DEXTER' INSPIRES CANADIAN KILLER

SHOWTIME'S "Dexter" has spawned an alleged copycat killer.

Canadian filmmaker Peter Twitchell, an avid "Dexter" fan, was charged by Edmonton police with the Halloween murder of a man who he lured to a garage through the Internet.

The man, Johnny Altinger, reportedly thought he was meeting a woman he encountered online.

"This is a tragic and horrible thing to hear," "Dexter" producer Melissa Rosenberg told Canwest News Service.

Altinger's body hasn't been discovered, but cops arrested Twitchell after finding a script, in which a male killer lures a cheating husband through an Internet dating scam and decapitates him with a power saw, according to the Vancouver Sun.

The killer in Twitchell's script works for the police, as does Dexter (Michael C. Hall), a Miami blood splatter analyst who moonlights as a serial killer.

Rosenberg said that a "Dexter" copycat is something the show's producers have feared since the show premiered in 2006 - and that there's never been any intent to glorify Dexter's murders.

"He's killing because he's a monster," she said.

"Dexter" airs in Canada on CTV.