Accused killer blamed friend for murder of his parents and sister at central Alberta farmhouse
Janice Johnston | CBC News | Posted: October 30, 2017 11:11 PM | Last Updated: October 31, 2017
Jason Klaus also said he was visited by his sister's spirit, a cousin's ex-wife told police
After hours of police interrogation following his arrest, accused killer Jason Klaus finally told RCMP his friend murdered his parents and sister in cold blood.
Videotapes of that interview, and others conducted during an eight-month police investigation, were played Monday in a Red Deer courtroom.
Klaus and his co-accused, Joshua Frank, are charged with three counts each of first-degree murder in the December 2013 deaths of Gordon, Sandra and Monica Klaus. Both men also face a charge of arson.
In an interview room in the Red Deer RCMP detachment after his arrest, Klaus told Staff Sgt. Mike McCauley that Frank had confessed to the killings.
"He said he's the one that murdered my parents and sister," Klaus said.
"Did he say why he did it?" McCauley asked.
"Well, he didn't say a specific reason," Klaus said. "We had talked before, just how, you know, he said before he had no trouble killing anybody. It was just hearsay talk though. Booze talk and whatever."
Klaus admitted he owned the pistol used to shoot his family members.
The gun was later recovered from the Bow River by an RCMP dive team. But Klaus insisted he was not the one who threw the gun in the water.
Phone records show Klaus and Frank spoke 28 times in the week before the murders.
Crime details revealed in police interview
In his interview with McCauley, Klaus outlined the story he claimed his friend told him about the night of the killings on the Klaus family farm near Castor, Alta.
"He shot the dog first, and went in the house," Klaus said. "He said the door was open. Went into Monica's room, shot her. Went into my parents' room, shot them. And then came back and shot Mon[ica] again."
He told the RCMP officer that Frank then took a can of gas from the Quonset hut and set the house on fire.
"Did he say why he shot the dog?" McCauley asked.
"I guess that was just out of spite," Klaus replied. "He said the dog was coming at him, which I can't believe. Because the dog wouldn't. He's friendly."
In an effort to get Klaus to talk, investigators told him Frank had passed a polygraph. They also played a portion of a videotaped interview conducted with Frank.
On the videotape, Frank told RCMP he and Klaus were "definitely not friends anymore."
"I think he thinks he's better than everybody, to tell you the truth," Frank said in his interview with police. "It's a known fact around town that he's a pathological liar.
"So, I hate to say it, but I would have to think that he had something to do with it. Directly or indirectly."
In the interview room, Klaus continued to insist he played no part in the killings.
Klaus told of visit from sister's spirit
In the weeks after the murders, Klaus told people he was being visited by his dead sister's spirit. Those people passed the information along to RCMP.
On Dec. 25, 2013, Klaus asked his cousin's ex-wife, Wendy Barry, if she believed in spirits.
He then told her he was being visited by Monica's spirit.
"He said they were dead before they were burned," Barry said in an interview with police. "And he said Monica had to be shot a second time, because she wasn't dead."
Barry said she asked Klaus where the gun was, and said he told her it was in the river.
Klaus spoke to an insurance investigator on Jan. 7, 2014, about a month after the killings and the fire. The videotape of that interview was also played for Klaus during a police interrogation months later, on Aug. 16, 2014.
In a police interview, the insurance investigator told police: "He says Monica hears a noise, she sits up, she sees the guy, she says wha ... wha ... the guy shoots her in the head."
That interview was also played by police during their interrogation with Klaus.
The insurance investigator told police Klaus imitated his sister's eye movements when he told the story. He said Klaus described pouring gasoline before lighting the fire.
"And as he's doing that, he's actually got his arm out and he's shaking his arm as if he's pouring fuel from a jerry can. And then he lights it. And he said, 'that's how it happened.'"
Sister's spirit told who the killer was
Klaus told the insurance investigator that Monica revealed to him who the killer was.
"He did not want to say who he was, but he did say that he lives in Castor, he is three years younger than Jason, he's a drug user, an alcohol abuser, and has been in and out of jail, as well as Ponoka [Hospital]."
A court check revealed Frank has no criminal record. He's 32, nine years younger than Klaus.
Frank and other friends told RCMP that Klaus was trafficking and using cocaine. Frank told police he went with Klaus a couple of times to Edmonton to pick up the drug from "some pretty shady people".
"He's had a problem with cocaine over the few years, which is probably one of the reasons why he's having problems with his dad, I think," another friend told police during a taped interview.
The friend said Klaus took the drug, "more than two, three times a week."
The remainder of the Klaus interrogation tape will be played in court on Tuesday.
Justice Eric Macklin will then decide if the statements made by Klaus were voluntary and should be admitted as evidence.
A similar voir dire will be held to determine the admissibility of statements made by Joshua Frank.