Fox Lake, Ill., cop tried to hire hitman to kill city leader

FOX LAKE, Ill., Nov. 6 (UPI) -- The local-hero police officer who staged his suicide to look like a murder amid an embezzlement investigation tried to hire a hitman to kill a city administrator, investigators said.

Fox Lake Police Lt. Joe Gliniewicz sent text messages to an unnamed woman asking her to help find a motorcycle gang member to kill Anne Marrin, the village manager who was auditing the Fox Lake Police Explorers unit, police said. Investigators later found Gliniewicz embezzled some $50,000 from the youth training club over a period of seven years to pay for travel, gym memberships and adult websites.

Gliniewicz also mentioned the possibility of planting something on Marrin, police said. Packets of cocaine were found in his desk, but it is unclear if they were to be used on Marrin.

"It's very unsettling. My concern is my family. It's quite unbelievable and almost surreal," Marrin said. "It's a very scary thought that an officer sworn to uphold the law would even think to do that to an administrator."

Gliniewicz, a respected 30-year veteran of the police department, was found shot to death Sept. 1 after he radioed he was chasing suspects through the woods. The community mourned the military veteran who locals affectionately called G.I. Joe. Thousands attended his funeral.

Police launched a days-long manhunt to apprehend three men suspected of killing Gliniewicz before determining the office killed himself.

Investigators said Gliniewicz's death was a "carefully staged suicide" to cover up the embezzlement. Investigators are also trying to determine what role, if any, his wife Melodie and son D.J. played in the ongoing theft.