Standard's economy is based on the surrounding farming community and the energy industry, with a number of oil and gas rigs in operation in the vicinity.

[5][6] The Grade 10 student regularly babysat for townsfolk, and on the morning of April 22, 1981, she received a phone call from a man who identified himself as Bill Christensen.

Although she did not know the caller, she agreed, as 'Christensen' was a common surname in the area and crime was virtually unknown in the village, with residents routinely leaving their doors unlocked.

The driver did not leave his car, and Kelly walked out of her house and climbed into the automobile's front passenger seat.

Two months after her abduction, on June 28, her badly decomposed body was discovered by a young man riding his dirt bike in Chin Lakes, an irrigation canal south of the Town of Taber, southeast of her hometown of Standard.