Clyde Sperring and the Suwannee County Sheriff's deputies who pulled him to safety. At left is Deputy Cory Horne, who found Sperring in a smoke-filled bedroom. (Photo by the Suwannee Democrat)

See editor's note at end

By Jeff Waters
CNHI News Service

LIVE OAK, Fla. -- Clyde Sperring woke to the sound of the gunshot that sent a bullet tearing through his chest. It lodged near his spine, paralyzing him.

He looked up to see someone in the light. “I could see them trying to get a second shot," he said. "Then I saw who it was.”

Sperring held up his arms to protect himself from his wife's second shot. It struck his shoulder.

“I didn’t think she ever would do something like that,” he said.

Beth Sperring then left her husband of 25 years to carry out what investigators say was meant to be a murder-suicide. His survival in the harrowing minutes that followed was far from certain.

Clyde Sperring	Beth Sperring

Sperring, 60, had just left a therapy session in a Gainesville rehab facility this Wednesday when, tears flowing, he recounted by telephone what happened that night.

It was two days after Thanksgiving. The former Suwannee High School principal and school official, now retired, lay in bed asleep. It was about 10 p.m. when his wife of 25 years, Beth Sperring, fired the .38-caliber pistol.

Sheriff’s investigators say Beth Sperring, having shot her husband, used an accelerant to set a fire that would destroy their home in this Florida community about 30 miles south of the Georgia border.

Investigators later found her on a couch, with a self-inflicted gunshot to her head. Her body was burned beyond recognition.

Beth Sperring was as a nurse practitioner. At one point in her career she worked in the school where her husband was principal. They married Sept. 15, 1985, but more recently were drifting apart.

Beth Sperring filed for divorce on July 8, citing irreconcilable differences, court records show. A mediation hearing ended in impasse in October. A trial was scheduled for Jan. 26.

It appeared she mapped out what would happen that night. Family and friends said she placed several dogs inside a car with a note asking that they be taken care of. Sheriff Tony Cameron said investigators found “written plans” for what would happen.

Clyde Sperring said he did not know where his wife went after shooting him. As he lay in bed, unable to move, he heard two more shots, then a third, he said. He feared she might return.

But he then heard the crackle of a spreading fire – and he could not flee. Things appeared hopeless, and he began to give up. He shouted to God for help.

“I could hear the fire popping,” he said, “and I just knew it was going to start at my feet and start burning me up. …

“I knew I was going to die,” he said. “I just gave up and lay there.”

Thoughts of his children and grandchildren made him realize he wasn’t ready to quit, he said. He looked for his cell phone but it was on a nightstand beside the bed – far out of reach.

He grabbed for the furniture as smoke filled his bedroom. On the third try he reached it, pulled the nightstand toward him and had his phone. He dialed 911.

Minutes later a shotgun butt shattered his window. Sperring said he heard rescuers shouting but couldn’t see them. They couldn’t see him, either.

Sheriff’s Deputy Cory Horne said a dispatcher told him Sperring was in the room. He heard Sperring. The deputy found him by running his hands along the bed.

Horne and two other deputies pushed Sperring through the window to deputies waiting outside.

Facing a long recovery, Sperring said he remembers Beth not just as his wife but as the mother of their children.

“I feel sorry for her,” he said. “I get angry, but that anger doesn’t stay for long.”

Jeff Waters writes for the Suwannee Democrat in Live Oak, Fla.

Sheriff’s department and fire marshal investigators say Beth Sperring set the fire that destroyed the couple’s home.

Editor's note: An earlier version of this story included incorrect details about Beth Sperring's work history. This version has been updated.