DAWSON COUNTY, Neb. (TCN) — Two families are pleading for mental health reform after a 42-year-old man allegedly killed his wife and sons before fatally stabbing himself during a time when he reportedly had frequent suicide ideation.
According to the Nebraska State Patrol, on Saturday, May 10, at 9:34 a.m., Dawson County Sheriff’s Office deputies responded to a home on Johnson Lake and found four people deceased, all from knife wounds. State Patrol identified the victims as 18-year-old Hunter Koch, 16-year-old Asher Koch, and 41-year-old Bailey Koch. They allege 42-year-old Jeremy Koch killed his family before turning the knife on himself. Officials reportedly found a knife at the scene.
The Nebraska State Patrol is leading the investigation.
Hunter Koch was supposed to graduate from Cozad High School later that day.
Bailey Koch and Jeremy Koch were open about Jeremy Koch’s mental health struggles, so much so that they had a Facebook page called “Anchoring Hope for Mental Health: Jeremy & Bailey Koch.” In the near-daily updates, Bailey Koch documented her visits to the hospitals, different treatment plans, the centers where he’s stayed, and photos from their journey.
In a post from May 3, Bailey Koch said her “husband tries to kill himself… a lot.” He underwent electroconvulsive therapy treatments (ECT), but it was not successful. He also reportedly tried to kill Bailey Koch in the past.
In that same Facebook post, she called for mental health reform, writing, “I have no pride left. 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. And they just cut funding from mental health programs in schools; we will see more of this when kids like my husband, who grew up being told they must be perfect and always put on a happy face…buck up buttercup and don’t show weakness, are not taught how to express emotions and accept help.”
On May 8, she shared, “I’m not special; I’m just a wife madly in love with a man whose brain tells him I’m better off with him dead. But my real hubby, when the illness does not hold him tightly in its grasp, knows the truth. And that’s why he fights so hard.”
On May 9, just one day before the killings, Bailey Koch said she submitted paperwork for a different type of treatment and that she felt “heard, seen, and supported.”
Following their deaths, Bailey Koch and Jeremy Kochs’ parents and siblings released a joint statement about why they are “so angry” about the current mental health system.
Bailey Koch’s father, Lane Kugler, wrote, “Jeremy had been fighting mental illness for many, many years. His depression had turned into psychosis. It was not Jeremy that committed this horrific act. It was a sick mind.”
He explained that his daughter and her children “lived in fear of the possibility of losing her husband and their father to mental illness for many years. They never knew when he would be in a manic state (super high) or horribly depressed (super low), unable to function normally.”
Kugler said that Bailey Koch felt fulfilled by running the Facebook page and helping other people going through similar situations, and that she “saved people’s lives but she couldn’t save her own family’s lives.”
The statement said their family “learned through all of this is that every single person in the mental health care industry try so hard to help people,” but the mental health care system is “a disaster. A catastrophe. Broken. And it’s not getting any better, it’s getting worse.”
It went on, “Our daughter and her family were killed by a diseased mind with a knife. Far too many diseased minds have nowhere to go. Yes, there is some help that can be tapped but, not near enough. And the truth is, their hands are tied with regulations and insurance companies that don’t pay enough to cover cost or research. There is nowhere near enough research. There is nowhere near enough money, facilities or resources available.”
The letter ended, “We can make a difference. Bailey believed that with all her heart. We can help our fellow human beings. Don’t give up. Bailey didn’t. Right up to her last breath.”