Case cracked with texts, Facebook
Officer’s unease was increasingly evident.
It was the increasingly anxious text and Facebook messages that cracked the mysterious death of Lt. Charles Joseph Gliniewicz.
After the shooting death of the popular police officer spurred a massive manhunt along the Illinois-Wisconsin border more than two months ago, investigators thought they were dealing with a cold-blooded cop killing.
But it was Gliniewicz’s nervous communications, along with questions that FBI analysts and coroners raised, that led the Lake County Major Crimes Task Force to announce Wednesday that the Fox Lake police officer who they initially believed was killed in the line of duty had in fact been stealing money from a police-sponsored youth program.
The messages recovered from Gliniewicz’s phone showed he feared his 7-year-old embezzlement scheme was about to be uncovered, said George Filenko, commander of the Lake County Major Crimes Task Force.
Anne Marrin, Fox Lake’s village administrator, confirmed she had begun scrutinizing the village’s Explorers program prior to Gliniewicz’s death.
Police released a series of text and Facebook messages Gliniewicz sent to unidentified individuals. In them, he referred to Marrin as a “power monger.”
On March 27, Gliniewicz complained: “Between you and I, I’m having a great deal of problems with the new village administrator. I’ve had a talk with the chief and he agrees with me.”
In a June 26 message to another unidentified person, he wrote, “You are borrowing from that ‘other’ account, when you get back (you will) have to start dumping money into that account or you will be visiting me in JAIL!!”
In one exchange, Gliniewicz appears to be discussing doing physical harm to the village administrator, writing that he’s thought through “MANY SCENARIOS from planting things to the volo bog!!!” The Volo Bog State Natural Area is a secluded marshy area near Fox Lake.
“I’m having a great deal of problems with the new village administrator.” Lt. Charles Joseph Gliniewicz