Original subtitles

It's business as usual for 52 -year -old Lieutenant Charles Joseph Glinowitz as

he prepares for the day ahead.

Every morning on his way to work. How we doing? Good, how are you?

He'd stop at the same gas station. He'd buy two packs of cigarettes.

I'm quitting tomorrow.

Be safe.

And would go through those two packs of cigarettes a day.

It's his only bad habit, one he got from his days in the military.

Lieutenant Glenowitz is just a month shy of retirement, but he's still dedicated

to his job.

He was very, very respected in the community. Everybody loved him.

This morning, he's making good on a promise to check out the old concrete

The public works director had started to complain about individuals

trespassing on that property.

He called dispatch and reported that he was going to follow three suspicious

-looking characters.

Oh, no!

6740, I got two white males, one black, heading into the old concrete factory.

Following them, ma 'am. Stop!

Took off towards the swamp.

10 -4, did you need a second unit?

Go ahead and start somebody.

10 minutes later, backup arrives.

It's not around.

Anybody?

I'm going in.

Shots fired, shots fired. Request some backup.

Let's move in. They hear a popping noise.

What they did instinctively is they headed right into this wooded area.

It was very treacherous.

Oh, God.

Oh, God.

They found him laying face down near the swamp.

Is he responsive?

No.

Seeing your fellow officer on the ground bleeding, it's emotional.

Officer Smith, Officer Smith, we have an officer down.

Send everybody you absolutely can.

Call the chief.

Tell him to get a hold of his wife, Melody.

Out.

By the time officers discover Lieutenant Glinowitz's body, it's already too

late.

It's a gut -wrenching moment for Joe's brothers in blue and for the Fox Lake

community.

Known by locals as G .I. Joe, Lieutenant Glinowitz has been a staple in Fox Lake

for more than 30 years.

He was a paratrooper in the Airborne Division.

Shortly thereafter, he joined the Fox Lake Police Department. Actually was

promoted to lieutenant over the patrol division.

G .I. Joe was well known because he stood out. He primarily wore a

military garb. He used to enjoy going by the name G .I. Joe. He had it on his

license plate.

He was the cop's cop. He was definitely one of the biggest celebrities in the

town.

Keep moving.

G .I. Joe's best known for running the Community's Explorer Club, a branch of

the Boy Scouts of America that prepares youth for careers in law enforcement.

What are you doing?

I can't, sir. I'm sorry. I don't want to hear that. You can do anything that you

want to do, so get up there and finish the run. Let's go. All right, sir. Let's

go.

The Explorer looked up to him. He was what they wanted to be when they grew

I know things are tight, things are tough, but that's why you're in the

is so that we can fast -track you, get you into a PD as soon as possible, get

you making money, get you past this little hump.

All right, come on. Let's head over with the guys.

I started in the Explorer program when I was 14. I was a quiet kid. He just

showed me another way to look at the world. He would always be there to help

always encouraging.

All right, everybody go ahead and fan out. The teens study criminology and

weapon safety.

Joe also shows them how to solve homicides.

This is a crime scene, so you have to be observant. You've got to pay attention.

You've got to look at everything around you.

He would set up very detailed, elaborate crime scenes for them to investigate,

and he would guide them through if they had any questions.

Alexis thought it was a struggle.

And what do you see in the mud?

Lots of footprints.

So I'm guessing the perp ran that way.

And there you go.

Thank you, sir. In fact, he staged many of these exercises in the very swamp he

died in.

The irony of the location is lost on no one.

Especially Joe's wife, Melody.

What's going on?

Melody, I think you should be sent down for this.

No, don't do that.

What's going on?

It's Joe.

He was shot down in the swamp. No.

I'm so sorry.

No.

Not my Joe.

Oh, God.

Oh, God.

What am I going to tell the boy?

Melody had a breakdown and cried, as she should, and was very upset.

Who did this?

We don't know yet. We have the entire force working on it.

We'll get these guys.

Joe and Melody have been married for 26 years.

Hey. Hey.

How was your run?

Knocked out eight miles.

Well, you always clean up so nice.

They were high school sweethearts. Every time I saw them, they seemed very

happy. Hey, come here.

What?

Come here. Come here, I've got to show you something.

Close your eyes.

What? Just close them.

Trust me.

Open them.

Honey.

This is too much.

Oh, no, not at all.

Hey, let's put it on you.

Let's see here.

It'll look great.

You can get it on.

There we go.

Perfect. Oh, my gosh.

Thank you.

Hey.

Where are your brothers?

They're coming.

The couple has their hands full with four boys.

DJ is the oldest.

The Glenowitz family was just your typical Fox Lake family.

Hey, Dad, are we still going shooting?

Yeah. Yeah, MP5 came in today and got the AR -15, so we'll meet you over the

range at 7.

Sounds good. There was a regular lunch date on Tuesdays, date night on Fridays.

There were family movie nights.

It looked as though Joe Glenowitz...

And Melody Glenoweth had a great life.

But like most women married to cops, Melody always worries for her husband.

Come home to me, honey.

I always do.

And on the morning of September 1st, that nightmare came true.

Back at the scene, the investigation has shifted to focus on hunting down his

killers. You have to assume these offenders are in the area. Everybody was

looking over their shoulder. There were three cop killers on the loose.

Neighbors were told to stay inside their homes. Schools were put in lockdown.

The community was...

On edge, looking for these guys who murdered Joe Glinowitz.

Nearly 400 county, state, and federal law enforcement officers respond, eager

track down the three men Glinowitz described to dispatch.

The once sleepy suburb of Chicago soon resembles an army state.

We had six aircraft in the air. This included helicopters and fixed -wing

aircraft. We had over 40 canines to aid in the search.

It was frightening. All of a sudden there was this huge military exercise in

town. With a two -mile perimeter in place, Lake County Major Crimes Task

Commander George Falenko and his team scour the swampy area.

The crime scene ultimately is going to start telling you a story.

The first thing that they see is a pepper spray canister that's been

Several feet down...

We see a metal baton that's laying on a path.

Once we get down to the swamp area, now we find the glasses.

So it was basically a trail of his weapons all the way down ultimately to

he's found shot.

He was shot once in the bulletproof vest in the lower torso area, and he had

another gunshot wound above the vest in a downward angle, and this was the

fatal. that took his life.

Investigators examine every inch of the area for the handgun or any footprints

left behind from the struggle, but the murky ground has swallowed up crucial

evidence.

The weapon itself wasn't found for about an hour and a half, and it was

literally two and a half feet from the body.

As the day ends, police still have no one in custody.

With all his training, with everything that he's done and all the stuff he

knows, I couldn't believe it could happen to a guy like him.

The townspeople were afraid for their life.

The mysterious men seem to have slipped through the cracks.

Or have they?

It's just what you're doing right here all by yourself.

What are you?

Open your door. Come on. Open your door.

No.

What do you mean? Who are you?

Look, don't fight it. Let us in. Oh, God. Open your door. Come on. Check the

back. Go.

Go. Go away. Come on. Come on.

Oh, my God.

Yes, hello?

Some guys just came up and started pounding on my window.

She indicated that one of them attempted to open the car door when she was in

her car. The individuals then fled and ran into the cornfield that was in the

area.

It created a massive response because we have people that match the description

of who we're looking for. We're less than 48 hours since this event occurred.

Presumption is perhaps these are our guys.

Two days have passed since Officer Joe Glenowitz was shot and killed in the

swampy outskirts of Fox Lake, Illinois.

Police believe the three suspects could still be in the area after an attempted

carjacking.

After five hours of exhaustive searching, no one is found.

After scouring the cornfield, they ran a DNA test on a car handle.

Everybody thought.

wow, this could be them, obviously hoping that that would be the end of it.

In the meantime, the community holds a candlelight vigil to grieve for their

fallen hero.

It was a massive outpouring of love and support for the Glenowitz family.

Everybody supported Glenowitz because everybody knew him, and they knew him in

their own special way. He was loved in the community.

One of the most moving moments of the vigil was seeing this now widow, Melody

Glenowitz, up there with her four boys.

Joe was my best friend, my world, my hero, the love of my life for the last

and a half years.

He was my rock as much as I was his rock.

Every night he came home to me.

Donations to the family pour in.

Fox Lake reels in the wake of losing one of their favorite sons.

He's heralded a hero with near saint -like status.

Investigators work around the clock, examining every shred of evidence

at the swamp.

This is number nine, the pepper spray.

The cell phone with the bullet. Two cell phones are found on his body, a

personal phone and a work phone destroyed by the first bullet.

Normally, when we have a victim, Homicide will look through their phones

if there's any clues, and with a bullet hole through it, obviously this created

a major issue.

Glenowitz's handgun is found buried in the weeds, just two and a half feet from

his body.

And this is the same bullet that they found in him.

During the ballistics testing, we actually used his weapon and the exact

ammunition that he would have used, and it all matched perfectly.

All right, so they pulled his vest out, and then they shot him.

Based on the trajectory of the bullet and the mud on Glinowitz's knees... Get

up. Get up!

You don't have to do this. You guys don't have to do this. Shut your mouth!

Shut your mouth! Officers speculate the lieutenant was overpowered by the three

men and shot point -blank, execution -style, with his own handgun.

A murder victim doesn't get to tell their story. So unless there's an

eyewitness, investigators have to put the pieces of this puzzle back together.

Now, by Joe Glenowitz going on his police radio.

I got two white males, one black, heading into the old concrete factory.

following them in.

He, in essence, gave a dying declaration, which is very relevant to a

investigation.

Luckily for police, there may be a woman who can identify the three mystery men.

At this point, Tammy Jackson, the carjacking victim, is their best and

hope. Could you start from the top and tell me what happened again?

Like I said before, I pulled over for directions on my phone and

three guys came up.

They started pulling my handle and pounding on the window.

Are you positive?

That it was three. Three guys. They yanked on the door handle. You're

I think so.

Any evidence back on the door handle yet?

No, not yet.

Something seems shady, though.

There were no indications on that car based on her statements of any type of

forced entry.

So nothing, nothing matched.

They started confronting her with those facts.

What do you mean you think? I think they did that.

Did three guys actually come to your car? I'm sorry.

I'm sorry.

I made it up.

I saw it on television.

She said she was seeking attention from a family that she knows.

She wound up being charged with making a false police report.

Here we are in the 25th hour of the day, exhausted as is, following up on leads

that were dead ends. To be deflated that way really knocked the energy out of

the room.

On September 7, a week after his tragic death, Lieutenant Charles Joseph

Glinowitz is laid to rest with full military honors.

Hundreds of mourners converge on Fox Lake to pay their respects.

It was just a line of red and blue lights all the way down the street. It

incredible sight.

There were police officers coming in from all over the country.

It was sad.

When you hear Amazing Grace on the bagpipes, that really, really hits home.

It was an emotional day for every police officer that attended. This country

shed a tear.

on the day of Joe Glenowitz's funeral.

Sadly, Fox Lake is no closer to catching the fallen officers' killers.

Everyone here is on edge, and slowly the talk of the town begins shifting from G

.I. Joe's harrowing death to thwarted whispers of a secret life.

As the story unfolded, And all this information kept coming out about G .I.

It was beginning to feel like maybe G .I. Joe wasn't such a hero.

Sometimes those rumors are things that we haven't heard directly in our

investigation. It gives us another angle to look at. Through dozens of

interviews with locals, investigators learned Joe allegedly met a woman

the Explorer Club.

G .I. Joe allegedly, you know, had a mistress.

Hey, have you seen Joe? Yeah, he should be in his office.

Hey,

honey.

28 -year -old Becky Martin is a volunteer.

Hi.

She was just leaving. We were going over some work. Yeah.

We'll see you.

You ready?

Yeah.

Well, I've got a good spot picked out, so let me just grab the car and we'll

Becky Martin, she came up as a lead, and we did an interview with her, and she

was very evasive, admitting to being a mistress of any type.

But I can tell you that we completely believe that was the case.

Hey. You scared me.

What are you doing here?

I came over here to see you.

Come on in.

All right.

I have to believe Melody Glenowitz knew something.

And the comment that she made at the vigil when she said, he came home to me

every night. And I remember at the time thinking, it's a weird place to say it.

It seems G .I. Joe was no Boy Scout.

And more outrageous secrets are about to be revealed.

We looked at this and we're like, wow, here we go. We got him.

This was just another bizarre twist.

It turned into a circus.

While his family mourns, law enforcement throughout Illinois are on the hunt to

catch Lieutenant Joe Glinowitz's killers, three men he was pursuing just

he was fatally shot.

Investigators turn to surveillance footage from a gas station in the area.

finally looks like there might be a break in the case.

The FBI put together a sequential timeline of those videos, and we found

subjects that match the description.

of what he had called out.

Local police officers were able to identify these three from the footage

This is huge.

Turns out the three men are local day laborers with criminal records.

Jeremy Swanson, Dale Francis, and Anthony John are brought in for

When they found these three guys, there was a quick sense of relief, not only

that they found the person that did this to G .I. Joe, but also that there

weren't murderers out there anymore.

Tell me where you were September 1st at 8 a .m.

I was out having grits.

Breakfast at Dino's.

No, I wasn't there.

I was having pancakes at Dino's.

Blueberry.

Like, if you don't believe me, there's my receipt.

It's proof.

They had a receipt from the meal itself with a time stamp on there that said

where they were at that specific time.

A waitress at the diner, located nearly a mile away from the crime scene,

confirms their story.

These three had nothing to do with G .I. Joe's death.

We did a really thorough job, and in this case, we checked, rechecked, and

rechecked it again, and there was a rock solid alibi.

With the case at a dead end, investigators take another look at the

know kept secrets.

One puzzling detail in the timeline stands out. The GPS on Glinowitz's

puts him at the scene nearly a half hour before he called dispatch.

It's something we had to investigate. Was Joe Glinowitz going to a secluded

to meet with somebody that he knew?

Was he ambushed? Was there money owed?

Did he know these individuals?

I mean, we threw every theory on the table.

J .I. Joe's a police officer. There are people he potentially could have

arrested that decided they wanted to cause him harm.

Investigators scour Joe's social media.

What do you got?

Looks like vacation.

Nice vacation.

Yeah.

Instead of finding threats...

They discover hundreds of personal photos from lavish vacations all over

country. You can't afford any of this on a cop's hour.

No. It seemed that G .I. Joe and Melody traveled extensively. That

sent up some red flags.

G .I. Joe was living above his means.

I don't know that anyone had ever questioned that before all this

But to afford Hawaii and other trips they made is pretty costly.

Considering Melody is a stay -at -home mother of four and Lieutenant Glinowitz

made a cop's salary, it begs the question, where did all that money come

You two look like world travelers.

We were very blessed.

How'd Joe manage that?

I don't know.

He handled the books.

Why, is there something I should know?

Nice necklace.

It was a gift from Joe for my birthday.

Okay, guys, listen up.

We've got to go through these accounts and find anything unusual.

Any unusually large deposits, any type of receipts that don't seem to match up

here. Through experience, sometimes that's all it takes is one break like

The missing piece of the puzzle.

Got $10 ,000 in credit card debt.

I have a trip to Hawaii for $9 ,000.

Two liens, 2009 and 2010.

With $645 in adult website.

Adult website.

There are also numerous unexplained deposits.

March 2014, $7 ,000 was deposited into his bank account.

Investigators started noticing these patterns of money going in and

money going out, but there was no explanation as where the money that was

in was coming from.

We started seeing major inconsistencies in the bank records. There were a lot of

different accounts that we had to look at.

One of these accounts is tied to the Explorer Club.

Ann.

Investigators meet with village administrator Ann Marin.

Marin is in charge of doing routine audits for all the departments,

Joe's police explorers. Take a look at what we found in the Explorer account.

There are a lot of discrepancies here. We're hoping you can shed a little light

on this for us.

Well, you're definitely on to something.

I met with Joe months and months ago, and he showed me the closet at the

explorers, and this thing was decked out.

And Marin was asking questions of G .I. Joe, questions that G .I. Joe never had

to answer in the past. And it became very clear he didn't like the village

administrator looking into the explorers. Where are the receipts for

approved this?

Ann Marin basically cracked open this case.

Some of the things we uncovered were a little disturbing.

It became very apparent to us that it was very deep and it had been going on

many years. It's just beyond inappropriate.

Officer down. I repeat, officer down.

Months before Lieutenant Joseph Glinowitz was shot to death on the very

he used to train the Explorers, Fox Lake Village Administrator Ann Marin makes a

shocking discovery.

Hey. Hi. How you doing? Joe. Welcome to the Explorers Club. Oh, no, no. Stay

seated. It's all good. All right.

Wow.

I've heard all about it, but, um... Yeah?

This is really impressive.

I mean, this is a lot of equipment.

Bulletproof vests, riot shields, really?

Wow. Yeah, I mean, it's all equipment that we use in our weekly tactical

training. There was just an inordinate amount of equipment. It really looked

like a warehouse for, like, a military quartermaster.

All the guns? Well, clearly you've stretched every penny of this budget, so

know I'm doing this audit.

So I am going to need all the paperwork and the backup and those receipts. Sure.

Ideally by Monday.

Okay. Yeah. I'll be able to get that to you. For sure. I keep receipts of

everything, so that'll be easy.

Okay, great. And I will probably give you a call just to make sure it's in my

inbox. Okay. She was completely shocked.

She wanted to see some paperwork backing up what they had down there. And she

wanted an inventory of what existed, because ultimately, it's village

But someone killed Glenowitz before he could send her the documents.

Turns out, Joe never did get proper approvals.

Commander Filenko looks even closer at the Explorer account.

and discovers the shocking truth.

Tony, get in here. Joe Glinowitz had been embezzling money from the Explorer

program for years.

He's basically stealing from children. It was his personal piggy bank.

That's not only money laundering, that's theft of funds. It's a felony in this

state.

Over the course of seven years, he took over $50 ,000.

Many kids look at police officers as superheroes.

And for Joe Glenowitz to be stealing from children, it's pathetic.

It was just absolutely infuriating.

I couldn't describe to you how disgusted and how mad I was personally.

Melody, take a look at this statement from the Explorers Club account.

What am I looking at?

Did you know that Joe was stealing from the Explorer Club?

What?

Joe would never do that. He loved those kids.

Melody, we have your bank statements.

Tell us the truth.

You know, I don't believe a word of this, and I'm not comfortable talking to

without my lawyer.

I don't know how you live in the same house with someone and not know what

they're really up to.

Melody's not talking, so Falenko requests G .I. Joe's personnel file from

Fox Lake Police Department.

We started uncovering complaints by co -workers, complaints by dispatchers. It

was just absolutely appalling.

There were reports of a female in the police department who claimed that

Glenowitz forced her to do sexual favors.

Look, as your superior officer, I'm going to tell you this.

If you want to do this job and do this job right,

I'm going to need this to be more than a sergeant and patrol officer

relationship.

This needs to be a personal relationship.

There were two G .I. Joes. There was the public image G .I. Joe, which was the

community -oriented person who was dedicated to the explorer unit.

And then there's the secret side of GI Joe, the more nefarious side.

And when the forensics team unlocks Joe's bullet -riddled cell phone, they

discover just how nefarious.

Sir? Yeah?

Have you read these texts?

Unbeknownst to a number of people, you cannot completely erase text messages.

You've got to be kidding me.

More than 6 ,500 pages of text from Joe's phones are recovered, and they

a far more sinister side to him than anyone could have ever imagined.

One of the messages said, we've got to hide the money.

If you don't take care of this, I'm going to go to jail.

There was absolutely damning.

You could tell in these messages that G .I. Joe was panicking because he knew he

was close to being discovered.

Glinowitz took extreme pride in his reputation.

He wasn't about to let the audit by Ann Marin expose him.

According to the text messages, in the months before his death, he reached out

to a middleman. Take care of a person. Police believe that person to be Marin.

It was very clear to us that what he was probably indicating was to...

Have the village administrator killed? It's shocking that anybody would think

that way, especially a police lieutenant.

The hit never happened. So on the eve of the city's audit, G .I. Joe was left

with one last deadly move.

Joe Glonowitz committed the ultimate betrayal. The whole thing is just beyond

atrocious.

After following up on more than 400 leads, the task force is closing in on G

Joe's killer. But so far, their investigation has unveiled more about

Glinowitz's twisted secret life than his mysterious death.

The text messages, the bank statements, the advanced forensic testing we did

ballistically, everything started coming together and it formed the story of

what happened that day.

30 minutes before releasing their findings to the press, Commander Falenko

brings in Melody and DJ Glenowitz for a private meeting.

Thanks for coming down.

Look, we wanted you to know first before we go out to the media.

We've examined all the evidence and we've concluded that Joe's death was

not a homicide.

What?

Okay. All right.

As the village administrator closed in on Joe's duplicitous dealings, he felt

the noose tighten around his neck.

Ann Marin demanded the financial records, and I think he realized that

nothing else I can do. The only answer is suicide.

Although the crime scene suggests a struggle took place, there were no

wounds on Joe's hands or drag marks on the ground.

The angle of the gunshot was also very suspicious.

We ran this advanced testing. What we ultimately determined was that he pulled

away the vest cover, inserted the weapon, and fired it.

It just became overwhelming that there's no doubt about it, Joe Glenowitz took

his own life. He staged his suicide to look like a murder.

This extensive investigation is included with an overwhelming amount of evidence

that Glenowitz's death was a carefully staged suicide.

Everybody's jaws just dropped.

It was almost a sense of disbelief. There's no way. How could G .I. Joe, who

a bastion of strength and so charismatic, how could he kill himself?

The family did not believe it. They pointed to areas where they felt like he

looking forward to retirement and future trips.

It's hard to believe, but you've got to come to your senses eventually and

believe the facts in front of you.

Investigators believe that after Glenowitz's routine stop for cigarettes

morning, He saw three men and decided in that moment to set them up for his

murder.

He then went to the swamp to stage an elaborate crime scene, something he'd

dozens of times for the Explorer Club.

Carlos parked at the scene for approximately a half an hour. I believe

hour or so was probably setting up the crime scene.

There was probably nobody better to stage a crime scene than Lieutenant Jim

Lowens.

Joe Glenowitz took 30 years of police experience, 20 -plus years training

explorers in crime scenes, and used it to throw off investigators.

Go ahead and start somebody.

He fired a gunshot into his own bulletproof vest going through his cell

My guess is he was hoping everything inside that cell phone would have been

destroyed, but it wasn't.

He takes his weapon, and at close proximity, he

moves his vest cover in his shirt.

GI Joe wanted to go down as a hero. He was afraid of the consequences of his

actions for stealing money from the Explorers. He knew he was about to be

out, and I believe he really thought this was the way to do it and still be

a hero.

Instead, the community of Fox Lake is left feeling duped by the one -time

legend.

Pissed a lot of people off. It was heartbreaking when they found out the

news.

So many people came out in support of Joe Glinowitz, only to find out that it

was a complete sham.

And I think that's why there was such a massive reaction.

People just feel like they got taken for a ride.

On January 27, 2016, Melody Glinowitz is indicted on six felony charges,

including money laundering and dispersing charitable funds without

for personal benefit.

For a guy like G .I. Joe, who was supposed to be the pillar of the

the caretaker of children, the epitome of integrity, to betray his police

department was absolutely...

That was the first time in my entire career that I felt ashamed to be a

officer. I was very proud of being a police officer.