Illinois law enforcement officials said Wednesday the death of Fox Lake Lt. Charles Joseph Gliniewicz, which sparked a massive manhunt, was a “carefully staged suicide.”
Lake County Major Crimes Task Force commander George Filenko said in a news conference Gliniewicz’ suicide on Sept. 1 came after “extensive criminal acts” by the officer.
“This staged suicide was the end result of extensive criminal acts that Gliniewicz had been committing,” Filenko said.
Filenko said Gliniewicz had been stealing and laundering money from the police department club he supervised for seven years, and had spent thousands on mortgage payments, travel, and other personal purchases.
The officer’s shooting death sparked a massive manhunt by local and federal officials, but no descriptions of the suspects were released. No arrests were made in the case.
Before his death, Gliniewicz radioed that he was pursuing three suspicious suspects before his body was found stripped of his service weapons.
Community members and Gliniewicz’ families rejected the possibility of suicide after very few leads in the two-month-long investigation, saying the officer had made plans for his retirement, which was just weeks away.
This story has been updated.
