The Mirror A newlywed BP vice president took his own life just a week after being made redundant because of the coronavirus pandemic, an inquest heard.
Nick Spencer, 61, was worried he was going to have to remortgage the ÂŁ2 million home where he and his wife lived in Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire, as a result of losing his well-paid job.
An inquest heard Mr Spencer had spent a decade working for oil giant BP when he was forced to leave the firm on March 31 this year.
Having been told of the redundancy, the successful father-of-two had become depressed and worried about his finances, a coroner was told.
In a statement read to the inquest, his wife Eve said called police after she woke up and discovered letters he had written, including one addressed to her.
She told Wednesday’s hearing: “Since he was made redundant he had been depressed.
“He had been looking for a new job and I felt he seemed positive but there was an oil crisis because of Covid-19 and he was worried about remortgaging the house and the finances.
“In the period leading up to his death, he seemed a bit more down and it was the 12th anniversary of a family bereavement.
“On the evening before his death, we watched the news and went to bed.
“We talked about TV and he came to bed at 2am which was unusually late.
“At 6.40am on April 7 he got up. He was normally an early riser and I went back to sleep.
“I later went into the study and saw the letters he had written. I opened the one addressed to me and called the police, I was very worried.”
The first police officer to arrive at the home discovered Mr Spencer. Horrified Eve identified the body as her husband at 10.30am.
Pathologist Dr Steven Corrigan confirmed the cause of death as hanging.
Having graduated from Harvard Business School in 1999, Mr Spencer became a general manager at European Refining, directing three refineries across Europe.
He went on to work at ConocoPhillips for the next seven years, tasked with establishing the business in the MENA region.
In October 2009, he joined British Petroleum (BP) as a business unit leader working for the next five years at the largest refinery in the US.
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