Friends still wonder why family was murdered

Following convictions, community no closer to getting answers in Klaus case

More than four years after three members of a central Alberta family were murdered, the biggest question still remains unanswered — why?

“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?” Philip Pals, a longtime family friend of Gordon, Sandra and Monica Klaus, told the Red Deer Advocate. “I think that’s the question on everyone’s mind — why? That will never be answered, will it?”

Jason Klaus, Gordon and Sandra’s son and Monica’s brother, and accomplice Joshua Frank were sentenced last month to life in prison on three counts of firstdegree murder for the December 2013 killings.

Court heard Jason Klaus had a cocaine and gambling addiction and forged cheques on his parents’ account. He offered Frank money to kill the family. Frank told police he killed them because he was scared Jason Klaus would shoot him if he didn’t.

Two bodies were found in the family’s burned-out farmhouse near Castor. Sandra Klaus’s body was never found, but police believe she also died in the house.

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 said. “It was not a family where you ever saw it coming.”

Spady ’s parents, Cliff and Karen Jordahl, considered the Klauses their closest friends. Karen Jordahl shared the same birthday as Sandra Klaus and they always celebrated it together.

“I grew up with them. They were good family friends,” said Spady, 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.”

Just as shocking was the involvement of Josh Frank, whose family is well-known in the community.

Spady said she met several times with RCMP major crimes investigators. The first time, she was convinced it was not possible Jason Klaus was involved. But over time and after several meetings with police, she said his guilt could not be questioned.

There had always been a Jekyll and Hyde side to Jason Klaus, she said. He would do anything to help someone, but he could also lie without showing it.

Court heard how Jason Klaus told numerous stories about the deaths to friends and investigators, including officers who approached him as part of an undercover sting. Testifying, he denied involvement and gave another version of the events on the night his family was killed.

Red Deer Court of Queen’s Bench Justice Eric Macklin suggested Jason 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, the motive was “greed for money, pure and simple,” Crown prosecutor Douglas Taylor said. “He saw an opportunity for easy money and he took it.”