Nagy Wrote Suicide Note An Hour Before Shooting, Left Thousands in Cash

Hamilton Police Sgt. Kenneth Nagy outlined his plans to shoot Beverly Police Officer Jason Lantych and then take his own life in a suicide note left at his home less than an hour before the Feb. 24 shooting.

That’s according to by Essex County District Attorney Jonathan Blodgett.

The report does not say where Nagy went between the shooting – just before 6 p.m. on Feb. 24 – and at about 10:30 p.m. and killed himself in his sport utility vehicle.

was discovered in Nagy’s Rowley home at about 6:50 p.m. on the night of the shooting after State Police and Rowley police forced their way into the home. Next to it was $3,900 in cash.

“In relevant part, it disclosed that he intended to shoot Lantych if he was able to meet with him that evening, and then kill himself,” Blodgett said in a letter detailing the findings of an investigation into the shooting conducted by State Police assigned to his office. “It also included detailed information on the family's finances, insurance policies, and instructions for his funeral arrangements.

Blodgett said the note from the sergeant will not be released, in line with the “the long-standing practice” of not releasing suicide notes “out of respect for the privacy interests of surviving family members.”

Nagy’s wife, Katie, was safe with the couple’s two children at Katie Nagy’s parents’ home in Hamilton at the time of the shooting and later when the note was located.

“Officers were posted (at Katie Nagy’s parents’ home) to ensure their safety,” Blodgett wrote in his final report.

She told investigators that she didn’t know about her husband’s plans to shoot Lantych and “had not heard from him that afternoon, and did not know his whereabouts.”

A search of Nagy’s home the day after the shooting found a laptop computer that still had an image of his suicide note up on it. A forensic search of the computer found that the note was created at 5 p.m. on Feb. 24, less than an hour .