Father believed to have killed entire family in apparent murder-suicide on son’s high school graduation day
A father in Nebraska is believed to have killed himself, along with his wife and kids, on the same day of his son’s high school graduation. (Source: KSNB)

DAWSON COUNTY, Neb. (KSNB/Gray News) – A father in Nebraska is believed to have killed himself, along with his wife and kids, on the same day of his son’s high school graduation.

All four were found with fatal knife wounds.

A knife was found at the scene.

At the 2025 Cozad Graduation Ceremony, Superintendent Dan Endorf commented on the tragedy, and how it affected the graduating class.

“As you know, our community and our senior class experienced a tragedy within the past few hours,” Endorf said. “The bittersweet emotions felt by the senior class on their graduation day, and throughout this entire gymnasium for that matter, cannot be concealed in this moment and are emblematic of the adult lives our graduates are about to begin. While our Haymaker pride is being tested at this moment, let’s all do our very best within the next hour to celebrate the 13 year journey that our graduates are completing today.”

In a public Facebook post, Bailey’s parents, Lane and Peg Kugler, expressed frustration with the state of mental health care in the United States and said Koch had long struggled with his mental health.

The family said Koch’s mental health issues dated back to at least 2009 and included multiple suicide attempts. In 2015, the family began publicly sharing their struggles in an effort to reduce stigma and advocate for others. Bailey, an author and early contributor to the parenting website Her View From Home, launched her own Facebook page to raise awareness about mental illness and offer hope to others in similar situations.

Bailey wrote that her husband’s condition worsened significantly in 2024. On May 3, she said Koch had survived at least four suicide attempts.

Bailey said the situation became dire in March, when she woke to Koch standing over her with a knife, saying, “Something is wrong.” She said she was able to de-escalate the situation and convince him to seek help.

After ending electroconvulsive therapy treatments earlier this year, Bailey said Koch had become “a shell of himself.”

“Mental illness is taking my husband from me, and I’m begging you to open your eyes and see the reality that is this society’s mental health crisis,” she wrote.

The NSP is the lead agency in the homicide investigation. The Dawson County Attorney has ordered autopsies of all four residents.

The investigation remains ongoing.