The Latest: Task force interviews with officers were ‘piece of puzzle’ in Illinois cop’s staged death

CHICAGO – The latest on a northern Illinois police officer who staged his suicide to make it look like he was killed in the line of duty (all times local):

7 p.m.

A spokesman for a task force that investigated a northern Illinois police officer’s death says interviews with the first police officers on the scene did not create any major leads in the case.

Lake County Sheriff’s Detective Chris Covelli told The Associated Press on Monday that the responding officers’ accounts of the day Fox Lake Lt. Charles Joseph Gliniewicz (GLIHN’-uh-wihts) died were a “piece of the puzzle.” The accounts include one inexperienced officer suggesting the dead man’s hand position suggested he killed himself.

But Covelli says what Gliniewicz said on the radio about chasing suspects and other evidence outweighed the initial conflicting perceptions of the officers.

Gliniewicz’s Sept. 1 death touched off a massive, weekslong manhunt. Authorities later concluded he’d staged his death to look like homicide after realizing he would be exposed as a thief.

Fox Lake officials late Monday released summaries of interviews given to the task force after Gliniewicz’s death.

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6:45 p.m.

Newly released documents show that at least one officer responding to the fatal shooting of a northern Illinois police officer who staged his suicide to make it look like he was killed in the line of duty thought he might have killed himself while others quickly rejected the idea.

Fox Lake Lt. Charles Joseph Gliniewicz’s Sept. 1 death touched off a massive, weekslong manhunt. Authorities later concluded he’d staged his death to look like homicide after realizing he would be exposed as a thief.

Fox Lake officials late Monday released summaries of interviews given to the Lake County Major Crimes Task Force after Gliniewicz’s death.

One officer noted the position of Gliniewicz’s right hand as a possible indication of suicide. But that was quickly rejected by a sergeant, who later said he was too “vain” to kill himself.