'Heartbreaking': Family of 4 found dead before son's graduation in apparent murder-suicide

USA Today

12-05-2025

'Heartbreaking': Family of 4 found dead before son's graduation in apparent murder-suicide
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Authorities in Nebraska are investigating what state troopers are calling a "heartbreaking" weekend murder-suicide after a couple and their two teenage sons were found slain inside the family's home.
Among those who were found dead were Jeremy Koch, 42, his wife, Bailey Koch, 41, who jointly ran a social media page documenting their journey with mental health struggles. Troopers said the couple's two sons, Hudson, 18, and Asher, 16, were killed.
The Dawson County Sheriff's Office responded to a home near Johnson Lake and found the four residents dead at 9:45 a.m. on Saturday, May 10, according to the Nebraska State Patrol. The home is in the central part of the state about 70 miles west of Lincoln, the state capital.
After a preliminary investigation, authorities determined the father fatally stabbed his sons and wife before killing himself. A knife was found at the scene, troopers wrote.
The official causes of death for each family member were pending autopsy results, troopers wrote in the Saturday release.
USA TODAY has reached out to Dawson County Attorney Darlene Shafer, the prosecutor who troopers said ordered the autopsies, as well as Dawson County Sheriff Mark Montgomery, whose agency is assisting troopers with the case.
Community grieves deaths
According to local media outlet Nebraska.TV and Bailey Koch's Facebook page, she taught special education at Holdrege Public Schools.
"Our hearts are with everyone impacted (by) a tragic event that has deeply affected us all," the district posted in a statement on Facebook.
Throngs of people responded to the post offering condolences to the family.
"They were amazing people," said Leticia Gleason, who told USA TODAY she attended high school with Bailey Koch.
Gleason called the teen Koch brothers "two beautiful boys" and their mother "the sweetest person... She most definitely had the ability to see the positive in any situation, which kept her going. She was truly one in a million, a star that shone brighter than most."
The couple's teen sons attended Cozad High School where loved ones said the eldest brother was prepared to graduate Saturday.
Footage of the school's commencement ceremony was posted on YouTube in which Superintendent Dan Endorf told the audience the senior class "experienced a tragedy within the past few hours."
"The bittersweet emotions felt by the senior class on their graduation day, and by this entire gymnasium for that matter, cannot be concealed in this moment," Endorf said.
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Couple's mental health journey was documented on Facebook
Bailey and Jeremy Koch were the focus of a social media page documenting their journey with mental health struggles. The page, which had amassed more than 23,000 followers by May 12, had most recently shown Jeremy Koch seeking treatment for mental health.
"High school sweethearts now together over 25 years, our love story consists of fighting suicidal thoughts and attempts publicly so you know you're not alone," the Anchoring Hope for Mental Health: Jeremy & Bailey Koch Facebook page reads. "We fight with you. And our God is stronger than this battle."
Bailey's father, Lane Kugler, who said he found the family dead in their beds, told USA TODAY his son-and-law had struggled with his mental health for most of his life.
"I am so angry. And you should be too," Kugler, of Lexington, Nebraska, wrote in a lengthy Facebook post on Sunday.
Kugler said his son-in-law fought "mental illness for many, many years."
"Bailey fought so hard to help him and she and her sons lived in fear of the possibility of losing her husband and their father to mental illness," the post continues. "They never knew when he would be in a manic state (super high) or horribly depressed (super low), unable to function normally."
Kugler told USA TODAY on May 12 he wrote the lengthy post on Facebook "in hopes of trying to get people fired up about the broken metal health care crisis."
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'More need to know they're not alone'
A May 8 post on her personal Facebook page included a photo of Bailey Koch sitting at her husband's hospital bedside.
"Whether my husband lives with mental health or dies by mental illness, we will never be quiet," she wrote. "More need to know they're not alone."
In a subsequent May 9 post, the day before the family was found dead, Bailey Koch wrote paperwork to approve treatments for her husband's "mental health battle will be submitted today."
"Please pray for insurance approval and that we can get started ASAP," she wrote.
Natalie Neysa Alund is a senior reporter for USA TODAY. Reach her at [e-mail] and follow her on X @nataliealund.