Naman Shrestha
In the late 2000s, the up-and-coming director Mark Twitchell was gaining traction for his involvement in movies before he made headlines for killing a middle-aged man in an Edmonton garage he rented to shoot one of his movies. Through the episode titled ‘The Dexter Killer’ of CBS’ ’48 Hours,’ viewers get a look into the psyche of the fugitive, trying to understand how his passion for filmmaking transformed into the desire for killing.
Mark Twitchell Was an Aspiring Filmmaker Turned Killer
On July 4, 1979, Mark Andrew Twitchell was born in Edmonton, Alberta, and was fascinated by the world of cinema since his early childhood. Aspiring to become a filmmaker, he enrolled in the Radio and Television Arts program at the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology. After graduating, he was reportedly in a marriage with Megan Casterella for four years, from 2001 to 2005. A couple of years later, in January 2007, he tied the knot with Jess Twitchell. That year was also significant in terms of his professional career as a director as well as he had directed ‘Star Wars: Secrets of the Rebellion,’ a fan-version prequel to ‘Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope.’
With a cameo from Jeremy Bulloch, the up-and-coming director attracted attention from several sci-fi fans. As per reports, he also scripted a buddy comedy titled ‘Day Players.’ Soon, he gave into his violent tendencies as he planned to become a serial killer, supposedly taking inspiration from the fictional serial killer Dexter Morgan from the hit Showtime show, ‘Dexter.’ In September 2008, the married man and father to a young daughter filmed a short horror movie, ‘House of Cards,’ at a rented garage space in Edmonton. Around the same time, Mark posed as a female on a dating website and lured a guy named Giles Tetreault into the garage on a date.
Intending to kill the man, the filmmaker ambushed him from behind when he reached the garage, but Giles managed to escape from his clutches. Following the failed attempt, he lured another man, Johnny Altinger, into his garage in October 2008, and this time, he brutally beat and stabbed his victim to death. After killing him, Mark reportedly dismembered the body on a table. When Johnny was reported missing, the authorities launched a search for the missing man. Their investigation led them right to the director and his rented garage. When the detectives questioned him about the garage and the trails of blood they found, he claimed that he had been shooting a movie and that the blood stains were nothing more than movie props.
Mark Twitchell Was Taken into Custody For Killing Johnny Altinger
At the time, his marriage with Jess was already deteriorating, and when he was connected to the disappearance, she left him and filed for divorce. Upon finding Johnny’s blood on the trunk of Mark’s car, the police had enough incriminating evidence to cuff him and take him into custody. Thus, three weeks after Johnny disappeared, the director was lured out of his parents’ house and charged with first-degree murder on October 31, 2008.
Not long after his arrest, the investigators not only found out that he had been having an affair with an old girlfriend, but they also recovered a deleted file on the accused’s laptop titled “SK Confessions,” which supposedly was shorthand for “Serial Killer Confessions.” In the document, he detailed his failed attempt at killing a man and then successfully murdering another in his garage using a fake online persona. However, in his defense, he claimed that it was a screenplay and a work of fiction. While awaiting trial, Mark revealed the location of Johnny’s body to the police by giving them a map, more than a year after Johnny was murdered.
Mark Twitchell is Being Held Up in a Canadian Prison
Several years later, in March 2011, Mark Twitchell stood on trial for the 2008 murder of Johnny Altinger. Since ‘House of Cards’ is a story about a man luring men to a garage and killing them, he told the court that he had deliberately staged the story in real life by luring men into his garage only to let them escape, in an attempt to create a buzz around the short film when it released. According to him, things went south in the case of Johnny, who became enraged after being tricked and attacked him. So, he claimed that the murder was a result of self-defense. However, the jury did not buy the story as they returned with a guilty verdict and convicted him of first-degree murder.
On April 12, 2011, Mark Twitchell was sentenced to 25 years to life in prison with a possibility of parole. The following month, the defense filed an appeal, blaming media attention for having an influence on the jury. But in February 2012, he withdrew his appeal. In March 2012, Steve Lillebuen published a book titled ‘The Devil’s Cinema,’ which details Mark Twitchell’s life and his becoming the “Dexter Killer.” In December 2012, during an interview with the Canadian radio show ‘Q,’ Michael C. Hall, who portrays Dexter Morgan, was asked to talk about Mark Twitchell. He stated, “I wouldn’t stop making Dexter because someone was fascinated by it only in that way. 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. It’s horrifying.”
In order to catch up on all the episodes of ‘Dexter’ he had missed after his arrest, Mark reportedly bought a television for his cell. Furthermore, he was given permission to join an online dating website in 2017 while serving his sentence behind bars. While he was eligible to apply for early parole in 2023, he is still reportedly incarcerated at Saskatchewan Federal Penitentiary in Saskatchewan, Canada.
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