A new documentary details how Red Deer’s Tyler Pelke was nearly murdered more than 30 years ago and his decision to forgive his attacker.
In November 1990, a 14-year-old Pelke was at his family’s home in the small religious town of Altona, Man., with his 15-year-old friend Curtis Klassen. A 17-year-old Earl Giesbrecht knocked on their door and threatened them with a firearm. Giesbrecht proceeded to tie up and sexually assault the two boys, before leaving them to die in a burning house.
Despite having his throat slit and third-degree burns, Pelke escaped the fire and got to a neighbour for help. However, his friend did not survive the attack.
After years of surgical procedures, including skin grafting, Pelke served as the key witness in the trial that led to the conviction and life sentence of their attacker.
Pelke’s story is shared in the new documentary film Altona. Created by the Affolter brothers, Heath, Jon, Nathan and Thomas, Altona debuted earlier this month at the Whistler Film Festival, where it won the World Documentary Award.
“I met one of the Affolter brothers in 2011,” recalled Pelke, who is a deputy chief of Red Deer Emergency Services and shares his story as a professional speaker.
“He heard me speak at an event out in Vancouver back then and approached me after the event. He was inspired by what he heard and wanted to hear more. The brothers were just out of film school at the time.”
Over the years, Pelke and the brothers became friends. In the summer of 2020, the brothers connected with executive producer Craig Langdon, which led to the creation of Altona.
In addition to focusing on the crime from multiple perspectives, the documentary highlights Pelke’s own personal journey, which led to him meeting and forgiving Giesbrecht in the mid-2000s.
“My mom was actually the first person to go see him. She went to see him about a year or so before I did. It was prompting knowing the peace she was going to get from walking through that,” Pelke recalled.
“I learned from her experience, much like people have maybe learned from mine. I went and sat with him over a day and a half. There were many conversations, it wasn’t just forgiveness, but that was ultimately one of the reasons I went.”
Pelke said he also needed to forgive himself.
“There was lots of fear at first. There was a lot of guilt – I would think, ‘Could I have done something? Could I have done something differently?’ There was learning self-forgiveness over time as I grew up,” said Pelke.
“Forgiveness, grace and compassion, both for ourselves and other people, are a huge part in our day-to-day mental well-being. … For me, the key message in the things I talk about are building resilience, understanding adversity is going to happen to us all, that we can learn from that and be stronger.”
Giesbrecht was granted full parole in 2020. Filmmakers spoke with Giesbrecht for the documentary, but he does not appear on camera – the interview was transcribed and read by an actor.
Pelke said it was emotionally challenging to watch the film.
“My wife and I watched it the week before (the Whistler Film Festival) from the comfort of our basement,” he said.
“The filmmakers and us were close. They spent a lot of time with us and our family, including our kids. They were quite forthright saying, ‘Hey there’s some graphic footage. Do you maybe want to see it ahead of time?’ Our kids were coming with us to the premier, but it was a matter of wanting to see if they were going to see certain parts of the film or not.
“There were things I was seeing and hearing for the first time as I saw it. It was very powerful for many reasons.”
sean.mcintosh@reddeeradvocate.com
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