Transcript
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[Music]
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Imagine you met someone who says they've always dreamed of being a filmmaker.
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A storyteller who captures the complexities of human emotion on screen.
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Sounds harmless, right?
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Now imagine that same person is also spending their free time writing a play by play
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of how they'd like to kill someone.
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And they're doing it with the same enthusiasm as someone planning a surprise party.
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Not so harmless anymore.
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Mark Twitchull wanted to be the next Spielberg, or maybe the next Dexter Morgan.
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Honestly, it's hard to tell where his cinematic aspirations stopped and his obsession with murder began.
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He didn't just blur the lines between fiction and reality.
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He bulldozed them, set them on fire and filmed it.
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Along the way, he crafted a plot line so twisted it would have made Hollywood executives cringe.
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It's got everything.
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Fake identities, secret emails, a mysterious garage, and a hockey mask.
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Yes, there was a hockey mask.
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What starts as a quirky story about an aspiring filmmaker quickly descends into something much darker.
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And somewhere in the middle of this chaos is a guy who just thought he was showing up for a date.
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Today we're diving into the case of Mark Twitchull, the self-proclaimed Dexter Killer,
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who took method acting and DIY filmmaking to horrifying extremes.
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You will not believe where this story goes, or how far one man is willing to go to live out his darkest fantasies.
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But before we get into that story, if you like your true crime, brief, and bingeable, you have found the right podcast.
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I give you at least two episodes per week, so hit that follow button now and welcome to 10 Minute Murder.
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Mark Twitchull fancied himself a visionary, the kind of filmmaker who wasn't afraid to explore the darker corners of human nature.
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The problem was, he didn't stop at storytelling.
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His fascination with the macabre didn't stay confined to scripts or low budget sets.
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Instead, it spilled into reality with chilling consequences.
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"I don't remember the exact place in time I decided to become a serial killer, but I remember the sensation that hit me when I committed to the decision."
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Twitchull later would write, "It was a rush of euphoria. I felt lighter, less stressed, if you will, at the freedom of the prospect."
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For Twitchull, this wasn't just some grim fantasy. It was a declaration, a personal mission statement, and one he took disturbingly serious.
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"Like anyone just starting out in a new skill, I had a bit of trial and error in the beginning of my misadventures."
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He continued, "allow me to start from the beginning, and I think you'll see what I mean."
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The beginning, as it turns out, wasn't just dark. It was downright deranged. Growing up, Canadian Mark Twitchull dreamed of making movies.
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And credit where it's due, the guy seemed very determined. He went to the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology to study radio and television arts, which sounds legit.
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From there, he threw himself into filmmaking with the same enthusiasm as a high school drama kid with a budget.
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He made short films, wrote scripts, and even created a full-length Star Wars fan film, starring Jeremy Bullock.
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Yes, the same guy who played Boba Fett in Star Wars. Because why not?
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Professionally, Mark was hustling, but personally, the cracks were already showing.
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In 2001, he married Meghan Castarella, but the marriage lasted about as long as the sitcom plotline.
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Four years. After the splits, Mark took his search for love online, turning to the blooming world of internet chat rooms.
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Because nothing screams stable relationship, like lurking on forums in the early 2000s.
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There, he met Jess. Things seemed to click, and soon they were married. By 2007, they welcomed their daughter Chloe into the world.
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On the surface, it looked like Mark was finally balancing his personal life and filmmaking aspirations.
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But, and this is a big but. Beneath the suburban veneer, Mark was cooking up something much darker.
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By 2008, Mark Twitch's life was unraveling faster than one of his half-baked movie scripts.
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His second marriage to Jess was in shambles. Counseling sessions had devolved into polite avoidance.
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And their shared home had turned into a roommate situation, complete with separate beds and conversations that probably revolved around whose turn it was to pick up their life.
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The only symbolance of stability was Mark's job as a security salesman, which, surprise, was as fictional as his filmmaking career.
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For five months, Mark had been living a double life. Every morning, he kissed his wife and child goodbye and pretended to head off to work.
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And reality, he was clocking in at a rented garage, pouring all his energy into what he proudly called his latest masterpiece, House of Cards.
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And this wasn't the Netflix show with Creepy Kevin Spacey. Obviously, this was Mark's deeply unsettling DIY project.
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A film with a plot so uncomfortably close to his personal life, it might as well have been a confessional.
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The story revolved around a man who lies to his wife about going to the gym only to use the time to have an affair.
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From there, things spiral into full-blown horror. The protagonist, masked in hockey gear for that extra touch of creepy anonymity, lures another man to the garage using a fake online dating profile.
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Then comes the grand finale. The protagonist murders his victim, dismembers the body and hides the evidence.
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And just when you think it couldn't get more on the nose, there's a twist ending. The writer of this film turns out to be a real life serial killer.
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Mark wasn't just playing with fire here. He was practically bathing in gasoline. This wasn't fiction for him. It was the blueprint for something far more sinister.
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Every scene, every line of dialogue was a rehearsal for his descent into darkness. The line between fantasy and reality wasn't just blurred. It was obliterated.
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And that twist ending turns out Mark wasn't even waiting for the credits to roll before bringing it to life.
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On October 10, 2008, John Altinger thought he was heading toward the start of something special. He'd been chatting with a woman named Jen online and their connection seemed promising.
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The plan was to meet her at her place. Well, her garage, technically, which raised a few eyebrows among his friends. They warned him it sounds sketchy, but John brushed it off. He said he'd done his due diligence or so he had thought.
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A few days later, those same friends received an email from John saying he and Jen had hit it off so well that they'd spontaneously jetted off to her coast to wreak and get away.
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It was a dream scenario, except for one glaring problem. John's passport, his clothes, and pretty much everything else he owned were still at home.
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A alarm bells ringing, his friends called the police. The investigation that followed led detectives straight to Mark Twitchell, the man behind the fake profile of Jen.
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What started as a missing person case quickly spiraled into something far more sinister. When investigators caught up with Mark Twitchell, he offered an explanation so absurd, it almost deserved points for creativity.
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John had decided to sell him his truck for a laughable 40 Canadian dollars before he skipped off to Costa Rica. But when police examined the truck, they found something that didn't fit Mark's neat little story, a staggering amount of blood. DNA confirmed it belonged to John Altinger.
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That discovery led them to Mark's rented garage, which he called his film set, but looked more like a serial killer starter kit. The floor was lined with plastic sheeting. There was a long table stacked with cleaning supplies, and predictably, there was more blood.
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Mark, sticking to his script, insisted it was all part of his House of Cards movie, then came the laptop. Investigators unearthed the deleted file with the title "Serial Killer Confessions", which, as it turns out, was not an attempt at subtlety. The opening line, "The story is based on true events. This is the story of my progression into becoming a serial killer."
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subtlety was clearly not his strong suit. The document laid out a step-by-step plan, create a fake dating profile, lure a victim to the garage, kill them, and dispose of the remains in a burn barrel. The last detail was backed up by evidence, and investigators found a barrel with charred human remains near the garage.
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Still, Mark stuck to his defense, claiming it was all just an elaborate, misunderstood work of fiction. But with mounting evidence and a confession that read like a how-to guide, Mark's claims were thin as the plastic lining on his garage floor.
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The serial killer Confessions document mentioned a prior attempt at murder that didn't go according to plan. Investigators managed to track down the man at the center of that failed attempt.
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Giles Tetoralt. "Did I most likely say that wrong, but he unwittingly walked into what must have been the worst date of his life. Giles had been lured to the same garage by Mark, who had posed online as a woman named Sheena.
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Excited to meet her, he stepped inside only to be ambushed by a man in a hockey mask, wielding what appeared to be a gun. But Giles quickly realized the weapon was fake, plastic, like something out of a cheap Hollywood costume.
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Seizing his chance, he fought back, slipped out from under the partially open garage door, and bolted. As Giles scrambled to safety, a couple walking their dogs saw the commotion.
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Mark, the ever-improvisor, tried to play it off, acting as if he and Giles were just two friends rough-housing.
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Giles, not buying into the act, made his escape and did not look back. Embarrassed by the encounter, he didn't report the incident to the police at the time.
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But when investigators tracked him down, his account of the attack provided the final nail in Mark Twichel's coffin.
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Mark Twichel was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison without parole for 25 years. During the trial, it became glaringly obvious where Mark had drawn his inspiration.
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Dexter, the show centered around a charming serial killer, became Mark's twisted blueprint. He even wrote in his confession that he related to Dexter Morgan, which is probably the most unsettling fan letter in TV history.
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After Michael C. Hall, who played Dexter, commented on the case, saying, "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."
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Mark Twichel's story is a chilling reminder that some people shouldn't have access to either Hollywood or the internet.
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His obsession with fiction bled into his reality, leaving real victims in his wake, and while his movie-making dreams are over, Mark did achieve one thing, infamy as the Dexter killer.
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Unfortunately for him, his real life story will never win any awards, just a life sentence.
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[Music]
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That is 10-minute murder for today.
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Brief and bingeable true crime. I'm Joe, I'm the host. Thank you for taking the time to listen.
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If you're a brand new listener, welcome in. Put your feet up. Get comfortable because there are nearly 500 episodes to binge on.
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That's a number that I don't think I'm making up. I'm pretty sure it's close to 500.
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If not, it feels like it's close to 500 anyway. It doesn't matter. There's plenty for you to go back and listen to if you're a new listener, and also follow me on social media.
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Anyplace that you're on social media, chances are I'm on there too, so just look it up and I'll be there or go to 10-minute-merder.com and you'll find the links to all of that.
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And that's going to do it. That is your episode for today. Thank you so much for listening to 10-minute murder.
