Man stood at his wife's bedside with a knife: months later the whole family was dead
Nebraska (USA) - A mother woke up one night to find her husband standing over her with a knife in his hand - only months later the whole family was savagely stabbed to death.
On Saturday, police confirmed that a family from the US state of Nebraska had been found dead in their home.
As People reports, investigators believe that the father of the family, Jeremy Koch (42), brutally murdered his wife Bailey (†41) and their two sons Hudson (†18) and Asher (†16) before taking his own life.
A frightening incident had occurred months earlier: The mother of two woke up in the night and discovered her husband at her bedside with a knife.
At the time, she was able to convince him to be admitted to a mental health clinic, as her husband had been suffering from depression for years.
However, the treatment apparently had no lasting success. Just a few days before the fatal attack, Bailey asked for help again online, according to News Channel Nebraska . Her husband had remained unstable despite therapy and medication.
Jeremy Koch has battled mental illness for years
Two days before the gruesome crime, the 42-year-old was discharged from an inpatient clinic. But a new medication did not work - his condition deteriorated drastically again at home.
Jeremy had been in treatment for years and, according to Bailey, had survived several suicide attempts. In a GoFundMe campaign , she wrote that he had been battling the disease since his diagnosis in 2009.
The 41-year-old's father, Lane Kugler, who found the four bodies over the weekend and alerted police, wrote in an open letter that the sight would haunt him for the rest of his life.
"Jeremy struggled with mental illness for many, many years. His depression had turned into psychosis. It wasn't Jeremy who committed this act. It was the illness," Lane said.
TAG24 does not normally report on suicides. However, as the incident took place in a public space , the editorial team decided to make it a topic after all.
If you are affected by suicidal thoughts yourself, you can contact the telephone counseling service around the clock, anonymously of course. Telephone counseling: 08001110111 or 08001110222 or 08001110116123.