http://www.in-forum.com/articles/index.cfm?id=192546§ion=news&freebie_check&CFID=7657692&CFTOKEN=63277775&jsessionid=883022490708292cf4a6
Two years ago, Matt Mechtel was in the spotlight of North Dakota’s Republican Party as a congressional candidate, talking of plans to start a “pandemic” among people with his infectious energy and smile.
On Thursday, the 39-year-old’s father found him dead in a shop on the family’s Page farm from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
Cass County court documents obtained Thursday provide a glimpse into a life that appears to have unraveled following Mechtel’s 2006 congressional bid, a campaign he eventually lost to incumbent Rep. Earl Pomeroy.
During the past year, Mechtel lost his crops to weather and his home to a fire. His wife filed for divorce, and Mechtel found himself at the center of a federal investigation.
Mechtel’s parents feared he was suicidal, prompting them three months ago to obtain temporary guardianship over Mechtel. They described to the court that his physical and mental health was “in serious question” following the series of unsettling events, which appeared to have started in spring 2007.
Cass County sheriff’s deputies were sent to Mechtel’s home last April 20 to serve an order of protection against him filed by his wife, Denise, according to Chief Deputy Jim Thoreson.
As part of the order, deputies seized 48 weapons from Mechtel.
Two days later, they were back with the beginnings of divorce proceedings, Thoreson said. The woman who had answered Mechtel’s ad for a combine driver and later married him was ending their union of almost 12 years.
In June and July, storms struck the region and destroyed most of Mechtel’s corn and soybean crop.
And later, an August fire destroyed his home and possessions. Officials said in November that a cause could not be determined for the blaze, but federal Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms officials were investigating Mechtel as a possible arson suspect, causing him “tremendous mental stress,” his parents wrote in the guardianship papers filed in November.
Beginning in August, Mechtel started spending thousands of dollars, estimated in the court papers to have reached at least $250,000, with “no tangible property to show for the expenditures.”
His parents believed a female had befriended Mechtel and was using one of his credit cards, writing checks from his account and having him pay rent for her apartment.
Those events and his statements that “nothing works” and “I don’t have anything to live for,” coupled with threats of suicide to multiple family members, led to Mechtel entering a treatment center in Grand Forks, N.D., at the behest of his family.
He initially refused to go, but did so on Nov. 10 after his mother called 911 when he left the home “in an extremely despondent manner” and authorities gave him a choice of going to The Stadter Center with family or with law enforcement.
His parents worried he had “lost sight of fact versus fiction in his life.”
Mechtel also was being investigated by federal authorities, North Dakota U.S. Attorney Drew Wrigley confirmed Thursday, although he would not say how long it had been under way or what it involved.
Wrigley said when he heard news of Mechtel’s death Thursday he had not decided “what if any charges would be presented to the grand jury for their consideration.”
Wrigley declined to comment about whether a grand jury had been given any information about a potential case against Mechtel.
“I want to caution everyone to refrain from drawing conclusions that may or may not be justified,” he said.
A woman who answered the phone at the home of Mechtel’s parents declined to comment.
Mechtel was scheduled to appear in Cass County District Court on Thursday afternoon regarding his divorce.
Authorities said an autopsy was scheduled for today.
Before rising in statewide politics, Mechtel was a former chairman of the North Dakota Soybean Council and the Northern Crops Council. He also raised elk and ran a gun shop and a retail tire shop in Page.
Was that a legal confiscation?
Two years ago, Matt Mechtel was in the spotlight of North Dakota’s Republican Party as a congressional candidate, talking of plans to start a “pandemic” among people with his infectious energy and smile.
On Thursday, the 39-year-old’s father found him dead in a shop on the family’s Page farm from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
Cass County court documents obtained Thursday provide a glimpse into a life that appears to have unraveled following Mechtel’s 2006 congressional bid, a campaign he eventually lost to incumbent Rep. Earl Pomeroy.
During the past year, Mechtel lost his crops to weather and his home to a fire. His wife filed for divorce, and Mechtel found himself at the center of a federal investigation.
Mechtel’s parents feared he was suicidal, prompting them three months ago to obtain temporary guardianship over Mechtel. They described to the court that his physical and mental health was “in serious question” following the series of unsettling events, which appeared to have started in spring 2007.
Cass County sheriff’s deputies were sent to Mechtel’s home last April 20 to serve an order of protection against him filed by his wife, Denise, according to Chief Deputy Jim Thoreson.
As part of the order, deputies seized 48 weapons from Mechtel.
Two days later, they were back with the beginnings of divorce proceedings, Thoreson said. The woman who had answered Mechtel’s ad for a combine driver and later married him was ending their union of almost 12 years.
In June and July, storms struck the region and destroyed most of Mechtel’s corn and soybean crop.
And later, an August fire destroyed his home and possessions. Officials said in November that a cause could not be determined for the blaze, but federal Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms officials were investigating Mechtel as a possible arson suspect, causing him “tremendous mental stress,” his parents wrote in the guardianship papers filed in November.
Beginning in August, Mechtel started spending thousands of dollars, estimated in the court papers to have reached at least $250,000, with “no tangible property to show for the expenditures.”
His parents believed a female had befriended Mechtel and was using one of his credit cards, writing checks from his account and having him pay rent for her apartment.
Those events and his statements that “nothing works” and “I don’t have anything to live for,” coupled with threats of suicide to multiple family members, led to Mechtel entering a treatment center in Grand Forks, N.D., at the behest of his family.
He initially refused to go, but did so on Nov. 10 after his mother called 911 when he left the home “in an extremely despondent manner” and authorities gave him a choice of going to The Stadter Center with family or with law enforcement.
His parents worried he had “lost sight of fact versus fiction in his life.”
Mechtel also was being investigated by federal authorities, North Dakota U.S. Attorney Drew Wrigley confirmed Thursday, although he would not say how long it had been under way or what it involved.
Wrigley said when he heard news of Mechtel’s death Thursday he had not decided “what if any charges would be presented to the grand jury for their consideration.”
Wrigley declined to comment about whether a grand jury had been given any information about a potential case against Mechtel.
“I want to caution everyone to refrain from drawing conclusions that may or may not be justified,” he said.
A woman who answered the phone at the home of Mechtel’s parents declined to comment.
Mechtel was scheduled to appear in Cass County District Court on Thursday afternoon regarding his divorce.
Authorities said an autopsy was scheduled for today.
Before rising in statewide politics, Mechtel was a former chairman of the North Dakota Soybean Council and the Northern Crops Council. He also raised elk and ran a gun shop and a retail tire shop in Page.
Was that a legal confiscation?
