WOODBURY, NJ (AP) – A man accused of murdering a New Jersey man has been sexually abused as a child, and is seeking the deaths of his ex-wife and three other people in New Mexico for a total of 16 homicides, a prosecutor said – although authorities have yet to confirm his claim.
Sean Lannon, 47, said he killed not only his ex-wife and the three others, but also ’11 other individuals’ in New Mexico, NJ.com was quoted as saying. Alec Gutierrez, an assistant prosecutor in the suburb of Philadelphia, Gloucester County, New Jersey, said during a detention hearing Friday.
Authorities allege in court documents that the acknowledgment came in a call to a family member, who told investigators that Lannon had expressed remorse. Lannon has so far only been charged with one death in New Jersey, and his lawyer says Lannon has been provoked.
Police Lieutenant David Chavez in Lannon’s hometown of Grants, New Mexico, told the Albuquerque Journal that the authorities have no indication that his allegations about 11 other murders are true and that they are not aware of the reports of missing persons or murders that fit into his narrative.
“Is it possible? It’s probably possible. Is it probable? No, probably not,” Chavez told the newspaper, saying authorities would investigate.
Lannon is on March 10 in St. Louis. Louis arrested after a search in several states. He was driving a car that was stolen from Michael Dabkowski, the victim of New Jersey whose body was found the same day and is now behind bars in New Jersey.
He is accused of breaking into the 66-year-old Dabkowski’s home and hitting him with a hammer, according to the affidavit.
Lannon is also a person interested in the deaths of his wife and the three others in New Mexico. According to authorities, a vehicle was discovered on March 5, 130 kilometers from Grants, in a garage at Albuquerque International Sunport, with four bodies.
The bodies were identified as those of Jennifer Lannon (39); Matthew Miller, 21; Jesten Mata, 40; and Randal Apostalon, 60. Sean Lannon lived 130 miles away in Grants.
Jennifer Lannon, Miller and Mata were friends, and Apostalon lived out of his car and was known for giving rides for money, Grants police said. The bodies were found in Apostalon’s car.
Gutierrez said Friday that Lannon admitted that he lured several victims to a home in New Mexico and discouraged some of them.
Jennifer Lannon’s brother Chris Whitman told Albuquerque TV station KOB that he was shocked to hear that Sean Lannon had claimed responsibility for several murders.
“They’ve been together for about nine years, and that’s just amazing, because this is someone I welcomed into my house and we had Thanksgiving dinner together.”
Public defender Frank Unger disputes the possible cause of the murder charge in New Jersey, arguing that Lannon Dabkowski’s house in East Greenwich Township entered with permission and that the acts that followed amounted in the worst case to manslaughter for passion provocation. , reported NJ.com.
Dabkowski mentored Lannon and his twin brother through a Big Brothers program in the 1980s, reports NJ.com. Lannon told investigators that Dabkowski sexually abused him as a child and that he went to the man’s home to retrieve sexually explicit photos.
Unger argued that Lannon did not want anyone to ‘have more control over me’. Dabkowski documented ‘those sexual assaults, the rapes, by himself along with Mr. “To take Lannon into sexually abusive positions,” Unger said.
Unger said Lannon took two hammers from Dabkowski’s garage and handed them to the victim, saying, ‘You’ll need them. I do not want to hurt you. ”
‘I would like to suggest that this fact alone illustrates that it was not intentional murder. He did not even bring a weapon to the house, ‘Unger said, arguing that Dabkowski attacked his client and was then killed.
Judge Mary Beth Kramer, New Jersey High Court, ordered prosecutors to limit their presentation to information relevant to the New Jersey case, but allowed limited references to the New Mexico cases.
Gutierrez said the victims from New Mexico were lured to a home, arguing that the idea that Lannon was invited to Dabkowski’s home “should be viewed through the lens of at least three incidents in New Mexico.”
Unger argued for release before the trial, saying his client had no previous convictions and is a veteran of the army with an honorable dismissal.
Lannon was born in Massachusetts and spent most of his early years in Gloucester County before being deployed to Germany, Unger said. He has a family in southern New Jersey, including his mother and sister, and could remain locally on electronic monitoring if released, the defender argued.
Gutierrez said Lannon adopted an adopted name to avoid detection when he returned to the East Coast and spent a week in jail in New Mexico for failing to appear in court. It was not clear what he was quoted as saying.
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This story has been updated to erase incorrect attribution in the first paragraph about the suspect’s confession to 11 murders. It also corrects that the suspect was arrested on March 10 and not on March 17 and that the bodies were found on March 5, not last week.