Lieutenant  Joe Gliniewicz was once thought of as a hero, but is now viewed as a traitor to his department.

The Lt. from Fox Lake, Illinois was said to had been killed in the line of duty on September first, 7:52 AM. However, it is clear now that he committed an intensively planned suicide.

George Filenko, Lake County Major Crimes Task Force commander announced, “this staged suicide was the end result of extensive criminal acts that Gliniewicz had been committing.”

The incident occurred on September first of this year. Originally, it was though to have been a murder of the once honored officer. It is clear now that Gliniewicz, a leader in a police program aimed at mentoring youth in the hopes they would pursue a career in law enforcement, was found after his death to have been stealing money from the program for seven years.

Filenko told CNN ,”(Gliniewicz) attempted to mislead first responders and investigators to believe this was a homicide.” He did this by setting up the scene with his gear placed strategically to look like a murder.

Filenko also said, “He committed the ultimate betrayal. He behaved for years in a manner completely contrary to the image he portrayed.”

A group known as the 100 Club who specializes in helping families of first responders who suffer serious injuries or death asked for the $15,000 back that they gave to his family. There has been no reply from the family other than them asking for privacy as they deal with “the loss of a beloved husband and father.”

The turning point came when investigators found no evidence of a struggle at the scene. After more research, they found that the town had begun “a thorough internal audit of all of their assets” and Gliniewicz was scared to have his crimes found. 6,500 deleted text messages were also found as well thousands of bank statements that had improprieties.

Two others are expected to be involved as well but the department has not yet released any information as to who.

On Wednesday, Filenko was asked if police wanted the story of Gliniewicz to spread, even though investigators started to doubt that it was indeed a homicide.

Thomas Corso and two of his friends were the suspected killers in the case, but it is now obvious they did not commit the homicide.   They originally thought these men had an affiliation with the murder because just before Gliniewicz’s death he had radioed that he was chasing three suspects into a wooded area. After three minutes, he requested backup and then his radio went silent. A four-hundred officer manhunt followed.

The three were spotted by him using an ATM that day but at the time of the shooting, they were at a diner.

Corso told WLS News, “I can’t sleep. I can’t eat. I can’t work. I’ve been living in constant fear.”

He responded with, “We completely believed from day one that (the death of Gliniewicz) was a homicide. Our intention was never to mislead the public.”