ROMEOVILLE, Ill. (AP) 鈥 The suspect in the September shooting deaths of a suburban Chicago family was in a relationship with one of the four people slain and his girlfriend allegedly 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 Sept. 17 in their home in Romeoville, about 30 miles (48 kilometers) southwest of Chicago. Days later, suspect Nathaniel Huey Jr., 31, died in a in Oklahoma that also killed his girlfriend, Ermalinda Palomo.
The Romeoville Police Department said Thursday in a on X, formerly known as Twitter, that detectives have determined that Huey and Bartolomei 鈥渉ad a relationship together鈥 and that Rolon and Palomo were both aware of it.
Police said their investigation is nearly complete and the 鈥渆vidence 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 鈥渄igital evidence鈥 shows that vehicle traveled 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 鈥渁t the time the murders took place.鈥
Palomo drove the vehicle, with Huey as the passenger, and evidence shows he 鈥渆xited and re-entered鈥 the vehicle during that drive, police said.
The Chicago Tribune Thursday that a Sept. 17 Romeoville police bulletin it obtained through an open records request named Huey as a suspect in the quadruple homicide, advised that he had stopped going to work and was aware police were pursuing him, describing him as acting 鈥渋rrational and erratic.鈥
A Streamwood police report from Sept. 19 states that about a month before Romeoville police found the family shot to death at home, Palomo had asked Huey to leave, prompting him to threaten to 鈥渢ake everyone down,鈥 according to the Chicago Tribune.
That report adds that another member of Huey鈥檚 household called police on Sept. 19 to report Palomo as a missing person and said Palomo had left the house earlier that day and described her as 鈥渇earful.鈥
鈥淪he was very scared and kept telling (the caller) 鈥業 love you,鈥欌 the report stated.
Later on the morning of Sept. 19, Catoosa, Oklahoma, police found Huey dead and Palomo critically injured with gunshot wounds in a crashed, burning vehicle. Palomo died shortly afterward in a local hospital, the Chicago Tribune reported.
Palomo鈥檚 family attorney, JohnPaul Ivec, said in a statement in September that Palomo 鈥渉ad nothing to do鈥 with the Romeoville killings and the family knows 鈥渨ithout a shadow of a doubt that at the time of the murders in Romeoville, Ermalinda was home sleeping.鈥
Ivec said Friday the family was aware of Thursday鈥檚 statement by Romeoville police but that he and the family wonder how police learned what they claim in their statement, saying 鈥渢hey make a conclusion but they don鈥檛 say how they know.鈥
When asked what the family鈥檚 reaction was to the police allegation that Palomo was involved in planning the killings, he said they had no comment.
鈥淭hey鈥檙e not making any more comments. They鈥檙e just trying to heal,鈥 Ivec told The Associated Press.
The Romeoville family鈥檚 death marked the 35th in the U.S. this year, according to a maintained by The Associated Press and USA Today in partnership with Northeastern University. Since then, there have been a total of 42 mass killings in the U.S., it shows.
At least 217 people have died this year in those killings, which are defined as incidents in which four or more people have died within a 24-hour period, not including the killer 鈥 the same definition used by the FBI.
