Klimczak ministered to women prisoners in a local prison, visiting them and helping their families. As a result of her experiences there, she, together with the Rev. Roy Herberger, a Catholic priest, had developed the goal of helping former prisoners in the Bissonette House, a home for parolees on the city's East Side. The home is named after a Catholic priest, Joseph Bissonette, who had lived on site. Joseph was murdered in 1987 by a vagrant whom he was trying to help, as was his practice. In a repetition of history, it was one of the residents of the house who murdered Sister Karen, after she caught him stealing her cell phone. During the incident, the resident had been under the influence of crack cocaine.