Recent details revealed by Romeoville police have provided shocking new light into the September 2023 killing of a family of four, unveiling a possible motive behind the horrific murders. NBC Chicago’s Courtney Sisk reports.
Recent details revealed by Romeoville police have provided shocking new light into the September 2023 killing of a family of four, unveiling a possible motive behind the horrific murders.
Zoriada Bartolomei, her husband Alberto Rolon, their two young boys and three dogs were found shot to death in their own home on Sept. 17, 2023.
The police report revealed a new motive for the killings. Murder suspect Nathaniel Huey Jr. and his fiancé Ermalinda Palomo fled to Catoosa, Oklahoma after the homicides, where they died in a murder-suicide following a police chase.
Palomo's family first believed she was taken and in danger, with Palomo initially labeled as an "endangered missing person." Police reports now show Palomo played a larger role in planning the murders.
New body camera footage from Romeoville police obtained by NBC Chicago shows officers at Palomo's front door the day after the murder discovery.
“I know you know what’s going on and why we’re here," one officer said. “We’re investigating a murder."
Palomo looked stoic and yet somehow surprised to hear about the murder. She responded "who murdered someone?"
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New reporting shows that not only did her fiancé, Huey Jr., kill the family of four, but it suggests Palomo herself persuaded him to do it, and was the mastermind behind the gruesome crime.
The police report goes on to say Huey "had a history of unfaithfulness in his relationship" with Palomo, and that she knew about an affair he was having with Bartolomei.
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In December 2021, nearly two years before the murder, she began creating multiple online personas she used to communicate with Huey under the guise of being Mexican Cartel bosses, shot callers, hitmen and hackers.
The investigation shows she used a pinger mobile app to generate phone numbers for each persona, and they would encourage Huey to be faithful to Palomo. It eventually led to Palomo, through these characters, to convince him he was under constant surveillance by the organization.
The fake accounts ran by Palomo also sent threatening messages to Rolon and Bartolomei, threatening their children if she didn't end her affair with Huey.
Police body camera from the day after shows police questioning Palomo about unknown phone numbers.
"We’re going to find out who those phone numbers belong to. Is there any reason those numbers would come back to you?" one officer asked. Palomo replied that there wasn't.
The messages escalated two days before the murder when police say Ermalinda, disguised as one of the cartel hitman "Turtle" sent Huey a text that a mole was planning to attack him. The account didn't say who the mole was, which left Huey "paranoid."
Later, the account identified Bartolomei as the mole, and helped Huey plan the murders of the entire family.
Texts in the police report read "drop dogs as they present… move through locate and hit the two adults first… then two kids."
Huey did as he was told, while Palomo waited in the car outside.
Huey did not know the years-long communication was fake, or that it was Palomo behind the keyboard the whole time.
"I believe [that] Ermalinda [Palomo] was able to trick Nathaniel Huey into thinking that he needed to kill Zoraida and her family by pretending to be various subject from a Mexican cartel who threatened violence and death over Nathaniel's affair with Zoraida, and Nathaniel's indifference to his relationship with Ermalinda," one police officer's report said.
An attorney for Palomo's family declined a request for comment from NBC Chicago.
