{"id":47832,"date":"2021-03-22T17:42:31","date_gmt":"2021-03-22T23:42:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/police-new-mexico-charges-coming-after-killings-in-2-states\/"},"modified":"2021-03-22T23:42:31","modified_gmt":"2021-03-22T23:42:31","slug":"police-new-mexico-charges-coming-after-killings-in-2-states","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/police-new-mexico-charges-coming-after-killings-in-2-states\/","title":{"rendered":"Police: New Mexico charges coming after killings in 2 states"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"This
This undated photo released by the Gloucester County Prosecutor\u2019s Office shows Sean Lannon. Authorities on Wednesday, March 10, 2021, searched for Lannon, a man wanted for questioning in a homicide in New Jersey and in the slayings of four people whose bodies were found inside a vehicle parked in a New Mexico airport garage.<\/span>Gloucester County Prosecutor\u2019s Office via AP<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Investigators over the weekend searched a house where Sean Lannon, his ex-wife and their children were believed to have lived in the city of Grants, about 80 miles west of Albuquerque. Police Lt. David Chavez would not specify what investigators were looking for, only that the warrants were for anything of \u201cevidentiary value\u201d as local and federal authorities try to piece together what happened.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a complicated case,\u201d Chavez said. \u201cIt wasn\u2019t just one event, so we\u2019re having to look at many things.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"In
In this photo taken in October 2020, Jennifer Lannon, second from right, poses for a photo with her brother Chris Whitman, second from left, and sisters, Sarah Whitman, far left, and Kim Bermudez in Blackwood, N.J. Lannon&#x2019;s body and three other people were found in a vehicle in a parking garage at Albuquerque International Sunport, New Mexico&#x2019;s largest airport, on March 5. Her ex-husband, 47-year-old Sean Lannon of Grants, New Mexico, said he confessed to killing16 killings in all, including the four found at the airport.<\/span>Sharon Whitman via AP<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Authorities also were still looking into Lannon\u2019s claims that he killed 11 other people in New Mexico. Chavez reiterated Monday that while anything is possible, it was not probable given that there were no records of people missing from the area or other police reports that would indicate there are potential victims.<\/p>\n

Authorities said in court documents that Lannon, 47, admitted to the additional killings in a phone call to a relative, who told investigators he expressed remorse.<\/p>\n

The case began March 5, when the bodies of Lannon\u2019s ex-wife and three other people were found in a vehicle in a parking garage at Albuquerque International Sunport, New Mexico\u2019s largest airport. They were identified as Jennifer Lannon, 39; Matthew Miller, 21; Jesten Mata, 40; and Randal Apostalon, 60.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not clear how or when they were killed.<\/p>\n

Chavez said the first indication something was wrong was when Miller\u2019s girlfriend reported him missing in late January. When detectives talked to his friends and associates in Grants, they learned the others might also be missing.<\/p>\n

Chavez said charges related to the deaths were imminent but that authorities feel they have time to build their case and gather as much evidence as possible because Lannon is in custody in New Jersey, where he\u2019s charged with killing Michael Dabkowski.<\/p>\n

Lannon is accused of breaking in to Dabkowski\u2019s New Jersey home, just south of Philadelphia, and beating the 66-year-old to death with a hammer, according to an affidavit. His body was discovered March 8, three days after the remains were found in New Mexico.<\/p>\n

Lannon told investigators that Dabkowski had sexually abused him as a child and that he had gone to the home to retrieve sexually explicit photos. Dabkowski mentored Lannon and his twin brother through a Big Brothers program in the 1980s, NJ.com reported.<\/p>\n

Assistant deputy public defender Ronald Appleby declined to comment on the New Jersey charge, saying he\u2019s only representing Lannon in that case. They\u2019re scheduled to return to court on April 8, Appleby said.<\/p>\n

The Lannons lived in New Jersey before moving to New Mexico, and it was not clear how long they had been there. Chavez said the family had contact with New Mexico\u2019s child welfare agency, but it wasn\u2019t known whether the children were at home when their mother disappeared.<\/p>\n

The New Mexico Children, Youth and Families Department could not immediately provide details about the family.<\/p>\n

Relatives say Sean Lannon flew to New Jersey in early March with the couple\u2019s three children \u2014 6- and 7-year-old girls and a 4-year-old boy. He took them to his parents\u2019 house and left again, saying he was going to look for Jennifer Lannon.<\/p>\n

Her family grew more concerned, saying it wasn\u2019t like her to be without her children.<\/p>\n

Lannon was arrested in St. Louis on March 10, and officials say he was driving Dabkowski\u2019s car. That\u2019s the same day prosecutors in New Jersey announced Lannon was charged with murder, robbery, burglary, motor vehicle theft and weapons counts.<\/p>\n

Officials are trying to determine why Lannon was in St. Louis.<\/p>\n

Albuquerque detectives traveled there to interview her. It appeared one of the New Mexico victims was killed in Albuquerque, and the other three died in the Grants area, Albuquerque police spokesman Gilbert Gallegos Jr. said.<\/p>\n

Chris Whitman, Jennifer Lannon\u2019s brother, said Sean Lannon told the family in January that she had \u201crun off\u201d with some friends, possibly to Arizona. Whitman said Saturday that the story didn\u2019t sound right because \u201cshe was a great mom and, just, it would be uncharacteristic of her to not be with her children.\u201d<\/p>\n

Associated Press reporters Patrick Whittle in Portland, Maine, and Allen G. Breed in Woodbury, N.J., contributed to this story.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This undated photo released by the Gloucester County Prosecutor\u2019s Office shows Sean Lannon. Authorities on Wednesday, March 10, 2021, searched for Lannon, a man wanted for questioning in a homicide in New Jersey and in the slayings of four people whose bodies were found inside a vehicle parked in a New Mexico airport garage.Gloucester County […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":47833,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-47832","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47832","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47832"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47832\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/47833"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47832"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47832"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47832"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=47832"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}