Staged Cop Suicide

In September, police officer Charles Joseph Gliniewicz called over the radio that he was pursuing three suspects. Shortly after he was found with a fatal gunshot wound, which started a huge manhunt of officers scouring the area. So officers who found his body assumed that he had been murdered, and spent time and resources looking for the suspects he was pursuing.

Recently, investigators have determined that Gliniewicz took his own life because he was stealing a large sum of money from his police force for his personal use over the past seven years. Officials declared that he staged his own suicide. Detective Christopher Covelli offered this statement to why Gliniewicz would do this. 
“This is an individual who was highly regarded by his community…and he was looking at potentially going to prison and basically destroying his name, destroying his reputation, destroying everything he's accomplished over his 30 year career. He was revered as a hero and didn’t want to make it look as if he was taking his own life.”
Police have said that the investigation is not over. Police have found deleted messages, forged signatures, and incriminating statements. Some of Gliniewicz's text messages showed that he considered killing a new village administrator who was auditing his department.

Comments from Allen:
This fellow stole a lot of money during his career.  His death answered the question whether he would be going to prison for his crimes.  However. what about all the missing money?

I expect the police detectives will be searching through financial records to determine whether any of the money taken can be traced to assets in the possession of his family.  To the extent the money is traceable to a specific asset or fund, the victims should be able to reclaim that property or fund, just as the victims of Bernie Madoff were able to recover assets of Madoff which were obtained with stolen money.

A second issue is what to do with the money that people donated in the weeks following officer Gliniewicz's death.  Many of those people want their money back, and that account was temporarily frozen. Once those donors found out the murder was staged to cover up theft, many did not want to have anything to do with giving more money to the family which had been enriched by the thefts.

A more difficult issue is whether Mr. Gliniewicz's wife or another family member was involved with his theft schemes.  Anyone complicit in his thefts will be liable to return all the money taken.  The police are certain that Gliniewicz had one or two accomplices, as he had text communications with others concerning the illegality of what he was was doing and his thoughts about murdering the village administrator.

Sources for more information:

http://www.dailyherald.com/article/20151110/news/151119868/

http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/nov/08/charles-joseph-gliniewicz-police-suicide-illinois

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2015/11/04/illinois-police-officer-whose-death-prompted-a-manhunt-was-killed-in-a-carefully-staged-suicide-officials-say/

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