In law enforcement circles, Karen Solomon has been known as a champion for the mental health of police officers and other emergency workers. She founded an organization to help them and their families, wrote two books about police trauma, pushed for a national bill to expand paid benefits and married an officer herself.

Now, the police in Worcester, Massachusetts, are searching for Solomon in connection with the death of her husband, Kurt Solomon.

She was last seen Tuesday, and authorities considered her to be armed and dangerous. They have not charged her with any crime.

Solomon, 58, is “a suspect with regards to this case,” said Joseph D. Early Jr., the Worcester Country district attorney. “We want her for questioning. She was at the house.”

The Worcester Police Department did not identify Kurt Solomon as the victim, but a local police union, the New England Police Benevolent Association, did.

Details about his death were not publicly released by police as they continued to seek Karen Solomon for questioning Thursday. Officials said domestic violence laws prevented them from releasing more information.

Chief Paul Saucier of the Worcester Police Department said at a news conference Tuesday that officers responded to the Solomon home at 5:28 a.m. that morning to reports of a “person down,” who they later determined was an officer.

Local authorities released a photo and a video compilation of Karen Solomon on Wednesday, showing her walking around in pajamas and flip-flops minutes after the police said they responded to her home early Tuesday.

In addition to Karen Solomon, other people were at the home at the time of Kurt Solomon’s death, but officials declined to say more.

Karen Solomon is the founder of a Massachusetts organization called First H.E.L.P., which seeks to reduce mental health stigma for emergency medical workers to prevent suicide and help the families of those who lost relatives under similar circumstances.

First H.E.L.P. said in a statement that it was aware of the investigation and the search for Karen Solomon. “Our first concern is for the officer who lost his life, his family, his colleagues and the Worcester law-enforcement community,” it said. “We extend our deepest condolences to all those affected by this tragedy.”

Efforts to reach relatives of Karen Solomon were not successful.

Karen Solomon is a mental health activist and expert who was known in the police community. According to her biography that was posted on the First H.E.L.P. website, she was chair of the Data and Research Committee of the National Consortium on Law Enforcement Suicide Prevention.

The author of two self-published books about police officers and PTSD, she also pushed for the Public Safety Officer Support Act, which former President Joe Biden signed into law in 2022. That bill expanded a federal benefits program to cover mental health injuries, disabilities from trauma and deaths by suicide for first responders.

Kurt Solomon worked for the Worcester police for 31 years, the police union said in a statement.

“As the investigation into the circumstances surrounding Officer Solomon’s death remains active and ongoing, we have full confidence in the law enforcement professionals working tirelessly to determine exactly what occurred and locate the individual being sought,” the union said.

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This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

By Christina Morales/Kylie Cooper
c. 2026 The new York Times Company