Focus on suicide of Iraq vet obscures murder of a ‘beautiful soul’

Crystal Klinkenberg was supposed to be a bridesmaid.

She had introduced the couple about to be married, telling her girlfriend about this great guy serving in Afghanistan, thus starting a romance through e-mail that lead to the couple's wedding.

Crystal was like that. She wanted others to be happy in love, and playing matchmaker came naturally to her. She was fun loving and full of life, studying to be a nurse. She and her husband were trying to have a child.

"Crystal was a truly beautiful soul, someone who did anything for her friends, who wanted to make everyone happy," her friend Karlie Conger-Strong said.

Instead of being Karlie's bridesmaid on Feb. 21, Crystal was shot and killed the morning before by her husband of 19 months, Jason Klinkenberg.

His story was told this past Sunday in the Las Vegas Review-Journal by reporter Keith Rogers, who explored the murder-suicide as an example of post-traumatic stress disorder in veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. Jason's parents gave Rogers an interview; Crystal's did not.

Karlie and her parents, Alexia and Bill Conger, are distressed Crystal's story hasn't been told. They want her legacy honored.

The angriest of the three is Bill Conger, a Vietnam veteran who became a Las Vegas police officer and rose through the ranks to become deputy chief before retiring. He placed second in the sheriff's race in 2006. Conger objected that Jason, an Air Force airman who served in Iraq, was portrayed as a hero, while Crystal seemed ancillary.

Using PTSD as an excuse for an inexcusable murder infuriated him and he didn't want to see a martyr made of a murderer.

"I'm sure the horror that Crystal went through during the last terrifying moments of her life were no less than Jason's experience in combat," Conger wrote.

Jason saw a friend burn to death in Iraq in 2005, his parents said, and when he returned home in 2006, he was never the same. He made one suicide attempt in October. Four months later, he succeeded.

But first, Jason shot and killed Crystal in their apartment sometime during a two-hour standoff with North Las Vegas police.

The couple began celebrating her 23rd birthday at a bar when they started to fight over attention each one was giving to the opposite sex, according to a friend who accompanied them.

Alexia Conger said PTSD is a tired refrain, an excuse for a horrific crime, an attempt to make sense out of a senseless crime. "What matters most is that a young woman with hopes and dreams for the future, who lived life, and believed in helping a tortured soul, is gone."

Karlie met Crystal and Jason in May 2007 through a mutual friend, shortly before the young couple married July 13, 2007, at a local chapel. A few weeks later, Crystal urged Karlie to e-mail a friend of hers in Afghanistan, insisting he was the perfect guy for Karlie. Crystal was right. Karlie and Steve Strong are now living in New Mexico at Cannon Air Force Base.

Looking back, Karlie believes Crystal was loyal to her husband and didn't want to reveal their problems. One example: Crystal didn't tell Karlie about Jason's previous suicide attempt. The only time Crystal spoke of his PTSD was once when Karlie mentioned Jason didn't seem like himself.

However, Crystal had confided in Karlie that Jason was selling his OxyContin painkillers prescribed for an old back injury and she was worried.

Later, the couple seemed to be doing well together.

"Her downfall was that she wanted to stay and get him the help he needed," said Karlie, who thought Jason seemed to become more possessive about Crystal.

At Karlie's wedding at St. John the Baptist Greek Orthodox Church, the bouquet Crystal should have been carrying was placed on the altar, a silent memorial to a dear friend.

Three days later, there was a funeral for Crystal. Her obituary was listed under her maiden name, Crystal Gray. There was no mention of Jason.

Jason's obituary said, "Jason was preceded in death by his beloved wife, Crystal."

Karlie continues to wrestle with the question about Jason Klinkenberg that will never be answered. "Why, if she was the love of your life, did you put a bullet in her head?"

Jane Ann Morrison's column appears Monday, Thursday and Saturday. E-mail her at Jane@reviewjournal.com or call (702) 383-0275. She also blogs at lvrj.com/blogs/morrison/.