FARR WEST, Weber County — Gus Hansen knew his common-law wife, Britney LouAnn Hansen, needed help for her addiction to prescription medication.
She had been battling an addiction problem for years, but family members believe it had recently gotten worse.
His sister, Melissa Hansen, said just last week her brother called her asking for her help.
"(He said), 'I need to do what's best for my kids. I need to get her in somewhere.' And he said, 'I'm afraid if she finds out, she'll run away,'" Melissa Hansen recalled Tuesday.
Gus Hansen apparently confronted Britney about her addiction on the night of Oct. 5 and the two got into a verbal fight.
"He had called me the next day and said, 'Britney is gone.' And I'm like, 'Did she find out we're going to help her?' And he's like, 'No, she's gone,'" Melissa Hansen said.
Britney Hansen, 33, was found dead Oct. 6 inside a trailer parked in the driveway next to the house that she and Gus Hansen lived in. Her body was discovered by her young children.
The Weber County Sheriff's Office called the death suspicious, noting that the two had been verbally fighting the night before. They also said there was a history of domestic violence at the house. Gus Hansen was taken to the sheriff's office that morning to answer questions.
Later that day, investigators announced that the man had been allowed to return home and was not considered a suspect in Britney's death. Detectives believe her death was most likely the result of a drug overdose, though toxicology tests from the Utah State Medical Examiner's Office had not been completed as of Tuesday.
Gus Hansen, 40, is still upset with media coverage of his wife's death, saying the initial stories suggested that he might have had something to do with it. He insists that he loved her — loved her to the point that he would not leave her, despite her continued addiction to pills.
Melissa Hansen said Britney had once told her, "You don't fight and yell this much with somebody you don't care about."
"She loved him. And she wanted to be able to work through this. And she was trying, but you just never know what's going to happen," Melissa Hansen said. "He really did just care about her and didn't know what to do."
Gus and Britney Hansen were together for 16 years. They had three children together — two girls, now 14 and 10, and a boy, now 9. Despite having the same last name, they were never officially married.
About 10 years ago, they moved into their current house, 1502 N. 2000 West. But the past four years, the family believed, was when the living conditions inside the home deteriorated to the point of becoming deplorable. Britney Hansen's pill addiction became so severe that she once shot herself in the leg just so she could get a new prescription of pain meds, according to Melissa Hansen.
Two years ago when Melissa Hansen had surgery, she said Britney asked her for extra pills. When Gus Hansen was injured in a recent ATV accident, she said Britney was at the hospital to make sure his script was filled so she could take it.
On the Friday before her death, Britney Hansen had received a prescription for pain medication. It was gone by Monday, Melissa Hansen said.
Because of her addiction, family members say the woman let the house become so grossly neglected that at the time of her death it likely could have been considered a health hazard.
"This house was nice when he moved into it. But her addiction caused her to not want him to clean and her to not want to clean. I didn't know it was this bad or I would have come over myself sooner and help her do it," Melissa Hansen said from the house Tuesday.
She said it had been two years since she had been inside her brother's home.
The family has been tearing into Gus Hansen's home in an attempt to make it livable again.
In one of the girl's bedrooms on Tuesday, the carpeting and some of the flooring was completely ripped out because of the filth, the walls stained with an unknown substance and wires exposed on the walls leading into the ceiling. But there were several books from the "Twilight" series displayed neatly on a shelf and the name of one of the girls written on the wall with a heart above it.
Part of the roof over the basement was sagging and nearly collapsing because of a leaky roof that has gone untreated.
Old, moldy food was being collected in garbage bags and tossed out Tuesday. Dishes were piled in a sink that doesn't work. There are multiple holes in the walls throughout the house.
Hanging in the kitchen was a small wooden house with the words "Britney" and "Gus" written on it.
Now, the family wants to give Gus Hansen and his three children a fresh start. They want to make their home whole again before the children move back in.
But they know that fixing it will take a lot of effort.
The family is asking for volunteers to assist on Friday, along with any supplies the public is willing to donate. Paint, carpet and flooring are needed as much as electricians, plumbers or other handymen.
Denisen Ellis, Melissa Hansen's boyfriend, knows what Gus Hansen is going through. His wife was also addicted to pain medications. She died in 2008. He said both his wife and Britney Hansen seemed to follow the same patterns.
"You just don't know what someone is going through if you haven't been through it. Someone who is a perfectly good, upstanding citizen, good mother, good person … when they're coming down off medications and want more medications, they'll bust a window, they'll throw something at you. They'll try and kill you. They love their kids, but they want to run away from their kids. They want the best thing for their kids, but then they put their kids in the middle of it. They don't mean to, but it's this addiction issue," he said.
Ellis said his wife wanted to get help. But her addiction always won out.
"Half the time she was seeking a doctor to get pills, and half the time she was seeking resources to get off the pills," he said. "If I did dishes, if I did laundry, she'd walk right up behind me screaming and yelling and throwing everything back on the floor. Six months (earlier) that would have never happened. She kept the house clean, she was a normal mom. Suddenly it's breaking widows and breaking doors and tearing up the carpet looking (to see) if I hid her prescription or something like that."
Seeing what is happening to the Hansens has brought back many of the feelings he had seven years ago. Ellis said as sad and tragic as it is to lose a loved one, there's also a sense of a new beginning, something he hopes the Hansens can now have.
"One emotion does prevail: eventually, beyond all the loss, it's over. And that's a horrible thing to say or think or feel. But the overwhelming finality of it is, it's over. We're not going to be dealing with this nightmare anymore. My kids, his kids, everyone that's going through this, their kids are not asking for this. And the person that's doing it to them, I truly believe cannot help it. They cannot help themselves," he said.
Having seen twice now, first hand, what pill addiction can do to a family, Ellis would like to see more resources available for people fighting addictions. In his wife's case, he said short of her being arrested and being court-ordered to attend treatment, there was nothing that anyone could do to force her to stay in treatment. Because she was an adult, she could voluntarily check into rehab, and then check out if she wanted to.
Ellis said his wife would say, "I'm telling you right now, I want to go (to rehab). Half-an-hour from now, I'll want to run away. Half-an-hour after that, I'm going to want to try and find more pills.
"I'm going to change my mind, don't let me," Ellis said his wife would tell those trying to help her.
Ellis believes a person seeking help for addiction shouldn't have to hurt themselves or someone else in order to be forced by a court to stay in a treatment center.
Ellis was busy Tuesday collecting garbage and ripping out old flooring to try to give Hansen and his family a fresh start.
Meanwhile, Gus Hansen had few words to say on Tuesday. He quietly looked through piles of his children's schoolwork and pictures they had drawn that were stored in the basement.
Anyone who wants to volunteer to help fix the Hansen house on Friday can call Melissa Hansen at 801-696-7750.
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