Massachusetts woman wanted in police officer husband’s death believed to be dead

Karen Solomon, a Massachusetts mental health advocate for law enforcement who was being sought in connection with the death of her police officer husband, appears to have been found dead Monday, ending a multiday search.

Officials with the Worcester Police Department said at a news conference Monday that a body they believed to be Solomon’s was found in a wooded area near a gun. Authorities are awaiting confirmation of her identity.

The search for Solomon began Tuesday after the body of her husband, off-duty Worcester police officer Kurt Solomon, was found at the couple’s Wildwood Avenue home. Police had been called to the residence about 5:30 a.m. following a report of a person down.

Multiple agencies, including the U.S. Marshals Service and Homeland Security Investigations, assisted in the search. Police Chief Paul B. Saucier had said that Karen Solomon should be considered armed and dangerous.

For years, the woman had advocated for the mental health of police officers and their families through First H.E.L.P., an organization she co-founded. She wrote two books. “Hearts Beneath the Badge” is about the experiences of law enforcement and their families, and “The Price They Pay” is about the emotional and physical effects of traumatic events on officers.

She also wrote articles on law enforcement suicide, according to a biography on her organization’s website, and participated in a 2020 Justice Department hearing of the President’s Commission on Law Enforcement and the Administration of Justice, where she testified on a panel focused on support for officers and their families.

Kurt Solomon served as a patrol officer with the Worcester Police Department for more than 30 years and was nearing retirement, Worcester police union leader Thomas Duffy III said.

Authorities have not said how Kurt Solomon died but described his death as “an act of domestic violence.” Worcester District Attorney Joseph Early Jr. said officials were limited in what they could say because of state domestic violence laws.