Kristen French
|
|
Kristen Dawn French (May 10, 1976 – April 16, 1992) was a Canadian schoolgirl who was murdered by Karla Homolka and Paul Bernardo.
French was on her way home from Holy Cross Secondary School, a Catholic school in St. Catharines, Ontario. She was approached in a church parking lot by Homolka and Bernardo under the pretense of needing directions. While she assisted Homolka with the directions, Bernardo forced her into the back of his car at knife point.
Her naked body was found in a ditch on April 30, 1992. She was completely bald, having had her head shaved. There was physical evidence of torture and rape, and a videotape which Bernardo made of her captivity and torture later proved to be key evidence in his trial.
Her kidnapping was seen by eyewitnesses and was part of a perceived series of disappearances of Ontario schoolgirls (another kidnapping, that of Leslie Mahaffy, was also due to Bernardo and Homolka), and received very wide coverage in Canadian newsmedia. Her murder and the subsequent criminal trials remain one of the most horrible and well-known criminal cases in Canadian history.
While French was missing, her fellow students, teachers and friends at Holy Cross Secondary School chose the Green Ribbon of Hope as the symbol for their search. French's school community also gave the name to the Green Ribbon of Hope Campaign (http://www.childfind.ca/greenribbonhistory.html), a national campaign continued to this day by Child Find Canada, governments, organizations and individuals to raise funds and awareness for missing children.
The ribbon also gave its name to the Green Ribbon Task Force, the eventually controversial police group tasked with finding French and Mahaffy's killer or killers.