Four years after three members of a Castor family were murdered in their beds the biggest question remains unanswered.
Why?
“I don’t know what to say about it,” said Philip Pals, a long-time family friend of the murdered Gordon, Sandra and Monica Klaus.
Gordon and Sandra’s son and Monica’s brother, Jason Klaus, and accomplice Joshua Frank have been sentenced to life in prison on three counts of first-degree murder.
“Still my question is, and will always be my question, what gets so bad in your life that makes you want to kill your whole family – and actually do it?
“I think that’s the question on everyone’s mind – why?”
“That will never be answered, will it?”
Tammy Spady grew up with Jason Klaus and worked with him for eight years.
She had no inkling he could be capable of murder.
“It was actually quite shocking to all of us,” she says. “It was not a family where you ever saw it coming.”
Tammy’s parents, Cliff and Karen Jordahl, considered the Klauses their closest friends. Karen shares the same birthday as Sandi and they always celebrated it together. Gordon gave the toast at Tammy’s wedding.
“I grew up with them. They were good family friends,” says Tammy, whose family runs CJ’s Canteen and Castor Liquor Store.
“(Jason) worked hard for his dad. Then he worked off the farm at the UFA.”
Growing up, there were no brushes with the law or other obvious problems.
“He was just a normal kid and played hockey. It was a close-knit family. They did everything together, hunted, fished, camped.”
Just as shocking was the involvement of Josh Frank, whose family is well-known and well-liked in the community.
Tammy says she met several times with RCMP major crimes investigators. The first time, she was convinced it was not possible Jason was involved. But over time and after several meetings with police his guilt could not be questioned.
There had always been a “Jekyll and Hyde” side to Jason, she says.
He would do anything to help someone. But he had a darker side.
“He had to flat out lie to you he could do that without showing it.”
That talent for deceit would be on full display in court. Jason told numerous stories about the deaths of his family to friends and police investigators, including undercover officers in a Mr. Big operation.
Testifying in his own defence in court, he denied involvement and told a previously unheard version of the events the night his family was killed.
Crown prosecutors said Klaus had been forging cheques in his father’s name and was about to be discovered. He also bristled under the authority of his father and disdained his family, said prosecutors.
In his judgment, Red Deer Court of Queen’s Bench Justice Eric Macklin suggested Klaus was driven by fear his fraud would be found out.
“He was desperate and he believed his family would terminate his employment on the farm and cut him out of any inheritance he may have expected,” Macklin wrote.
For Frank, who the judge said was the shooter, the motive was “greed for money, pure and simple,” said the prosecutor. “He saw an opportunity for easy money and he took it.”
Tammy says many in the community feel for all the families involved, both sides of the Klaus family and the Franks.
“It’s a sad deal because they’re good people.”
Cliff says the day before the Klauses were murdered, he was thinking of dropping in on his good friends. But it was bitterly cold that day and he decided just to go home.
At first many figured that the coal-burning furnace was likely to blame for the fire and the Klauses’ deaths. It would be eight months before Klaus and Frank were arrested and charged with three counts of first-degree murder.
“After finding out those things, it was very heart-breaking, very hard,” he says.
Disbelief greeted the news that their son was their killer.
“It was shocking,” he says. “It’s very hard to believe it happened in your own town.”
Barrie Kilner moved to Castor about 18 months ago and sensed the community was very divided over the murders.
“People who were familiar with the family said they didn’t do it and they were adamant,” he says. “It was very polarized.”
Since the convictions and sentencing, few talk about it.
“You know what? I haven’t heard a word since the verdict. No one says much at all.
“I don’t know why that is.”
Kilner feels for the families involved.
“It’s got to be difficult coming to town and holding their head up knowing their relatives are sitting in jail.”
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Saturday: Police informer talks about his role
