Investigation reveals earlier suicide attempt, note

After, or perhaps during, a heated fight with her husband Monday night or Tuesday morning, Trish Finnerty grabbed her keys, her purse and her cell phone and jumped into the family minivan. She tried leaving her family's Arlington Heights home in such a hurry she backed into the closed garage door.

Police say maybe the accident, or something else, made her stop, get out of the van and go back inside the house for the last time.

More details from the Finnerty family tragedy emerged Thursday, as a source close to the police investigation shed light on previous episodes in Kevin Finnerty's life, including an earlier suicide attempt and an earlier suicide note - penned almost a year ago but discovered by investigators in the past several days.

Around 3 a.m. Tuesday morning, investigators say, Kevin Finnerty started a fire in his bedroom that would kill himself, his wife and their 11-year-old son, Garrett. Bewildered, the grieving neighbors and friends described the family as happy and active, led by good parents who cherished their children. A perfect family.

According to the source, however, things started seriously unraveling a little less than a year ago.

Trish called the police one day in July 2008, when Kevin didn't return home on time from an art show. Kevin came home a few hours later, telling police he lost track of time.

Around the same time, the source said, Kevin attempted suicide. He was hospitalized, and neighbors were told he had suffered a heart attack.

At about that time, Kevin wrote what investigators believe was his initial suicide note. It was discovered inside the garage this week by investigators searching the burned house for clues to the tragedy.

The initial letter was six pages long, written on a legal pad.

The three-page suicide note that police believe Kevin Finnerty penned just a few hours before the fatal fire was also written on a legal pad.

The sources said both letters showed two sides of Finnerty, both practical and rambling.

The most recent suicide note included a homemade will where Kevin told relatives to take care of his home and property and instructed them on how to submit his life insurance claims. He said he wanted to be cremated.

He also went on at length about how he would be punished in the afterlife for his crimes. "I know I'm a bad person," he says in one.

Police are not releasing either letter, but they believe the notes indicated Finnerty knew his life wouldn't be the only one lost - and that he intended to harm his entire family, even as he stresses how much he loves them.

The source said that when Trish came back into the house from the garage, the fight continued and moved upstairs to the master bedroom. At some point, investigators believe, Kevin went to the garage and returned with a plastic jug of gasoline.

Police say they may never know why Trish didn't get out.

They said Kevin lit the fire, after pouring gasoline either directly on himself or very close nearby.

Fully ablaze, he stumbled downstairs and collapsed inside the home's screened-in porch. He died Wednesday morning at Loyola Medical Center after suffering burns over 100 percent of his body.

Authorities found Trish's body in the master bedroom, where she died of smoke inhalation, according to the Cook County medical examiner.

Garrett, 11, was found alive but unconscious in his bedroom after the fire. He died shortly later at Northwest Community Hospital, also of smoke inhalation.

Two other children, Bridgit, 12, and Pierce, 6, escaped with no major injuries, after Bridgit got herself and her little brother out of the house through her second floor bedroom window and onto the roof over the front door. From there, she jumped down 10 feet and ran for help on a hurt ankle.

Police found no prescription medication in the Finnerty home, the source said. Toxicology reports are pending.

For many neighbors and friends close to the family, nothing has changed their opinion that Kevin and Patricia were tremendous parents.

Neighbor Jenn Doner said Garrett demonstrated a kindness to kids with disabilities that was remarkable for someone his age.

She said the other Finnerty children are like that, too.

"And these children learned it from their parents," she said.

Kevin Dwyer, principal of Westgate School, knew the whole family and said the children are reflective of the entire family.

"They were part of our community, active at all PTA events, picking up and dropping off, always there for their children on bikes or in a car," Dwyer said.

Most of the investigation is over. Police will spend next week tying up loose ends, said Capt. Nicholas A. Pecora of the Arlington Heights Police Department.

"The truth is, we're never going to know what really happened," Pecora said.

"I wasn't there. The only people there were a 6-year-old and a 12-year-old, and we're going to do what we can to finish up the paperwork and interviews without further traumatizing those kids."

<div class="infoBox"> <h1>More Coverage</h1> <div class="infoBoxContent"> <div class="infoArea"> <h2>Video</h2> <ul class="video"> <li><a href="/multimedia/?category=9&type=video&item=359">Officials at press conference; neighbors discuss tragedy</a></li> </ul> <h2>Stories</h2> <ul class="links"> <li><a href="/story/?id=298649">Fundraiser today for Finnerty children <span class="date"> [6/5/09]</span></a></li> <li><a href="/story/?id=298609">'Trish would kiss every one of you' <span class="date"> [6/5/09]</span></a></li> <li><a href="/story/?id=298563">Friends say Garrett Finnerty was a stand-up kid<span class="date"> [6/5/09]</span></a></li> <li><a href="/story/?id=298216">Father wrote of family love, but clues suggest he left them to die<span class="date"> [6/4/09]</span></a></li> <li><a href="/story/?id=298494">Funerals scheduled<span class="date"> [6/4/09]</span></a></li> <li><a href="/story/?id=298311">Why would a man kill his family? Anger, say psychologists<span class="date"> [6/3/09]</span></a></li> <li><a href="/story/?id=298348">Scouts recall boy who worked hard, stayed positive<span class="date"> [6/3/09]</span></a></li> <li><a href="/story/?id=298315">Friend: 'We know what they were like when they were alive'<span class="date"> [6/3/09]</span></a></li> <li><a href="/story/?id=298314">Fund established to help Finnerty children<span class="date"> [6/3/09]</span></a></li> <li><a href="/story/?id=298313">Finnerty's last show: Sales slow but he seemed hopeful<span class="date"> [6/3/09]</span></a></li> <li><a href="/story/?id=298281">Libertyville High School staff mourns loss of friend and co-worker<span class="date"> [6/3/09]</span></a></li> <li><a href="/story/?id=297826">Officials look to cause of fire that killed members of 'perfect family'<span class="date"> [6/2/09]</span></a></li> <li><a href="/story/?id=297944">As watercolorist, Kevin Finnerty making a name for himself <span class="date"> [06/02/09]</span></a></li> </ul> </div> </div> </div>