Police say Jimmy Jasa tampered with gas lines causing the explosion that would kill him and his estranged wife
The story into how and why Jimmy Jasa intentionally caused his home to explode with himself and his wife inside starts long before August 2017.
A new report from Lincoln Police Department said the Jasa’s were married for 45 years, but had been estranged for a while before the explosion.
They didn’t live together but the report said on the afternoon of August 14, Jeanne was working on a scrapbook and needed a picture that was at their home at 5601 S 78th Street.
The report said she sent Jimmy a text that said she would be there in about 20 minutes.
That text was sent 36 minutes before the 911 call that brought first responders to this scene that Chief Fire Inspector Bill Moody said was the worst gas explosion he had ever seen.
Experts said 36 minutes was adequate time for Jimmy to fill the home with natural gas.
“The main gas line inside the home was found desoldered and snapped off at the regulator,” the report said. “Second, investigators observed the gas fitting to the water heater was loose and there were tool marks on the fitting. Third, this fitting had soot inside. That indicates the fitting was loosened prior to the explosion.”
Investigators with Black Hills Energy said at the time of the explosion the home was filled with more than four times the amount of naturally gas than the home usually did in a month.
The blast was strong enough to throw Jeanne Jasa from the home, and despite first responders efforts she died a few weeks later at the hospital.
Channel 8 talked with a friend and former coworker of Jeanne’s after the explosion who described her as an “angel on earth.”
“It was absolutely devastating, nothing more than that,” Mary McCauley-Long said. “She’s one of the most amazing women I’ve ever known.”
The report didn’t say how Jimmy ignited the natural gas, or detail specifically why he did it, but it said he was troubled.
“Based on investigators’ interviews with family and friends, Jimmy had reportedly been struggling with alcohol abuse and had been estranged from his adult children,” the report said.
The report said Jeanne told him she’d get a divorce if he didn’t work on his relationship with their children, but he said he would never allow a divorce to happen.
A friend of Jimmy’s also told police they believed Jimmy’s alcoholism had worsened and he appeared depressed and suicidal.
“In letters reviewed by investigators, Jimmy writes extensively about his frustrations concerning their relationship and failed marriage,” the report said.
When first responders got to the scene they found Jimmy standing over Jeanne’s body.
His injuries weren’t as severe as his wife’s, but they did eventually cause him to go into kidney failure and die of septic shock on May 2, 2018.
Lincoln Police Chief Jeff Bliemeister said Thursday morning this report concludes the city’s extensive investigation. They were able to release it because the Jasa family dropped their lawsuit against the city.
Many people have wondered why answers are just coming out, but police also released a timeline of their investigation, and it shows it took until July of 2018 to confirm some of the details in the report.
Scroll to the bottom of the page to read the entire report released by the Lincoln Police Department on October 25, 2018.
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Officials released new details Thursday on the home explosion that killed a Lincoln couple last year.
The blast, which happened at a home near 78th and Old Cheney last August and was ruled a murder-suicide, led to the deaths of Jim and Jeanne Jasa.
Jeanne Jasa died from burns she received on August 29th, with her husband, Jim, passing away in hospice care on May 2nd.
Thursday, officials released a timeline of events surrounding the explosion.
The report says that rescue crews arrived at the home, responding to reports that two people had been injured in an explosion.
Bystanders pulled both Jim and Jeanne Jasa from the rubble of their home before crews arrived on the scene.
The report says it was immediately clear that Jeanne was badly injured, and that Jim Jasa was standing near her and his injuries did not appear to be as severe as his wife’s.
Both were transported to the hospital.
Due to the severity of her injuries, officials were never able to interview Jeanne Jasa about what happened.
An autopsy revealed she died from thermal injuries and blunt force trauma.
The autopsy for Jim Jasa revealed he had kidney failure which to led septic shock, and that he died from injuries sustained in the blast.
Officials said Thursday that the manner of death for both was changed so that the Jasa family could continue with the estate process and allow investigators to review autopsy reports and complete follow-up investigations.
During their investigation, officials learned that the couple had been married for 45 years but had been separated for several years before the explosion.
Jeanne was living with her mother, but periodically made stops by Jim’s residence to check on him.
The day of the explosion, Jeanne was working on a scrapbook and needed a photo from Jim’s residence.
Cellphone records showed that Jeanne texted Jim 36 minutes prior to the first 911 call, telling him she would be coming over in 20 minutes.
Fire investigators concluded that the 36 minutes between the text and the 911 call would be enough time to fill the house with natural gas to cause the explosion that occurred.
The report says the odor from that amount of gas would have been overpowering, and that, based on analyses from fire investigators, a “reasonable person would have evacuated or called for help.”
According to friends and family, Jim Jasa had been struggling with alcohol abuse and had an estranged relationship with his children.
The report says Jeanne told him, unless he would work on the relationship with their children, she would divorce him.
Jim told Jeanne that he would “never allow a divorce to happen,” the report says.
Friends told investigators that Jim had appeared depressed and possibly suicidal in the days leading up to the explosion.
Black Hills Energy completed an independent investigation into the explosion, with technicians finding no evidence of a gas leak outside of the Jasa home.
The report says the company estimated that Jim Jasa had used more than four times the average monthly amount of natural gas at the time of the explosion.
The report says that Black Hills and Lincoln Police were never notified of a gas leak prior to the explosion.
Investigators said, in order for that amount of natural gas to build up, all ignition sources would have had to have been intentionally extinguished and that the amount of gas was the result of tampering.
Investigators also found several problems with the gas lines, including the main gas line inside the home being snapped off the regulator.
The gas fitting to the water was loose and there were tool marks on it.
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms & Explosives confirmed that three gas fittings were loose.
Read the full report:
