Published: Wednesday, July 12, 2006

VICTORIA - MP Keith Martin is trying to get Angel Crane the help the 22-year-old needs to look after her five younger siblings.

Crane is the oldest daughter of Margaret Crane, a Victoria woman who is facing a murder charge in Thailand in the shooting death of Angel's father, Daniel George Dubie. Dubie, who has been described as a cult leader, was shot in the chest three times at a restaurant in Chiang Mai on July 2. If convicted, Crane could face the death penalty.

Angel Crane, who is between contracts as a Victoria Times Colonist newspaper telemarketing employee, wants to care for her three young sisters and two younger brothers. The five children, ages five to 15, were flown to Victoria from Thailand two days after their mother's arrest. They have been placed together in a foster home, but Angel wants to keep her family together.

Martin, who is foreign affairs critic for the Liberals, offered to help get Angel the help she needs. The Esquimalt-Juan de Fuca MP is pushing social services officials to meet with Angel and assess her needs.

"This is really awful," he said. "It's crazy. She's 22 and she has five kids. It's remarkable that she wants to look after them, but she's going to need help.

"If social services sat down with her, looked at the situation and went through what she needs in the way of housing, food, clothing and someone to help Angel, it will be much healthier than the children being dislocated into a never-ending series of foster homes. That would be a disaster for the kids."

Even though Angel is young, with enough help, she can be the anchor for her family, Martin said.

"Social services can provide the care, which would be much better than fracturing the family and spreading them to the four winds."

Martin also sent a letter Tuesday to Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay. He wants Foreign Affairs to ask the Thai government to extradite Margaret Crane to stand trial in British Columbia.

"The circumstances around the murder are troubling with allegations that Mr. Dubie was a cult figure and prone to engaging in abusive behaviour," wrote Martin.

"I know this is a very unusual request but given that this individual has six children, five of which are very young, it would be humane if Mrs. Crane were to go through our justice system, preferably in Victoria."

Craig Ingraham, a musician living in the San Fernando Valley, met Margaret Crane in the mid-1970s in Hawaii. Ingraham said he came under Dubie's influence, becoming his spiritual adviser.

Six weeks ago, Crane called Ingraham for the first time in 20 years.

She continues to call him from jail.

"She doesn't have a lawyer and she needs one," Ingraham said Tuesday.

"And the Canadian consulate seems to be doing the bare minimum they're required to do. There's no sense of urgency."

On Monday, in a hurried phone conversation, Crane told Ingraham she will have a bail hearing in the next few days. After that, he said, he doesn't know whether she has months or years before her trial. "I don't understand the process."

Ingraham was troubled by photographs on the website www.findkristen.com that showed Crane being walked through the crime scene by Thai police. A young boy is pointing a finger at her.

The website is run by Denis Mahon, who is trying to generate tips to solve the disappearance of Kristen Modafferi, a North Carolina woman who vanished in 1997. Dubie's history is featured on the website because he was an associate of Jon Onuma, who is a person of interest in Modafferi's disappearance.

© The Vancouver Sun 2006

sources: http://hazel8500.wordpress.com/2006/09/08/angel-crane-gets-the-help-of-local-mp/#more-432

"It's just what I have to do." Angel Crane talks of her family's ordeal after her mother, Margaret Crane, was charged with killing her father, Daniel George Dubie, in a restaurant in Chiang Mai, Thailand, last week. Photograph by : Times Colonist/Darren Stone

VICTORIA, B.C. - A 22-year-old Victoria woman whose mother is accused of killing her father in Thailand has been granted custody of her five younger siblings.

Angel Crane, who will take over care of her three sisters and two brothers for six months starting in September, said the provincial court decision Thursday was a relief.

"I feel like a huge weight has been taken off my shoulders," she said. "With these kids, I find when I'm with them I'm happy and they are happy."

Angel is the eldest child of Margaret Crane, a former Victoria resident now in a Thai jail, charged with murder in the July 2 shooting of Angel's father, Daniel George Dubie, in a restaurant in Chiang Mai. If convicted, Margaret faces execution by firing squad.

Two days after Margaret's arrest, the five young children were put on a plane and sent back to Victoria, where they have been in foster care ever since. Almost immediately, Angel began trying to win custody.

Heading the family is a task Angel, a part-time telephone solicitor at the Times Colonist, willingly accepts. "I'll do my best," she said. "Being with the kids is a lot of work, but we are all going to pitch in and help out and be a family."

B.C. Housing has helped her rent a house near Tillicum Mall, where she can move in on Sept. 1. The Ministry of Children and Families is also helping her with money for each child. And, Crane said, she has a good network of friends in Victoria who are chipping in by helping her find furniture, appliances and other items.

"I'm single, but I have an amazing network of friends who have really stepped up," she said.

She also said in years past, when she lived with her mother and siblings, she often assumed the extra responsibility of helping out her mother. So being in charge of the five brothers and sisters is nothing really new.

"They are happy with it (living in her custody) and they are already very familiar with me in that role," said Angel.

Michael Butterfield, Angel's lawyer, said since the five children arrived in Victoria, they have lived in a foster home. But Angel has been allowed to live in the foster home, at her own expense, to get acclimatized to her new role.

Butterfield praised Angel for her courage in stepping forward to take on the responsibility. So far, he added, the government has been very supportive, even providing counselling to help Angel's siblings deal with the traumatic time.

"Angel is being very brave in accepting this task and I believe the Ministry (of Children and Families) will be there to help," he said.

Meanwhile, Angel has been unable to communicate with her mother in Thailand. Late last month, Margaret was moved to a new prison where she cannot receive or make telephone calls. Messages are being carried back and forth by a friend.

Since her mother's imprisonment, Angel has had very little good to say about her dead father. Angel described him as a manipulator, a womanizer and a con man. She said he was mentally abusive invoking God and the devil to make her do what he wanted. And, she said, he manipulated her mother for years.

Victoria Times-Colonist © CanWest News Service 2006

Victoria resident Margaret Crane arrives Monday at a police station in Chiang Mai province, 600 kilometres north of Bangkok. She was jailed for allegedly shooting her American common-law husband George Patrick Dubie, 52, who has drawn comparisons to cult leaders Charles Manson and Jim Jones. Photograph by : Associated Press

Sandra McCulloch and Neal Hall, Times Colonist ; CanWest News Service Published: Wednesday, July 05, 2006

A 48-year-old Victoria woman is in a Thai jail facing a murder charge after the shooting death of her American common-law husband, who has drawn comparisons to cult leaders Charles Manson and Jim Jones.

Margaret Crane has been in touch with officials from the Canadian Consulate in Chiang Mai, 600 kilometres north of Bangkok, a Foreign Affairs spokeswoman said in Ottawa.

Her husband's name was reported both as Daniel George Dubie and George Patrick Dubie, and his age as 56. A spokesman for the U.S. Embassy in Bangkok said there is confusion over Dubie's given names.

"We don't know his full name," the spokesman said. According to one source, he went by about 10 aliases and was once a resident of B.C.

Crane is described in media reports as a housewife.

She was arrested at a police checkpoint after Dubie was shot three times in the chest with a .38 calibre revolver Sunday while the two were at a Chiang Mai restaurant. They had a heated argument before the shooting, police said.

Crane fled in a car while Dubie was taken to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

The Bangkok Post reports that Crane told police she and her five children suffered abuse at the hands of Dubie and that the situation had worsened since he began an affair with a Thai woman.

Dubie was a freelance journalist said to have worked for CNN and the United Nations in the aftermath of the 2004 tsunami.

The Foreign Affairs Department would not give details on the incident, citing the accused's rights to privacy.

If convicted, Crane may be sentenced to death, which in Thailand is carried out by firing squad.

Dubie had attracted controversy and police attention in the past. He was once wanted in connection with a theft ring in Hawaii, where he lived in a $1.7-million waterfront mansion.

An associate of Dubie named Jon Onuma, also known as Jade Yoshino, previously lived at the home and was a person of interest in the mysterious disappearance of a North Carolina woman named Kristen Modafferi, who vanished in 1997 from San Francisco.

The case was featured on an episode of the TV program America's Most Wanted and is detailed on a website: www.findkristen.com.

"Daniel Dubie is a modern day Charles Manson and Jim Jones," the website says. "He literally goes around the world telling people he is Jesus and actually convinces them to give him millions of dollars."

Dennis Mahon, who runs the website to generate tips about the case and is a friend of the family of the missing woman, said Dubie was born in Santa Barbara, Calif., and is a former husband of millionaire Geri Cvitanovich, a co-founder of the Herbalife company, which sells health and weight-loss products.

For many years, Dubie lived at his wife's waterfront home outside Honolulu near Diamond Head. After Dubie and Cvitanovich divorced, he was rumoured to have been married to a series of women.

"He supposedly has 17 children," Mahon said. "He lived in B.C. for a while. I've known he was in Thailand for a couple of years. He ran a holistic spa in Chiang Mai."

With her mother in a Thai jail, it falls to eldest daughter to look after 5 younger siblings

"It's just what I have to do." Angel Crane talks of her family's ordeal after her mother, Margaret Crane, was charged with killing her father, Daniel George Dubie, in a restaurant in Chiang Mai, Thailand, last week. Angel Crane's five brothers and sisters are in foster care after being flown to Victoria two days after their mother's arrest. Angel is working to obtain custody of her siblings. Photograph by : Darren Stone, Times Colonist

Angel Crane is only 22 but she already has five children to look after.

Angel is the oldest daughter of Margaret Crane, a Victoria woman who is facing a murder charge in Thailand in the shooting death of Angel's father, Daniel George Dubie.

Dubie was shot in the chest three times at a restaurant in Chiang Mai on July 2. If convicted, Crane may be sentenced to death. In Thailand, that sentence is carried out by a firing squad.

Two days after Margaret Crane's arrest, her five youngest children, three girls and two boys, ages five to 15, were put on a plane to Victoria. The children have all been placed in a foster home while Angel tries to arrange custody of her brothers and sisters.

"It's just what I have to do," said the young woman, who is between contracts as a Times Colonist telemarketing employee. "It was great to see them again, although the circumstances are very difficult."

On Monday, Angel went to see a legal aid lawyer for help with child-custody hearings. She wants to find low-income housing, a place where she can raise her siblings.

"I need a place to take care of these kids. And I need financial help. I don't have any money," she said.

Although her younger brothers and sisters are well looked after in the foster home, they don't really want to be there, said Angel.

"They want family and they want to be with me," she said, her eyes filling with tears. "I know I can give them what they need right now. They're great kids, and I know them and I know how to deal with them. They listen to me and talk to me."

The children arrived in Canada with only a few suitcases of clothes. They have no books, no toys and very little to do. Angel is hoping to set up a trust fund in their name.

In the meantime, thousands of kilometres away, their mother waits for the legal proceedings against her to begin. Angel said she has talked to her mother every day. Margaret Crane's main worry is her children.

"She needs to be extradited. She needs to come back here. I don't know if there's a lawyer who could help that happen, but she needs to come back here. Sometimes I talk to her and she sounds OK. Other days she's not so good."

Margaret Crane is in a prison cell. Friends bring her food every day, said her daughter.

"She's an amazing person. She's very giving and very loving and very strong."

Angel is planning to get in touch with area MPs to see if they can give her help or advice.

Lori Williamson, a Times Colonist manager, said Angel has a lot of support from her co-workers.

"People at work want to know what they can do and how to help. Ideally, she wants to be able to keep the kids together in one home and raise them. But she'd need everything to look after them."