Wyoming house explosion injures 3 police officers, kills man who was suicidal over eviction

Wyoming house explosion kills suicidal man

CHEYENNE, Wyo. — Authorities said Monday they’re interviewing friends and family of a suicidal man who blew up his ex-wife’s house, killing him and injuring three police officers.

Michael A. Lesher, 44, was distraught at being told to move out of the upper-middle-class home, officials said.

The blast happened as the officers, carrying a shield, reached the porch of the gas-filled house around noon Saturday. The explosion tossed them into the yard and they were treated for cuts and bruises.

Crews found Lesher alive under rubble in the basement but he died later at a hospital.

The owner of the home since 2005 was Teresa M. Lesher, Lesher’s ex-wife, according to county officials. District Court records show the Leshers divorced in 2006, according to a court clerk.

Michael Lesher had been given a deadline of noon Saturday to move out.

“I know he wasn’t happy about having to leave that house,” Tim Hill, a special agent for the Wyoming Division of Criminal Investigation, said Monday.

Lesher had told family and friends he was suicidal and “wasn’t going to go out peacefully,” police said.

Lesher was a maintenance worker for a year and a half for the Central Wyoming Counseling Center, a nonprofit mental health and substance abuse treatment facility that opened in 2008. He quit a month ago, saying he was taking another job, said the center’s executive director, Mike Huston.

A listed phone number for a Teresa M. Lesher at a different address in Casper wasn’t working Monday.

No one besides Michael Lesher was in the house at the time of the blast and Hill said he didn’t think anyone besides Lesher was living there. What sparked the blast might never be determined, he said, but fire officials are investigating.

Police first received a call Saturday morning about a suicidal person who had disconnected gas lines inside the house. Gas workers told police a substantial amount of gas had built up in the home and valves outside had been altered so the supply couldn’t be shut off, said Casper police Lt. Mark Trimble.

Police evacuated other homes nearby.

Plastic rounds with foam tips were used to shoot out windows to ventilate the home. Authorities spoke with Lesher by phone for an hour and a half before he quit responding.

The explosion happened as the three officers approached the home to try to re-establish contact.