A Tear in my Life: The Brutal Truth

The year was 1982, and Jarek and Dianne were both still in high school when they fell in love. The kind of love so precious and rare that few will ever experience in their lifetime. This was not some meaningless tryst during a brief courtship, or a settlement for a lifetime of security. This was the real deal, and they both knew it.


Days turned into months, and months into endless infatuation—as they spent many a night sneaking out in defiance—before an elopement plan to leave their families and friends for the rest of their lives was born. But when, on the eve of their greatest adventure, Dianne tragically died, both of their worlds ended. Distraught and in shock, Jarek would spend decades grieving over the horror that changed their lives forever, before returning to where it all began.


What this story tells is not only the details of how Jarek and Dianne met, fell in love, concocted their elopement, and eventually executed the perilous plan, but also what happened twenty-four years later when he returned to Kalispell, Montana to face the presumptuous Flathead County authorities.


A “Romeo and Juliet” story like no other, it is a tale of blind teenage love and the people who tried to turn their innocent elopement tragedy into a crime.


Read their story, look at the evidence, and judge for yourself.