Lake County officials have scheduled a news conference for later this morning.
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Before becoming a police officer, Gliniewicz served in active duty and reserve from 1980 to 2007, earning the nickname GI Joe by those who knew him. With the Lake County Major Crime Task Force leading the investigation, officers tracked down three men captured on video in the area, but then announced they’d been ruled out as suspects. Authorities immediately released a racial description of three suspects, though no one was ever arrested.
Dispatchers lost contact with the officer at that moment which led to a massive Fox Lake manhunt, which continued into the night and the following day.
A few details of Gliniewicz’ death remained unclear in the weeks after his body was found. But when backup arrived, he was found dead.
According to the Chicago Sun-Timesinvestigators now believe the 52-year-old killed himself due to personal reasons that included an internal police investigation into his alleged misuse of department funds to pay for personal items and holidays.
Gliniewicz, a trim and heavily tattooed Army veteran known widely in Fox Lake, was memorialized with a hero’s funeral.
Nine unidentified DNA samples were found at the scene, and investigators have taken more than 100 samples from area residents and police close to the scene.
Gliniewicz’s hoax sent local, state, and federal law enforcement down an expensive path conducting what for months has been officially considered a homicide investigation. The Fox Lake suspects were never located, but Gliniewicz described them as two white males and one black male.
“We went after it as if we were going after someone who had just tried to kill a police officer”, England Police Chief Nathan Cook told KTHV-TV.
For more than two months now, the investigation into Gliniewicz’s death has simmered as national media pulled out and moved on.
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“He was a good officer”, the police chief said.
