Man accused of one slaying says he killed 16 people
A man charged with beating to death a New Jersey resident he says sexually abused him as a child now claims he has killed a total of 16 people, including his ex-wife and three others found dead near a New Mexico airport, officials said. Authorities have not corroborated his claim.
Sean Lannon, 47, said he killed the four whose remains were found in a vehicle and “11 other individuals” in New Mexico, Alec Gutierrez, an assistant prosecutor in Gloucester County, New Jersey, said at a detention hearing Friday, NJ.com reported.
Gutierrez said Lannon had confessed to luring several victims to a home in New Mexico and dismembering some of them.
Authorities said in court documents that Lannon made the admission in a phone call to a relative, who told investigators he expressed remorse. Lannon has been charged only with the death in New Jersey, and his lawyer says his client was provoked. He’s been named a person of interest in the four New Mexico slayings.
Police Lt. David Chavez in Lannon’s hometown of Grants, New Mexico, said authorities have no indication that his claims about 11 other killings are true and that they aren’t aware of any missing-person or homicide reports that would fit his narrative.
“Is it possible? Sure, anything’s possible. Is it plausible?” Chavez said. “Unfortunately we are still investigating that and conducting search warrants for evidentiary value.”
It was a twist in a case that spans the country but has many unanswered questions, including how Lannon was connected to the New Mexico slayings. Officials from the FBI, U.S. Marshals Service, several police agencies in New Mexico, and police and prosecutors in New Jersey either didn’t respond to requests for comment Saturday or didn’t immediately have more information.
The case began on March 5, when the bodies of Lannon’s ex-wife and three other people were found in a vehicle in a parking garage at Albuquerque International Sunport, New Mexico’s largest airport. It’s not clear how they were killed.
Police say three of them were reported missing in January from Grants, about 80 miles west of Albuquerque. The victims were identified as Jennifer Lannon, 39; Matthew Miller, 21; Jesten Mata, 40; and Randal Apostalon, 60.
Jennifer Lannon, Miller and Mata were friends, and Apostalon lived out of his car and was known to give rides for money, Grants police said. The bodies were found in Apostalon’s car.
“I can understand he (Sean Lannon) stated that, you know, he shot his wife and her boyfriend,” Chavez said. “But Matthew was not her boyfriend, so I don’t know how he became involved.”
Jennifer Lannon’s brother, Chris Whitman, told Albuquerque TV station KOB that he was shocked to hear his former brother-in-law claimed responsibility for multiple killings.