This story beforehand aired on April 23, 2022. It was up to date on June 10, 2023.
These are the phrases of Mark Twitchell, written to investigative journalist and writer Steve Lillibuen:
Steve Lillibuen [reading letters]: “It might seem that I am distinctive on the earth. There isn’t a key. No root trigger … If I actually had been able to premeditated homicide … Regular, wholesome, well-adjusted 30-year-old males … I as soon as heard the legend of one other worthy sufferer … I dealt along with his stays in a disrespectful method that traumatized me endlessly … psychopathic serial killer … I rapidly grew to resent and hate this man.”
Mark Twitchell letter
Steve Lillibuen [reading letter]: “It is what it’s and I am what I’m.”
Lillibuen is revealing the contents of Twitchell’s letters. It is a uncommon look contained in the thoughts of a killer.
Steve Lillibuen (studying letter): “No one would aspect with Dexter Morgan if he went round slaughtering schoolteachers and mail carriers on a whim.”
Police say Twitchell was fascinated by the fictional character within the hit Showtime collection “Dexter.” Showtime is a division of Paramount International, which owns CBS.
Steve Lillibuen: Twitchell’s been dubbed “The Dexter Killer” due to the quite a few hyperlinks between the tv collection and the real-life crimes.
So how did this younger Canadian filmmaker find yourself accused of horrific acts? The story begins in October 2008.
Det. Invoice Clark | Edmonton Police: To listen to how all the pieces occurred … it was such as you’re watching the films … However now we now have it taking place in actual life.
Det. Invoice Clark: Gilles Tetreault was on-line on the plentyoffish.com web site … Which is a courting website.
Tetreault, who was 33 on the time, was excited to fulfill the girl who known as herself “Sheena.”
Gilles Tetreault [driving]: I used to be really late, so I used to be driving fairly quick to get there.
Gilles Tetreault: She stated … “I am going to simply go away the storage door open for you. And you then simply go in via the storage.”
Det. Invoice Clark: I do not suppose he ever imagined in 1,000,000 years what would occur to him in that storage.
Gilles Tetreault: It was darkish … then I form of appeared round for the door she informed me to undergo … and that is when any person got here out … attacked me from behind.
Gilles Tetreault: Lastly, I look again, and that is after I see this man — kinda hovering over me with a hockey masks … There’s simply this chill down my again, as I — wow, that is no date.
Gilles Tetreault: He is about 6 foot and this black and gold hockey masks painted — all painted up on his face.
The hockey masks carrying man had ordered him to the bottom at gunpoint.
Gilles Tetreault: And he tore a bit of tape and he coated my eyes with it. … I begin listening to various things… like a jingling noise and stuff like that … my head is simply racing, prefer it’s like considering, “What’s goin’ on? What’s he gonna do? Is he takin’ one other weapon out?”
Tetreault determined he wasn’t ready to seek out out.
Gilles Tetreault: I am unable to do that, I gotta struggle again … so I acquired up and I ripped the tape off my eyes. … And he was surprised that I acquired up and began yelling at me to again down on the bottom.
As an alternative, he grabbed the attacker’s gun.
Gilles Tetreault: Once I … grabbed the gun, I felt the gun was plastic. That is the best feeling I ever felt in my life, as a result of then I knew I had a combating likelihood to get away.
Gilles Tetreault: That is after I was able to struggle … I punched him and I felt actually weak. I am like “Wow, why was my punch so weak?
What Tetreault did not notice was that he had been weakened by the consequences of a stun baton.
Gilles Tetreault: After which he begins punching me on the aspect of the top.
Nearly then, he got here up with a plan.
Gilles Tetreault: He grabbed my jacket … I jerked ahead to verify he had a superb maintain on it, and I believed it is … the proper time.
Troy Roberts: That was a part of your plan, you are considering he grabs my jacket, and I can get free …
Gilles Tetreault: Proper. And that is after I slipped out of the jacket, rolled beneath the storage door after which acquired up…. And it labored.
Gilles Tetreault: And I attempted to run and rapidly my legs would not work … I simply fell, growth proper on the gravel driveway. … That is when he grabbed my legs and began pulling me again to the storage…. So, I am like, “Oh no, what am I gonna do now. I am lifeless.”
Tetreault was thrown again within the storage, however he shocked himself by rolling out once more. This time, he managed to get into his truck.
Gilles Tetreault: I caught the important thing within the ignition … after which I simply sped away.
When Tetreault acquired dwelling, he found the profile on the courting website had been deleted. And he did his greatest to erase his personal reminiscence.
Troy Roberts: Why did not you go to the police instantly?
Gilles Tetreault: At first, I used to be in shock. I said- I informed myself I am going to do it tomorrow. And tomorrow got here and I used to be…I felt so ashamed that I acquired duped.
Embarrassed and confused, Tetreault satisfied himself that maybe it wasn’t as severe as he first thought.
Gilles Tetreault: I actually thought it was a mugging on the time.
However only one week later, one other man, Johnny Altinger, would reply an identical courting advert and disappear.
Gary Altinger: The place is he? What is going on on? He would not do that to us.
Gary Altinger, Johnny’s older brother, says the final time anybody heard from him was on October 10, 2008, when the 38-year-old left for a date with a girl named “Jen.”
Gary Altinger: Not a message, nothing. … After which, not displaying up for work? Completely out — out of character. … John was very, very, very accountable.
Troy Roberts: And when did you develop involved.
Gary Altinger: Once I acquired that e-mail … And this e-mail was fully out of character.
Troy Roberts: What did it say?
Edmonton Journal
Gary Altinger: I’ve met a girl named Jen. And I am going away together with her to — Costa Rica and I am going to name you at Christmastime.”
Gary Altinger: I simply thought instantly after I had learn this, that is gotta be the weirdest message I’ve ever acquired.
That equivalent unusual message had gone out to all of Johnny’s pals as nicely. Determined for some solutions, Johnny’s pals broke into his condo.
Gary Altinger: They discovered his passport. They usually discovered soiled dishes. They usually discovered all the pieces identical to as if he had been going to return an hour or two later … And with that data, then they went to the police, and so they stated, “Hey, hear. You have to do one thing.”
Det. Invoice Clark: His pink Mazda was lacking. … He had taken his car; it could not be discovered. So clearly that is what we’re gonna search for first. Simpler to discover a automobile than — than an individual.
Det. Invoice Clark: Based mostly on the emails, they speak about Costa Rica, the officers search all of the parking tons on the airport … It is not discovered. … The whole lot’s turning up destructive.
However there was one clue that will give police their first massive break within the case. On the day he disappeared, Johnny Altinger had forwarded the instructions of the place he was going to pals.
Det. Invoice Clark: Properly, John’s pals had been involved. … And his buddy even questioned him on the e-mail. You understand, watch out … And John stated, “Yeah, nicely, here is the instructions. And if something occurs to me, you will know the place to look.”
Armed with the instructions, police had been led on to that storage.
Det. Invoice Clark: They discovered, in fact, the storage is rented out to a person named Mark Twitchell.
Twitchell, then 29 years previous, a married man with a younger daughter, had used the storage as a set for a current film challenge.
MARK TWITCHELL [graduation video]: “I am glad I started working with you all and I hope I see you all within the trade.”
Twitchell denied figuring out something a couple of lacking man or a pink Mazda and he had no drawback with the police wanting to look the storage.
Det. Invoice Clark: They take a look round and so they see some…what appears to be like like blood. And Mark Twitchell’s explaining, “Oh, no, that is my film prop. We did a movie about … killin’ a man in right here and I filmed all of it. And I have been cleansing it up during the last couple weeks …”
Det. Invoice Clark: And there are some issues that had been, you understand, raisin’ your Spidey senses on this one. Goin’, “Yeah, this is not proper. … One thing goin’ on right here.”
QUESTIONS FOR THE FILMMAKER
For detectives within the Edmonton Police Division, the disappearance of Johnny Altinger was a thriller in additional methods than one.
Det. Invoice Clark: It is a lacking individuals case. … We do not know if foul play’s occurred right here. We — we do not have a physique. We do not even know if we now have against the law.
Their solely lead was Mark Twitchell’s movie set storage. Voluntarily, the newbie filmmaker got here all the way down to the Edmonton Police Station to talk with detectives.
DETECTIVE [interrogation]: Altinger … Does that title ring a bell to you or imply something to you?
MARK TWITCHELL: No.
DETECTIVE: By no means heard it earlier than?
MARK TWITCHELL: No.
Twitchell seemed to be keen to assist. He had no historical past of violence and was hardly a suspect. In reality, he appeared responsible of nothing greater than eager to brag about his movie profession.
MARK TWITCHELL [interrogation]: I am engaged on a comedy proper now. Which is a — it is really a full-blown function that is really gonna have an honest price range within the neighborhood of about three-and-a-half million …
Twitchell’s first movie challenge, a “Star Wars” fan movie, had acquired some media buzz again in 2007.
MARK TWITCHELL film interview]: “The phrase has gotten round that I am making a 100 million greenback film for 60 grand, and a few manufacturing and directing jobs have already come my manner.”
Edmonton Police Service
However the police had been extra enthusiastic about Twitchell’s newest manufacturing: a suspense thriller known as “Home of Playing cards,” the place a hockey masked serial killer lures a person to storage through the web and kills him.
DETECTIVE [interrogation]: I imply it is kinda odd that you just’re filming that form of factor.
MARK TWITCHELL: Mm hmm.
DETECTIVE: And we find yourself going to that storage due to a lacking one that supposedly went there.
MARK TWITCHELL: Yeah. It is actually freaky too … And as quickly as they known as me on the telephone … I acquired this bizarre chill.
Det. Invoice Clark: He appeared fairly snug within the interview. … And when it was accomplished and I watched, I went, “Wow, that man interviewed nicely.”
Hours later, Twitchell even agreed to let officers again into the storage the place he had filmed “Home of Playing cards.” Little did they know the case was about to take an uncommon flip.
Det. Invoice Clark: Detective Murphy goes, you understand, and meets him and talks to him. And there is this big revelation about “Oh yeah, I purchased a pink automobile off a man.” It is like — I keep in mind getting the telephone name on the police station simply considering “holy crap.”
That is as a result of police had been nonetheless on the lookout for Johnny Altinger’s pink Mazda. So, investigators known as Twitchell once more. And once more, he voluntarily agreed to reply extra questions. This time Invoice Clark carried out the interview.
DET. BILL CLARK [interrogation]: So, as you understand Mark, we’re simply right here looking for this John fellow. John Altinger.
MARK TWITCHELL: Mm hmm.
Clark listened whereas Twitchell informed him how he got here into possession of a pink automobile — a element he failed to say when he spoke with police earlier.
MARK TWITCHELL [interrogation]: This man, uh, faucets on my window … you understand, “Hey buddy do you wanna purchase a automobile? … I — I’ve shacked up with this actually wealthy woman … She’s even gonna purchase me a brand new automobile … so I am simply trying to unload mine… how a lot do you may have on you?”
Twitchell claimed he purchased the pink Mazda for simply $40, and that it was parked at a buddy’s home.
Troy Roberts: What are you considering once you hear that? That he bought a automobile for $40?
Det. Invoice Clark: I simply thought, “That is unbelievable.” Instantly I am saying to myself this can be a bunch of crap.
The unusual story in regards to the pink automobile, the serial killer film being filmed — for Clark it might solely imply one factor.
Edmonton Police Service
DET. BILL CLARK [interrogation]: There’s completely little doubt in my thoughts that you just’re concerned within the disappearance of John Altinger. Little question in my thoughts in any respect Mark.
MARK TWITCHELL: Why?
However it was solely a hunch. Clark had no onerous proof in opposition to Mark Twitchell. Police started digging deeper into his background. They had been enthusiastic about talking with anybody who had labored on “Home of Playing cards,” the place actor Chris Heward’s character meets an premature, bloody finish within the movie.
Chris Heward: My character was killed with a samurai sword. … They stated they might have a model or a dummy to run the sword via, and after I acquired there, there was none. … Once I appeared on the weapons … that was my first signal. … Once I noticed that they had been actual, I believed, “That is off. … Why did not I inform any person the place I’m?”
Heward left the storage movie set unhurt however rattled. His unease solely escalated when police requested him about that allegedly pretend film blood they noticed within the storage.
Chris Heward: “How a lot of the blood splatter on the wall was out of your filming?” I stated, “Not one of the blood splatter was from us.”
After which, in a search of Twitchell’s belongings, police discovered his laptop computer.
Det. Invoice Clark: They pulled off the onerous drive a deleted file … titled “SK Confessions.”
“SK Confessions.” Police believed “SK” was shorthand for “serial killer.”
Det. Invoice Clark: One of many first strains … it says — “I am undecided after I determined to turn out to be a serial killer, however it was a sense of pure euphoria.”
“SK Confessions” informed the story of a person who was lured to a storage and stabbed to loss of life — a plot strikingly much like “Home of Playing cards.”
“SK CONFESSIONS” PASSAGE: “I plunged the knife deep into his neck …”
Det. Invoice Clark: It was unbelievable. … I simply keep in mind studying all of it and simply was fascinated by this doc going, “Holy mackerel.”
However was the doc a screenplay? Or was it in reality Mark Twitchell’s confession of homicide?
THE “DEXTER” CONNECTION
Two weeks after the disappearance of Johnny Altinger at a storage movie set, police had sharpened their concentrate on filmmaker Mark Twitchell.
Det. Invoice Clark: It simply would not make sense. … the place there’s smoke there’s hearth.
Police cameras had been rolling as a forensics workforce processed Twitchell’s household automobile and the storage he rented.
And some miles away, detectives had been on the Twitchell dwelling the place they discovered Jess Twitchell — Mark’s unsuspecting spouse of two years.
Det. Invoice Clark [in car in front of Twitchell’s house]: What I stated was, “We’re investigating a lacking individuals. I imagine your husband’s acquired somethin’ to do with it … and this fairly presumably — you understand, may very well be a murder.” I did not actually go into something extra, however I believe that was sufficient. I imply, she was emotional.
Police quickly found that the Twitchell marriage was already fractured.
Det. Invoice Clark: They’d been livin’ and mainly sleeping in separate bedrooms. She was mainly livin’ on the principle flooring, he was livin’ within the basement. So, there was clearly troubles in paradise there, we knew that …
QMI Company
Mark Twitchell had been having an affair with an previous girlfriend and mendacity to his spouse about having a job.
Det. Invoice Clark: We came upon he was telling his spouse he was going to work on daily basis. He had no job. … He was getting his pals to spend money on his alleged movie-making enterprise along with his Hollywood connections … And mainly, Mark Twitchell was residing off their cash.
Apparently, the doc police had present in Twitchell’s laptop computer titled “SK Confessions” additionally referenced a crumbling marriage and secrets and techniques. It learn “I went via nice lengths to deliver my spouse over to the snug perception I wasn’t dishonest on her.”
Det. Invoice Clark: It was mainly virtually like a film script.
However what was actual and what was fiction? The nearer police appeared, the extra the strains blurred. Police found Twitchell spent numerous hours making elaborate Halloween costumes.
Det. Invoice Clark: It is virtually like, at instances, Mark Twitchell lives in a fantasy world.
However it was Twitchell’s Fb web page — evaluating himself to TV’s fictional serial killer Dexter Morgan — that actually raised eyebrows.
“Mark has manner an excessive amount of in frequent with Dexter Morgan” learn Twitchell’s standing.
Det. Invoice Clark: He talked so much about how he liked the present “Dexter.”
Twitchell even posed as Dexter Morgan on Fb.
Renee [reading Facebook message]: “All of us have a darkish aspect, some darker than others and you are not the one one to narrate to Dexter. It generally scares me how a lot I relate. I imply take a look at this profile.”
That profile had caught the eye of a girl named Renee from Cleveland, Ohio.
Renee: I am an enormous fan of the Showtime present “Dexter.” … So, I believed, “Oh, nicely, you understand, I will be pals with him.”
Ultimately, Twitchell revealed his true id.
Renee: He was a filmmaker … and he was engaged on — a brand new factor known as “Home of Playing cards.”
Renee was intrigued. In spite of everything, she was an aspiring author and a friendship with a film maker might open doorways.
Renee: I believed it was gonna be like a working relationship, a working friendship. You understand, we had so much in frequent.
Troy Roberts: So, I imply, you spoke to him a few instances a day on-line?
Renee: Couple of instances a day.
Troy Roberts: Was it flirtatious?
Renee: Oh, yeah. Completely.
Their e-mail exchanges quickly grew to become darkish. It was shortly earlier than Johnny Altinger disappeared.
Renee: We talked about— you understand, serial killers … and, you understand, the psychology behind a serial killer.
On the time, Renee was upset together with her ex-husband’s new spouse.
Renee: And I needed her lifeless, on the time. … However I stated I could not do it. … And hypothetically, how would you get away with it?
Troy Roberts: How do you get away with it?
Renee: He stated, “You narrow her up in little items. You place her in trash baggage, like Dexter.” And since I used to be near the lake, “You hire a ship and — dump her out in the course of Lake Erie.”
However then, she started to surprise.
Renee: He stated over the weekend he did one thing, and he favored it. … “I crossed the road and I did one thing and I favored it”
Troy Roberts: And what did you’re taking that to imply?
Renee: That he killed any person. What different line is there to cross? … One thing inside my head simply gave me pink flags and stated, “He did it.”
And her suspicions stored rising with one other e-mail he despatched.
Renee [reading email]: “There’s an infinite lacking particular person, potential murder investigation occurring centralized round a location I’ve rented for movie work. … So in fact the police have tossed my home and impounded my automobile … Not enjoyable contemplating they will not discover something …”
However Twitchell had underestimated the police.
Det. Invoice Clark: He thought he was manner smarter than the police. One of many greatest errors I believe that he made was he had no thought how we do our job and that was an enormous benefit to us.
Including to their circumstantial case: Twitchell possessing Altinger’s automobile, the “SK Confessions” doc and his “Dexter” obsession. Investigators lastly had onerous proof — that they had discovered Altinger’s blood in Twitchell’s trunk.
Det. Invoice Clark: After we acquired the phrase that the DNA matched, we briefed our tactical workforce—our arrest workforce, and we had officers able to make the arrest.
On Halloween morning 2008, whereas Twitchell was placing the ending touches on his Halloween costume at his dad and mom’ dwelling, police had been busy laying a entice.
Det. Invoice Clark: We acquired an undercover operator to work the web and fake he was gonna — an investor. … He was lured out on the promise to fulfill this man at this espresso store … And when he acquired about three blocks from his home, the tactical workforce swooped in on him and took him down. Powerful man Mark Twitchell peed his pants he was so scared. And it was a bit style of his personal medication, I assume.
Again on the station, Detective Clark and Mark Twitchell got here head to head within the interrogation room as soon as once more.
DET. BILL CLARK [Mark Twitchell interrogation]: As I informed you that night time, I knew that you just had been concerned within the disappearance at the moment of Johnny Altinger. That is modified barely … I now know that you just killed John Altinger.
Three weeks after Altinger’s disappearance, police charged Twitchell with first-degree homicide. The as soon as talkative film director barely uttered a line.
CBS Information
Troy Roberts [watching interrogation video]: You did not get a lot of a response, did you?
Det. Invoice Clark: No, he is uh — nicely he is aware of to not say something … he is speaking to his attorneys. He isn’t gonna admit to something.
He did not should. “SK Confessions,” which police had been dissecting phrase by phrase, spoke volumes. They had been now satisfied it was no screenplay, however moderately a diary of homicide.
One passage a couple of knife learn: “I thrust it into his intestine. His response was pure Hollywood.”
Det. Invoice Clark: We do imagine, as investigators, that the account written by Mark Twitchell in that “SK Confessions” is strictly what he did to John Altinger.
By now, Renee had known as police. As authorities started constructing their case, there was one essential a part of “SK Confessions” they needed to confirm … a couple of sufferer who had survived.
Det. Invoice Clark: It was simply an enormous piece of proof ‘trigger not solely would it not confirm what was written in “SK Confessions”… it could even have — a residing witness … so it was paramount that we discover this particular person.
THE MAN WHO GOT AWAY
Detective Invoice Clark knew his subsequent transfer was discovering the alleged sufferer who had escaped from Mark Twitchell’s storage.
Det. Invoice Clark: You understand, one of many first issues we did was verify the police information … figuring hopefully somebody known as the police on this. And we now have nothing.
However police had discovered a useful clue in the course of the search of Twitchell’s dwelling.
Det. Invoice Clark: One of many issues that they had discovered was a hockey masks…the “SK Confessions” talked about how … Mark Twitchell had worn this masks when he attacked each victims. However we figured it was one thing the primary sufferer would key on.
Police quickly took to the airwaves.
DET. MARK ANSTEY [to reporters, holding up hockey mask]: Now we have some particulars on this male sufferer who was attacked, and we wish him to return ahead.
Gilles Tetreault was at dwelling oblivious to the horror he had escaped when a buddy informed him to look at the information.
DET. MARK ANSTEY [to reporters]: Up to now we have no idea who this sufferer is…. I imagine the sufferer entered the storage and was attacked by one other male who was carrying a hockey masks …
Gilles Tetreault: And it is the identical hockey masks that I noticed. … Wow, yeah, that is — that is the man. That is what occurred to me. It is the identical masks, all the pieces.
What Tetreault heard subsequent got here as a fair larger shock. One other man had been lured to the identical storage and met a grotesque finish.
DET. MARK ANSTEY [to reporters]: Now we have not discovered John Altinger’s physique.
Troy Roberts: And what had been you considering when — once you heard this?
Gilles Tetreault: I could not imagine it. … When you — discover out the entire story … I knew at that time it was not only a mugging. It was really — he was in all probability going to kill me. … And I am like, “Wow, I— I’ve to go ahead now. I’ve to return ahead.”
Precisely one month after he was attacked, Gilles Tetreault walked into the Edmonton Police Division and informed police his unimaginable story.
GILLES TETREAULT [police interview]: I used to be off stability, I could not run … I fell down on the gravel driveway and, uh, mainly crawling. … So, he dragged me again to the storage.
Tetreault’s story matched practically phrase for phrase what was in “SK Confessions.”
“SK CONFESSIONS” PASSAGE: “I grabbed him by the leg as if to tug him again into the storage caveman fashion.”
Det. Invoice Clark: So, I do know that this diary we now have is true.
GILLES TETREAULT [police interview]: After this all occurred, I noticed how fortunate I used to be.
Seven days after Tetreault was attacked, police say Twitchell wasn’t going to make the identical mistake twice.
Troy Roberts: How did he kill John?
Det. Invoice Clark: We all know that he lured him to the storage in the identical manner he lured Gilles Tetreault. … After which on this case … as a result of he discovered from Gilles that the Taser did not work, he hit him over the top with a lead pipe.
“SK CONFESSIONS” PASSAGE: “Please cease hitting me … oh my cranium.”
Following the narrative, police imagine Altinger was then stabbed and dismembered on a makeshift post-mortem desk.
Troy Roberts [outside Twitchell’s garage]: What was probably the most damning piece of proof that you just found?
Det. Invoice Clark: We had a, you understand, luminol checks accomplished on the ground. … Giant quantities of blood had been spilled on the ground of the storage. … In all probability one of many … greatest items, a bit of tooth that was discovered inside there. That piece of tooth matched as much as our sufferer.
In response to “SK Confessions,” the killer then broke into Altinger’s condo and despatched out these emails about taking an unique trip.
The killer then tried to burn the stays in a barrel however failed. He subsequent tried to dump them into the river however was afraid of being seen.
Det. Invoice Clark: Finally Mark Twitchell drove round with it, based on the “SK Confessions” doc. … He even talked about driving round with him and pulling up beside individuals at pink lights and taking a look at them considering that “they do not know I’ve a lifeless physique within the trunk of my automobile.”
However the place was Johnny Altinger’s physique? “SK Confessions” described the killer lastly selecting a sewer to dump the stays, however that is the place the pages stopped. It was a narrative with out an ending.
Det. Invoice Clark: In any murder investigation you clearly need to deliver closure to the household… So not solely do you need to make that telephone name saying, “We acquired the man that did this to the one you love,” however on this case, we needed to say to ’em, look, “we discovered Johnny.”
Detective Clark hoped Twitchell would offer the ultimate chapter.
DET. BILL CLARK [interviewing Twitchell]: I am gonna go get the automobile prepared. We’re gonna take a drive.
Troy Roberts: You guys had been driving round and there was a digital camera educated on him behind the police automobile. Inform me about that.
Det. Invoice Clark: If you — you learn all of the specialists’ books about these kind of people is they have a tendency to love the media consideration. … So, we thought, “Properly, possibly if we drive him round and we’ll put a digital camera on him, possibly he’ll simply — we’ll simply take him to locations,” ‘trigger we had no thought the place — the place Johnny stays had been at the moment.
DET. BILL CLARK [to Twitchell in police car]: So, so as to end the film, we now have to seek out the physique, take it again to the individuals, the household — accomplished. Film’s over. And you’ll write all of it down.
Detective Clark was relentless, taking Twitchell on a tour of his previous neighborhood.
Det. Invoice Clark: And we first drove to his dad and mom’ home the place he had been staying. … We really … demanded that he inform us. He would not.
DET. BILL CLARK [to Twitchell in police car]: Look acquainted Mark? Are we parked proper on high of the sewer the place you dumped the physique?
Subsequent cease, the scene of the crime.
DET. BILL CLARK [to Twitchell in police car]: So right here we’re again on the killing storage. The “Dexter” storage.
OFFICER [to Twitchell outside garage]: Convey again any reminiscences? You wanna inform us the place the physique is now? Get this over with?
However Twitchell remained silent. So, police stored looking out on their very own, wanting in sewer after sewer.
Det. Invoice Clark [driving]: So, all these manhole covers had been pulled off on this alley. … So anytime I might seen one I might all the time have my flashlight with me and would get out and truly have a look.
Weeks, then months, handed and nonetheless no luck. Then a year-and-a-half after Johnny Altinger disappeared, Twitchell, whereas awaiting trial, broke his silence and gave the police a map.
Investigators adopted it to an alleyway only a half block away from the place that they had stopped the search.
Edmonton Police Service
Det. Invoice Clark [with Roberts at sewer]: And he had marked an “X,” “X” marks the spot, and took us proper to this sewer cowl right here. … We might see what appeared like items of human torso down there.
In March of 2011, Mark Twitchell went on trial for the homicide of Johnny Altinger. Prosecutors known as Gilles Tetreault to testify, and to show that what Twitchell described in “SK Confessions” was not a piece of fiction however an account of what had really occurred.
Gilles Tetreault: I wasn’t actually afraid of him at the moment. … I knew he could not damage me anymore.
The one witness the protection known as was Mark Twitchell and he had one unbelievable story to inform. Steve Lillibuen, a university professor and an investigative journalist, was overlaying the trial for the Edmonton Journal and went on to put in writing a guide, “The Satan’s Cinema,” in regards to the case.
Steve Lillibuen: Mark Twitchell testified … that this was all an enormous misunderstanding … he had killed Johnny in self-defense …
Twitchell claimed that Altinger’s loss of life was nothing greater than a publicity stunt gone horribly awry. He stated he meant to let each males go so they might create a buzz for his movie by telling folks that this had really occurred to them. However he claimed Altinger grew to become enraged at being tricked, and he unintentionally killed him in self-defense.
Steve Lillibuen: He blames Johnny, saying it was Johnny’s response to his try at this promotion is what occurred.
In the long run, the jury took simply 5 hours to seek out Mark Twitchell responsible. He was sentenced to 25 years to life. However for Lillibuen, there have been nonetheless so many questions.
Steve Lillibuen: So, the motive is the thriller, the why did he do that. … What’s Mark Twitchell’s psyche? What led to this taking place?
Questions Lillibuen hoped could be answered when he acquired a name out of the blue from Mark Twitchell himself.
Steve Lillibuen: He simply stated straight out, “In the event you’re gonna be writing a guide about me, you may as nicely come straight to the supply.”
A KILLER’S OWN WORDS
Steve Lillibuen: The primary time I met him, he really had me laughing. … He is very charismatic.
Mark Twitchell was nothing like writer Steve Lillibuen anticipated.
Steve Lillibuen: He has very a lot that salesman slick habits, he is aware of tips on how to put it on to get individuals to love him.
Twitchell started writing to Lillibuen earlier than he was even convicted in 2011. Over the course of virtually three years, they exchanged dozens of letters.
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Steve Lillibuen: I discovered actually rapidly that he most well-liked to speak via writing.
Troy Roberts: These weren’t ramblings of a loopy man. There was really some substance in these letters?
Steve Lillibuen: Sure completely. So, he isn’t loopy. He’s lucid.
At first, Lillibuen did not need to push Twitchell away with too many probing questions on his crimes.
Steve Lillibuen: I requested him a lotta softball questions nearly who he was, his household, his upbringing — all that kinda background element.
Steve Lillibuen: He was newly married and a brand new father. So he was, you understand, only a typical native man who had desires of constructing it massive in Hollywood and actually no pink flags. No warning indicators that one thing like this was on the horizon.
In letters, Twitchell clung to his protection that he had no selection however to kill Johnny Altinger after which dismember him.
Steve Lillibuen [reading letter]: He writes, “I killed Johnny Altinger in a horrific accident of self-defense. After cursorily shoving apart my human sensibilities, I dealt along with his stays in a disrespectful method that traumatized me endlessly.”
Steve Lillibuen: … nonetheless is adamant … that this was not a deliberate and deliberate homicide … and to be frank, he’s unsuitable.
Edmonton Crown Prosecution Workplace
Lillibuen factors to “SK Confessions,” the place Twitchell describes how he turned that storage right into a kill room, arrange a makeshift post-mortem desk, had plastic sheeting, and a processing equipment much like the one Dexter Morgan used.
Steve Lillibuen: Mark Twitchell wrote to me fairly extensively about his curiosity in “Dexter.”
“Dexter” on his thoughts, Twitchell drew a portrait of Michael C. Corridor – the actor who performs him. And to Lillibuen’s shock, even behind bars Twitchell was capable of feed his obsessions.
Steve Lillibuen: Mark Twitchell had really been granted entry to complete watching the collection whereas he was incarcerated.
In 2012, Michael C. Corridor was requested about Mark Twitchell on a Canadian radio program.
MICHAEL C. HALL (audio): it’s horrifying to entertain the notion that one thing you probably did impressed that.
Twitchell’s response to Corridor’s feedback was to downplay his fascination with the “Dexter” character.
Mark Twitchell letter
Steve Lillibuen [reading letter]: He wrote to me “As you might be conscious, Dexter has virtually nothing to do with my case.”
All through their correspondence, Lillibuen continued to grapple with what drove Twitchell after which Twitchell informed him:
Steve Lillibuen [reading letter]: “There isn’t a key. No root trigger …there isn’t any college bully or impressionably gory motion pictures … or Showtime tv collection to level the finger at. It’s what it’s and I’m what I’m.”
Julia Cowley: He is a wicked particular person, and he is aware of that.
Retired FBI felony profiler Julia Cowley did not work on this case, however she spoke with Detective Clark and reviewed Mark Twitchell’s writings and letters for “48 Hours.” She thinks she is aware of what made Twitchell tick.
Julia Cowley: I believe he recognized with Dexter to a point. … I believe he’s totally different than Dexter.
Julia Cowley: He isn’t killing dangerous guys. He’s killing very harmless, good individuals residing productive lives.
Julia Cowley: And whereas he is technically not a serial killer … he was headed in that route in the event that they hadn’t have caught him.
Cowley believes Twitchell took pleasure in planning and executing his crimes as in the event that they had been romantic trysts.
Julia Cowley: I believe the first motivation was sexual.
Troy Roberts: Sexual?
Julia Cowley: Sure. … He’s focusing on males that maybe he could be enthusiastic about having a date with. … It is a mixture of a sexual motive and thrill killing.
Julia Cowley: He’s pretending to be a girl … He … writes extensively about … what he will put on, the weapon that he chooses. He form of describes it in seductive language. “I needed the weapon used for the deed itself to be easy, elegant and delightful.”
And in a wierd twist, Twitchell’s been capable of feed that obsession too. In 2017, he was allowed to hitch a web-based courting web site for inmates.
Steve Lillibuen: Which, you understand, I discover fairly stunning contemplating that the best way he ended up in jail … I imagine it has been taken down since then.
The person who was tricked into that very dangerous date in Twitchell’s storage, Gilles Tetreault, continues to be haunted by the expertise. Tetreault, who has written a guide about his ordeal, spoke to “48 Hours” lately.
Gilles Tetreault: I nonetheless take into consideration the painted-up hockey masks. I nonetheless take into consideration the stun gun. You understand, the struggle for my life —
In 2023, Twitchell can be eligible to use for early parole. Specialists say it is a lengthy shot, however it worries Tetreault.
Gilles Tetreault: I am scared that he may need to end what he began and are available after me.
Julia Cowley: Mark Twitchell can’t be rehabilitated. That is who he’s.
And for Mark Twitchell, the aspiring filmmaker, there could also be one last plot twist. Writer Steve Lillibuen bought the rights to his guide “The Satan’s Cinema” to a movie firm. Twitchell’s story could also be coming to the large display.
Produced by Asena Basak. Michael McHugh is the producer-editor. Lourdes Aguiar and Anthony Venditti are additionally producers. Joan Adelman and Michelle Harris are the editors. Patti Aronofsky is the senior producer. Nancy Kramer is the manager story editor. Susan Zirinsky and Judy Tygard are the manager producers