Letter from Jon Hans

of Breckenridge, Colorado

To whom it may concern:

I've known Cam since the early 1980's. I remember our first meeting vividly because it was the first time I ever rode on a snowmobile. Upon meeting me and discovering I'd never ridden a snowmobile Cam offered to let me ride his. And that's the way our friendship has always been ever since.

Every time Cam and I would get together it feels like my life would shift into high gear and some type of adventure would ensue. Cam lived in a cabin ... "the Avalanche Cabin" as it's known, at tree line on the Continental Divide just outside of Breckenridge, Colorado. The reason for it's name is that you have to travel through an avalanche slide path in order to reach it and it sits at about 12,000 feet above sea level. Cam lived there, commuting up to the cabin through the winter. Once he was caught in an avalanche slide and he and his machine were carried to the bottom of the ravine.

He was generous enough to hand over caretaking responsibilities for the cabin and surrounding lands to me when he moved to California. I lived there for the next several years, but I found it too difficult to get there many times in the middle of winter. To this day I am amazed that he was able to do so!

When Cam moved to sunny California, I accompanied him, and we had a great road trip. I don't think that Cam had a very detailed idea of what or where he would work and live, but shortly after my arrival back in Breckenridge I got a letter from Cam where he informed me that he had sold his car and purchased a sail boat on which he would be residing. "How very Cam!" I thought to myself.

Cam lived on that sailboat, and then progressed through a couple of more boats. I would visit him just about every year and we would go sailing. I brought my wife to California one year at Halloween, and we sailed to Catalina Island. We all dressed up like pirates and stayed in character for the duration of the trip. It was a purely magical adventure and a great memory amongst many.

When my wife and I got married, it was again Cam who sent our ceremony "up a notch". On the day before our wedding, Cam showed up at my house driving a 1950's army truck ... a HUGE army truck with ten tires! That's right, Cam didn't go 4 wheeling (that's for average folk), he went 10 wheeling!

Well, he had just bought this truck from a collector and wanted to see what she could do. My other friends and I got in, two standing in the back and two up front, and Cam proceeded to drive that beast up one of the toughest roads to climb in this area ... "Humbug Hill". I tried to drive my 2001 4WD Dodge Dakota up that road, and I ended up backing it up all the way down the hill after I had gotten it 2/3rds of the way up to the top, because the road was so rough. You should have heard and seen Cam's old army truck smoke and grumble up that hill but we made it. I stood in the back just so I could jump out if I had to!

The following day was the wedding day, and Cam drove all those who were willing around town blowing that truck horn, and getting looks from all those who witnessed it! It made our wedding day even more special because it was beyond "unique".

Now, Cam is facing something bigger than that avalanche that swept him into the snow-filled ravine all those years ago ... He's facing a media giant that feeds on pain and scandal. The hell with accuracy or fairness, just sell papers or TV advertising is their motto. He's sitting in a cell waiting to go to trial as he stands accused of a horrific crime that I KNOW Cam would not be capable of nor willing to commit. This is a terrible tragedy that is compounded upon another terrible tragedy, the loss of his daughter Lauren.

Here's a guy who always wrote Lisa and I a "Thank-you" letter after he would come out for a visit to go fishing, skiing, snow boarding, hiking, etc, and in today's age that says a lot about his thoughtfulness.

Cam always played with my dogs in a gentle way, and I never, never, never, saw anything in any of Cam's actions or behaviors in all of the years that I've known him that would indicate anything like what these overzealous police detectives have insinuated.

For about seven months Cam has been floating in a hellish limbo waiting for the truth to come out. This is an injustice. I pray and meditate for this "scenario" to come to an end so that Cam can be released from captivity and to be reunited with his wife who has also been victimized by this travesty of justice.

Most Sincerely,

Jon E. Hans

Artist and Professional Driver