Hi, my name is Benjamin Ludwig. I am Krista's father-in-law, Daniel's father and Lanakai and Karl's grandpa. I am fundraising for Krista to be able to get a good lawyer to help her to defend herself from having Lanakai taken from her.

Many of you have seen the Amber Alerts that show that she and my son Daniel, along with my beautiful little grandsons, Lanakai and Karl, are hiding from law enforcement because they fear for Lanakai's safety. They have not the means to hire a qualified, trustworthy lawyer and have been overwelmed by the court systems proceedures and protocols.

Let me tell you their story:

Danny and Krista first met in about 2015. They were very soon in love and formed a common-law marriage relationship. During the following years they faced the trials that many young couples face and as a consequence Krista had a brief dalliance with Alistair Ewart and became pregnant. Daniel was for a time led to believe the child was his but eventually was told the truth. Having gotten their relationship back on track, Daniel commited to be Lanakai's father. Lanakai was born at a home birth at Krista's parents place attended by her mother Lorraine and Daniel's mother Kara.

However, Alistair learned of his parentage and sought to gain visiting rights. Because of Krista's ignorance of court proceedures and the fact that Alistair's mother is or was a lawyer, Krista was unable to prevent this.

The rights that Alistair got were not much though and for a number of years it consisted of paying some child support and making regular phone calls with Lanakai and two or three actual visits in a year.

During that time, Krista and Daniel continued living as a family. Krista became pregnant again, this time with Daniel's child. It was a little girl who they named Layla, but she was lost during the pregnancy. Later, they were with child again and little Karl was born. Lanakai refers to Daniel as Dad and he and Karl are unseparable friends.

Recently, however, and for reasons unknown to me, Alistair has been seeking more visitation and guardianship rights. Krista and Daniel were opposed to this because of the confusion for Lanakai who they believed was in a stable family context and his lack of relationship with Alistair. Again, unable to hire a suitable lawyer and because of incompetence in self-representing, they could do nothing about it.

During one of the the visits with Alistair that followed, Lanakai came back with an altered attitude, hitting his brother Karl while saying he wasn't his real brother and using foul phrases that had not been on his tongue before. Daniel and Krista inquired with him as to where he had picked these things up and Lanakai began to reveal some very disturbing things that had taken place with with Alistair. I do not know if these things actually took place or if Lanakai was making it up to avoid personal culpability for his language. I certainly hope it did not take place. However, for Krista and Daniel and the whole family, this made us very reluctant to allow continued visiting with Alistair until this could be looked in to. Lanakai is clearly troubled by the confusion and is suffering under this situation.

In order to start a process to deal with this matter, Krista and Daniel set a hearing in Calgary to have the venue of court changed to Grande Prairie as up until this time all court hearings were in Calgary. At this hearing Alistair injected a request to get a temporary alteration of a previous custody agreement so he could get further visiting priviledge. At this time Krista brought up their concerns regarding Alistair's actions with Lanakia and, because of her distress and anxiety, she failed to use proper court protocol and the judge classified her as an unstable witness and granted Alistair the temporary order. Lanakai was flown to Calgary and spent another week with Alistair.

A few months later, June 23, at another court date to grant another visit for Alistair to take Lanakai to Calgary, Krista demanded that the court first look into the allegations of Alistair's behavior with Lanakai. In this courtroom, Krista's desparate attitude angered the female judge, who granted Alistair his visit. The judge, however, because of Krista's persistance, set a new custody hearing for all this to be heard in October and said no further temporary alterations for visiting rights would be granted until the hearing. For this upcoming hearing the judge said that she was going to recuse herself and another judge would be appointed to the case. An indication she saw herself as comprimised in this matter for whatever reason.

At this time Krista and Daniel chose not to comply with the order and did not bring Lanakai to the airport for a visit with Alistair. They sent documentation to Alistair's lawyer indicating they believed the order was invalid because of a failure of the court to consider the concerns raised by Krista and other court errors including a comprimised judge. They were being advised in this by a family friend who is well versed in law.

At another intervening court hearing on July 7, which was set to confirm certain details of the previous order, the same judge (who had recused herself) and I assume because Krista had not complied with the order, chose to grant full custody of Lanakai over to Alistair. It was at this time that Daniel and Krista chose to run. They picked up their boys at the place they were being cared for and then disappeared.

They need help to get this matter settled. They need a competent lawyer to get these matters properly before the courts, to negotiate terms for surrender to the authorities without risking Lanakai be handed over to Alistair or the boys be placed in the custody of Child protection services, foster homes. For this, they need to have the funds necessary.

Please find it in your heart to help us for the sake of the boys!