Man charged with 1 murder says he killed 16
A man who is accused of killing a New Jersey man he says sexually abused him in childhood, and who is a person of interest in the deaths of his ex-wife and three others in New Mexico, has said he is responsible for a total of 16 slayings, prosecutors say — though authorities have yet to corroborate his claim.
Sean Lannon, 47, said he was responsible for the killings in New Jersey and New Mexico — that he had killed his wife and others, including “11 other individuals,” NJ.com quoted Alec Gutierrez, an assistant prosecutor in suburban Philadelphia’s Gloucester County, New Jersey, as saying during a detention hearing Friday.
“He admitted to killing a total of 16 people ... 15 being in New Mexico and one in the state of New Jersey,” Gutierrez said.
Authorities allege in court documents that the admission came in a phone call to a family member who told Gloucester County investigators that Lannon expressed remorse.
Lannon was arrested in St. Louis on Wednesday morning after a search that stretched from New Jersey to Missouri. He was driving a car stolen from Michael Dabkowski, the New Jersey victim. He is behind bars in New Jersey.
He is accused of breaking into the 66-year-old Dabkowski’s home and beating him with a hammer Monday, according to an affidavit.
Lannon is also a person of interest in the death of his wife and three others in New Mexico. Authorities say a vehicle was discovered last week in a garage at Albuquerque International containing four bodies.
The bodies were later identified as Jennifer Lannon, 39; Matthew Miller, 21; Jesten Mata, 40; and Randal Apostalon, 60.
Gutierrez alleged Friday that Lannon admitted to luring several victims to a home in New Mexico and dismembering some of them.
Authorities say they have no indication that Lannon’s claims are true and that they aren’t aware of any missing-person or homicide reports that would fit his narrative.
“Is it possible? Sure it’s possible. Is it probable? No, probably not,” Chavez told the newspaper, saying authorities would investigate.
Grants police had been looking for Miller, Mata and Jennifer Lannon since last month and, on Feb. 26, said Lemos – a relative of Miller’s who knew all three – was wanted for questioning.
Apart from the five deaths already described by investigators, authorities hadn’t earlier spoken of any other killings in which Lannon was a suspect. He has been charged only in the New Jersey killing and has not been charged in any cases in New Mexico.
Public defender Frank Unger challenged probable cause for the New Jersey murder charge, arguing that Lannon entered Dabkowski’s home in East Greenwich Township with permission and that the acts that followed amounted, at worst, to passion provocation manslaughter, NJ.com reported.
Unger alleged that Lannon had been abused and went to the home to retrieve photos because he didn’t want anyone “to have control over me any longer.”
Dabkowski mentored Lannon and his twin brother through a Big Brothers program in the 1980s, NJ.com reported. Lannon told investigators that Dabkowski had sexually abused him as a child and that he went to the man’s home to retrieve sexually explicit photos of the two of them together.
Unger said that Dabkowski had “documented those sexual assaults, those rapes, by taking pictures of himself with Mr. Lannon in sexually compromised positions.”
Unger said Lannon retrieved two hammers from Dabkowski’s garage and gave them to the victim, saying, “You’re going to need these. I don’t want to hurt you.”
“I would suggest that this fact alone illustrates this was not purposeful murder. He did not even bring a weapon to the home,” he said, further alleging that Dabkowski attacked his client and was then killed.