This story discusses suicide. If you or someone you know is having thoughts of suicide, please contact the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 988 or 1-800-273-TALK (8255).
The wife of a Nebraska man who is suspected of killing his entire family of four in a murder-suicide pleaded for support for her husband’s mental health online just days before she and her two sons were murdered, according to a report.
Jeremy Koch, 42, stabbed and killed his wife Bailey, 41, and sons Hudson, 18, and Asher, 16, before killing himself in their rural Dawson County home, Nebraska State Patrol confirmed Saturday.
Hudson was scheduled to graduate from high school on Saturday, just hours after the family was found dead, according to News Channel Nebraska.
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The outlet reported on a now-removed GoFundMe page Bailey began earlier this month called “Jeremy’s Battle: Mental Health Support Needed.”
“May is Mental Health Awareness Month, so here we are… making you aware,” Bailey reportedly wrote.
She said Jeremy first attempted suicide in 2009 and had tried to take his life multiple times.
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Last year, according to Bailey, Jeremy’s depression reached a fever pitch.
“Jeremy cannot get out of bed unless forced,” she wrote. “By not eating or drinking, Jeremy is slowly completing suicide.”
She reportedly wrote that the family’s income, which came from a local landscaping business Jeremy owned, had dried up.
In March, Bailey said she woke up to Jeremy standing over her with a knife but talked him down and convinced him to get inpatient mental health care. That was the fourth time Jeremy had been hospitalized for his mental health struggles, according to the report.
She said a round of electroconvulsive therapy did not help her husband.
“It didn’t work. Jeremy became a shell of himself.”
“I have no pride left,” she wrote at the time. “Mental illness is taking my husband from me, and I’m begging you to open your eyes and see the reality that is this society’s mental health crisis.”
However, Bailey reportedly said on the GoFundMe that Jeremy had been released from the hospital last week to attend Hudson’s graduation.
Bailey worked as a special education teacher at Holdrege Public Schools.
“Our Holdrege school community is grieving after a tragic event that has deeply affected us all,” the district reportedly said Saturday. “Our hearts are with everyone impacted.”
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