Woman accused of making bomb threat to stop husband from gambling

Back in February, Tamara Gillespie was mad at her husband, police say. After all, he had just taken all the money they had been saving for a new car and was headed to the Muckleshoot Casino in Auburn to gamble it away.

So she picked up her cellphone, dialed the casino and told them her husband was headed there with a fertilizer bomb to blow the place up, according to King County prosecutors.

Now Gillespie, 43, of Enumclaw, who has a history of causing problems at the tribal casino, has been charged in King County Superior Court with making a bomb threat, a felony. She has been summoned to arraignment May 7 in Kent and remains free.

When reached on her cellphone today, Gillespie laughed and denied making the call. "That's just ludicrous," she said. "That whole thing is just ridiculous."

According to the charging documents, a casino worker answered the main telephone line about 1 a.m. on Feb. 21 and was greeted by what sounded like a very alarmed woman.

The woman wouldn't give her name or her husband's name, but she was insistent that he was on his way to the casino with a bomb made from ammonia and fertilizer, intent on revenge for losing a lot of money.

The casino was unable to identify the phone number of the caller. Auburn police were alerted and security measures were stepped up, but there were no problems at the casino, the court papers say.

About a week later, police got a call from a friend of Gillespie, who said he was pretty sure she had made the bomb threat.

The man said he had been drinking with Gillespie and her husband, Brian, at their home that night when Brian Gillespie gathered up the couple's car money and left for the casino. His wife was upset that her husband would lose all the money, the witness said, so she grabbed her cellphone and appeared to make a call, according to the charging documents.

The witness said he heard Gillespie say something about ammonia and fertilizer, but at the time he thought she was just faking the call as a joke.

Police obtained Gillespie's cellphone records and found that Gillespie called directory assistance at 12:51 a.m. and then two minutes later called the casino, prosecutors allege.

When questioned, Gillespie told police she had lost her cellphone at the casino and imagined that someone else might have found it and made the threat, prosecutors allege. But she later said she took a lot of prescription medication and often doesn't remember things, so she might have made the call, according to the prosecution documents.

This afternoon, Gillespie repeated that she had lost her cellphone at the casino, where she and her husband go "a couple times a week." She said the first she learned of the bomb threat was when police showed up at her door.

She said she had been in a serious accident recently and takes a lot of medication, leading her to frequently lose her cellphone. She presumes someone might have found it and phoned the threat to the casino.

She said she wasn't worried about the charge. She was more upset that police had obtained her telephone records, "violating my civil rights and my privacy."

"I thought this was still a free country," she said.

Prosecutors say Gillespie, who is also known as Tamara Lapenckas, has been arrested at the casino for trespassing, assault and resisting arrest. In addition to those convictions, she has convictions for drugs, drunken driving and defrauding a public utility.

Ian Ith: 206-464-2109 or iith@seattletimes.com