Canadian True Crime - The Klaus Family Murders [2]

Episode Date: September 8, 2021

[ Part 2 of 3 ] In 2013, a tragedy struck a tight-knit farming family near Castor, Alberta and before too long, a twisted story would unravel.  Look out for early, ad-free release on CTC premium feeds: available on Amazon Music (included with Prime), Apple Podcasts, Patreon and Supercast. Full list of resources, information sources, credits and music credits:See the page for this episode at www.canadiantruecrime.ca/episodes  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Canadian True Crime is a completely independent production, funded mainly through advertising. The podcast often has coarse language and disturbing content, and it's not for everyone. This is part two of a three-part series that carries an additional content warning. While not the focus of the case, it mentions the hunting and killing of animals, as well as the grooming and sexual assault of a minor. Please take care when listening. Where we left off, it was March of 2014, four months of. after the deaths of Gordon, Sandra and Monica Klaus.

The RCMP were investigating the case as a homicide. The authorities had concluded that all three Klaus family members died in the house fire, although the fire itself was so hot and destructive that only the remains of Monica and Gordon were detected, and the cause of death wasn't able to be established either, whether they died in the fire or whether they were already dead when it started. The SCMP quickly decided that foul play was involved. Keeler the dog had been executed with a 9mm rougar just outside the property. A drop of human blood was found meters away.

There was a jerry can full of gas nearby, and Gordon's truck had been found abandoned in a different location. The lone surviving family member was 38-year-old Jason Klaus, and he had been telling various people that he'd been visited by the spirits of his family members who had told him that the Klaus family had already been shot with a 9mm Ruger before the fire even started, among other very specific details. His sister Monica's boss Brady was one of the people Jason told about these rumors and he ended up as an informant for the RCMP, recording all their interactions and reporting back.

Jason would say the spirits had identified the killer as being one of his own associate. A 29-year-old man called Joshua Frank from the nearby town of Castor. In reality, at the time of the murders, Josh was recovering from an injury. He was unemployed, using cocaine and a bit down on his luck. And a friend of his called Amanda let him live rent-free in her hotel until he got back on his feet. About a month after the Clouse family were murdered in December 2013, Amanda was dating Jason Clouse. who had started hearing rumors that she was having relations with Joshua Frank on the down low.

In March of 2014, Jason and Amanda were engaged, but those rumors were still bugging him, even though she denied it. Jason confronted Josh, but he said the opposite, he had been sleeping with Amanda. Where we left off, the RCMP were listening in to three phone calls between Jason and his now fiancé Amanda, where he told her he'd say, sent a nasty text message to Joshua and was going to have a talk with him, crack some skulls, and he didn't care if he got an assault charge. It's not known what the nasty text said, but a judge would later describe it as a very threatening message caused by Jason's jealousy over rumors that Joshua was sleeping with his fiancé. As it turned out, Jason's macho show of

bravado amounted to not much. Skulls were not cracked. There was not even a confrontation. But in the meantime, Jason's aunt Marilyn, his father Gordon's sister, was feeling very uneasy about what had transpired since the fire. Not only had she been one of the people Jason told about his visits from the spirits of his dead relatives, and he'd also shown her those rings that belonged to his mother and sister that didn't appear to have been through a fire, but three months after the fire he gave her something else. He showed her. He showed her that up with two cell phones that he said contained some valuable recordings which showed the killer confessing to the murder of his family and then burning the house down. He asked her to keep

the two phones for safekeeping and if anything happened to him, turn them over to the RCMP. Court documents detail how Jason told his aunt that the person on the recording would kill him and anyone else who disclosed the information to the police. Marilyn would say that she feared for her life and her family's lives, including her nephew Jason Klaus, who she loved and typically trusted. But Marilyn was bothered. As Jana Pruden reported in the Globe and Mail, in the first few months after the fire, Jason had taken ownership of his sister Monica's F-150 Ford pickup truck and customized it to his own specifications. And when that truck was repossessed, he purchased a Hummer, a giant tank of a car already intended to make a statement, and then he customised

that in camouflage. Marilyn didn't want anything to do with these phones or any kind of confession. She gave Jason a chance to come and pick up the phones, and when he didn't, she threw them in the garbage. By early April 2014, four months after the fire, RCMP investigators had interviewed Jason more than a dozen times, and as he repeated his story with more and more details, inconsistencies in his versions of events started to appear. He was repeatedly asked where his mother Sandra's remains might be, but Jason said he'd been told that the RCMP actually had his mother's

remains and were claiming ignorance as an investigative strategy to get some kind of confession out of him. There was also that drop of red substance from the scene of the fire, marked by a traffic cone metres away from where the body of Keeler the dog lay. The RCMP knew that the drop of blood wasn't Keelers, but they had nothing else to compare it with. They had asked Jason if he could recall having any injury around the time of his family's deaths that may result in his blood being found in the snow, and Jason said he couldn't. He insisted he was nowhere near the farmhouse when his family was murdered. Two RCMP officers visited Jason to request that he give a DNA sample,

urging him to comply so that he could clear himself. He refused to provide it. And while Jason hadn't said anything incriminating on the wiretap, nor had he said anything more to Brady about those spirits, the RCMP were convinced that there was more to the story than what he let on. They had interviewed Joshua Frank, and he denied any involvement in the Klaus family murders. They asked him to take a polygraph wondering if he would refuse like Jason did,

but Joshua agreed to take it. Lie detector tests work by measuring and recording the body's reactions to the questions being asked. The suspect is asked a few control questions with simple answers like, is the grass green, to establish how their body reacts when they're not lying and therefore not stressed. And then when they're asked the relevant questions about the case, if they have to lie in their answers, then the test relies on the stress of lying possibly inducing a change in blood pressure, increased heart rate and sweating, things like that that could be considered an indicator of deception. It is far from an exact science, but law enforcement still uses the polygraph as an investigation tool,

because if the results show indications of deception, then it would at least tell investigators, that they're on the right track. But in this case, Joshua Frank passed the polygraph. The focus went straight back to Jason Klaus. A decision was made to initiate a Mr. Big undercover operation, the controversial investigation tactic invented by the RCMP, and still used in Canada but is illegal in many other countries, including the US.

We all know how it works by now. Suspect is initiated into a fake crime gang and is eventually manipulated into confessing his crime to the head of the gang, the Mr Big character, who promises to use his influence to make it all go away. Of course, they're all scenarios set up and played by undercover RCMP officers. A central character is usually used to befriend the suspect and connect them to the criminal gang. In this operation, which was given the name Project Contingent with a K, the RCMP asked Brady, Monica's boss who Jason told the spirit stories to and asked for money from. For Brady, being an informant was more than just wearing a wire or recording conversations.

Only he and his wife could know that he was involved, that he was assisting the RCMP, and it had to stay that way until further notice. The plan was this. Brady would tell Jason Klaus that he had an opportunity for him. He knew of a trucking company looking for space to store heavy equipment, and they had money to pay. Jason was, after all, having financial woes. He'd asked Brady for money several times,

so it would be a welcome income stream. Jason, of course, said yes, and Brady drove him to a truck stop in West Edmonton to introduce him to the owner of the trucking company, who was, of course, an undercover RCMP. staff sergeant. The company owner explained that he was looking to rent space to store his heavy equipment and there was an implication that there may be an illegal component to the operation. Jason was only too pleased to turn a blind eye to welcome this income, so it was a win-win

for everyone. The Mr Big operation was now up and running and also, unbeknownst to Jason, An officer swiped the straw from the drink he'd been sipping from during that meeting. As Mr Big Operations go, the first phase is easy jobs that are both fun and lucrative, and this is when the fake gang of undercover agents establishes camaraderie and loyalty with the suspect. To thank Jason for letting them store their heavy equipment and other items on his land, members of the gang took him out to play golf. They took him to strip clubs. they took him out for fancy dinners.

Mr Big operations are often extremely expensive and take months and months, with undercover operatives staging various scripted scenarios to bring them into the gang and build trust in the hope that they will eventually confess. But Jason proved to be an easy catch, trusting and all too happy to get involved with the gang, and it wasn't long before he was invited to participate

in more high-risk scenarios, for which he was given thousands of dollars, in cash and gifts, including a fancy watch. On one occasion, he and a gang member, let's call him Agent Smith, were in the car when Smith received a phone call from the gang telling them that there was a job in Calgary. Apparently, a member had physically assaulted a sex worker and they had to go and sort things out, make it all go away. When Jason and Agent Smith arrived in Calgary, the gang member in trouble told them to look

in the trunk of the car, and in it was the body of a woman, the sex worker who had been badly beaten. But as they looked at the motionless body, all of a sudden she regained consciousness. She was close to dead, but not quite. Obviously, she was an RCMP undercover agent who was acting. Jason looked on as Agent Smith told the woman that she could go free if she promised not to report what had happened to her to the RCMP. She agreed and they quickly released her. According to reporting by CBC, Jason couldn't believe that they'd let her go and he questioned why they didn't finish her off. He asked Smith, why would we leave a loose end like that? One night Jason and undercover agent Smith were having drinks and Jason started to open up about the

problems he'd been having with his parents before they died, particularly his father Gordon. He complained that his father wouldn't give him the money he'd asked for when he'd been working on the farm his whole life. Agent Smith didn't even have to do much prompting, because Jason continued with his story leading right into what happened that fateful night. According to Jason, just after he'd heard a fight with his father Gordon, he asked Joshua Frank if he would be interested in doing a job maybe, insinuating that the job was of a criminal nature. Joshua apparently started seeing money signs once Jason mentioned the farm bank accounts and said he could do anything from running a backhoe to getting rid of bodies.

Jason told the undercover agent that this was all that was said for about a week or two until the night of December 7, 2013, the night of the fire. As you'll remember, the story Jason gave to the RCMP was that he'd been socialising at the Hutterite colony he'd arrived home at about 1am, went to bed, and had been alerted to the fire over at his parents' farmhouse by a neighbour who called him just after 7am. His story had morphed and changed since then with several gaps and inconsistencies discovered by the RCMP. In this retelling to the undercover agent, Jason said he didn't go home. He actually joined Joshua at a bar at the Cosmopolitan Hotel, the same hotel owned by Amanda, the woman that Jason would begin dating a month after the fire. Jason said that while he and Joshua had drinks together and used cocaine,

the topic of the Klaus family came up, and because he knew his sister Monica was staying at his parents' farmhouse, They decided it would be a suitable night to kill them all together. It was easy and there was an easy escape route, and it was also lightly snowing which would help cover any tracks they made. As they used more cocaine, the two men formulated a plan on the fly. After the bar closed, Jason said he drove Joshua back to the farm, dropped him at the driveway and told him where he could find about $10,000 to $20,000 stashed in the house. They then discussed their plan for afterwards.

As Joshua got out of the truck, Jason told him, Do what you got to do. He told undercover agent Smith that he drove away knowing that Joshua Frank was going to kill his family. Jason continued giving his story to who he thought was his fellow crime gang member, but was actually an RCMP undercover agent. There was minimal coaxing needed. Jason easily and quickly offered up the information they were looking for. He said that after he dropped Josh off at the house, knowing that he was going to shoot his family,

they met back up at the agreed-upon location where they abandoned Gordon's white truck. Jason dropped Joshua home via the backroads and that was it. He told the undercover agent that the pair didn't speak at all for another week and only talked about what happened a month later when they could meet in person. Jason said that at that meeting, the first thing he wanted was, was confirmation that all three of his family members were dead. Joshua confirmed that he shot Gordon, Sandy and Monica twice, and it was quick and fast and they were dead before the fire started. At the end of this story, Jason told undercover agent Smith that the crime gang were the only

ones who could get him through this. Quote, that's why I opened up to you right now. The progress of the Mr Big investigation from the start of it to the first confession was only a few months. It was impressively fast, but the RCMP didn't know if what Jason told them was the truth, so they needed more details, more specific details, details that only the killer would know. But about a week later, as the Mr Big team were planning their next move, they received a text message from Jason, saying that he, he wanted to recant everything he had said in their last meeting. The next day, they received another text from Jason, this time with an explanation. Apparently, one of his friends had suspected

that the gang were undercover officers, so he panicked and tried to take back what he'd said. But he explained that he'd since thought about it and accepted that they were a legit gang. Forget about recanting, it's all good, he said. As you'll remember, cover officers had taken Jason's straw for DNA testing against the blood stain that had been found outside the house near the body of Keeler, the dog. The blood was a match to Jason Klaus. Or more specifically, there was an only one in 68 trillion chance that the blood was from someone other than Jason Klaus. But to really solidify that evidence, the RCMP wanted one more sample, so Jason was ordered by the court to provide one.

It was a match to both the straw and the bloodstain, solid evidence that Jason was at the scene at some point. So this was confirmation that he had lied in his first confession when he told undercover agent Smith that he only dropped Joshua off and picked him up. It was time for the Mr Big character to come in, put some pressure on and see if they were. could get the real story. They started chatting with Jason about how the problems he was having with the RCMP could come down and affect the gang. At one stage, Jason suggested that the ideal

solution to all of this would be for Joshua to just be killed off. But eventually, the undercover agents told Jason that their gang leader had apparently come up with a satisfactory solution. Mr Bigg apparently had an uncle who was dying of cancer and was prepared to confess to murdering the Klaus family on his deathbed to make it all go away. But to make the fake confession believable to the RCMP, they needed to know every single detail about what happened, from both Jason and Joshua. The gang organized a meeting and instructed Jason to bring Joshua.

The date was July 19th, 2014. and Jason and Joshua met up with Mr Big in a car parked at a gas station outside Calgary. An edited version of the video recording of this meeting was released to the public. It's available on the Alberta Press YouTube channel, but the audio isn't great on its own. It really needs subtitles, so I'll just play a few key clips to paint a picture of how everyone sounded. The secret camera is mounted on the rearview mirror of the car, and it shows 38-year-old Jason Klaus sitting in the front passenger seat. He's a large guy over six feet tall with a rough, dark brown beard,

wearing a purple polo shirt, baseball cap and aviator sunglasses. He looks out of breath and exhausted. It is the middle of summer. The undercover agent playing Mr Big is in the driver's seat but is cut off from view. The camera only shows the front and back of the passenger side of. the car. As the recording starts, Joshua gets into the back seat behind Jason, so the camera is now focused on them both. Twenty-nine-year-old Joshua Frank is a large guy too, and in the video he's seen with strawberry blonde hair, a reddish goatee with a handlebar mustache, and he's

wearing a white Duck Dynasty tank with the arms cut off. A white bandana is wrapped around his forehead with black sunglasses sitting above it, kind of channeling. Axel Rose. By this point, Joshua had gotten past his rough spot, his arm had healed, and he was gainfully employed as a welder working on the pipelines. The footage starts with the three of them in the car chatting together excitedly, and then Mr Biggs says he'll be right back, leaving Jason and Josh together before the official confession starts. Obviously, the video recording has already started. The video shows Jason thanking Josh for agreeing to this. They exchange a few pleasantries before the conversation turns

toward Jason Klaus's work with the crime gang, the possibility of getting Josh involved too, but right now to finding a solution to getting out of this situation. Both men chuckle about the fact that they were initially suspicious of all this and wondered if maybe it was all a police setup, but they were both now completely positive that it was legit. Mr Bigg returned. to the car and starts speaking directly to Joshua in the back seat as Jason looks on. Okay. I don't believe in pissing around. I'm a good guy. He'll vouch for me. I didn't know about you at all. I've got a way to help him out. I don't know if he's told you. I've got an uncle dying of cancer. Okay, he's...

Sorry to hear that. But he... He ran pretty long and hard his whole night. He's got a granddaughter. Okay. It's got not much. So somehow, like if the granddaughter was able to... The undercover agent playing Mr. Big goes on a bit of a tangent of details about his fake uncle before telling Joshua that this isn't about him,

it's about Jason Klaus, but the plan will inadvertently help him too. Jason urges Josh to tell Mr. Big everything, just like they talked about, and then gets out of the front passenger seat and Joshua takes his place with Mr. Big still. in the driver seat. Mr. Big is overly friendly and very conversational, trying to put Josh at ease as much as a crime boss can so that he'll spill all the details they're looking for. Josh chimes in sounding understanding

and cooperative. The following clip has been slightly edited for clarity. Yes, yes. Perfect. Okay. And if you don't like anything I'm asking to you, There's the door handle and you can buck off anytime. That's the way it is, okay? I'm not a choir boy, and I don't hang myself out to be a choir boy. December 8th. Okay, so prior to that, so prior to that, tell me how it came about, who approached him. Jason approached me.

I'd say late, late October, early November. Okay. He asked me to come out for a meeting one night. The mic is with Mr. Big, and there's interference when Joshua is talking, but in this next few seconds he says Jason's plan was to take out the family and burn the house down. How did he say it to you? So he kind of had to go away. So he proposed that we go in and take him out and burn the house down.

Joshua told Mr Big that the motive was that Jason's parents were about to discover the forged checks. He talks about meeting Jason at the Cosmopolitan Hotel that night. and why they decided that it would be a good night to carry out their plan. At 3 a.m. as the bar was closing, the two men agreed to go their separate ways, but secretly meet up across the other side of town 45 minutes later. And then, Jason dropped Joshua off at the end of the driveway with directions for where he could find the house key and the aviation gas. He then shot Gordon, Sandra and Monica and set the house on fire.

Joshua tells Mr Big he had to shoot the dog Keeler, but in hindsight he shouldn't have left her body there. He should have just thrown it back into the burning house, so it didn't leave that evidence. When it came to escaping, Joshua tells Mr Big that he backtracked so he didn't make a second set of tracks in the snow. And then later on, he and Jason met back up

to abandon Jason's father Gordon's white truck near the Battle River, where it would be found a few days later. Joshua tells Mr Big that he threw the truck keys in the ditch, then they drove to another spot and threw the gun in the river. That was Joshua's story in a nutshell as given to Mr. Big. Now, the illustrious crime gang boss had mentioned earlier that he had a question he was dying to ask and now was the time. He asks,

If Joshua killed the Klaus family, how did he pass that lie detector test? Joshua basically says that he smoked cannabis before the polygraph and then figured part of the test was some kind of sensory butt pad that you sit on that detects fidget movements. He decided on the spot to clench his butt cheeks together, even on the control questions, hoping that it would make it look like all his responses were normal and truthful. Mr Big asks him how he felt when he passed, and he says he was surprised and relieved. Mr. Big then changes the subject abruptly.

Would it be safe to say you're a stone cold killer? I guess. Okay, now you got there. Joshua was told that they had to go through everything again, so they could get those small details that could make the story believable, like what color Keeler the dog was. Mr. Big started again from when Joshua entered the house. Then you go in the house, okay, and where did you go first?

Um, mom and dad's room. And what were they doing? Sleeping others. Could you see on the bed who slept on which side? Yeah, I flipped the light on. You flipped the light on? Oh, yeah. I didn't want to miss.

You didn't want to. Did anybody wake up? Uh, Monica. After the first two shots. Joshua confirms to Mr. Big that he shot everyone in the head. starting with the parents, 61-year-old Gordon first, and then 62-year-old Sandra. As he walked to 40-year-old Monica's room, he saw that she had heard the shots and was sitting up in bed, and she started to say what he shot her before she could finish.

Joshua describes it as boom, boom, boom. Mr Bigg asks about the fact that the RCMP only found two sets of remains, and Joshua says he can't understand that. He denies moving any of the bodies and says he left them right where they were after he double-tapped each person. He then details how he got the aviation fuel from the shed just where Jason said it would be.

He poured it down the stairs to the basement and all around the house and then he lit the trail outside with a torchlighter, which he said he still had in his truck. Mr Bigg asks him to draw a map of the house showing where the bodies were, where he splashed gas around the house, and where he shot the dog Keeler.

When that's done, he continues questioning, confirming that Joshua left the shell casings at the house before steering the conversation to try and establish planning and intent. Gloves. So you had this, you pre-thought and had it all ready to rock. So you thought about this. Oh, yeah. Yeah, we met a few times to plan it.

How many times do you think you met? I think three. Three times? Two or three. We planned it out. Yeah. Mr. Bigg asks him if he was scared of Jason and he says, Not anymore because he knows he can take care of business.

He then brings up the fact that he did it all. He killed all those three people and started that fire with his arm in a sling, which could be a bonus for the case if they look at him again, because it would be unbelievable that someone with their arm, harmonously was able to do all that. So after going over the official story a second time in more depth, Mr Big wants to make Joshua feel extra comfortable so that he'll spill any additional details or personal feelings he had about Jason Klaus. Joshua feels right at home by now and says his first thoughts over the next few days were, what have I got myself into? They discuss whether

backing out was ever an option during planning, and Joshua says Jason told him if he ever thought of backing out, you better watch your back because there might be a bullet coming your way. Mr Bigg wants to know if he thought Jason was serious, and Joshua said, you never know, but he didn't take it as an actual threat because he always knew that was a possibility anyway. Joshua adds that he wasn't scared because he has lots of guns himself. Mr. Big asks Joshua a few more questions, like how far away he was when he shot them. He explains that with Gordon and Sandy, he turned on the light to get a good, close aim so they would die quickly. Because he's not an animal.

They wouldn't even have known what hit him. That's why I wanted. I didn't want them to know what hit him. I'm not a fucking animal. No. Well, I guess I kind of am now. That's why I was... Well, I guess I kind of am now. During the conversation, Mr Big asks Josh about money and payment multiple times.

At one point, he says the amount promised was undetermined, but he'd been given $4,000 so far. At another point in the conversation, Joshua estimates that the rest would likely come to him as a combination of cash and vehicles, and it could be up to $50,000 worth. Then, the undercover agent brings up that little matter of the loaned. bloodstain a few meters away from Keeler's body. Joshua says it can't be Jason's because he just wasn't there. Jason only went as far as the driveway where he dropped Joshua off. Towards the end of the conversation, Joshua is asked for the second time if he's ever killed anyone else in his life. Both times, Joshua is adamant that no, he has never killed anyone else. Mr. Bigg tells him he has

bowls of steel and asks if he feels remorse. Joshua says, a little. He says he believed Gordon deserved what he got, but Sandy did not. Mr. Biggs says that to make sure the uncle's deathbed confession is as detailed and authentic as possible, they want Joshua and Jason to recreate their parts of the crime in person, and they would videotape it so they can show Uncle exactly what happened, where Josh went inside the house, where he disposed of the gun and the gloves in the river. Joshua happily agrees to go along with this, and Jason is called back over to the car to discuss their next plans. The day after the Mr Big meeting,

Joshua and Jason met undercover RCMP officers to recreate the crime for video. Joshua also showed them the ditch where he said he threw the keys to Gordon's truck after they abandoned it. The RCMP came back later and retrieved those keys with a metal detector. They were also shown the spot at the river where Joshua said he disposed of the murder weapon. A week later, an RCMP dive team entered the Battle River and recovered the Ruger. This significant piece of evidence was a turning point for the investigation. Forensic testing would conclude that the bullet that killed Keel of the dog came from that very same gun. On August 15, 2014, eight months after the fire, and after a record fast missed a big operation that only took four months from Go to Confession,

the RCMP arrested 39-year-old Jason Klaus and 30-year-old Joshua Frank and separated them for more interviews. According to later trial reporting by Janice Johnson for CBC, Joshua Frank was questioned throughout the day and into the evening by two RCMP investigators. The third session started at 6pm and after three hours without a break, Josh asked the officers, would it be too much to ask for a pee break? By that time it was 9pm, he was asked to hang on for a sec. After nothing happened, he asked again, saying that it was starting to get bad, everything he was drinking was going right through him. But he kept being asked to hold off just a second as they asked him more and more questions. Over the next hour, he broke down and said that, yes,

he was the one who killed Gordon, Sandra and Monica Klaus. But he said he was also a victim himself, and the one dictating everything was Jason Klaus. Joshua told the RCMP that on the night of the murders, he and Jason drove to the Klaus farm at around 4 a.m. As you'll remember, he'd told Mr Big that Jason dropped him off. He never went further than that, and Joshua did everything. Joshua insisted that the drop of blood they found in the snow

can't have been Jason's because he wasn't there. But since being arrested, Joshua's story had changed, and he said Jason actually parked his truck at the end of the driveway and both men walked towards the house. Joshua claimed Jason had a gun in his, his pocket and walked behind him, stepping in his footprint so it would look like only one person had approached the house. According to Joshua, Jason just stood behind him and told him what to do. Quote, and he told me to shoot them or you're getting shot. Joshua said he wished he had

of turned around and shot Jason instead. He said both men crept into the house through the front door which was unlocked and headed to Gordon and Sandra's bedroom. Joshua claimed Jason flicked on the bedroom light and instructed him to shoot his parents. Quote, I think that's why he turned the light on he wanted to see. I had no choice. I had to react. I shot Gordon and I shot Sandy. Joshua said he then heard Monica screaming from her bedroom, a sound he'd never forget as long as he lived. They walked to her room down the hall and found her sitting up in bed in the darkness. Joshua said he was glad he couldn't see her face when he shot her. Jason patted him on the back and said, good job, go get the gas. In this story, Joshua says that he was the one that

splashed the gas around, but Jason was the one who lit the fire with a lighter, and at that moment, Kiela the dog started getting agitated so Jason ran outside and shot her. Quote, I think he was scared that the dog was going to come after him. With the fire lit, they headed out of the house and Joshua said he could hear the last gurgles coming from Gordon, Sandy and Monica. He said Jason dropped him off on the outskirts of town with some cocaine and a couple of hundred dollars. Now, even after this confession,

Joshua was not allowed to use the bathroom. He kept asking, but the questions kept coming. It just didn't make sense. Why would Joshua agree to all of that? One of the investigators asked about Jason, quote, I'm wondering, has he ever sexually abused you? Josh shot back right away with, I'm not gay. The other investigator explained that they know predators like to feed on kids by giving them drugs and taking advantage of them. Was there history like that here with Jason? Josh said he had never told anyone before, nor did he ever want anyone to know, but he was sexually abused by Jason when he was a teenager. Now while Jason had always implied that he and Joshua only started associating with each other when Joshua was 20 and came to him to buy

cocaine, Josh told a different story. He said that Jason got him hooked on the drug when he was just 14 years old. At that point, Jason was 23, and this is also when Joshua says the first sexual abuse incident occurred. When Joshua resisted at first, he said Jason beat the shit out of him and started blackmailing him after that. Quote, that's how he got me running drugs for him. He told me if I didn't do this, he was going to tell everyone how I jerked him off and wanted to make advances at him. According to court documents, Josh alleged that there was at least one other incident of sexual abuse at Jason's hands three years later, when Josh was 17, and this incident was much worse and led him to try and take his own life. Quote, I tell you, I wanted to die

every day since. I still do. Joshua said he'd never spoke to. He'd never spoke to. about what had happened out loud until now because he didn't want it to feel real. The RCMP investigator remarked that in Jason's eyes, Josh was vulnerable. Jason had the power. He manipulated Josh into doing things most of his life and the murder was kind of the final act of the play. Quote, he's a puppet master pulling strings and Josh agreed. It would be extremely difficult to prove Joshua. was claims of sexual assault, especially since Jason has always denied it. And Jason maintained that they did not start associating with each other until they were both adults. But when Jason was relaying

those so-called messages from the spirits about the killer, the person with nine letters, who he would later say was Josh Frank, court documents detailed that Jason had included some other details the spirits supposedly told him about the killer. For example, The spirit said that he used to coach the killer's brother at hockey, and the killer's father used to haul cattle for the Klaus family. If you put two and two together, it seems like the two families had a much longer and involved history than Jason claims. Joshua Frank was asked about motive, and he said Jason had told him that he'd been cut out of the family's will, and he was about to get caught forging those checks. So his solution was to kill his family. But Joshua said he pushed back.

He said no to shooting them. But Jason's only response was more threats. Quote, he pretty much told me that if I didn't help him, I would be back to the old days, only this time it would be worse. Tied, beaten and raped. And then he'd have my family killed while I was still tied up and then he would come and kill me after. Josh told the RCMP he couldn't see any of.

other way out, so that's why he went along with it. After Joshua had confessed to the murders and then talked about the sexual assault, it was 10pm. It had been four hours with no pee break, and Josh had asked more than four times in the past hour. He was now beside himself hunched over, holding his stomach and sobbing. Finally, he was allowed to relieve himself. Jason Klaus's interview went much the same as Joshua, with him spending most of the day being questioned as investigators chipped away to try and get out the truth. They told Jason they knew he'd planned to murder his family, and Keeler the dog with her bullet wounds was the giveaway. They also explained to him that they'd been

listening to his conversations for months. They knew a fire was part of the plan, and the gun had been dumped in the river. But Jason Klaus didn't react. The investigator tried a different tactic, the appeal to common decency, that Jason was a good guy who just made a mistake. Quote, Jason, I don't think you're a cold-blooded killer. You're not a monster. You're not a lunatic. You're completely sane, a completely average guy. No statement, Jason said. They then laid out the evidence, the fact that all his family were there together that night. The way Keeler's body had been found with the bullet wounds, the jericho can with the gas still in it, the Ruger Nine mill that was dumped in the river, phone records that showed the two men had 28 telephone conversations

in the week leading up to the crime. Still, nothing from Jason. But things appeared to change when investigators played him some messages from his relatives, including a videotaped message from his grandfather on behalf of all of his family members, urging him to tell the truth, because they'd like to know what happened and only he has the answers. After seeing the videos, Jason asked for a five-minute break to think and added, I'm not a bad person. When the break was over, Jason Klaus was ready to talk. He told the officers that he and Joshua planned the murders about a week beforehand

because he was scared he was going to get in trouble from his father Gordon for forging checks. He said that even though his father gave him money, and paid his bills, he wanted some extra cash to take women out on dates or cover anything else he needed. He said the forged checks amounted to about $5,000 to $6,000. He said that the whole thing was Joshua's idea. When he told Josh about what was happening, Josh offered to take care of things, but Jason was under the impression that it was just a plan to steal Gordon Klaus's truck. He said he gave Joshua a gun, a non-year-old.

Mine Mill Ruger and agreed to pay Josh cash some time down the road, ranging from $20,000 to $50,000. A lot of money to be paid for just stealing a truck. When asked why all of this happened, Jason said he didn't know. He said it wasn't about the money or inheriting the farm or clearing up all his debts. Quote, I really don't know what the hell I was thinking. He said that after their drinks and cocaine at the Cosmopolitan Hotel, he picked Joshua up as they agreed, but claimed it was only as they were driving to the farm, that he discovered that Joshua now planned to kill his family.

Jason told investigators that he dropped Joshua off at the driveway and then waited down the road a few kilometers. But he claimed that while he was waiting, he had a change of heart, and drove back to the farm to stop Joshua, but by that time the fire had already started. From there, they met back up to abandon Gordon's truck and ditch the evidence. It was at this point that the investigator revealed to Jason that Joshua had already admitted to committing the murders, but he said Jason was there with him every step of the way. Jason denied this.

But since Joshua had confessed to committing the murders, he asked for confirmation that any charges against him would now be dropped. The investigator couldn't be. believe it. Quote, are you kidding me? You get charged with murder if you're part of the planning. You get charged with murder if you're there. You get charged with murder if you're a driver. You get charge with murder if you're a part of the conspiracy. You know that right? Jason Klaus was told that just because Joshua pulled the trigger doesn't mean that he gets to avoid jail time and he will be going to jail for a very long time.

For the murders of Gordon, Sandra and Monica Klaus, Jason Klaus and Joshua Frank were charged with three counts of first-degree murder and one count of arson. For shooting Kila, Joshua Frank was also charged with injuring and endangering an animal. Both men were denied bail. So, both Jason and Joshua were headed to trial with two different stories. By the time the two made it to trial to testify. in their defense, their stories would change. What actually happened here? That's where we're going to leave it for part two.

Part three will be available on the 15th, and all three parts are available ad-free for supporters on Patreon and Supercast. Today's podcast recommendation is Do You Know Mordecai, a Canadian investigative podcast that follows a serial con man who was lied to and manipulated 15 women, most of whom are in the greater Toronto area. Five of these women have since filed sexual abuse police reports, and the podcast raises some interesting questions about consent.

Stay tuned for after the outro to hear a trailer for Do You Know Mordecai? To see the full list of credits and resources for each episode, go to canadian truecrime.ca. You'll also find out how to act. access early, ad-free episodes, submit case suggestions and anything else you want to know. Thanks also to the host of True for voicing the disclaimer, and thanks to We Talk of Dreams who compose the theme song. I'll be back in a week with Part 3. See you then. So I'm going to do this little thing because I'm trying to figure out a way to start.

Okay. So I'm going to start by saying that this is my friend, Aria. This is my friend Aria. Hello. Ari and I weren't meant to be friends. And I love telling people about our friendship. Yeah, me too. You see, both of us were married to the same man. I married him first, divorced him, then Ariya married him. And I love that we're friends.

Me too. We became friends when they broke up. It deepened as Aria dipped her toe into the world of online dating. For nearly a year, Aria dated. men she met online. Lots of duds, disappointments, and some disasters. But then along came Mordecai. Mordecai Horowitz. And Aria fell hard. Okay, so it's Sunday, January 19th. 19th. 9.38 p.m. What happens? I was trying to watch an episode of This Is Us, trying to unwind from the weekend.

kid in bed. And then there was a knock on the door. I opened the door. There's a woman standing there, pleasant looking woman, but it's still Sunday night after 9 p.m. It's like, what's going on? And she said, I think you know someone named Mordecai Horowitz. And I said, oh, you better come in.

In 2019, a friend of mine fell for a friend of mine fell for a sensitive millionaire named Mordecai. And then she found out she wasn't the only one. It was way too good to be true. I'm Kathleen Goldhar, and this is a new podcast from UCP Audio called Do You Know Mordecai? It's launching April 28th. Subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts.