Who is Mark Twitchell - The Dexter Killer?

Known for being convicted for the murder of John Brian Altinger, Mark Andrew Twitchell's trial garnered a lot of media attention as Twitchell was reportedly inspired by Dexter Morgan, a fictional character in a show.

Police said his obsession with the fictional killer inspired his real-life crimes, thus the name Dexter Killer.

About Mark Twitchell

Born on July 4, 1979, in Edmonton, Alberta, Mark Andrew was a Canadian filmmaker and was arrested and convicted as a murderer in April 2011.

In 2000, Mark graduated from Northern Alberta Institute of Technology in the Radio and Television Arts program.

John Altinger Murder

In 2008, Mark Twitchell pretended to be a woman on the Plenty of Fish dating site. He scheduled a meeting with John Altinger on October 10. Altinger, believing that he would be seeing a woman, went to Twitchell's garage, his 'kill room'.

Twitchell stabbed and clobbered John's body. After cutting him, he burned some parts of the body and threw the remains in a storm sewer.

Altinger's friends and family received an email that he was going on a trip to Costa Rica with his date. Worried about John's safety, his friends broke into his condo. When they did not find evidence of John leaving for vacation, they called the cops.

Though not an initial suspect, cops didn't believe Twitchell's story that John sold his Mazda to him for 40 Canadian dollars. They found Altinger's blood in his automobile's trunk. Mark was arrested on October 31, 2008.

Steve Lillibuen, an investigative reporter, shared that Twitchell enjoyed writing letters. According to Lillibuen, he wrote about 30-35 different letters, approximately 350 pages.

Mark Twitchell also faced an attempted murder charge for attacking Gilles Tetreault, a computer company contractor.

Earlier, the same month John was murdered, Gilles had gone to meet a woman named 'Sheena' whom he had met on the same dating site, Plenty of Fish.

When Gilles Tetreault went to meet Sheena at the decided location of Twitchell's garage, Twitchell attacked Gilles wearing a hockey mask.

Tetreault fought back and escaped. He didn't go to the cops to report the attack. According to him, he was embarrassed by the incident.

In April 2011, found guilty of first-degree murder of John Altinger, Mark was given a life sentence in prison. He is in Saskatchewan Federal Penitentiary.