As feds investigate Sheriff Marceno, a beloved retired firefighter he put on the payroll has taken his own life

On the morning of Nov. 15, retired firefighter John McMahon was doing what he loved to do: honoring fallen heroes. 

That day McMahon, wearing his plaid kilt and tall black feathered bonnet, led his Guns N’ Hoses Pipes N’ Drums of SWFL band at a Florida Fallen Firefighters Memorial service in Ocala. After founding the band in 2011, the 69-year-old drum major performed at hundreds of funerals and other ceremonies honoring law enforcement, firefighters, first responders, and military veterans across Southwest Florida, the state, and at times the country.

McMahon, who grew up in Long Island, and his band not only played for those mourning the fallen, but also personally comforted them, said Amy Bollen, who worked with McMahon at South Trail Fire & Rescue, where he retired as deputy chief. As a member of Lee County’s Stress Management Team, he also helped active first responders deal with trauma and taught classes on mental awareness and suicide prevention, said Bollen, who serves as South Trail’s public relations director. 

It was during the most trying and tragic times that McMahon was at his best, she said.

“In a crowd, I would look for him,” said Bollen. “There was nothing better than a John McMahon hug. When he walked in the room, you knew everything was going to be okay. Chief McMahon believed in the importance of not just your body being healthy, but your mind being healthy. He recognized the importance of being a help to people.” 

But in the end McMahon could not help himself. Early in the morning, on the day after the memorial service in Ocala, the married father of three daughters and grandfather of two boys took his own life at his Fort Myers home. 

His death sent shockwaves of grief across Florida’s fire service and law enforcement communities. Bollen said she suspects that the trauma and stress from his own career finally took its toll on McMahon, noting  he was living with PTSD prompted by difficult fire calls, including the sudden death of a former partner, William Ziegler, who collapsed while they were working a brush fire in Lehigh Acres in 1981. McMahon performed CPR on Ziegler to no avail. “PTSD doesn’t go away,” Bollen said. 

But speculation has also centered on McMahon’s close relationship with embattled Lee County Sheriff Carmine Marceno, who is the subject of a federal grand jury investigation for allegedly orchestrating kickbacks involving a $5,700-a-month agency consulting contract given to Bonita Springs jeweler Ken Romano and other matters. The grand jury met Wednesday in Orlando, according to multiple sources. 

McMahon had a consulting contract with the sheriff’s office that paid him $2,000 a month starting in September 2022, according to LCSO records. The contract called for McMahon to provide guidance on “special circumstances” related to “critical incident command.” Bollen said McMahon assisted deputies suffering from traumatic crime calls. 

When news of the Marceno investigation first broke in September, McMahon became concerned he might be questioned by federal agents, said Lauri McMahon, his wife of 35 years. 

“He had talked to the undersheriff [John Holloway] and he had talked to Carmine [Marceno] before this happened, wondering what to say if he was contacted,” she said. “He wasn’t to talk to anybody about it.”

A source with knowledge of the investigation said McMahon had been in contact with the feds shortly before his death, but Lauri McMahon countered that. 

“I don’t know if he did, but I don’t believe he did,” she said. “He never said anything to me about it and I think he would have.” 

Lauri McMahon also said she didn’t believe the Marceno investigation had anything to do with her husband’s death. In a phone call last week, she said he left a note but she had not been able to read it because it was taken as evidence by the sheriff’s office, which is in charge of the death investigation. She didn’t respond to further requests for comment.

LCSO released a police report to the Trident pertaining to McMahon’s death, but it was heavily redacted and contained scant information (even McMahon’s name was stricken from it). 

The autopsy report on McMahon’s death is not complete, according to the Lee County Medical Examiner’s Office. The document is now effectively a state secret anyway – Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a bill in March prohibiting the public release of autopsy reports involving suicide. Only immediate family members can obtain the reports, which had been a matter of public record for decades. Marceno, who has largely been quiet about the burgeoning scandal, had not responded to an interview request prior to publication. 

Bollen was adamant the Marceno investigation was not a factor in McMahon’s death. 

“Sheriff Carmine Marceno has nothing to do with the death of John McMahon,” Bollen said. “What has happened with John McMahon is a personal matter. What is happening with the sheriff is Carmine Marceno’s mess that he can deal with. … One little moment of a Carmine Marceno mess was nothing compared to the stress of [McMahon] working here. ” 

And she doesn’t want the Marceno connection to mar memories of McMahon. Hundreds have paid their respects via social media and a massive memorial is planned for Friday at Hertz Arena in Estero. Bollen said more than 300 pipes and drums bands from all over the country will come to honor McMahon’s life and service.

“He’s going to be the reason we are going to continue on with peer counseling,” she said. “We need more like him. That might be his legacy.”