Sheriff: Indicted former Kane County circuit clerk Thomas Hartwell has died

Editor's note: This article discusses suicide. The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is 1-800-273-8255.

Former Kane County Circuit Clerk Thomas Hartwell has died by suicide, Sheriff Ron Hain said Thursday.

Hartwell had been reported missing at 9:30 a.m. on Thursday. His body was found later at his Palatine law office, Hain said.

Hartwell, 63, was indicted last month on multiple charges. He was accused of misappropriating more than $100,000 in public funds while in office.

For a nearly two-year period, from December 2018 to November 2020, Hartwell improperly steered $119,575 to two companies overseen by Robert Gutierrez of St. Charles, Kane County State's Attorney Jamie Mosser alleged. Gutierrez, who was president of both companies, also gave Hartwell $15,000 in kickbacks, according to Mosser.

Hartwell was a former Kane County Republican Party chairman. He resigned as party chairman in 2017 to launch an unsuccessful run to become a circuit court judge in Kane County. Hartwell had been a member of the Kane County Board in the late 1990s.