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Man Linked To 5 Deaths In New Mexico And N.J. Allegedly Says He's Killed 16 People In Total
“Is it possible? Sure, anything’s possible. Is it plausible?” Grants (N.M.) Police Lt. David Chavez said. “Unfortunately we are still investigating that and conducting search warrants for evidentiary value.”
A man linked to the deaths of five people in New Mexico and New Jersey has allegedly admitted to killing a total of 16 people as authorities work to verify the claim.
Sean Lannon, 47, was arrested in St. Louis on March 10 after a national manhunt stretching from New Jersey to Missouri. He has been officially charged with the killing of 66-year-old Michael Dabkowski, who was found murdered in his home in East Greenwich, New Jersey on March 8. But Lannon is also considered a person of interest in the deaths of ex-wife Jennifer Lannon, 39; Matthew Miller, 21; Randal Apostalon, 60; and Jesten Mata, 40. All four were discovered inside a vehicle parked in a garage at the Albuquerque International Sunport airport. Charges are imminent in those deaths, according to the Associated Press.
During a Friday afternoon detention hearing, Assistant Gloucester County Prosecutor Alec Gutierrez said that Lannon “admitted to killing a total of 16 people [...] 15 being in New Mexico and one in the State of New Jersey,” NJ.com reports. Lannon allegedly made the admission in a phone call to a relative, authorities said, according to the AP.
Police Lt. David Chavez in Grants, New Mexico — where Lannon lives — said authorities are unaware of 11 other killings.
“Is it possible? Sure, anything’s possible. Is it plausible?” Chavez told the Associated Press. “Unfortunately we are still investigating that and conducting search warrants for evidentiary value.”
Lannon also allegedly told investigators that he killed Dabkowski, his former youth mentor, because he sexually abused him as a child. He said he went to visit Dabkowski to obtain sexually explicit photos that the man had taken of him. Lannon, who met Dabkowski at age 14, said he didn’t intend on killing him but ended up doing so with a hammer anyway, Gutierrez said.
A “credible witness” told investigators that Lannon confessed in a phone call that he “murdered his wife and her boyfriends in New Mexico” before killing Dabkowski in New Jersey, according to an affidavit previously obtained by NJ.com. Lannon and his ex-wife had three children together. The children have not been physically harmed.
Lannon is also accused of breaking into a home on Monday in Elk Township, New Jersey while armed with a 16-inch kitchen knife and later trying to break into another. He was allegedly driving Dabkowski’s car when he was captured in St. Louis.
