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Murder of Kristen French

Murder victim (1976–1992)

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionAug 5, 2026
Entity authorityQ3490582 ↗
Source-derived summary

The murder of Kristen French was a high-profile Canadian kidnapping and murder case which occurred in St. Catharines, Ontario. French, a 15-year-old schoolgirl was abducted by serial killers Paul Bernardo and Karla Homolka on April 16, 1992. French was tortured and raped before being murdered on April 19, 1992. Her naked body was found in Burlington on April 30, 1992.

French was the third girl known to have died at the hands of Bernardo and Homolka, after Tammy Homolka and Leslie Mahaffy. Bernardo was convicted for two first-degree murders and two aggravated sexual assaults, and sentenced to life in prison with a possibility of parole after 25 years, while Homolka was sentenced to 12 years imprisonment.

The murder of Kristen French was widely covered by the national media, becoming one of Canada's most notorious cases.

Biography

Kristen Dawn French (May 10, 1976 – April 19, 1992) was a 15-year-old girl from St. Catharines, Ontario.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Murder of Kristen French” is murder victim (1976–1992). The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Murder, Kristen and French, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewA dependable orientation record for establishing vocabulary, names and a first evidence trail. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1992, 1976—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1976-05-10. For this dossier, Murder, Kristen and French is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “murder victim (1976–1992)” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 5, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q3490582. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1992 and 1976.

Critical limits

The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

Best used for
  • Subject orientation
  • Search vocabulary
  • Locating named sources
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The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Murder of Kristen French”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Murder of Kristen French primary sources, Murder of Kristen French archive and Murder research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Murder of Kristen French”?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Murder of Kristen French” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.