CHICAGO (AP) — The wife of a northern Illinois police officer who authorities say killed himself after embezzling from a youth program. exchanged text messages that may have contributed to a grand jury indictment of the widow. Melodie Gliniewicz, 51, was indicted Wednesday on felony counts of money laundering and using charitable funds from the youth program. Money from that account was used for personal expenses such as restaurants and a trip to Hawaii, authorities said
In November, an official with knowledge of the death investigation identified Melodie Gliniewicz as one of the recipients of thousands of pages of incriminating text and Facebook messages exchanged with her husband, Lt. Charles Joseph Gliniewicz, who died Sept. 1. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the probe publicly.
Below are two of the messages:
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On April 14, a worried Gliniewicz and his wife exchange messages about money, a retirement date and whether someone, presumably new village administrator Anne Marrin, had the authority to conduct a review of village finances.
Wife: "...maybe we need to hide the funds some how."
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In a June 22 message, Gliniewicz informs his wife that he used the Explorer account to pay for a travel expense:
Gliniewicz: "Used the exploder acct for the flight, $624.70. It can wait for a while, their acct is sitting at $3000'ish now."