Illinois police officer who spurred manhunt stole money, committed suicide

Aamer Madhani | USA TODAY

Show Caption Hide Caption Investigators: Cop stole money before committing suicide The mystery of a northern Illinois police officer found shot to death after reporting he was pursuing three suspicious men is apparently over. Authorities now say the officer killed himself and tried to make his death look like a homicide. (Nov. 4)

An Illinois police officer whose mysterious death in September spurred a massive manhunt killed himself because he feared it was about to be discovered that he had been embezzling thousands of dollars from his police department, authorities said Wednesday.

The Lake County Sheriff's Department said Fox Lake, Ill., officer Lt. Charles Joseph Gliniewicz, 52, whose Sept. 1 death spurred a manhunt along the Illinois-Wisconsin border and had been treated as a homicide until now, died of self-inflicted gunshot wounds.

George Filenko, commander of the Lake County Major Crimes Task Force, told reporters that investigators concluded Gliniewicz's death was a "carefully staged suicide" by an officer who was on the cusp of being discovered for stealing from the village.

Filenko said an investigation revealed Gliniewicz had stolen thousands of dollars from the police department's youth Explorers post over seven years, which he spent on mortgage payments, travel, handing out personal loans, a gym membership and adult websites.

The program, which many departments across the country operate, teach young people about law enforcement work. Gliniewicz oversaw Fox Lake's program.

The commander added that an investigation, which included a review of bank records, text and Facebook messages, indicates criminal activity may have been committed by at least two other individuals. Federal investigators who assisted Lake County officers found that Gliniewicz also deleted thousands of text messages from his phone shortly before his suicide.

Filenko said the village of Fox Lake had begun an audit of the Explorers program prior to Gliniewicz's death. Text messages from Gliniewicz that investigators uncovered during their probe suggested the officer had become concerned the village audit would uncover his malfeasance.

"Gliniewicz committed the ultimate betrayal to the citizens he served and the entire law enforcement community," Filenko said.

Anne Marrin, Fox Lake's village administrator, confirmed she had begun scrutinizing the village's Explorers program prior to Gliniewicz's death.

Police released a series of text and Facebook messages Gliniewicz sent to unidentified individuals, including ones in which he referred to Marrin as a "power monger" and suggested that if she were to review an old checking account he would be in trouble.

"The situation right here would give her the means to CRUCIFY ME if it were discovered," Gliniewicz wrote in a June 26 message.

In another message on the same day to the same person, he wrote, "You are borrowing from that 'other' account, when you get back (you will) have to start dumping money into that account or you will be visiting me in JAIL!!"

Marrin said that she took some of what was in unveiled in the messages as threatening to her. In one exchange about Marrin, Gliniewicz writes he's thought through "MANY SCENARIOS from planting things to the volo bog!!!" The Volo Bog State Natural Area is a secluded marshy area near Fox Lake.

The suicide occurred several days after Fox Lake's former police chief Michael Behan announced he was retiring from the force. Behan and an unnamed police officer were placed on paid leave earlier in August after the village had launched an investigation into a December confrontation between the officer and a suspect, according to news reports.

"(Marrin) has now demanded a complete inventory of exploder (Explorer) central and a financial report...(expletive)," Gliniewicz wrote to Behan on Aug. 31, the day before he killed himself.

Christopher Covelli, a Lake County Sheriff's spokesman, told USA TODAY that Behan had left the force prior to the day he received the text message. Behan told investigators that he had suspicions Gliniewicz was using the Explorers account for his personal benefit but did not know for sure.

Gliniewicz intentionally staged the scene around where he died in an attempt to mislead first responders and investigators, according to Filenko.

Investigators said at the time of Gliniewicz's death that he was patrolling in an industrial area in Fox Lake, when he radioed dispatch to say he was going to check on suspicious activity he had spotted.

He described the suspects as two white men and a black man to dispatchers. Gliniewiciz called for backup, saying he was in a foot chase, but was not heard from again.

Officers responding to his call found his body. An intense manhunt involving hundreds of law enforcement officials, including U.S. marshals, FBI and ATF agents, failed to produce any arrests or identify the suspects. Authorities viewed surveillance video from several homes and businesses in the area and said they hoped to develop clues that would lead them to the suspects.

Gliniewicz's death came in the midst of a spate of high-profile killings of police officers throughout the country, including the Aug. 28 shooting death of Harris County, Texas, Sheriff's Deputy Darren Goforth, who was fatally shot while was refueling at a Houston-area gas station. Shannon Miles, 30, has been charged with capital murder.

On Aug. 26, police officer Henry Nelson was gunned down in Sunset, La. Two days earlier, Senior Trooper Steven Vincent, of the Louisiana State Police, was shot in the head and then taunted after he stopped to provide aid to a man whose truck was stuck in a ditch.

The Illinois manhunt disrupted commuter train service and led to school cancellations in the area on the day after the shooting as officers hunted for three men.

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Days after Gliniewicz's death, Lake County Coroner Thomas Rudd said he couldn't rule out suicide as a possible cause of the officer's death. About a month after he died, investigators said he'd been shot once in his protective vest and once in the upper left area of his torso.

Investigators had previously said that they had determined that Gliniewicz's weapon was used in the shooting. On Wednesday, Rudd said he concurred with investigators that Gliniewicz killed himself. Police said that the brunt of the first of the two shots Gliniewicz fired struck his cell phone and bullet-proof vest, which absorbed the brunt of the impact.

Filenko said Gliniewicz had intimate knowledge of staging crime scenes as part of his work with the youth Explorers program. That familiarity may have contributed to investigators being initially thrown off. Pieces of evidence, including some of the officer's equipment, were spread over 300 feet at the crime scene and suggested a struggle had occurred.

"We were focusing on what we had in front of us, which was a police officer (who) was mortally wounded," Filenko said.

The FBI's behavioral analysis unit concurred with Lake County investigators conclusion that the crime scene was staged, because there was no sign of a struggle after the first shot was fired nor was there evidence that suggested Gliniewicz fought for his life, police said.

Filenko said the ordeal marked the first time in his career as a law enforcement officer that he felt ashamed by another police officer. But he pushed back against the notion that his department botched the investigation.

"I don't see where we would owe the public an apology (for) trying to do due diligence and conduct a thorough and factual investigation," Filenko said.

Gov. Bruce Rauner and hundreds of police officers from across the nation were among thousands who paid their respects to Gliniewicz at a viewing and funeral service.

After his death, he was awarded his department's Medal of Honor and was remembered as a man dedicated to his family and job. There was also an outpouring of public support, with a local deli and police and firefighters in a nearby community holding fundraisers to benefit the Gliniewicz family.

Motorola Solutions even pledged a $50,000 reward to anyone who could provide information to assist police with the arrest and convictions of Gliniewicz's presumed killers. Following Lake County's announcement that Gliniewicz's death was a suicide, the company announced it would instead donate the earmarked reward money to the Fox Lake Explorers program.

"He was reasonable, fair and just," his brother Michael told mourners at his funeral. "My brother served every day, seven days a week, 24 hours a day. ... When we were growing up, we all knew Joe was a hero. Now the nation knows he's a hero."

Gliniewicz, an Army veteran, had been an officer for more than 30 years and was nearing retirement at the time of his death.