A 47-year-old man was charged on Friday for the horrific deaths of his ex-wife and two other people in New Mexico.
Sean Lannon is already in custody in New Jersey for allegedly beating a 66-year-old man in the state to death with a hammer and reportedly admitted to killing another 60-year-old man in New Mexico, but was not charged with that death.
He also claimed to have killed 11 other people in New Mexico, but police said there were no records of missing persons in the area or other police reports that indicate the existence of more potential victims.
Lannon reportedly shot his ex-wife, Jennifer Lannon, 39, in the house they lived in while getting married in Grants, New Mexico, after he claimed she was having an affair with Jesten Mata, 40. The couple divorced in 2019 .
SEAN MICHAEL LANNON, MAN DIED TO 5 KILLERS, ADDED TO KILL 16 PEOPLE
Lannon was arrested in St. Louis earlier this month in connection with the deaths of five people in two states.
(Gloucester County Attorney’s Office (NJ))
He told police that his ex-wife and Mata gave their children drugs to make them sleep. He said that after Mata left, Jennifer started to panic because she thought the children were dead.
According to the testimony, Lannon said that Jennifer tried an overdose of heroin, saying that she could not live without the children. He said she still had a pulse, so she shot him in the head. He told the authorities that he planned to kill himself, but then he heard one of the children scream and lower the gun.
Lannon told investigators that he placed Jennifer’s body in a container and placed it in the yard.
He said that a week later he attracted Mata back home using his ex-wife’s phone and allegedly shot and killed Mata after he showed Lannon a sexually explicit photo with one of Lannon’s children. Police said there was no evidence that Mata had taken sexual photos with the children.
A week after that, Lannon said he killed Matthew Miller, 21, who he claimed had sold drugs to his ex-wife and Mata.
Lannon reportedly dismembered their bodies with saws and knives and stuffed them in plastic cans.
He initially reportedly lied to the police, saying the three had run away with a bag of drugs. Unknowingly, friends also helped him move the dumpsters along with his other belongings to Albuquerque in mid-February, according to court records.
The remains of Jennifer Lannon, Mata and Miller were found in early March in a pickup truck in a parking lot at Albuquerque airport. The body of the truck owner, Randal Apostalon, 60, was also found. Lannon reportedly told police that he killed Apostalon after asking him for help moving the containers and money.
In New Jersey, Lannon is accused of breaking into the home of Michael Dabkowski, 66, in the Philadelphia area, and beating him to death with a hammer. He claimed that Dabkowski had sexually abused him when he was a child and said he went to the house to retrieve sexually explicit photos of the two. This allegation is being investigated by the Public Ministry.
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Dabkowski’s body was discovered on March 8, three days after the remains of the other four were found in New Mexico. Lannon was driving Dabkowski’s car when he was arrested by the US Marshals on March 10 in St. Louis, Missouri. The authorities are not sure why he was in the state.
Sean Lannon received exclusive custody of the couple’s three children in 2019 and his ex-wife was only allowed for supervised visits because of concerns about the potential for neglect due to prescription drug abuse, court records show.
Relatives say Sean Lannon flew to New Jersey in early March with the couple’s three children – girls aged 6 and 7 and a boy aged 4. He left them with relatives, claiming that he would return to look for his ex-wife. Her family was already worried, saying it was not like her to leave without warning soemoen.
The couple lived in New Jersey before moving to New Mexico.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.