Woman sought in officer’s death co-founded mental health group for police and other first responders

Co-Founder of Police Mental Health Advocacy Group Sought After Husband, a Veteran Officer, Found Dead at Shared Home

Goldlaner.com – Authorities launched a multi-agency search Wednesday for a 58-year-old woman who had spent more than a decade championing the psychological well-being of law-enforcement officers, after her husband — a 31-year veteran of the Worcester Police Department — was discovered lifeless inside the couple’s shared residence. Karen Solomon, who co-founded an organization devoted to reducing stigma around mental-health care for first responders, was believed to be armed and had not been located as of Wednesday morning.

The Discovery and Immediate Response

Worcester police responded to a call at the home early Tuesday morning. Minutes after officers arrived, doorbell-camera footage captured Karen Solomon walking down a nearby street wearing a T-shirt, shorts, and flip-flops. The Worcester Police Department released that clip to the public Wednesday, along with a description of her appearance, and distributed flyers bearing her photograph to motorists in the surrounding area.

Worcester County District Attorney Joseph Early Jr. confirmed that Solomon had been present at the residence in the early hours of Tuesday and that investigators wished to speak with her regarding the circumstances surrounding the death. Local, state, and federal agencies were all participating in the ongoing search effort.

A Veteran Officer’s Passing

The department initially declined to name the deceased officer. However, Thomas Duffy, president of the local police union, identified him publicly as Kurt Solomon, who had served the Worcester force for three decades and one year.

“When you serve 31 years with an individual, you become more than coworkers. You become family, and today we lost a member of our family,” Duffy told reporters on Tuesday. “Just a tremendous human being.”

Thirty-one years on the force represents a career spanning roughly three generations of policing practice, from the early days of community-polling initiatives through the present era of body-worn cameras and digital evidence management. Officers who complete such lengthy tenures often become informal mentors, training partners, and cultural anchors within their departments, making their loss felt well beyond the immediate shift roster.

The Couple’s Relationship

Court records indicate that the two shared ownership of the home and that Kurt Solomon listed Karen Solomon as his wife in a 2016 bankruptcy filing. Investigators, however, declined to characterize their present-day relationship, citing privacy protections associated with domestic-violence cases. That procedural choice — withholding details about the couple’s status while a case is active — is standard practice in Massachusetts and signals that the investigation remains open and that no conclusions have been drawn about how the death occurred.

First H.E.L.P. and a Career in Advocacy

Karen Solomon is a co-founder of First H.E.L.P., an organization whose stated mission centers on honoring first responders who have died by suicide, supporting their surviving families, dismantling the stigma that discourages officers from seeking psychological help, and raising awareness of mental-health challenges within law-enforcement and first-responder communities. In a statement issued Tuesday evening, the group placed its focus squarely on the victim and his circle.

“Our first concern is for the officer who lost his life, his family, his colleagues, and the Worcester law-enforcement community,” the organization said. “We extend our deepest condolences to all those affected by this tragedy.”

The timing of the search against the backdrop of her advocacy work has drawn sharp public attention. Police suicide rates in the United States have long exceeded those of the general population, and organizations like First H.E.L.P. exist precisely because many officers delay or avoid professional help due to workplace culture, fear of career consequences, or personal reluctance to discuss emotional strain. Solomon’s own public profile — built around giving voice to officers who “can’t or won’t speak out,” as one biographical summary put it — makes the current investigation a particularly painful intersection of personal tragedy and professional mission.

Two Books on the Weight of the Badge

Before and alongside her organizational work, Solomon authored two books examining the physical and psychological toll of first-responder service: Hearts Beneath the Badge and The Price They Pay. An author biography associated with those titles noted that since 2014 she had been amplifying the experiences of thousands of field officers who lacked a platform or the institutional permission to discuss their struggles openly. Those works sit within a growing body of literature that treats post-traumatic stress, chronic stress, and occupational grief as systemic issues rather than individual failings.

What Comes Next

The investigation’s direction will depend on what investigators determine from the scene, forensic evidence, and any eventual interview with Solomon. Until then, the Worcester community — a city of roughly 100,000 residents where the police department serves as a visible civic institution — is watching a search that carries both the urgency of a missing-person case and the gravity of an officer’s death. For the families of fallen first responders, for the colleagues who shared decades of shifts, and for the broader movement Solomon helped build to ensure no officer suffers in silence, the coming days will test whether the advocacy she championed can survive its most personal trial.