ROMEOVILLE, Ill. — The suspect in the September shooting of a suburban Chicago family was in a relationship with one of the four people killed and his girlfriend may have helped plan the killings, police investigators said.
Alberto Rolon, Zoraida Bartolomei and their two sons, ages 7 and 9, were found shot to death on September 17 in their home in Romeoville, about 30 miles (48 kilometers) southwest of Chicago. Days later, suspect Nathaniel Huey Jr., 31, died in a car crash in Oklahoma that also killed his girlfriend, Ermalinda Palomo.
Romeoville police said Thursday in a post on
Police said their investigation is nearing completion and that the “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.”
Police said “digital evidence” shows the vehicle drove from Huey and Palomo's home in Streamwood, Illinois, to the victims' home in Romeoville, about 35 miles (56 kilometers) away, and then back to Streamwood “at the time the murders took place. .”
Palomo was driving the vehicle, with Huey as a passenger, and evidence shows he “exited and reentered” the vehicle during that trip, police said.
The Chicago Tribune reported Thursday that a Sept. 17 Romeoville police bulletin, obtained through an open records request, which named Huey as a suspect in the quadruple murder, advised that he had stopped working and was aware that police were pursuing him and described as acting. “irrational and erratic.”
A Sept. 19 Streamwood police report states that about a month before Romeoville police found the family shot to death at their home, Palomo asked Huey to leave, prompting him to threaten to “take everyone down,” according to the Chicago Tribune.
That report adds that another member of Huey's household called police on September 19 to report Palomo missing, saying Palomo had left the house earlier that day and describing her as “anxious.”
“She was very scared and kept telling the caller, 'I love you,'” the report said.
Later on the morning of September 19, police in Catoosa, Oklahoma, found Huey dead and Palomo seriously injured with gunshot wounds in a crashed, burning vehicle. Palomo died shortly afterward at a local hospital, the Chicago Tribune reported.
Palomo family attorney JohnPaul Ivec said in a statement in September that Palomo “had nothing to do” with the Romeoville murders and that the family “knows beyond a shadow of a doubt that Ermalinda was asleep at home in Romeoville at the time of the murders.” .”
Ivec said Friday that the family was aware of Thursday's statement by Romeoville police, but that he and the family wonder how police learned what they claim in their statement: “They are drawing a conclusion, but they don't say how they know.”
When asked what the family's reaction was to police accusations that Palomo was involved in planning the murders, he said they had no comment.
'They don't comment anymore. They are just trying to heal,” Ivec told The Associated Press.
The deaths of the Romeoville family marked the 35th mass killing in the U.S. this year, according to a database maintained by The Associated Press and USA Today in partnership with Northeastern University. Since then, a total of 42 mass murders have taken place in the US, it appears.
At least 217 people have been killed this year in these killings, which are defined as incidents in which four or more people have been killed within a 24-hour period, not including the killer — the same definition used by the FBI.