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Authors: Corey Mitchell

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BOOK: Dead And Buried
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NINETEEN
Connie purposefully avoided her former husband for four years. She never informed him where they relocated. She felt safer knowing that he had no idea where she and the children lived.
One afternoon Rex and Lecia took a walk down to the conveniencestore two blocks from their residence. They bought some items, then headed back home. As was usual, Rex walked faster, while Lecia absentmindedly sauntered behind. She was startled when a dirty car pulled up alongside Rex. Insteadof ignoring the driver and walking on, Rex stopped and began to chat with the man who rolled down the driver-side window. Lecia began to reprimand her brother. She and Rex were taught not to speak to strangers.
She was mortified when the car door opened and Rex jumped inside. The car took off.
Lecia, frightened as she had never been frightened before, ran home. She darted upstairs and found her mother. She frantically told Connie that somebody had kidnapped Rex. Connie shot out of bed, got dressed, and was about to run outsideto find her only son, when a noise stopped her in her tracks. It came from the apartment parking lot. She pulled back the thin curtain and saw the same dirty car.
Suddenly a muscular man sauntered out of the car and headed toward the apartment staircase. Lecia watched the expression on her mother’s face as it became ashen.
“I can remember the look on her face,” Lecia recounted, “just mortified that he’d found us.”
It was Allan Krebs. Rex followed his father up the staircase and opened the door.
Connie, frightened by the appearance of her former husband,called Bob Jackson at work. She told him to hurry home and help out. Meanwhile, Allan left the house to go pick up some dinner. Bob arrived and prepared to defend his wife.
He loaded up his rifle with ammunition.
Allan showed up and entered through the front door. He walked over to the couch and made himself comfortable. As he began to eat, Bob greeted him with the barrel end of his rifle.
Bob Jackson did not say anything. He simply held the gun directly at Allan Krebs’s face.
Allan instinctively raised his bulky arms slightly above his head. He was in full protective mode. He quietly and calmly pleaded with Bob that there was no need to point the gun at him. He could sense that Bob was the more nervous of the two men. Allan did not make any sudden moves toward his ex-wife’s new husband.
Instead, he moved closer to Rex.
Somehow Allan distracted Bob, who turned his head away. Allan stealthily grabbed Rex and pulled him in front of his body. He was using his own son as a shield. Rex began to cry—he was actually wailing in fear. He began to scream out at his father, “What are you doing, Dad?”
But Bob Jackson did not put the rifle down.
Finally Allan let Rex go. He grinned as he left the house.
TWENTY
Allan Roger Krebs was a New Year’s Day baby. He was born on January 1, 1946, in the tiny town of Logan, Utah, near the northeastern portion of the state. He was the youngest of eight children born to Alfred and Florence Krebs. The Krebs family moved 666 miles northwest to Sandpoint, Idaho, in 1956, when Allan was ten. Alfred Krebs bought land on Colburn Culver Road and set up shop for a dairy farm. His father was a hard worker who often held down two jobs at a time to support the large family. He also worked in a nearby sawmill and for the railroad company.
Both Allan Krebs and his sister spoke highly of their early family life. Allan believed everyone in his family was close to one another. Katherine described their relationships as “pretty darned good.”
Allan attended Sandpoint High School, where his favorite subjects were girls and playing hooky. He met Connie Howellat school and became infatuated with her. He was disappointed when Connie gave birth to Lecia in 1963 and married the father.
Connie’s first marriage lasted only three months. Soon she was on the lookout for someone to take care of her and Lecia.
Her savior was Allan Roger Krebs—or so she thought.
In 1965 Allan impregnated her with Rex. Confused as to what to do next, he asked for her hand in marriage. Better yet, he did not want his first child to be born out of wedlock. The couple tied the knot on June 22, 1965, in Sandpoint. They moved into his mother-in-law’s home in town. Rex was born just over seven months later.
Allan Krebs was not the brightest bulb in the batch. He was, however, a strong man who was good with his hands and capable of lifting heavy objects. These traits suited him well for a job on the railroad, just as his father had done on the side. From 1966 to 1969 he bounced back between Sandpoint and St. Paul, Minnesota, where he worked for the Northern Pacific Railroad.
After Connie, Bob Jackson, and the kids left, Allan withdrewinside himself even further. His sister Katherine felt sorry for her brother, who almost never got to see his own children. She claimed that Connie was manipulative and used the kids against Allan. To deal with the loneliness and bitterness,Allan found comfort in the arms of another woman. He spent four years, from 1972 to 1976, with Sandy Mondgan in a common-law “marriage.” They never officially married, but everyone considered them husband and wife.
When Sandy could not please Allan, he sought solace in the bottle. He continued to drink more and more. To make matters worse, Allan also worked another job out of state. From 1973 to 1976 he labored as a pipe fitter in Rock Springs and Green River, Wyoming.
By the time he returned from the job, Sandy had already left him. At the same time Connie could not control Rex and decided to dump him off with Allan in Sandpoint. Allan had no idea why she would leave ten-year-old Rex with an angry, bitter, lonely man like himself.
Nevertheless, she did.
TWENTY-ONE
Back on the farm with his father was the last place Rex Krebs wanted to be. In 1978 Rex attended fifth grade at the Northside Bonner County School, which catered to the childrenin the rural areas of Sandpoint. Many of the kids, like Rex, rode a bus in to school from several miles away. There were at least 150 other students, most of them farm children from the valley area, and some of the poor kids from the area known as the Huckleberry Commune who also commuted to school.
Rex did not make many friends at Northside. He tended to be a loner and an outcast. Most of his fellow elementary school classmates would snicker at his clothes, which always seemed to be dirty or disheveled. Sometimes it appeared as if Rex did not bathe for school either. Most of the kids stayed away from him.
Anthony Poelstra met Rex Krebs in third grade at NorthsideElementary. He had classes with him for five years. He recalled that Rex was a bit of a loner whom the other kids picked on. Sometimes the other kids would “antagonize him to fight,” Poelstra recalled. However, he did not think the teasing toward Rex was harsher than what some other kids received.Poelstra stated that Krebs definitely reacted negatively when the bigger kids picked on him.
Another student who noticed Rex’s outsider status was classmate Debbie Simmons, now Debbie Rogers. Debbie’s best friend, Rebecca Wise, lived down the road from the Krebs family farm. The two girls often rode their bicycles down to a creek near the Krebs farm. Many times they saw Rex standing out in the field by himself. Sometimes Rex would walk up to the road and speak to the girls. They tried to get him to come to the creek with them, but he always begged out. Debbie noticed that Rex usually looked nervous and constantly glanced over his shoulder back toward his house. He was making sure that his father did not see him speaking to the girls.
Debbie also saw Rex look nervous at school. Her impressionwas that other kids picked on him for his out-of-style appearance. “Whether it be he didn’t have the right pair of shoes, or they didn’t fit appropriately, or his hair wasn’t clean enough or the right style,” Debbie recalled that Rex just did not fit in.
“There were a couple of people that would often antagonizeuntil they could get him to react and then they would step back,” Debbie remembered. “It would look like he was the one doing the picking, or being the antagonizer, and then he would get in trouble and they would go laugh in the corner.”
Debbie Rogers and Anthony Poelstra recalled seeing bruises on Rex. At different times they both noticed that Rex had big scrapes on his arms. Neither was sure if they were the normal scrapes and bumps of a young boy. Debbie Rogers had suspicions, however, about the black eyes that Rex occasionallysported.
Dorothy Thompson, Northside Bonner County School’s principal, remembered that Rex made several visits to her office.It was not for disciplinary reasons, as may be expected.
“He seemed to be a lonesome boy for attention from adults,” Thompson recalled. “He would come in, and our secretary,who had been there several years, so she knew him well, and he would come there and stand at the desk and just kind of want to talk to her. She would encourage him and so he was in the office very often.”
Other than hiding out in Principal Thompson’s office for company, Rex did not fit in anywhere. His dad berated him and beat him at home. His classmates taunted him at school. Only one person became his friend. Jimmy Maddox. Unfortunately,Jimmy would only attend Northside for a couple of years, but when the two were together, they stuck together. As outsiders, they had to.
Principal Thompson recalled a specific incident where Rex and Jimmy stuck together. One gorgeous spring day Rex left Northside Elementary but did not take the bus home like he normally did. Instead, he decided to run away from home. The following day, when Rex did not show up for class, Mrs. Thompson called his father, but no one answered. She incorrectlyassumed that Rex was with his father, so she did not press the issue.
When Rex failed to show up to school the next day, his classmates started to worry. All of the students began to talk about Rex. As the buzz built in the classroom, Jimmy Maddoxspoke up and asked, “Mrs. Thompson, if I tell you where Rex is, you won’t tell that I told on him, will you?”
Principal Thompson calmly stated, “No, I don’t have to tell who told me, but I need to know where Rex is.” She was also concerned because she had received a couple of phone calls from Allan Krebs and they were not of the expected nature. According to Thompson, she never saw Allan Krebs at any of Rex’s school functions and never once at a parent-teacher meeting. The only time she ever heard from him was when Rex had gotten in trouble. He would always blame the school for Rex’s transgressions.
This day was no different. Allan Krebs called earlier that morning and accused Principal Thompson of hiding his son from him. He was determined to go find Rex and bring his butt back home. He told her that he had a pack of dogs and was going to conduct a search-and-rescue mission for his son. And he was
not
happy that he had to spend his time with such a venture.
Thompson acted quickly. She believed that Allan Krebs might harm his own son if he found Rex first. She intervened. She confirmed with Jimmy that Rex was one-and-a-quarter mile up Old Creek Road east of the school. He was hiding under a large, overturned tree root. It was cold, so she jumped in her car. She was going to get to Rex before Allan Krebs did.
“I knew where I was supposed to go,” Principal Thompson detailed the retrieval. “It was an old rugged road. I was going very slowly and I did see movement out there.” She had spottedRex but did not want to scare him away.
“I didn’t go out after him because there was a ditch there and a fence [between them]. And I spoke to him and he spoke right back. He said, ‘I don’t want to go back.’
“I said, ‘Rex, there’s two things you have to think about.’ ” The first was for him to go back to school. The second, and apparently more frightening proposition, was to call his father.If he did not do it, Thompson would.
To the first, he told her he had no desire to return to class.
As for calling his father, Rex replied, “I don’t want to go back home. I have so much work to do.”
TWENTY-TWO
From 1978 to 1979 Rex Krebs’s behavior began to change. He began to lash out at his father for the abusive treatment. He got into a lot of trouble for it.
In 1979 he snuck out of the house without his father’s knowledge. This time, instead of having nothing in his possession,Rex grabbed a ski mask and a butcher knife. He walked down Colburn Culver Road to twelve-year-old Roseann Littlejohn’s trailer home, where she lived with her mother. As he walked up to the trailer, he noticed there were no lights on. He managed to jimmy open the door to the vehicleand silently slipped inside. Rex found his way into one of the two bedrooms, which turned out to be little Roseann’s room. He crouched down in the closet, laid the knife beside his leg, and began to masturbate.
He was in this same position when Roseann and her mother returned home. The Littlejohns screamed in fear when they turned on the trailer light and found Rex in a compromisingposition holding the knife. Their screams terrified him. He thought he could get away with this peccadillo since no one was home. Frightened, he bolted out of the closet, streaked out of Roseann’s bedroom, and ran out of the Littlejohntrailer home.
The following day, the police brought him in.
Roseann’s mother, though terrified and upset, decided not to press charges on one condition: Allan Krebs take his son in for psychological counseling to determine why he committedsuch a horrible deed.
Krebs agreed.
The commitment was short-lived. Allan stopped taking Rex to the counselor after only one visit. He believed the psychologisttried to examine him and not Rex. Allan called Connie and told her he would not attend any more sessions with Rex. He informed her that it was her responsibility now. She refused and Rex never went back to counseling. Apparently,the Littlejohns were unaware of this.
One year later, in July 1980, when Rex was fourteen, he got into trouble for making obscene phone calls to a woman named Betty. He then called another woman and described the sexual things he wanted to do to her. This woman turned out to be his aunt. She told Allan what Rex had said and Allan beat the living tar out of his son.
Over the next year Rex continued to get into trouble and his father continued to beat him. He continued to get into fights at school with the other kids. Sometimes he started the fights, instead of being the one picked on. He also stole money from his father’s secret cash stash. Allan Krebs claimed his son stole more than $1,000 that year.
The cycle continued until Rex screwed up one too many times.
On February 20, 1981, Rex stormed out of his home. He was “ticked off at his dad” and feeling rather feisty. He had taken a BB gun with him and decided to pay his next-door neighbors a visit. Rex did not like the patriarch of the Benda family. He believed Arnold Benda treated Rex’s family with disdain and looked down his nose at them.
Rex walked up to the Benda home and opened fire with the BB gun. He shot out a window and then broke into the empty home. While inside, Rex grabbed a few items, including a bag of marbles, a calculator, a .22 pistol, and some other small items. As with his break-in at the Littlejohn trailer home, Rex claimed to be very nervous while inside the home. He ran outside with the stolen goods and immediately tossed some of them across the road. He took some of the other items with him to school the next day. Rex gave the calculatorto a classmate by the name of Jay Newton. He kept the .22 for himself.
Later the next evening, Arnold Benda contacted Allan Krebs and accused Rex of breaking into his home. When asked by his dad if he was involved, Rex denied having anythingto do with it. Allan Krebs helped Benda look for the stolen items. He stated, “The whole family had combed his property looking for these articles,” including Rex. Of course, they did not find anything.
Eventually the local authorities arrested Rex. He felt bad about the break-in and told Arnold Benda, “It was a stupid thing to do, and I won’t do it again.” It was his first official run-in with the law.
It would not be his last.
Less than two weeks later, on March 3, 1981, at 6:25
P.M.
, Rex was rushed to Bonner General Hospital emergency room by Allan Krebs. His father informed the nurse that Rex had fallen off the back of his truck. Dr. Fred Marienau examined Rex. Allan seemed annoyed at having to be at the hospital. He was also uncooperative with the nursing staff when he checked Rex in. According to the medical report, Allan refusedto give Connie’s name or contact information. He also claimed to have lost his insurance card.
Dr. Marienau performed a cursory observation of fifteen-year-oldRex. He noted that the teenager had an abrasion on his left shoulder, swelling and a laceration on his right cheek, a small amount of blood from his left ear, and several contusionson his body.
Dr. Marienau again asked Allan Krebs what happened to his son. Allan claimed that Rex fell off his pickup truck “while the truck was stopped and we were tossing out garbage.” Krebs contended that Rex hit his head on the concrete when he fell.
According to Dr. Marienau, the various marks, lacerations, and bruises seemed to indicate something unusual. The capperfor him was the blood from Rex’s left ear. He stated, “It usually signifies that the ear has suffered some kind of blow. You could make blood come from the ear by hitting it very hard on the outside and rupturing some blood vessels in there.” The doctor assumed something untoward had happenedto the teenage boy.
According to his notes, Dr. Marienau wrote “Verbal Advice.”The elderly doctor did not recall specifically what, if anything, he said to Allan Krebs, but he knew “Verbal Advice”on a patient’s chart indicated he had spoken to the parent about possible child abuse.
In a possible abuse situation, Dr. Marienau also made it a policy to ask the child how he or she obtained their markings. In this instance Rex, while in the presence of his father, reiteratedeverything his father said.
Exactly as his father had said it.
When Dr. Marienau asked Allan Krebs to leave the examiningroom, he again asked Rex how he got the cuts and bloody ear. Rex changed his story. He told the doctor, “I think—I think I fell in PE today. I think I hit it with a board. I think—I must have fallen in PE there too.”
Dr. Marienau ordered X rays for Rex to make sure nothingwas broken. The results were negative. Instead of following up further on what seemed like an abuse case, Dr. Marienau sent Rex home. He concluded that Rex had suffered a “Head trauma.” He suggested “rest and observationat home.” He did not file a child abuse report with the Child Protective Services Agency.
During 1981 fifteen-year-old Rex decided to escape his father’sclutches one more time. He headed for the nearby train tracks, hoping to hop a train and get the hell out of Sandpoint. He waited around for hours, but no train appeared. Soon he became less excited about running away and more interested in causing some destruction. Rex spotted a loose metal rail in the area and grabbed it. As he did, he spotted a train repair car coming up the tracks by itself. There was a repairman on board on his way to fix one of the beaten-up trains. Rex dragged the metal rail across the train tracks.
As the repair car came down the tracks, Rex leaped over a small hill of rocks and watched the events unfold. In a case of the world’s largest penny-flattening experiment gone awry, the train car ran over the rail and catapulted off the tracks, accompaniedby a screeching symphony of scraping metal and crushed rocks. The repairman was tossed off the car into a heap of dust and blood.
Rex whooped it up with laughter at the site of the destruction.He took off from the accident scene, hoping to avoid capture.
Luckily, the repairman had not been seriously injured.
When later asked if he was concerned that the repairman may have died, Rex replied that he did not care.
The sheriff picked Rex up. He returned him to his father and ordered him to appear before a court. Less than one week later, Rex ran away again. Once again he was caught and returned to his father.
Allan Krebs had enough. He believed he could no longer control his only son and felt that Rex “needed some help.” On May 1, 1981, Allan Krebs took his fifteen-year-old son to the Orofino State Hospital, a state-sponsored hospital that helps patients with mental illness or substance abuse problems. Rex remained in the psychiatric treatment unit at Orofino until May 28, 1981.
Dr. Leslie Gombus diagnosed Rex at Orofino State Hospital.Dr. Gombus attempted to define Rex’s problems in his evaluation: “Diagnostically, this patient showed primarydifficulties with adolescent, antisocial behavior and difficulties residing within the family situation. Within the confines of the Psychiatric Treatment Unit, the patient was able to improve his behavior and hold it within the confinesof the limits placed upon him. Staff felt that appropriate treatment plan for this young individual to be removed from the confines of the family situation and be placed into a facility which could provide for educational and vocational training, along with a structured therapeuticsetting.”
Dr. Gombus recommended a transfer to the state juvenile diagnostic unit, where state-appointed caseworker Jean Bistlineinterviewed Rex. In conversations with Bistline, Rex let her know that he had no desire to return to his father’s home. Allan Krebs let Bistline know that he had no desire for his son to return until he shaped up. Connie Jackson, Rex’s mother, informed Bistline that Rex needed help and that “he does need to be away from here.” Connie claimed that Rex was welcome in her home, but it might not be the best idea considering her husband’s penchant for firearms and threats.
Social worker Kenneth Stucker, from the juvenile diagnosticunit, concurred that Rex should be placed in a group therapy setting. He stressed that Rex needed to “learn more appropriate ways to control his anger and hostilities toward others.” Apparently, he believed Rex’s anger to be so bad that if he did not control it, they might have to send him to Youth Center Services in St. Anthony, where “they can control his hostilities.”
After her review of Rex’s analyses, Bistline agreed to place him in an Idaho children’s group home. She contacted the Idaho Youth Ranch in Rupert, Idaho; however, they had no vacancies until August of that year. She then contacted officialsat the North Idaho Children’s Home in Lewiston, Idaho, approximately 170 miles south of the family farm in Sandpoint.They had an immediate opening and were more than happy to take Rex into their program. Bistline also noted that the home was close enough to Sandpoint so “that the family can continue to be involved.”
BOOK: Dead And Buried
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