Mark Twitchell

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.

His trial attracted particular media attention because Twitchell had allegedly been inspired by the fictional character Dexter Morgan.

Born in Edmonton, Alberta, Twitchell dreamed of making blockbuster films and graduated from the Radio and Television Arts program at the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology in 2000.

In 2001, Twitchell married an American woman and moved to Illinois, but they divorced in 2004.

In 2007, Twitchell directed Star Wars: Secrets of the Rebellion, a full-length fan film prequel set a few days prior to Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope.

Secrets of the Rebellion included a cameo by Jeremy Bulloch, a British actor best known for his role as bounty hunter Boba Fett in the original Star Wars films.

The film, still in post-production, never saw release.

Twitchell also scripted Day Players, a buddy comedy.

In September 2008, he shot a short horror film entitled House of Cards at a garage he rented in the south end of Edmonton.

In October 2008, John Brian Altinger, a 38-year-old former oilfield equipment manufacturer from White Rock, British Columbia, unknowingly interacted with Twitchell on the dating website Plenty of Fish.

Twitchell was posing as a woman on the site in an attempt to lure victims to a garage, which he had rented to use as a film studio, in order to kill them.

On October 10, 2008, Altinger informed his friends of his plans to meet the woman he believed he was chatting with and sent them the address Twitchell had provided him.

Upon Altinger's arrival, Twitchell bludgeoned and stabbed him to death.

Twitchell attempted unsuccessfully to burn the body.

When this failed, he cut Altinger's remains into pieces.

Police arrested Twitchell on October 31, 2008 and charged him with the first-degree murder of Altinger.

The key piece of evidence presented by the Crown at Twitchell's first-degree murder trial was a document, entitled "SKConfessions", which stood for "Serial Killer Confessions".

The document had been recovered from Twitchell's laptop, despite having been deleted.

The document begins with the passage:"This story is based on true events. The names and events were altered slightly to protect the guilty. This is the story of my progression into becoming a serial killer."

It presented an account of its narrator's planning, failed first attempt, and successful second attempt to lure a man to his garage and murder him using fake online dating profiles as bait.

It went on to describe the process of dismembering the body and attempts to dispose of the remains.

During his trial, Twitchell admitted to killing Altinger and authoring the document, but claimed he had acted in self-defense.

He described the document as fiction based on fact, as if he had planned Altinger's death deliberately, in order to craft a compelling story.

During the trial, Twitchell's interest in the television series Dexter was noted repeatedly, and his personal identification with its lead character, Dexter Morgan, a vigilante serial killer, prompted several media outlets to refer to him as the "Dexter Killer."

Another document found on Twitchell's laptop did not make its way into the evidence file for the jury to read during his trial.

Entitled "A Profile of a Psychopath", and believed by investigators to have been written by Twitchell, it is a detailed self-analysis of personality and behavior.

On April 12, 2011, Twitchell was convicted of first-degree murder for the death of Altinger, and sentenced to life in prison without possibility of parole for 25 years.

Twitchell still faced an attempted murder charge for his alleged attack on Gilles Tetreault, a computer company contractor.

Tetreault testified that he was lured using the website Plenty of Fish, expecting a date with a young woman named Sheena, only to be attacked by a man in a hockey mask with a stun baton when he arrived at the garage in Edmonton rented by Twitchell.

After a violent struggle, Tetreault escaped, but did not report the attack to police.

He then put the dismembered remains into garbage bags and dumped them into a storm sewer south of 130th Avenue and 87th Street.

Altinger's friends became concerned after they received emails purportedly from Altinger which claimed that his date had taken him on an extended vacation to Costa Rica.

Twitchell had broken into Altinger's condominium to send these emails.

Twitchell also sent a resignation email to Altinger's work, but did not respond to a request for a forwarding address for sending Altinger's final paycheck.

Altinger's friends broke into his condominium, where they found his passport, dirty dishes, and no indication of his having packed for a trip.

A homicide investigation was soon launched by the Edmonton Police Service.

Twitchell claimed that he had met Altinger by chance.

According to Twitchell, Altinger was accompanying a wealthy woman to Costa Rica and had no further need of his Mazda6.

Altinger supposedly sold the vehicle to Twitchell for the cash Twitchell had on hand, 40 CAD.

Disbelieving Twitchell's account, the police impounded Twitchell's laptop and car and found Altinger's blood in the car's trunk.