On May 10, 2025, Nebraska man Jeremy Koch (42) killed his sons Hudson (18) and Asher (16) and his wife Bailey (41) before taking his own life. Jeremy and Bailey were very public about Jeremy’s mental health struggles.
Bailey wrote some background about their family on a GFM that they made to try to raise funds for Jeremy’s treatment.
We are as vanilla as it gets…middle class Nebraska family. I’m a special education teacher and my husband runs our family landscaping and greenhouse services business we’ve owned for the last 19 years. We have two teenage boys…the oldest will graduate high school next week and then move to California for a three-year bonsai apprenticeship (yes, he’s a pretty cool kid). Our youngest is a freshman and a rockstar golfer on the varsity team. Proud parents here.
But my husband tries to kill himself…a lot.
Diagnosed with severe depression in 2009, we spent years living in the dark…telling nobody our truth. We finally began sharing our reality in 2015 after Jeremy had survived at least four attempts, the worst was near-fatal in 2012…a car accident in which he drove straight into a semi on the highway. He was left with a leg broken in four places, punctured lung, fractured pancreas, complete colon reconstruction, brain bleed, and…still depression. When he awoke, I was in awe and relieved. He was destroyed his attempt hadn’t worked.
But my husband fights for his mental health harder than anyone I know. He knows his brain lies to him…that we are NOT better off without him here. He actually went seven years without experiencing dark thoughts. But that all changed in July of 2024. So here’s the short story…
Jeremy has been mostly unable to work since August…only off and on. This means our family business is struggling, because if you know what it’s like to be a small business owner, you know the hours are long and the stress is enormous. Jeremy and I both cashed out our retirement accounts in December and January in order to pay bills and debt. We haven’t paid Jeremy since August…we are living on my teacher salary alone.
In March, just a couple months ago, I woke to Jeremy shaking me awake saying, “Something is wrong.” He was standing over my bed with a knife ready to end his life. I was able to talk him down and into accepting help. He went to our safe place, Richard Young Hospital in Kearney, Nebraska, for inpatient mental health treatment for the fourth time in our marriage and stayed for four nights and five days. They tried to level out meds and keep him safe.
It was then we all decided Jeremy may benefit from Electroconvulsive Therapy Treatments (ECT) for his mental health, since he had been denied Ketamine infusions twice. It was to perform a “factory reset” on my hottie hubby.
It didn’t work.
Jeremy became a shell of himself. We stopped treatments on Monday, April 28th, because symptoms were becoming progressively worse. Jeremy cannot get out of bed unless forced. He does not eat or drink unless I make him. He cannot take his meds or remember how to function as the very busy and loving adult he truly is.
Today, I brought Jeremy to the ER. He has been diagnosed with severe dehydration and nutrition deficiency…”Mental Health Crisis – Failure to Thrive.”
Our safe place, Richard Young Hospital, doesn’t have enough beds to take a Failure to Thrive case, as they must keep room for immediately suicidal individuals. It’s not their fault…this is mental healthcare in our world. It’s all put back on the caregivers…those of us who love the individuals struggling with mental illness and trying desperately to help.
Enter our local Cozad Hospital. They admitted my husband and are hydrating and feeding him with watchful eyes…and I know they’re doing it because they know I don’t know what else to do. He will die if he continues like this, and Jeremy’s doctors are doing their best with this love of my life who is both med resistant and med sensitive. By not eating or drinking, Jeremy is slowly completing suicide.
So here I am…asking for help. I have taken out every penny we have to pay bills. My retirement is gone. Jeremy’s retirement is gone. I have begun the process of looking into selling our family business because the stress is too much on my husband, and nothing is worth losing him.
The GoFundMe raised just over $20k before it was disabled.
In the days before May 10, Bailey and Jeremy made a lot of posts about his struggles on their FB page titled “ Anchoring Hope for Mental Health: Jeremy & Bailey Koch”.
On May 10 at 9.45am, Bailey’s mother Peg went to the family home.
This is from a post she made following that visit:
The Nebraska State Patrol released this statement:
This morning at approximately 9:45 a.m., the Dawson County Sheriff’s Office was dispatched to a residence at Johnson Lake, Plum Creek Canyon #1. Upon arrival, deputies found four deceased individuals inside the residence. All four were residents of the home.
The deceased individuals have been identified as Jeremy, Bailey, Hudson, and Asher Koch. Following preliminary investigation, it is believed that Jeremy Koch, 42, killed each of his sons, Hudson, 18, and Asher, 16, and his wife, Bailey, 41, before taking his own life. All four were found with fatal knife wounds. A knife was found at the scene.
Autopsies are being carried out on the family and we will update once the results are made public.
SOURCE LIST
https://www.yahoo.com/news/nebraska-family-4-killed-apparent-155022845.html
https://statepatrol.nebraska.gov/nsp-investigating-triple-murder-suicide-dawson-county
https://www.facebook.com/anchoringhopeformentalhealth
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14705171/Jeremy-Koch-Bailey-murder-suicide-Nebraska.html
https://www.gofundme.com/f/jeremys-battle-mental-health-support-needed