Weird case.
On September 1, Lt. Charles "Joe" Gliniewicz of the Fox Lake Police Department outside Chicago radioed that he was pursuing three vandalism suspects on foot. Minutes later he gave an update and requested backup. When the backup officers arrived they found Gliniewicz dead about fifty yards from his police vehicle. He had been shot twice with his own weapon. There were no witnesses and no surveillance footage. A massive manhunt for the three suspects ensued with nothing to go on except Gliniewicz' radio description of two white males, one black male. Nothing to go on, nobody was found. Investigators began investigating Gliniewicz' background to see if there were any clues there to who would have a motive to kill him and they found that Gliniewicz had the motive to kill himself. He had been embezzling money from a Police Explorer's group that he ran. Case solv-ed.
All of that is pretty small beer, suicide is an excellent choice, too infrequently employed, by public officials who publicly disgrace themselves but the staged-faux-murder-scene-to-distract-from-the-suicide ploy, that is not small beer. That is Guinness Extra Stout with a vodka chaser.
Why would Gliniewicz do that? Vaguely point a finger at three other people as murderers of a police officer? What if investigators had arrested someone? Got a false confession? Tried the guy or guys. Got a conviction. Got him or them the death penalty. Why would Gliniewicz want that? Want that and still be dead himself.
It's not as if he murdered somebody and then tried to pin it on three other people to save his own skin, that would be small beer, that would be like Gu Kailai poisoning Neil Heywood. No, the Gliniewicz variation would be Neil Heywood-committed-suicide-by-drinking-poison-and-then-staged-the-scene-to-make-it-look-like, not even Gu Kailai, two-Tibetans-and-a-Mongolian-murdered him. Why would Neil do that; well he didn't.
Why would Gliniewicz' motive have been? To appear to have died a hero? I can buy that. Suicide was too good for him. Okay, I can buy that, but then why not a nice car crash or some accident-like thing? Not hero enough? Okay, I can buy that. How about paying the same gang member to whack him that he felt out to whack the auditor who was investigating the Explorers? Ooh, paying your own hitman, that would have been good! Hope some Chinese read this, God! do they need a new murder ploy.
But why are we even at the death option? For embezzlement from the Police Explorers? Veritable Fort Knox in moolah in the Police Explorers?! How much money was involved? "Thousands of dollars." Thousands? Small beer. I have just consulted the authoritative text the Diagnostic and Statistical Manuel of Public Official's Responses to Embezzlement and for embezzling thousands of dollars from a charity, suicide is counter-indicated. Framing three people for murder in a suicide for embezzlement is unknown. All the best embezzlers purchase one-way tickets to Australia. One-ways to Cuba, Venezuela, Argentina, and some European countries receive four and three star recs. The DSM's five-star recommendation under "Embezzlement, Charities, under $500,000" is hire a good criminal defense attorney, i.e. no deaths. Trying to frame three other people for murder of a police officer when it was suicide? Matter of first impression for the DSM-PORE.
Weird case.
On September 1, Lt. Charles "Joe" Gliniewicz of the Fox Lake Police Department outside Chicago radioed that he was pursuing three vandalism suspects on foot. Minutes later he gave an update and requested backup. When the backup officers arrived they found Gliniewicz dead about fifty yards from his police vehicle. He had been shot twice with his own weapon. There were no witnesses and no surveillance footage. A massive manhunt for the three suspects ensued with nothing to go on except Gliniewicz' radio description of two white males, one black male. Nothing to go on, nobody was found. Investigators began investigating Gliniewicz' background to see if there were any clues there to who would have a motive to kill him and they found that Gliniewicz had the motive to kill himself. He had been embezzling money from a Police Explorer's group that he ran. Case solv-ed.
All of that is pretty small beer, suicide is an excellent choice, too infrequently employed, by public officials who publicly disgrace themselves but the staged-faux-murder-scene-to-distract-from-the-suicide ploy, that is not small beer. That is Guinness Extra Stout with a vodka chaser.
Why would Gliniewicz do that? Vaguely point a finger at three other people as murderers of a police officer? What if investigators had arrested someone? Got a false confession? Tried the guy or guys. Got a conviction. Got him or them the death penalty. Why would Gliniewicz want that? Want that and still be dead himself.
It's not as if he murdered somebody and then tried to pin it on three other people to save his own skin, that would be small beer, that would be like Gu Kailai poisoning Neil Heywood. No, the Gliniewicz variation would be Neil Heywood-committed-suicide-by-drinking-poison-and-then-staged-the-scene-to-make-it-look-like, not even Gu Kailai, two-Tibetans-and-a-Mongolian-murdered him. Why would Neil do that; well he didn't.
Why would Gliniewicz' motive have been? To appear to have died a hero? I can buy that. Suicide was too good for him. Okay, I can buy that, but then why not a nice car crash or some accident-like thing? Not hero enough? Okay, I can buy that. How about paying the same gang member to whack him that he felt out to whack the auditor who was investigating the Explorers? Ooh, paying your own hitman, that would have been good! Hope some Chinese read this, God! do they need a new murder ploy.
But why are we even at the death option? For embezzlement from the Police Explorers? Veritable Fort Knox in moolah in the Police Explorers?! How much money was involved? "Thousands of dollars." Thousands? Small beer. I have just consulted the authoritative text the Diagnostic and Statistical Manuel of Public Official's Responses to Embezzlement and for embezzling thousands of dollars from a charity, suicide is counter-indicated. Framing three people for murder in a suicide for embezzlement is unknown. All the best embezzlers purchase one-way tickets to Australia. One-ways to Cuba, Venezuela, Argentina, and some European countries receive four and three star recs. The DSM's five-star recommendation under "Embezzlement, Charities, under $500,000" is hire a good criminal defense attorney, i.e. no deaths. Trying to frame three other people for murder of a police officer when it was suicide? Matter of first impression for the DSM-PORE.
Weird case.