Jess Twitchell said she left the family home that day and never returned. Mark Andrew Twitchell was born in Edmonton, Alberta, on July 4, 1979. An important piece of evidence was the hockey mask the killer wore when he attacked his two victims in October of 2008. Twitchell was handed a life sentence in April 2011 for the murder of John Altinger. Wars, weapons and TV serial killer Dexter Morgan. killer Mark Twitchell was stayed in the Court of Queens Bench of The police questioned Twitchell, and when his story didnt hold up, they arrested him on October 31, 2008. Twitchell graduated from the Radio and Television Arts program at the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology in 2000. him on a long vacation to Costa Rica. I'd ask him one question and I'd get 10 pages back as an answer.". In October 2008, Twitchell posed as a woman on an online dating site and lured an unsuspecting 38-year-old man named Johnny Altinger to a garage. Why couldn't he just storm off like he was supposed to?" Mark Twitchell was married twice. And I'm like, 'Wow, I I have to go forward now. Mark Twitchell picked up thirty-eight-year-old John Brian "Johnny" Altinger from the same website as his next victim, convincing him to come to his garage on Friday, October 10, 2008. Before he came Altinger informed his friends that he was going to meet a woman he had been chatting with online. and outside of the courtroom with observers arguing in favour and Twitchell made headlines again this month after writing numerous lettersto journalist Steve Lillibuen. Twitchell found guilty of 1st-degree murder | CBC News Loaded. dating service to lure Altinger, 38, to a rented garage on the implication he would use one to "carry out a crime" and "destroys" Twitchell also says "sufficient evidence was He ordered the charges to be severed and heard separately. I try to tell myself that their fixated nature would have done it one way or the other, but it seems that Dexter had something to do with it. suggests his defence lawyer did not properly "address key points Twitchell claimed he "accidentally" killed Johnny in self defense. pretext of a date or possible sexual encounter. Facebook gives people the power. In April 2011, Mark was found guilty of first-degree murder. John Brian "Johnny" Altinger was a 38 year old "Jury finds Edmonton filmmaker guilty of murder", "Family of dismembered victim of Mark Twitchell says trial evidence hard to bear", "Accused killer Mark Twitchell had big dreams of making blockbuster movies", "Jailed murderer Mark Twitchell eager to revive film career", "Read: Altinger's e-mails before and after his disappearance", "Victim's friend uneasy about mysterious blind date", "Mark Twitchell: A closer look at the evidence", "Filmmaker charged with first-degree murder", "Read: Document from Mark Twitchell's laptop", "What They Allow "Dexter Killer" To Do In His Prison Cell", "Mark Twitchell's Profile of a Psychopath", "Mark Twitchell, Canada's 'Dexter' Killer", "Alleged first victim recalls his escape", "INFAMOUS: The Dexter Killer - Crime Junkie", "Twitchell trial: Alleged victim recounts fight for his life", "Twitchell attempted murder charge stayed", "Twitchell could face attempted-murder charge", "Court stays attempted murder charge against Twitchell", "First draft done; 2nd Twitchell charge dropped", "Sensationalism stirs up storm of debate", "Reasons for Judgment, Application for a Ban on Publication and Sealing Order", "Convicted murderer Twitchell files appeal", "Michael C. Hall, 'Dexter' Star Horrified By Mark Twitchell Case, Convicted Killer Who Took Inspiration From Show", "Plot to kill: Aspiring horror filmmaker lures victims to 'kill room' with fake online dating ads", "I Survived - Gilles/Angela and Richard/Jeffrey", "Dates From Hell: Online Dating Gone Wrong As Would-Be Serial Killer Poses As Woman To Lure Victims", "Mark Twitchell Victim Releases THE ONE WHO GOT AWAY", "Mark Twitchell Victim Announces the Release of the True Crime Book the One Who Got Away", Email exchange between Altinger and Twitchell posing as a dating woman, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Mark_Twitchell&oldid=1129271684, Prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment by Canada, Canadian prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment, Articles with dead external links from September 2012, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, This page was last edited on 24 December 2022, at 12:08. dishes and no indication anything had been packed. who deserve a one-way ticket to the afterlife, if such a thing Dexters uniqueness stems from his forensically foolproof crime scenes. Seen here are Twitchell's handwritten directions on a Google map. An initial search of the garage uncovered what appeared to be blood spatter, which Twitchell told police came from the "House of Cards" execution scene he was filming. Murderpedia has thousands of hours of work behind it. For the actors he mostly used local artists. "Despite my incredibly well adjusted and healthy family life and upbringing, it never stopped. The evidence the jury didn't hear was at times In the excerpt shown here, Mark Twitchell states, "It is what it is and I am what I am. Actually carrying out a murder, he said, doesn't make sense. The first man, Gilles Tetreault, managed to publication ban until the jury was sequestered Tuesday afternoon "After this all happened, I realized how lucky I was," Tetreault told police at the time. crime book is also in the works by journalist and author Steve A jury returned the. of my progression into becoming a serial killer.". After that, Mark also admitted to breaking into Johnnys house, sending those emails, and stealing his laptop and printer. no chance of parole for 25 years at a Saskatchewan prison - sent a Furthermore, as of April 2022, a movie about his life has been announced. She wrote that she doesnt wish the death penalty on Twitchell, but that she wants him to reflect on what hed done and "die a slow death every day of his life.". In September 2008, inspired by the Dexter television series, he wrote and directed an eight-minute horror movie, House of Cards, in a rented garage. Email us atexclusive@the-sun.comor call212 416 4552. This is the story of my progression into becoming a serial killer.". ", But he admits to cheating regularly on his wife, who he describes as "an excellent mother to our child, and the greatest partner that anyone could ever ask for.". Pictured here is the beginning of "SK Confessions," which would become a key piece of evidence in the case against Mark Twitchell. Who is Mark Twitchell? On returning to Canada in the late 1990s, he undertook a course on television and radio at the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology (NAIT), graduating from there in 1999. portrayed the killing as deliberate and intentional, was "I kind of looked around for the door she told me to go through," Tetreault told CBS News. [2] His trial attracted particular media attention because Twitchell had allegedly been inspired by the fictional character Dexter Morgan.[3]. fantasize and it only ever stays a fantasy. Concern turned into alarm for Altinger's friends and family when, three days after he vanished, they received this unusual email from Altinger's account. planning, failed first attempt, and successful second attempt at when he learned of the prank and attacked him. "The Dexter Killer:" Inside the mind of a murderer, Despite comparisons to the fictional TV character Dexter Morgan, in a letter to Steve Lillebuen Twitchell writes, "As you're aware, Dexter has 'almost nothing' to do with my case. new content, we kindly appreciate any donation you can give to help material outweighed its value as evidence. As per recent reports, Mark has been serving his sentence at the Saskatchewan Federal Penitentiary in Prince Albert, Canada. He stated that he intended only to scare the men and let them go, but Johnny wasnt happy with the deception, leading to a fight. He talks extensively about preparing the room, what he's going to wear, the weapon that he chooses. But Mark Twitchell also had an urge to kill. Aspiring filmmaker Mark Twitchell has been found guilty of first-degree murder for bludgeoning, stabbing and dismembering stranger Johnny Altinger in an Edmonton garage in 2008. Mark Andrew Twitchell (born July 4, 1979) is a Canadian filmmaker convicted of first-degree murder in April 2011 for the murder of John Brian Altinger. luring death of Johnny Altinger, still faced an attempted murder murder Tuesday for killing a stranger, Johnny Altinger, at a Twitchell, convicted of first degree murder in the online Crown prosecutors had not immediately decided if they "So, I'm like, 'Oh no, what am I gonna do now. In later correspondence with Steve Lillebuen, who was writing a book about Mark, the killer said, There is no root cause no school bully or impressionably gory movies or video game violence or Showtime television series to point the finger at. The search of the car also led police to discover a deleted file on Mark Twitchell's laptop called "SK Confessions." She ended the relationship, however, after discovering Twitchell had repeatedly lied to her. "I can direct my dark energies into my film work. A Taser stun gun is used on the victim. Mark Twitchell's former wife fought back tears in the witness box in an Edmonton courtroom Monday during the aspiring filmmaker's first-degree murder trial. extensive media coverage of his case as grounds for an appeal. Observers argued for and against the media's reporting on the more sensational details of the crime.[26]. Investigators found a knife in Mark Twitchell's car with blood on both the sheath and knife. Now, "48 Hours" contributor Troy Roberts reports on those letters and gets a revealing look at what one retired FBI criminal profiler believes motivated Mark Twitchell in "The Dexter Killer. Every answer I gave her, although truthful this time, were deeply disappointing to her. Twitchell's weapons Edmonton Crown. Aspiring filmmaker Mark Twitchell has been found guilty of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison for bludgeoning, stabbing and dismembering a stranger. MURDERER Mark Twitchell was obsessed with the TV show Dexter about an avenging serial killer, even going so far as to have a "kill room" for dismembering bodies - just like the fictional character. However, he did not report the incident to the police, giving Twitchell another chance. "I don't feel that taking someone else's life is worth the loss of my freedom or the amount of time, energy or expense one needs to put in, in order to conduct such acts.". He had this kind of processing kit that was very similar to what Dexter uses. Twitchell was inspired by the character Dexter Morgan, of the plans and enthusiasm It goes on to describe in detail the author's extensive "I had found out through introspection and Under Canadian law, charges can only be heard together if they are linked in some way. international attention - the jury heard Twitchell, a married Days before Altinger's murder, on October 3, Twitchell invited another man named Gilles Tetreault to his garage. Gilles Tetreault quickly realized this wasn't a date, as he came face to face with a man in a hockey mask who shocked him with this stun baton. Language links are at the top of the page across from the title. of the events. Cowley believes those reasons lie in Twitchell's own writings, particularly in "SK Confessions" and the letters the killer sent to Steve Lillebuen, which she analyzed for "48 Hours. And it worked.". Family got concerned when Johnny didn't show up for work. Seeing the hockey mask at this police press conference is what prompted Gilles Tetreault to finally come forward. Twitchell, 31, was convicted of first-degree ", "The thing I find interesting about Mark Twitchell is that he may know that he hasn't fooled people regarding the fact that he killed Johnny," says retired FBI criminal profiler Julia Cowley. As his victim entered the garage, he attacked him with a stun baton, wearing a hockey mask. murder would not add to the life sentence Twitchell had already designed to take advantage of simple-minded common folk. "He just said straight out, 'If you're gonna be writing a book about me, you might as well come straight to the source,'" a stunned Lillebuen tells "48 Hours." The media fought the application, but the judge Tetreault described what happened when he got to the location, saying he quickly realized that there was a sinister motive behind the meet-up. Twitchell was an aspiring filmmaker in the fall of 2008. His first film, Star Wars: Secrets of the Rebellion, was largely filmed on green screen sets at his alma mater, NAIT, in the summer of 2006. In murdering a man by luring him to his garage using fake online [7] At work, a resignation letter arrived by email, but there was no response to a request for a forwarding address for sending a final paycheck. fictionalized, the Crown suggested the document described real "If we look at the case as a whole, what does he do? dismemberment, but did not take issue in court with what was Twitchell - who is serving a life sentence with disposition or the stomach to go all the way with their dark In January 2007, he married Jess Twitchell, whom he met on the dating website plentyoffish.com in 2005. Justice Terry Clackson thanked the jury and offered counselling services to those who felt they needed it. Handout photo provided by Edmonton Police Department, The police soon learned that Mark was a married father. His contemporaries remember him as a loner. Jess Twitchell, 35, had been. The story was about a killer who lures a philandering man off an online dating website and kills him. In the end, the authorities opted not to charge him with the attempted murder of Gilles. Tetreault said he punched his attacker, taking some blows to the head during the struggle, then came up with a plan. "They thought Mark had killed someone, murdered them," she testified in Court of Queen's Bench. The film, still in post-production, never saw release. He had been married to Jess Twitchell, but their relationship had been. "[27] The jury pool was then polled through a "challenge for cause" procedure to determine if a potential juror had been influenced by the media coverage prior to the publication bans taking effect. The masked man took out a gun and ordered Gilles Tetreault to the ground and placed duct tape on his eyes. Extensive media coverage of the case created debate both inside mask with a stun baton when he arrived at a garage rented by him from its glorious surface and would take my chance when I was from Altinger, explaining that he had met a woman who was taking After that she seemingly disappeared and did not reveal where she was going or what she was doing. and that Twitchell, if he was writing it as the truth, would not The names and events were altered slightly to protect the guilty. The Crown alleges Mark Twitchell killed Altinger on Oct. 10, 2008, one week after he tried to kill another man who was lured to the same garage but managed to escape. In 2008, Twitchell was a 29-year-old aspiring filmmaker living in Edmonton, Canada, with his wife and young daughter. Mark Twitchell's alleged diary was so lurid that the Crown, Lillebuen tells "48 Hours" that Twitchell is still "trying to argue that he is innocent. procedure to determine if a potential juror had been influenced by A self-aware one no less.". ", Twitchell said SK stood for his writing hero almost every clinically defined sense," he wrote. concludes. Twitchell, then 29 years old, a married man with a young daughter, had used the garage as a set for a recent movie project. After several years of not being in contact, Traci was seeing Twitchell frequently in the fall of 2008. [32], Twitchell's case was featured in the American magazine Crime Watch Daily on May 1, 2017. Mark Twitchell was married twice. They divorced in 2004. With each day that passed, Tetreault convinced himself the attack wasn't as serious as he first thought. Now, you might be wondering where the Dexter Killer is today. Police believed Mark Twitchell's garage resembled a scene right out of the Showtime series "Dexter." But in other ways the author does not fit the profile of a serial killer, he said. argued in his notice of appeal that "the media attention Johnny Altinger's blood was found in the trunk of Mark Twitchell's family car -- a discovery which led to the filmmaker's arrest on Halloween day in 2008. It was a premise as fictional as Johnny Altinger's murder was real, and one the jury didn't buy. They don't have the his body and disposing of his remains down a city sewer. Gilles Tetreault managed to escape the assault, but Johnny Altinger was murdered by the masked man. "48 Hours" contributor Troy Roberts reports. ", Lillibuen tells Roberts, "No one's saying the people who created Dexter are to blame for a real-life death. During their correspondence, Steve Lillebuen pressed Mark Twitchell to explain himself but he wasn't able to get a satisfactory answer from Twitchell. It's horrifying. "The Crown's theory leans on too many fallacies "He tore a piece of tape and he covered my eyes with it," Tetreault said. skewed character judgement, concluding I'm a lifetime liar," he [23] Detectives were adamant that they had gathered a mountain of evidence much of it revealed during the murder trial while even Twitchell himself admitted on the witness stand to committing the attack. A barrel with burn marks was linked to a passage in the confessions where the killer spoke of trying to burn human remains in a barrel. On April 12, 2011, Twitchell was convicted of first-degree murder for the death of Altinger, and sentenced to life in prison without possibility for parole for 25 years. "And that's when somebody came out, attacked me from behind. on state of mind and credibility.". While preparing to cover the trial for the Edmonton Journal, Canadian investigative journalist and MacEwan University professor Steve Lillebuen began corresponding with Mark Twitchell after receiving a surprise call from the soon-to-be-convicted killer himself. The plan, Twitchell argued in court, was to lure men who thought they were showing up for a date with a woman and then attack them, only to then let them escape so that when his film came out those men would come forward and say this had actually happened to them, thereby creating a buzz. A copy of the directions that Gilles Tetreault was sent by "Sheena." ", The author talked about killing. He complains, "I find the whole thing highly hypocritical. Twitchell's laptop despite being deleted. not yet been decided. One among them was Drew Kenworthy. . In 2007, once it went into the postproduction phase, he started planning his next movie, Day Players, convincing investors to finance the project. Crown prosecutors have one year to resurrect the charge, At Marks trial, he claimed that the whole thing was supposed to create an urban legend that would, in turn, cause some buzz for his movie. That's ridiculous." He first befriended a man called Gilles Tetreault and as Sheena, convinced him to pick him up for a date on October 3, 2008, from the garage he had rented. Jess Twitchell, 35, had been married to Mark Twitchellfor less than two years when John Altinger disappeared in October 2008. With files from CBC's Janice Johnston and Briar Stewart, Audience Relations, CBC P.O. [33], Tetreault made several media appearances related to his experience, including Dateline NBC,[34] 48 Hours Mystery,[35] The Fifth Estate,[36][37] I Survived on Biography Channel,[38] Dates from Hell on Investigation Discovery,[39][40] and The Security Brief on REELZ.[41]. be in a position to properly diagnose himself. They knew this was highly out of character, so they reported him missing to the police. laptop called SKconfessions, which the Crown called his diary and After growing more and more suspicious, several of Altinger's Twitchell even posed as Dexter Morgan on Facebook. of his disappearance. Serial killers have always fascinated us, and films and television shows have taken advantage of this. A jury returned the guilty verdict late Tuesday afternoon, about five hours after being sequestered for deliberations. ", Later he went on: "I do not have any The document begins with He did it as a prank, he said, to encourage In the standathon, he auctioned some illustrations, claiming that they were original conceptual drawings made by the production crew of Star Wars: Episode I The Phantom Menace. Twitchell had a daughter, Chloe, who was born in 2008, with his second wife Jess. Find that person, the police thought, and you've proved that "SK Confessions" is real and not the fictional screenplay Mark Twitchell claimed it was. / CBS NEWS. The twist in the film is that the writer is a real life killer, he told the jury. Alberta), is a Canadian who was convicted of first degree murder dating profiles. Part of the report included a return trip by Tetreault to the garage in which the incident had taken place. The journalist also detailed the striking similarities between Twitchell's crimes and the TV show he admired. Although he came from a well-adjusted family, we do not know anything about his parents or his childhood. "My head is just racing, like it's like thinking, 'What's goin' on? He put on the guise of filmmaking to plan out a perfect murder, inspired by his reel-life hero Dexter Morgan. [24] Since his conviction of first-degree murder secured a maximum sentence life in prison with no parole eligibility for 25 years there was no need to proceed with more charges, and the attempted murder charge against Twitchell was eventually dropped. She said in her victim-impact statement that she cant allow herself to think about the pain and horror her son must have endured. September 2008 he shot a short horror film at a garage he rented of smell this might be disgusting for me. It went on to describe the process of dismembering the body and attempts to dispose of the remains. His supposed date had refused to give him the actual address of the house where they were to meet, but instead sent him detailed directions to the location, letting him know that "the garage door will be open for you.". attended and reported on the trial, including American television male who worked at an oilfield equipment manufacturer at the time
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