HOUSTON — When Joseph and Sarah Spindler saw news reports about the terror attack in Nairobi, their thoughts immediately turned to their son Jason.
He worked at the compound stormed by Islamic extremists who killed at least 21 people before they were gunned down.
The Spindlers immediately contacted the U.S. Consulate and police in Nairobi but they couldn’t provide any information.
“So, for eight hours, nobody knew where he was,” Sarah told KHOU 11 News.
Jason’s colleagues, who had been safely evacuated, told his parents he had gone to a café in the compound for lunch but had left his phone in the office because it was broken.
“Everyone was hoping and hoping that he was hiding and would turn up with the rest of the people that turned up,” Sarah said.
Instead, they got the phone call they’d been dreading from the American Embassy: Jason Spindler was killed by a suicide bomber while sitting at his favorite café.
The Spindlers had eaten at that restaurant and stayed at the hotel where the attack happened while visiting their son.
It’s a compound where you have several checkpoints before you get to the hotel,” Joseph said. “It just doesn’t make sense how they were able to breach all that security.”
Ironically, Jason had survived another terrorist attack more than 17 years ago when he was a young man working at the World Trade Center.
"Jason was a survivor of 9/11 and a fighter. I am sure he gave them hell," his younger brother Jonathan wrote on Facebook Wednesday.
If Jason hadn’t been late to work the morning of 9/11, he probably would have been killed alongside many of his co-workers at Goldman Sachs.
“He was coming out of the subway when the buildings started coming down and he was covered with all the dust,” Joseph said.
The Spindlers said their oldest son eventually gave up his successful career on Wall Street because he wanted to make a difference by helping low-income people around the world.
“He was that type of person, you know. He was destined for greater things,” Joseph said. “Once you met him, you knew this guy was going to change the world.”
The University of Texas graduate entered the Peace Corps and developed sustainable business models for rural residents of Peru.
“I was very proud of him,” Sarah said.
Jason moved to Kenya a few years ago to help boost local economies there by working with international companies to form business partnerships.
“He always told us it was fairly safe and when we went to visit, we really felt very safe,” Joseph remembered. “The hotel is supposed to be the safest area in town.”
Since the attack, the couple has been getting calls from Jason’s friends all over the world.
“He poured his heart and soul into his work, his friends, everything he was doing,” Joseph said. “Even people that met him only once have gotten in touch with us saying, ‘I met your son 10 years ago and he changed my life and I’ll never forget him.’”
The Spindlers say Jason had grown weary of all the travel and was ready to turn the company he helped found over to others and return to the United States.
“He was really entering the second phase of his life. He was ready to get married,” Joseph said.
They last saw their son in November when he returned to Houston for his nephew’s bar mitzvah.
Now the heartbroken couple is traveling to Nairobi to be with him again.
“I have to see him because I just don’t believe it. I just can’t believe it,” Sarah said.
Jason Spindler would have turned 41 next week on January 21.
His parents plan to celebrate his life that day with friends and colleagues in Nairobi before returning to Houston for his funeral.