UPDATE: Fox Lake Lt. Gliniewicz Killed Himself After Years of Betraying His Badge

Fox Lake police Lt. Charles Joseph Gliniewicz killed himself after years of criminal activity, said the Lake County Major Crime Task Force commander, laundering money through his Explorer post and stealing cash to pay for gym memberships, his mortgage, adult websites, travel, loans to friends and other expenses.

He “committed the ultimate betrayal to the citizens he served and the law enforcement community,” said Cmdr. George Filenko at a press conference Wednesday morning, who said Gliniewicz had “intimate knowledge of crime scenes” and elaborately staged his own to mislead investigators.

The task force investigating his death reviewed a tens of thousands of pieces of evidence — financial records, phone messages and computer records, including incriminating messages, and crime-scene forensics — and reached this conclusion.

“We considered every possibility,” Filenko said. “We had no preconceived notions as to what occurred.”

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The investigators reviewed 6,500 pages of text messages and thousands of bank documents to unravel the financial crimes Gliniewicz was involved in.

The FBI assisted in reviewing evidence and in behavioral analysis and concurred the scene of the crime was staged. The FBI “worked in lockstep” with local investigators, Filenko said.

The investigation of criminal conduct regarding Fox Lake’s police Explorer program continues, he said, with two other individuals as subjects.

As a village audit into the lieutenant’s management of the Explorer funds unfolded, Gliniewicz planned and executed his own suicide, according to authorities. Filenko said there was evidence that the officer was worried that his malfeasance would be discovered through this audit.

There was evidence Gliniewicz was stressed and depressed in the weeks leading up to the events of Sept. 1, according to Lake County Coroner Thomas Rudd.

Gliniewicz was found shot dead on Sept. 1 after he radioed for backup shortly before 8 a.m. He told dispatch he was investigating three suspicious individuals — two white males and one black. Gliniewicz was shot with his own gun — once in the front right of his vest and once in the upper-left chest at close range.

The shooting prompted a massive manhunt across northern Illinois.

Known as “G.I. Joe” to friends and family, the married father of four served in the police department for 30 years and was ready to retire in August when he was asked to stay on the job for a while.

Gliniewicz received a hero’s funeral, with hundreds of police officers from around the state and nation attending. The 18-mile funeral procession was filled with squad cars and motorcycles, and the streets were lined with flags and and thousands of Fox Lake residents. Helicopters flew over the cemetery in the “missing man” formation. Gov. Bruce Rauner attended. One of his son’s, in his Army uniform, served as a pall bearer.

At his funeral service in Antioch, Gliniewicz was posthumously awarded the Fox Lake Police Department Medal of Honor.

“When we were growing up, we always knew he was a hero — but now the whole nation knows him as a hero,” said his brother, Michael Gliniewicz, a Fox Lake firefighter.