His friends and colleagues say he touched the lives of millions through his groundbreaking work in business and software--and Mike Beedle's fiance now says they and their young children were trying leave "dangerous" Chicago before his death.
Almost a week after the 55-year-old software company CEO's stabbing death: no arrests and no answers about a motive.
Beedle, of Park Ridge, coauthored the “Agile Manifesto” which is used across the world to help companies move faster.
He was the CEO of Enterprise Scrum— which he used to further his mission.
The engaged father of six also had a love for creating music.
His fiance, Barbara Misiur, released a statement lamenting the loss of her children's father.
"Mike was our whole world, he was the best father to our three girls. He always took good care of our family, and we were looking forward to spending our lives together," Barbara Misiur said. We wanted to move to Poland where I come from, because we realized Chicago is a very dangerous city. Unfortunately he didn’t make it out on time, however I will still work hard towards this dream."
Michael Herman, Beelde's former colleague, also remembered his slain friend fondly.
"We were working on changing the world together," he said. "What Mike taught people to do was learn their way into very complex software and business challenges and deal with changes as they were coming up."
That’s why it’s difficult to explain what happened last Friday morning before dawn in River North.
Police say he was fatally stabbed near an alley in the 400 block of State Street— his friends say— not far from where he would teach.
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Officers are now eyeing a homeless man as a suspect in what police believe could have been a robbery.
"Best we can figure is he just wasn’t sleeping and went out for a walk or went out to get a drink and it didn’t go very well," Herman said.
A GoFundMe page has already raised more than $45,0000 all going to the large family he leaves behind.
His legacy is what friends and family are focusing on.
"Someone’s cruelty took away the love of my life, and the father of our three amazing girls," Misiur said. "I was lucky to have him for the short time I did, and I know the girls will be proud of who their father was when they are old enough to understand this all. In the mean time I will work hard establishing the legacy to live up to the wonderful, intelligent, and generous man I was blessed to know and love. I will love him forever and even that will not change it."
