Nearly three months after a shooter executed a mother, father, their two young children and the family’s three dogs, new details were released of how the murders occurred in Illinois, who police said was responsible and glimpses of a motive.
On September 17, the bodies of Alberto Rolon, Zoraida Bartolomei and their boys 9-year-old Adriel and 7-year-old Diego, were found inside the family’s Romeoville home on a quiet suburban block.
Police suspected Nathaniel Huey Jr. was the killer, but they provided no details about how the murder plot had come together.
In a noon-hour written statement, authorities said, “The investigation has revealed that Zoraida Bartolomei and the suspect, Nathaniel Huey Jr. had a relationship together. The existence of this relationship was known both by Bartolomei’s husband, Alberto Rolon and Huey Jr.’s girlfriend, Ermalinda Palomo.”
While investigators are not saying the victim and shooter had an estranged relationship, or whether this was a secret romance-gone-sour, the admission by police that the mother and the shooter had “a relationship together” is the first solid suggestion of a possible motive.
Detectives have video and digital evidence that Palomo accompanied Huey, Jr. to the murder scene and drove the getaway vehicle.
“Evidence indicates Palomo had prior knowledge of Huey Jr.’s intent to commit the murders, was involved in the planning, and drove the vehicle to the crime scene” the police statement read. “Digital evidence shows the path of the vehicle used to commit the crime traveling from Huey Jr.’s and Palomo’s home in Streamwood, Illinois to the 500 Block of Concord in Romeoville and back to Streamwood at the time the murders took place. Huey Jr. exited and re-entered the offending vehicle from the passenger side and Palomo was the driver of the vehicle.”
After the murders, Palomo’s family filed an “endangered persons” report with suburban police, and said they believed she left against her will.
Days after the execution-style killings, Huey Jr. and Palomo were spotted by law enforcement in Oklahoma. Following a brief chase their car crashed into an expressway divider and burst into flames. As authorities arrived gunshots were heard. Both of the wanted individuals ended up dead.
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