Man who tried to blow up house, kill family gets 20 year term
PORTLAND, Ore. - A former Nike executive who was charged with trying to kill his family in a natural gas leak has plead guilty and has been sentenced to 20 years in prison.
Speidel had just returned from a trip to Disneyland with his wife and two young children in April when police said he tampered with gas line leading into his Bethany home, filling the house with potentially explosive gas.
But one of Speidel's sons smelled the gas leak and woke up his mom. She safely got herself and the four children, ages 3 to 9, out of the home.
No one was hurt and there was no explosion but investigators said at the time there was enough gas in the home to cause damage even to surrounding homes if the gas had exploded.
Court documents show Speidel's wife suspected he had a history of being depressed and suicidal.
Documents also show Speidel confessed to his wife and wrote letters to her and the children.
Speidel worked for Nike as a business director for the company's "SPARQ" division.
He also was a volunteer for LifeWorks NW, serving on its marketing committee from 2009 to 2010. That organization provides treatment and counseling for people with drug addictions and mental health issues.
According to the University of Oregon, he attended the school in the 1990s and again in the spring of 2011 and winter of 2012, majoring in social sciences. But there is no record he ever earned a degree.
A records search revealed Speidel was arrested for DUII in 2007 and pleaded “no contest.” He was sentenced to a diversion program.
This man probably was facing divorce and knew what our women and courts do to men in a divorce This is just a reflection of what our court system is doing to men in divorce situations. They award the wife thousands in child support, give everything to her and put the man in debt for the rest of his life. Women yell abuse even if there is none and the man takes it in the shorts.Â
Â
I wish someone would do some investigative reporting on divorces in our country. I know of a man who has worked his entire life for his family, given his kids everything they needed and wanted, stayed by his wife through two kidney transplants, her father's death and has been nothing but a loving husband and father. She decided that "there must be something else to life" and wanted a divorce.Â
Â
She moved out, he paid for a new apartment for her and the kids and almost everything they owned. Our wonderful court said he only gets to see his kids everyother weekend. He has to pay over $3000 a month in child support which leaves him almost nothing to live on or find a place to live PLUS whenever his teenaged daughter wants something all her mother has to do is go to court (without even noitifying him) and our courts give her everything she askes for. Last time it was almost $1000 for homecoming. He also has to pay for anyother expences she might have during her senior year.Â
Â
This is truely what our courts are doing to men who are involved in a divorce. You have to step back and ask yourself if that wouldn't be enough to motivate a man to try and kill his wife. I agree that nothing is worth taking another's life but some people can be pushed to that point. And more and more men are being pushed to this point. As you pointed out...the guy in Washington that set his house on fire.Â
Â
I challenge you to do some research on what is really going on in our courts with divorces. I know of at least 9 men who have gotten the same treatment from our court system. Women's rights are great, I'm a woman, but things have gone way too far and the men are the ones who are getting the abuse. I can tell you every step that lawyers are having women take when they are involved in a divorce. It's always the same and our coourts hand down the same decission every time.Â
Â
 I dare you to do some REAL investigative reporting. Not just make judgements on surface evidence.Â
Â
Â
Â
@Woman Yikes that's quite a leap from this story to yours....counseling
 @Woman im glad you posted your story and your experiences. Women do get the better deal or maybe they don't but thats how the "courts" see it. Its far to easy for a women to cheat on her husband and run away with another man or just file for divorce and reap the benefits. Any father wants the best for his children and in doing so will do whatever he can to help out...but often we can see that the system is manipulated. Of course, men cheat too but if they are to run off to whomever they sure don't get anything. Even in both examples if kids are not even in the picture, the male will be on the losing end if the wife decides to up and quit when the male had no wrongdoing. Of course im sure there is a story to every case and its easy to somewhat generalize here.
Geez, remind me to never take my family to D-land. Standing in those long lines in the sun and smog must realy affect a person.
 @iamtroglodite Or if you go, go early in the day on a weekday during the off season.
Less lines.
Now his family is going to loose their home, have bad credit, the kids will be hated & shunned as losers with their dad in prison, and after a couple years living in absolute poverty, on food stamps, and in prison-like homeless shelters the mom is going to wish her husband's plan succeeded....
 @August100 Geeezzz, August, sounds like you need to be on suicide watch.Â
 @August100 You're a "glass is half empty person", yes?
 @deejm2112 Family homeless shelters are filled with these types of families all across the nation; it's horrible no one will help them out!
@August100 @deejm2112 What are you doing to help them out?
should just hang him
So happy his family and neighbors were unharmed!!
"A former Nike executive who was charged with trying to kill his family in a natural gas leak has plead guilty..."
Â
Well, he's just not a nice man. Nope, not at all! Too many fumes from the soles???
Â
Rather ironic he worked in the SPARQ group... lost it in his marriage and didn't have one to blow up the house.
Must have been a REALLY tough trip Disney huh?
Â
He would have gotten life had he succeeded, in cases like this people should be sentenced according to "what could have happened".
So apparently you can get a job as a business executive at NIKE even if you're a drop-out. MAN, what was I thinking staying in school and earning my degree?! The irony is that if most of us applied for the job he leaves behind, they wouldn't even bother to look at our résumé regardless of where we graduated. After college I went to work in telecom and ended up learning that my schoolmate--who dropped out before the university dropped him for skipping class to smoke pot and play video games--had just been hired as my new IT manager. He lasted about 6 months but earned twice as much as the programmers because during is interview he expressed an interest in management. Still lived with his parents. I was duped into living responsibly and trying to be independent.
 @Playanekes I'm sorry, but your comments sound like sour grapes, to me.  All across America, you will find plenty of stories that are the opposite of yours.  And if you substitute the participants in your story to be your being a woman, the likelihood of a schoolmate like yours being their bosses is even higher.  Been there.  Get over it.
 @Playanekes Sounds like you are a bit envious  (understandably) as well as you question being the person that takes on responsibility and behaving like a normal respectful person.  there are always going to be users and advantage takers...like you said, he didn't last.  He will always be skipping around and only lasting long enough till folks figure him out.
Hope the wife divorced him and moved far far away!  20 years just doesn't seem long enough for attempted murder.
Another fine, up-standing citizen... Â Certainly happy that his little "project" failed, and that his wife and kids are safe...