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IN OUR OWN WORDS by Eugene and Gabriella Pentz
Thank you for taking the time to read our story and for giving us the opportunity to tell the true, uncensored version of our tragedy. There is nothing here which is covered up. We know that nothing will change our loss or the tremendous pain and suffering our family has been exposed to. It was inflicted senselessly by a corrupt legal and judicial dictatorship, ignored by all levels of the present political system. By doing so, they gave it their own silent approval. Our objective is that if we can save only one family or individual from such devastation, our efforts will be worthwhile. PROLOGUE The account you are about to read is not fiction, nor embellished in any way. It is based on an experience which is unimaginable to most people, even those with vivid imagination. If you think that such an experience is impossible, then think again. The events presented here should be taken as a warning to be prepared, most importantly to avoid such a devastating injustice. Every one of us will, at least once in our lifetime, be faced with circumstances that force us to defend ourselves and protect not only the interests of our loved ones but also our God-given rights to be treated in a respectable and responsible manner and to dispense justice, by those who are appointed to do so. The following events will point directly to those who took part in this tragedy and used the opportunity to further destroy several lives in a mess of greed, cover up, corruption, conspiracy, murder and attempted murder while protected by a full-fledged code of “professional courtesy”, under the magic slogan of “In the best interest of the children”. DETAIL OF TRAGEDY Early Sunday, June 14, 1992. The telephone must have been ringing for some time, as Gabriella, my wife shook my arm and said, honey the phone. Took me a few seconds to step out of bed. I looked at the clock radio. It was shortly after six AM. Some eerie feeling rushed through me, remembering the early morning call not that long ago from overseas with the news that my Mom had passed away. I Picked up the phone and said hello, “Hi Eugene, it’s Lynn”. I said “Hi, how are you?”, while trying to figure out the reason for such early call from my daughter’s mother-in-law, Lynn Kliim-Hansen. She answered, “Paul is dead”. I blanked for a few seconds and a million things flashed through my mind, thinking of a car accident, knowing him as a reckless driver, thinking of his family, our daughter Gabby and their two baby daughters. I asked, “What you mean Paul is dead?” With a very calm and cold voice she repeated, “Paul is dead.” I became furious, asking, “What happened? What happened to the children and Gabriella? (Gabby) Are they all right?” It took minutes, which seemed forever, to get answers that they were okay, while I kept asking, “What happened?” She said with a shockingly calm voice, “Paul has been electrocuted.” She told us Gabby was at their place sleeping and to come that way to take her home. I told her we would be on our way immediately (a three hour drive from Invermere, BC). We were numbed with shock as we quickly packed to join our daughter. We stayed with Gabby for three days, helping her and taking care of her baby girls, comforting her emotionally. To help ease our daughter’s burden we took care of her children. Because the tragedy was still so fresh in our minds we later had a serious talk about accident and death. Gabby told us that if anything should happen to her she wanted us to raise her children. She told us that she was in a process of preparing a will with that exact stipulation. Gabby also purchased a life insurance policy for $250,000 from Royal Life Insurance, her landlord, Daniel C. Church being the agent for the company. She named her sister-in law (Paul’s sister) Carol Treich as Trustee. Gabby also had a chance to tell us how that horrifying day started and how it ended. She began; "Paul came home from work and told me to find a baby sitter because on Saturday evening we were going to a hot tub party" I called several friends but they were all busy on that evening. Paul was extremely persistent to go and we even had an argument about it. I was working all week, looking forward to staying home and rest on the weekend. However a friend’s daughter agreed to look after the girls" The Warning. " I will never forget the things which happened before we left to go to that stupid party. I should have listened to the warnings." Listening to her I was overwhelmed with her acknowledgment of a higher power of a Guardian Angel. Then Gabby continued; "Paul got up early, and he said he had to go somewhere and would be back by noon. Before he left he went to get something from the root cellar, which was used as storage and for the water pump". She took us to the entrance room to show us. It had a 4’x 8’ plywood door in the floor and a stair down about eight or nine feet. "Then shortly after Paul left it started to rain heavily, then turned to hail and thunder. It was pouring at least for two hours. I looked outside and the house was surrounded with a couple inches of water. Rebecca woke up to the thunder and she stayed close to me until the storm and the thunder moved on, afterwards running around and playing with the cats and the dogs. Some time passed when I noticed that something was wrong. It was too quiet. The dogs were sleeping in the living room. I called her name but there was no answer. I had a strange feeling that something is wrong. Quickly I looked around in the house, but couldn’t find her. I ran out on the porch, but she wasn’t there either. I became extremely anxious, running back to the house, when I noticed that the root cellar door left open by Paul and I heard splashing sounds coming from that direction. I put a light on and I screamed, My God, Rebecca. She was drowning, bouncing up and down gasping for air without any sound. I can’t remember how I got down there, but I know I was shaking while trying to restart her breathing. She started to cough and water was bubbling out of her little mouth. She opened her beautiful blue eyes and said, "Mommy". With tears in Gabby's eyes she explained, "I thanked God for the most beautiful sound I ever heard. I was hugging and kissing her, telling her, "Don’t ever leave my side." When I went back to see that hell hole and it was nearly half way up with muddy rain water. This was the first time we’d seen water coming in there since we moved in to this place. A short while later the baby sitter called and canceled her availability. I felt relieved after what happened, I wasn’t up to going anywhere". "Paul came home early afternoon and I told him what happened. To my surprise he didn’t say too much as we hadn’t talked too much for months. I told him that I didn't want to go to the party and asked him to stay home and spend a nice evening together. I also suggested to rent a movie, but for some strange reason he was absolutely determined to go. He convinced me to call around to find a baby sitter. My god, I wish I hadn’t listened to him, but I know he would have left without me anyway. We got to the party, I think just after seven, or maybe closer to eight, I can’t remember. There was a huge portable hot tub on a trailer in front of the house. There were at least twelve or fifteen people there, mostly Paul’s friends, and some others joined in later. It looked like a lot of fun. It was still daylight, the water was warm and the guys were jumping in and out. Paul had a can of beer in his hand and he asked me if I wanted to drink something. The other girls were drinking wine, so I said, wine would be nice. He got out of the tub to get me the wine while I was talking to the girls. A few minutes later I heard someone yelling for help. We all stood up to see what happened when someone called Paul’s name. I stood there frozen as I saw Paul lying across the trailer hitch. One of his friends tried to help him up. I heard later that the friend nearly died when he touched Paul. Then immediately I was escorted into the house. I tried to go to see him, but they wouldn’t let me. While waiting for the ambulance I was looking through the window, I couldn’t see him because his friends stood around him. The ambulance came and took him away." At that point she couldn’t continue, she said, "The rest you know. It was just horrible and they didn’t let me see him before they took him away." On June 13, 1992 Gabby’s young life at age 23 had been shattered by losing her husband Paul. We didn’t wanted her to talk about it at that point as she looked very tired. According to the autopsy report Paul was electrocuted due to the poorly wired trailer hitch and the water on the ground. He had touched the trailer hitch with his bare feet. We requested a copy of that report during the proceedings of his accident insurance claim, but we were refused. On the third day there was a gathering in Gabby’s home after the funeral service to Paul’s memory. Paul’s parents Lynn & Dan Kliim-Hansen were there, as were his sister Carol and her husband Andy Treich, a few of Paul’s friends and the Priest who married Gabby and Paul. Stories were told by everyone. The Hansen’s and Carol and Andrew Treich were in a shockingly good mood, even joking around. Gabby was relatively calm but her eyes were filled with tears constantly while Gabriella and I were looking after her children. We were still in shock by the event, holding Christina in my arms and watching Rebecca happily playing, it brought tears to my eyes thinking, what a tragic loss to these children, being so young and left with little or no memory at all about their father when they grow up. The next day we returned to Invermere. Then a week later Gabriella returned to Cremona, Alberta and stayed with Gabby for a week while I looked after my Studio Gallery in Invermere, British Columbia. Mid July 1992. I was an my way to Canmore AB to meet Gabby, Christina and Rebecca. The reason for my trip was to take the little ones back with me to Invermere BC for three to four weeks. Shortly after Paul's death Gabby decided to move, to able to put her life in order. She had asked us to look after her two babies while she was packing her belonging. By the time I arrived they were already in the restaurant where we were suppose to meet. We had a quick lunch and she said goodbye to her babies and me. This was the first time that the girls left their Mom and their home for such a long period of time. It didn’t take too long before the girls felt completely at home with us, receiving all the love and care they needed. At the beginning Gabby called some days twice to see how her babies were doing. She was relieved, knowing that her little ones were in perfect spirit and loved as much as grandparents can love their grandchildren. The next couple weeks went by quickly. Gabby was very busy taking care of legal matters regarding her husband’s accident, the purchase of her new home in Airdrie, Alberta, and finalizing her own life insurance and her written will. The Time to Remember. We were expecting her visit for some time. On August 10, she came to spend time with her babies and us. She was very pleased to see the love and care we provided to the little ones during the past couple of weeks and how much they loved us. Seeing her with the children, it was heart-warming and heart-breaking at the same time, constantly wondering what the future would provide to offset their terrible loss, but we were glad to see that she was coping reasonably well, both emotionally and physically. Over the next five days we had an opportunity to discuss several issues. Because the tragedy was still so fresh in our minds we later had a serious talk about accident and death. Gabby told us that if anything should happen to her she wanted us to raise her children. She told us that she was in a process of preparing a will with that exact stipulation. Gabby also purchased a life insurance policy for $250,000 from Royal Life Insurance, her landlord, Daniel C. Church being the agent for the company. She named her sister-in law (Paul’s sister) Carol Treich as Trustee. During that discussion she told us she was preparing a will and she asked us, "Would you take care of my children if anything ever happens to me?". It was a difficult subject to bring up but thinking of the previous events we knew that life has its own unpredictable directions for which we all should be prepared. "Absolutely", we replied, "but please don’t talk like that." A day before Gabby left she came to see me in my studio, while I was working on an art project of mine. She said, "Dad, I have to talk to you about something". I sensed that it was something serious and important and said, "Sure, what about?" "I went to the morgue," she replied, "to see Paul before his cremation," I took a glance at her, and saw that her eyes were filled with tears and anger in the same time and she said, "It was strange.” I asked, "Why, what happened?" "When I took a first look at him", Gabby replied, "he had a grim smile on his face," I asked in great surprise, "What you mean?" She said, "I shook my head and wiped the tears off my face, then looked again, and his smile disappeared . I know it sounds crazy but I know what I saw. I was tempted to touch his face, but the individual who took me there pulled me away and quickly escorted me out. I’m puzzled ever since." I turned speechless, while sensing the seriousness in her voice, knowing that my daughter never would tell me such an outrageous story without justification, especially under such circumstances. I wish I knew then what I know now. I wish I had told her not to tell anyone for her own protection and safety. In an earlier conversation she was talking about Paul and his father Dan Kliim-Hansen, saying, "I was surprised how well Paul and his father were getting along since early spring (of 1992.) They were on the golf course whenever they had a chance on weekdays and weekends." To hear that was a surprise for us as well because we had heard and witnessed the animosity Paul demonstrated toward his father several times. I wasn’t able to put my finger on the problem. Paul was very rude to us as well on an ongoing basis, especially toward me. For the sake of our daughter and their marriage we never got into a confrontation with him. God knows, he tried so many times, each time Gabby ended up apologizing for him. Friday August 14, 1992. Gabby had to leave, saying "I have an appointment with my life insurance agent (her landlord Dan Church) to sign the final document." I helped her with her bag while she was looking for her car key. Over an hour passed by as she looked everywhere, turning the house inside out, but no key. The situation became eerie and in some strange sense I had an intuition for her to not to go now or that she shouldn’t leave at all. Eventually the key was found when she asked Rebecca if she had seen the key. She pulled her Mommy to the barbecue and pointed behind it where the key was hidden. She picked her up, kissed her and said, "You rascal, you don’t want me to leave?" She said good-bye to her girls and to us with tears in her eyes while waving, and said, "I know, my babies are in good hands and well taken care of by you guys." A Day from Hell Two days later, shortly before 9 am August 16, while enjoying our morning coffee in the living room, Gabriella and I quietly set plans for the day. Our darling granddaughters had just woken up. Rebecca squeezed herself beside Gabriella, calling her "Mamma" and dipped a baby biscuit into Gabriella’s coffee, which she enjoyed doing since she arrived. Christina called to us with baby talk. I looked into her room and she immediately lifted her little arms to me to pick her up. Took her into the living room, Gabriella changed her diaper while I warmed her bottle. As soon as she saw it in my hand she had a big smile on her beautiful little face. I went outside to water the flowers around the house and the garden before the mid-day heat rose from the valley. It was a beautiful and quiet Rocky Mountain Sunday morning, not a cloud in the sky and hardly any traffic on the street. A short while later I grabbed my key and opened my basement studio gallery to check if everything was in order before the arrival of the first customers. I had a framing order to complete, so I let the telephone ring for Gabriella to answer upstairs. I never would have thought in a million years that this phone call would change our lives forever. The phone stopped ringing and I was confident that Gabriella took the call. Less than a minute later a horrifying scream shattered the peaceful morning. A second later the intercom buzzer started a nonstop siren. A sudden shiver went through me with an immediate sense that something terrifying must have happened, and within a fraction of a second the possibilities flashed through my mind. Thinking the worst, thinking of our two children, Robert (Rob) and Gabriella (Gabby). I immediately dropped everything and ran upstairs to find Gabriella frozen in front of the intercom which was still screaming. She had pushed it so hard that the button got jammed. She was trembling and huge tears were running down her terrified face. "The police called," she stuttered, "they will be here shortly." I tried to silence the intercom while desperately trying to find out more by questioning her. I kept asking, "For what, why, what happened?" She screamed back that she didn’t know. Meanwhile, I was walking back and forth between the kitchen and the living room, constantly looking out the window. The next several minutes was the most terrifying time in our lives as a terrible premonition filled my mind that event had been set in motion which would set the stage for an emotional hell to come. Within a few minutes an RCMP car pulled into our driveway. I took a glance at Gabriella’s snow white face and suddenly I felt tightness in my throat as I opened the door for the constables. They introduced themselves, and one of the constable asked, "Are you Mr. and Mrs. Pentz?" I can’t recall if either of us answered or not. The officer went on, "We have received information from the Didsbury detachment." By that time my mind went blank and a darkness covered my vision as I tried to walk over to Gabriella. As far as I remember I never made it. I regained my vision sitting on the kitchen floor with complete numbness in my legs. Gabriella asked with trembling voice, "It is our daughter, what happened to her?" One of the constable said quietly, "I’m afraid we have terrible news." I tried to stand up to comfort Gabriella, who by that time was in absolute shock. The constables stayed for a short while asked if we needed help. To this day, I can’t recall when they left. On August 16, 1992 Gabby was traveling home near Cremona, Alberta with two companions. According to the police report their car had hit a moose. Our daughter Gabby died in the accident. Our granddaughters were now orphaned. Gabriella sat in the living room and kept saying something over and over, Rebecca beside her, while I felt suffocated. I stumbled outside and saw our neighbor Bruce working in his garden. Holding on to the wooden fence I managed to call his name. He dropped what he was doing and asked what was the matter. I managed to explain to him that our daughter had died in a car accident. He stood frozen for a few seconds saying, "Oh lordy, lordy. I’ll be right over!" I stumbled back to the house to Gabriella and the girls. By that time she had the two little ones in her arms, hugging them, moving back and forth in the armchair, her face soaked in tears, saying, "Everything is going to be okay. It is going to be okay, we will take care of you. It is going to be okay." I sat on the floor beside them and repeated the same, while they were looking at us with their huge, beautiful eyes. None of us had the faintest clue what else the future had in store for all of us. Within a few minutes, Bruce and his next door neighbor Dave, Olga and their daughter Paige knocked on the door. With tears in their eyes they helped Gabriella to collect some of the children’s belongings, offering to take care of them until we were able to comprehend and deal with the tragedy. From then on I felt totally hopeless, without having any sense of direction as to what to do next. The numbness in my legs got worse and I was barely able to hold myself up. Bruce and Dave offered to take me to the hospital. I tried to avoid it but Gabriella insisted. The doctor gave me some very small pills to take. I have no recollection whatsoever of the rest of that day. The next thing I recall was hearing some familiar voices and Gabriella crying. At first I thought I was dreaming, that everything was some terrible dream. I opened my eyes and tried really hard to make sense of my dream and the voices. I stumbled out of the bedroom seeing our son Robert and our best friends, Frank and Elizabeth from Vancouver standing in the hallway. I was stunned to see them and while giving them a hug I asked, "What are you guys doing here? How come you guys came?" I looked into their eyes filled with tears, and it suddenly hit me that what I thought to be a dream was the reality. That empty feeling which overwhelmed me then is unforgettable to this day. Our son and friends stayed for over a week to help us to get through one of the most difficult times of our life. Our neighbor Paige brought the little girls back and from then on we slowly were able to put some sense of direction and decision making into our lives. After the tragedy we had to deal with some painful tasks every day. The Didsbury RCMP called to let us know that Gabby’s purse was there to claim. We contacted Gabbie’s best friend Leanne in Cremona, and asked her to help in that regard. Later Leanne told us that soon as Paul’s father found out about it, he demanded the purse from her. She refused. We were shocked to learn that Gabby’s father-in-law and the landlord/insurance agent, had Daniel Church searched Gabby’s home the same day she died, and all of her personal papers, documents, passport and personal notes disappeared. What became of Gabby’s unfinished will is still unknown. While our friends from Vancouver and our son Robert were still with us, we rented a trailer to move our daughter’s belonging out of the home she was renting. That day, August 25, was another day never to be forgotten. When we left Invermere the temperature was plus 32. We were dressed in shorts & T-shirts and three hours later we found ourselves in a blinding snowstorm, temperature dropping to minus 2 by the time we got to Cremona. When we arrived the Hansen’s and Daniel Church were already on the property. Kliim-Hansen and Church were in the woods a couple of hundred feet away from the house, talking for hours. At the time we were dealing with so many heart-breaking issues that we were unable to comprehend what was really going on around us. We had no idea about the evil motives until we were faced with the threat of losing our orphaned granddaughters. We had many difficult decisions to deal with. For the funeral service and other related issues we had a great deal of help from many people, but after the intentions of the Hansen’s towards the little girls were made known, we had no choice but to seek legal advice. We contacted a Mr. Kluge, a lawyer we knew since we moved to Invermere. The only advise he gave was, "to do nothing." We didn’t have the faintest idea what that meant. He never suggested to go to his office even though he knew that we were in absolute terror of losing the little girls. The British Columbia Social Services stepped in immediately and, to our relief, we were appointed as temporary foster parents. We naturally thought that without any difficulty we would be able to honor our daughter’s wishes and start the healing process so we could keep our full concentration on the children, to whom we were the closest reminder of parents. Gabriella was the next best "Mom" next to our dear daughter as they ever could hope for. While we were deeply effected by the previous events and focussed on many unfamiliar tasks which had to be dealt with, we didn’t had a faintest clue as to what a horrendous storm was developing to destroy us and the remains of our family unity. We expected all family members from both sides to be compassionate considering the circumstances. Our main concern was to focus on the most important issue, to help the orphaned children to cope with their terrible losses. Being totally overwhelmed with such effort we failed to recognize the demoniac works of the opportunistic members of the Kliim-Hansen Family; Dan & Lynn Kliim Hansen, their daughter Carol and her husband Andrew Treich. They were all motivated by greed to get their hands on the very large sum of insurance money forthcoming from these extremely bizarre tragedies, by any means available and with unlimited effort. The evidence of this would unfold during nine years of struggle imposed by legal and judiciary corruption, without boundary or compassion. This is now fully documented. (see details in this website) The motives of this tragedy will eventually come to light and expose both the real circumstances and the involved individuals. It will be revealed how it was possible for every premeditated act to fall perfectly into place. With time, more and more evidence has accumulated, including an attempt on our lives just hours before our last Queens Bench Court hearing in 1996 (our car’s both front break lines had been cut). To our surprise the RCMP and Calgary City Police refused to undertake an investigation and the disappearance of the evidence (the actual cut brake lines which were in the Calgary police possession) is just another chapter of "professional courtesy" to cover up the corruption and conspiracy against us. Our desperate question of "WHY?" has been outstanding for years. Why did the legal officials, all levels of the judiciaries, social workers, Social Services and many of the medical professionals turn against us and why did our pleas to the politicians fall on deaf ears? The answers are hidden deep in the facts and evidence that this matter was organized well before August 16th, 1992. Now we know that without the help of evil individuals our granddaughters could not have been ripped out of our home and our loving care. These individuals include: Our own lawyer Colleen Kenny, (Calgary Queen’s Bench Judge since 1994, appointed a year after her conspired and destructive representation against our family), Corry Purych, good friend of the Hansens and Carol Treich (claiming to be Gabby’s best friend during her court appearance, with substantial perjured testimony given at the custody trial), Margo Kushner, (social worker, who had already been retained by the Kliim-Hansens, then approved by both lawyers and, if that wasn’t enough, she was Court-appointed to do the home study on both sides) Dan Church, (insurance agent and Gabby’s landlord who refused to talk to us because he was afraid for his life). Law Professor Levy, of the University of Calgary, (to whom Laurie McMurchie, lawyer for the Treichs, turned for advice regarding her pre-meditated and destructive effort against us). In the same period of time our lawyer Colleen Kenny gave seminars on a regular basis at this same faculty. Is it a coincidence that McMurchie saw Levy at the same period of time that Kenny was at the University and that Kenny was appointed to Queen’s Bench a year later? The appointed and retained officials from all levels of the system saw the opportunity to dip their filthy hands into hundreds of thousands of dollars from the vulnerable and defenseless orphans’ trust fund, knowing that this was possible only by giving full support to the instigators in their criminal activities in this custody dispute. At the custody trial in May 1993 Judge Hembroff was very well aware of the false representation and besmirching accusations against our true character and nature, ignoring vitally crucial evidence. Then after the trial, but before handing down the judgment, he accepted an additional, undisclosed package from the Treich's and their lawyer in his home town of Lethbridge, Alberta and shortly afterwards awarded custody to the Treichs. Our lawyer Colleen Kenny was fully aware of this and did nothing about it. From Christmas, 1996 to this date we haven’t seen our orphaned granddaughters Rebecca and Christina. They are known to be and have been seen in Millersville, Alberta. EPILOGUE In the beginning we believed that such evil acts could only have been motivated by the lowest level of ignorance, and, if push came to shove, we and our family would be protected at every professional level of our society. Looking back over nine years of living hell we feel shamed by our own conscience for being so fully trusting and naive. Numbed by the unfolding events we failed to recognize the setup at the very beginning when the plan was set to destroy us, our good name, our dignity and the unity of our family. This was possible only by the full support of the involved professionals. They were lawyers, social workers and psychologists who were fully aware of the physical and emotional terror the children were suffering while in custody of the Treichs. Regardless of the clear evidence we time after time provided, the continuous destruction was approved by every level, including judiciaries, police, RCMP and, last but not least, the politicians, those members of the Parliament, including our own MP’s, Provincial and Federal Justice Ministers, and the Prime Minister himself, who is fully responsible for the appointment of such individuals and for their actions. To our additional disappointment our own MP‘s from the opposition, MP Jim Abbot and MP Reed Elley, inflicted the very same treatment. The years of struggle to try to convince the officials failed to correct the wrong, and left us with no other option than to seek help through desperate means. Between 1996 and 2000 I have made two trips to Ottawa and protested for over sixty days. I began a 27 day hunger strike in front of the Parliament Buildings and the Supreme Court of Canada in late spring and early summer of 2000. I couldn’t have endured such emotional and physical stress nor could I have been prepared and had the courage for this extreme effort without my own Guardian angels, Lillian & Dick George of the Canadian Grandparents Organization in Ottawa. These two amazing angels didn’t just stand by with full support, but spent countless hours on the telephone calling on political officials asking for their immediate intervention, meanwhile comforting my wife Gabriella back in BC while fully respecting my cause, effort and my dissension and judgment in this matter. The officials knew that the situation was most desperate. Some of them expressed their sympathy, some were hostile and arrogant, but none have had the courage, clear conscience or the guts to force those responsible to re-open our custody plea and to clearour names. There is far more to this account than we have related here, which will be disclosed at later dates. Please check back from time to time, or contact us for details at;
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