Final deception: ‘Hero’ cop staged suicide to look like murder as theft investigation closed in

A police officer whose fatal shooting triggered a costly manhunt north of Chicago in fact committed suicide, carefully staging his death because he was about to be exposed as a thief, authorities said.

Police Lieutenant Charles Joseph Gliniewicz embezzled thousands of dollars from the Fox Lake Police Explorer programme for seven years, and spent the money on such things as mortgage payments, travel expenses, gym memberships and adult websites, Lake County Major Crimes Task Force Commander George Filenko said.

“We have determined this staged suicide was the end result of extensive criminal acts that Gliniewicz had been committing,” Filenko said.

Just before he died, Gliniewicz radioed that he was chasing three suspicious men in a swampy area near Fox Lake, a suburb north of Chicago. Backup officers later found the Army veteran’s body about 45metres from his squad car. His handgun wasn’t found for more than an hour, even though it was less than one metre from the body, Filenko said.

Gliniewicz’s death on September 1 set off a large manhunt, with hundreds of officers searching houses, cabins and even boats on area lakes. Helicopters with heat-sensing scanners and K-9 units scoured the area for days. Some 50 suburban Chicago police departments and sheriff’s offices assisted, racking up more than US$300,000 in overtime and other costs, according to an analysis that the Daily Herald newspaper published in early October.