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Authors: Corey Mitchell

BOOK: Dead And Buried
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He preferred Jack Daniel’s and Coke.
THIRTY-SEVEN
Rex Krebs briefly stayed at Greg Vieau’s house in Los Osos. In less than two weeks, on May 9, 1998, Rex found a quiet, tiny studio apartment located on Bajada Avenue near Traffic Way in Atascadero, the same town where he lived with Wayne and Carol Nunes. He lived in an attachmentto a larger house out front. According to Parole Officer Debra Austin, Krebs’s apartment was excruciatingly small. It consisted of one room, which acted as his bedroom, livingroom, and kitchen, and a small bathroom. Austin paid Krebs a visit to his new domicile on May 19, 1998, at 8:40
P.M.
“Hello, Rex,” Parole Officer Austin intoned after Krebs answeredhis front door.
“Hello, Ms. Austin,” he courteously replied while opening the door to let her in.
“Rex, I just want to take a look around and make sure everything is in order here.”
“No problem.”
“Are you still working at 84 Lumber?” Austin inquired as she began to walk around the studio apartment. Nothing seemed to catch her eye.
“Yes, ma’am.”
“How is Roslynn?” Austin wanted to know if their relationshipwas holding up.
“Ummm, not so hot. She needs some serious growing up to do.”
“What do you mean, Rex?” Austin sidled her way into the kitchen, where something finally did attract her attention. Several oversize, gleaming kitchen knives lay out on the kitchen counter.
“She’s only twenty-two, immature. You know how young girls can get,” Rex said in a light yet exasperated tone.
Austin stepped up to the counter and grabbed one of the sharp instruments. “Rex, we need to talk about these. I think you better start putting these away in their proper drawers and not leave them out on the counter.”
“Yes, ma’am. I’ll make sure to do that.”
“One more thing, Rex,” Austin continued, “I have some good news for you. I am deleting two of your parole conditions.You no longer will have the nine
P.M.
curfew. You can stay out as late as you want. Also, you do not have to report to me on a weekly basis anymore.”
Krebs slowly began to smile. It quickly spread from ear to ear as he reached out to grasp Austin’s hand. He began to pump it furiously and stated over and over, “Thank you so much. That’s wonderful news. Thank you so much.”
Nothing good would come of the decision.
One month later, everything began to fall apart for Rex Krebs.
Rex and Roz’s relationship had been on the downward spiral for months, ever since they moved out of Jeff Bell’s house. Roz, however, attempted to patch things up, even though she was supposedly mad that Krebs had been seeingother women. He vociferously denied her accusations, but she did not seem convinced. That June, Roz stopped by to see what Krebs was doing. He seemed somewhat perturbedby her unannounced appearance but let her inside anyway. Their conversation started friendly enough but soon evolved into a full-blown argument.
“Rex, you can’t go to Outlaws. It’s against your probation requirements,” Roz pleaded with him. “I don’t want to see you get hauled back into prison.”
“I ain’t gonna get put back in prison,” he replied. He threw on his light coat and grabbed the keys to his Ford Ranger.
“But you’re not supposed to be around any alcohol of any kind,” she continued.
“I’m not gonna drink any,” he angrily retorted.
“Rex, you need to stay home and out of trouble.”
“No, I’m going and that’s final!” he yelled at her, tearing out through the front door of the apartment and slamming the door behind him.
Roslynn began to cry. Then she went looking for somethingto drink in Rex’s refrigerator. She hit the jackpot when she discovered several bottles of Jack Daniel’s wine coolers. She found a bottle opener, popped the top, and began to toss back the bitter concoction. Her slight body size made it easy for her to become quickly intoxicated. Her depressed mental state slipped down a few more notches as she continued to imbibe. After a couple of hours of knocking back the booze, she realized that Krebs would not be back anytime soon. She decided she would let him know how she felt about him.
Roslynn rifled through Kreb’s desk and found an Allweather Wood Treaters notepad and a pen. She tearfully began to write. Twenty-one pages later, she felt worse than when she had started. She had poured out her soul on these pages and the process had drained her. Her words revealed an insecure young woman under the thrall of a more charismatic elder man:
I love you Rex.
I wish you could see that I would never hurt you. The only person I’d want to hurt is myself.
I think you’re fine the way you are.
I wish I could be like you friendly & fun you always know what to say or do.
I wish I weren’t such a horrible person.
I am so afraid I am going to kill myself.
See if I were dead you wouldn’t have to worry about me & could be happy w/whatever you dated.
For twenty-one pages she laid bare her self-piteous feelings on the page. Reading the letter, it is apparent that she worshipedthe ground upon which Rex Krebs walked. However, she felt disgusted with herself because Krebs would seeminglyhave nothing to do with her.
Roz’s note continued, “I’m such a looser (
sic
) I have no friends & have been dumped by an ex-con. Yippee! All I want is to die but I know that’ll never happen because I never get what I want.”
She went on to add that “all I’ve ever wanted to be was someone’s mom but that’ll never happen cause I can’t have kids. That’s probably a good thing. I mean who’d want a psco-path(
sic
) for a mom.”
Despite her obvious need for Krebs in her life, Roz also feared him as well. In her letter she addressed his physical strength: “When you grabbed my arm today it scared me becauseI thought I’d done something bad. You forget how strong you are.”
Not only did Rex treat her bad in a physical way, he apparentlylashed out at her verbally as well. “Sometimes when you talk to me it sounds the same as when you disciplinea dog,” Roz inscribed, yet she still played the abuse victim, “but I understand how you are and somewhat the way you were raised.
“It’s pathetic to see the dog & I in your room both crying & staring at the door waiting for you to return.”
Roz told Krebs that she felt that he could never love her and that she would run into her previous boyfriend’s arms—a boyfriend she claimed beat her.
“All he wants to do is fuck me & then say see you later. I’ll probably let him because hopefully I’ll feel needed.”
Roz went on to babble about her African slave ancestry, French Canadians being kicked out of Canada, and the Seminolemassacre, claiming these were all reasons why everyone hated her. Or the fact that she was not into that “Jesus Bible stuff ” and she wanted to know why the pope wore that “Klans member outfit.” She also believed Krebs did not love her becauseof her skin color.
“Why does everyone want to be as white as the lamb of god,” she wondered on the page. “Am I ugly should I not be this dark is that why you hate me?” she wanted to know. “I’m so tired of being this color sometimes I forget That I am black & Then I look at myself in The mirror & yell oh shit! Who The fuck is That? Oh yeah, I’m black I forgot!”
Roz’s plea/diatribe/cleansing continued for several more pages. Eventually, around page 20, she decided to wrap things up and let Krebs know how much he meant to her.
“I love you so much,” she noted in her closing, “that if you asked me to cut out my heart & give it to you I would.”
She signed her full name, then postscripted the letter with the tag line “the most depressed little girl you ever had the awful time meeting.”
She added a caricature of herself with a morose smile.
She placed the notepad with the letter on the dresser near Krebs’s front door. She wanted to make sure he picked it up when he returned from Outlaws.
THIRTY-EIGHT
Rex Krebs felt trapped in a corner. He sensed pressure from Roslynn to come back to her. He knew she could be a pain with her immaturity and clingy nature. He liked being around her, but she also drove him crazy. Not literally, of course.
To make matters worse, Rex heard from his father again for the first time in years on June 9, 1998. Allan Krebs contactedhis son to let him know that police had arrested him in Montana a week earlier on June 2. He related the story of his arrest to his son. He told Rex it was set up. A bogus drug deal. The official sheriff’s report painted an entirely different picture of Allan Krebs’s arrest.
According to Lincoln County detective Steve Hurtig, on June 2, 1998, at 1:35
P.M.
, in Libby, Montana, he had staked out a position in the Venture Inn Motel parking lot. While sittingin his police cruiser, Detective Hurtig looked up and spotted an older white Volkswagen. He had seen the same vehicleearlier that day at Hardoms West Trailer Court, where there had been a report of a drug deal going down. While Hurtig did not spot any suspicious activity at the trailer court, his day would soon change.
A female sat in the driver’s side of the Volkswagen. She parked the car next to the Fireman’s Park Playground, directly adjacent to the motel. Soon after spotting the Volkswagen, Hurtig made note of another vehicle that pulled up alongside it. It was a maroon GMC truck. Hurtig noted that the vehicle might have been used in other drug deals in town. Hurtig watched as the truck pulled up next to the Volkswagen. The detective noticed a man in the driver’s seat of the truck. He kept a close eye on the exchange between the people in the two vehicles. Instead of talking to one another from their vehicles,the man got out of his truck, walked away from the white car and into the dead brush-filled area in the playground.Hurtig watched as the brush shifted. The man returned to his truck.
The woman in the vehicle followed the man’s lead. She got out of her car, walked into the brush, and shook things around. She emerged with a look of unease on her face. She jumped back into her vehicle, fired the engine, and pulled out of the motel parking lot. She followed the man in the GMC truck around Fireman’s Park playground until he pulled up to a nearby campground area, which had seen better days. The man and the woman got out of their vehicles simultaneously and walked toward a beaten-up picnic table.
Detective Hurtig’s first inclination was to call for backup. He believed the couple was ready to engage in a drug transaction.He contacted a Detective Martin, from the Lincoln County Sheriff ’s Office, who arrived at the motel. The two officers inspected the brush. Detective Martin discovered a Ziploc Baggie. Further analysis concluded that the Baggie contained methamphetamine and marijuana. When the officersemerged, Detective Hurtig saw that the couple had driven away. He headed back to the sheriff’s office. While there, DetectiveHurtig looked up information on one Allan Krebs, the owner of the GMC truck. Detective Martin, meanwhile, conducteda field test on the substance in the baggie.
Detective Martin’s Narcotics Identification Kit (NIK), confirmed that the powdery substance in the plastic Ziploc bag was indeed methamphetamine. Detective Hurtig also discovered some interesting information on his new suspect.He spoke with officials from Sandpoint, Idaho, who informed him that Krebs had a violent history and should be considered dangerous. He also found that the Volkswagen belonged to a woman named Sines, a well-known drug dealer from Montana.
After gathering the necessary information to make a bust, Detectives Hurtig and Martin returned to Fireman’s Park Playground. When they arrived, the two vehicles were gone. The officers hopped back into their vehicle and drove around town. Detective Martin spotted Sines’s Volkswagen at a businesscalled DeShazer Realty. He spotted Sines outside the building and pulled their car beside her.
“Hi there, ma’am. Would you mind telling us who you had lunch with today?” Detective Martin calmly asked.
“I’m not eating lunch,” Sines replied.
“I know you’re not eating now. I’m talking about earlier.”
“I didn’t eat lunch with anybody today.”
“Who was that man I saw you with over by the motel? That short, stocky fellow?”
Sines looked nervous. “I don’t think I should be talking to you. I’m not so sure this is a good idea.”
As Detective Martin spoke with Sines, Hurtig radioed for more help in the search for Allan Krebs. He informed the officers of Krebs’s potential for violence. Within minutes Hurtig received a transmission that police had spotted Krebs’s truck at Jon’s Auto Repair on Crossover Road. DetectiveMartin drove to the repair shop and kept an eye on the front door. Suddenly, the 5’6”, 200-pound, green-eyed, baldheaded Allan Krebs stepped outside the business establishment,oblivious to the fact that someone’s eyes were trained on him. Detective Martin pulled his cruiser up closer to the shop. Krebs meandered about in the parking lot. He did not appear to be in a hurry as he ambled up to his maroonGMC pickup truck. Martin parked his car, exited his vehicle, and withdrew his gun.
“Police officer, hold it right there!” he screamed at the top of his lungs.
Krebs looked over at him, rather nonchalantly. He hesitated.
“I said, ‘Police officer,’ don’t move!” Martin ordered again.
Krebs looked up and noticed several more officers standingnearby, their guns drawn as well. Police had him surrounded. No sign of panic entered his face. He merely stared at Detective Martin.
“Goddamnit, I said, ‘Don’t move! ’ ” Martin barked again. The other officers began to yell at Krebs as well.
“Get down on the ground!”
“Don’t move!”
As the cacophony rose, Krebs appeared disinterested. He listlessly stared Martin directly in the eyes. He did not hit the ground as ordered. Instead, he opened the door to his truck. He did it with a measured assuredness. Martin was furious.
“You son of a bitch. Don’t move,” he hollered as he moved toward Krebs’s vehicle.
Krebs looked up at him one more time, grabbed the keys from his pocket, and stuck them in the ignition. The defiant roar of the engine starting rose above the den of noise comingfrom the belligerent cops. Krebs threw the gearshift into reverse and stepped on the gas. Gravel flew on the officers like rice at a wedding.
Detective Martin began to chase after the truck. Krebs was about to escape.
That is, until his truck died.
Ten feet away, the GMC petered out and the mad chase ended. Krebs tried to start the truck up again, to no avail.
Detective Martin rushed up to the driver’s side of the truck, his weapon poised at Krebs’s head, and yelled at the attemptedrunaway: “Get your ass out the vehicle.”
No response.
Detective Martin decided he could no longer wait. He yanked open the driver-side door, grabbed Krebs by the shirt, and threw the hefty criminal to the ground. It took a fight to accomplish the task. Detective Martin and the two other detectiveswere able to restrain Krebs with handcuffs. They also removed a fanny pack Krebs wore around his waist, fearing it may contain a weapon. One of the detectives discovered a plastic Ziploc Baggie that contained two “chunks of methamphetamine.”He continued to rifle through the pack, where he also discovered a pager, sheets of paper with names and phone numbers beside them, a white container with drug paraphernalia inside
,
and eight individually wrapped strips with methamphetamine in each. The detective placed the evidenceback in the pack, tossed Krebs into his car, and drove him to the sheriff’s headquarters. They also impounded Krebs’s truck.
The total haul of Allan Krebs’s drug possession included 150.1 grams of meth, 28.54 grams of marijuana, and 1.68 grams of psilocybin mushrooms. The officers conducted a search of Krebs’s truck after they obtained a search warrant. The search led to the discovery of a .38-caliber two-shot Davis brand derringer gun in a pocket in a black leather vest owned by Krebs. They also retrieved an electronic scale, a policescanner, two plastic Ziploc Baggies with .38-caliber and .44-caliber bullets, a red nylon pouch with more .38-caliber bullets, lists of various drug users and sellers in Libby with their phone numbers, and a pair of brass knuckles. A suitcase inside the cab of the truck contained an Interarms .44-caliber revolver.
Detectives Hurtig and Martin knew they had plenty of evidenceagainst Allan Krebs. They arrested the fifty-two-year-old hooligan.
One week later, he contacted Rex.
It came as a surprise to Rex that his father would call him while in dire straits. He had not spoken with his father since he went to Cottonwood Prison.
No love was lost between them.
Rex also had no idea just how much trouble his father had gotten himself into since the last time they saw one another. Allan Roger Krebs’s rap sheet, just in Sandpoint, Idaho, alone, looked like programming code for a new video game—it had so much information on it. Allan had become more than just another familiar face to the local authorities. In the short span of eight years, he had been arrested five times for various crimes from manufacture and delivery of a controlled substance,to assault and battery, to malicious injury of property.
Allan Krebs also caused several public disturbances, which usually consisted of fights down at the local bars. He had been nailed for illegal drug possession with the intent to sell. In addition, police brought him in for the unlicensed possessionof weapons, mainly guns.
Allan Krebs sometimes scooted under the Sandpoint PoliceDepartment’s radar. He had been their main suspect in various crimes from domestic abuse to burglary to rape. The police usually did not have enough evidence against him to prove guilt.
The most interesting incident on Allan Krebs’s police record, as it pertained to his son, occurred on the night of July 29, 1994. According to the Sandpoint Police Department report,Allan Krebs worked as a bouncer at a local bar known as the Roxy. His job description included checking identificationcards of customers, making sure no underage patrons entered the establishment, and keeping an eye on any unruly types that might cause trouble. In the event that a problem existedwith a customer, Krebs had permission to toss them out unceremoniously on their ass. Krebs, despite his small stature, played the role of the tough guy well. He had plenty of experience. His appearance lent an air of danger to his persona,what with his gleaming bald dome and oversize bushy mustache.
Little did anyone know it would be Allan Krebs who allegedlyengaged in the unruly behavior that evening.
According to Sandpoint police officer John Smith, twenty-four-year-oldMartha Neumann entered the Roxy and began to drink alone. She had been to the club a few times—the bald guy at the front door had caught her eye. She wanted to get to know him. A friend of hers named Crystal knew Allan Krebs. Crystal said he was a nice enough guy but a bit possessive.As Neumann slowly nursed her drink, Allan Krebs strolled over to her table. They engaged in some mild flirtatiouschitchat and then Allan returned to his post. She continued to drink; he continued to walk over to her. He eventuallybought her a Bud Light, which she eagerly accepted. Like two leopards in the jungle, they continued their time-honoredmating ritual. After five beers Neumann hinted to Allan that she wanted to go for a walk. Feeling the effects of the beer, but not wasted, Neumann and Allan Krebs headed out the back door of the club and into a dark alleyway. They talked about nothing important, just a private continuation of the ritual. They walked for almost ten minutes and then turned around to head back into the club.
As they neared the back of the club, they steered themselvesover to a nearby apartment complex. There, next to a cement mixer, Neumann and Allan Krebs began to embrace. The kiss had passion and urgency, yet remained gentle. It continued for a number of minutes, their labored breathing masked by the pulsating music emanating from the club. They eventually pulled themselves apart from each other, straightened their shirts just a tad, and Neumann made sure her coiffure looked sharp.
They went back inside. Neumann continued to drink. Krebs resumed his work duties.
When closing time arrived, Krebs did not see Neumann. He looked around the club one last time as he grabbed his jacket. He experienced a twinge of disappointment as he walked out the front door. Disappointment quickly turned to excitement as he spied his new friend sitting in her 1988 Dodge two-door in the Roxy parking lot. She had been waitingfor the man she called “Al.” She waved Al over and told him to get in the car. They began to talk and laugh some more, and the next thing you know, they were having a sword fight with their tongues. Hopped up on saliva, they agreed to go somewhere more secluded. Neumann fired up the engineto her Dodge and took off for the nearest beach.
The slightly intoxicated woman tooled out of the parking lot and blindly drove on the poorly lit streets. When they arrivedat the beach, she drove around until she found a secluded area. She recalled that weeds and thick brush surroundedit. She could not hear the waves crashing on shore. She did hear several frogs croaking in the background. The area was pitch black, so dark that she could not see the downtownlights.
In darkness, talk turned to intimacy. Neumann, however, complained that she felt nauseous. That did not stop Allan Krebs as he quickly stepped up his efforts and began to kiss the much younger woman. Within seconds he began to fondleher breasts, to which she did not resist. As Krebs manually stimulated Neumann, she reciprocated by stroking with her right hand his erect penis, which unknown to her had escaped from his denim jeans. Their breathing escalated as the frictionbetween their bodies increased.

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