after Homolka secured her deal in 1993 showed her not just participating but revelling in the torture of the two Ontario teenagers, plus the rape of a third woman. Those images, along with news that Homolka participated in the fatal drugging and rape of her own 15-year-old sister, Tammy, long ago laid ruin to the theory she'd been Bernardo's compliant victim, forced on pain of death to help him live out his monstrous fantasies. On July 5, 2005, Homolka will walk free from Joliette Institution north of Montreal, a relatively young woman at 35, having paid the debt society asked and completed almost nothing in the way of rehabilitation. The rumour mill is already churning. In varying degrees, the rumours are also based on misconceptions -- about Homolka, about the law, about the ease of disappearing when 32 million people are watching. INSET: A KILLER VANISHES: Evelyn Dick served 11 years -- then disappea...