Speaker 1: Sword and Scale contains adult themes and violence, and is
not intended for all audiences. Listener discretion is advised.
Speaker 2: That they had a big sight and jealous with a guy.
Speaker 1: Twenty twenty six has been a weird year, hasn't it.
It's barely begun man. When everyone looks at something and
half the population sees one thing and the other half
sees something completely different. We're cooked. We are done. Stick
a fork in it. This is season thirteen, episode three,
forty one, by the way, and it's all about trying
to figure out what's right when nothing is, you know,
kind of like twenty twenty six. It was March eighth,
twenty twenty one, in the small community of Mickleton, New Jersey.
Police cars swarmed the neighborhood. Flashes of blue lights started
across the living room windows. The quiet street was swallowed by.
Speaker 3: I look out the window and I have a bunch
of you know, police officers were out here, and when
we see had to come out and see what the
commotion was about. And it wasn't good.
Speaker 1: It wasn't good. In a community with crime rates well
below the national average, no one expected a violent crime,
let alone the murder of a senior citizen. This rare
crime would go down as the only murder in the
community for years. Never issues like this, never see anything
like this.
Speaker 4: Everybody kind of you know, keeps themselves, the neighborhoods, really
nice people everybody.
Speaker 1: It's just it's a shock when stuffing like this happens.
Sixty six year old Michael Debkowski was found murdered in
his laundry room. He was bludgeoned in the head, his
face masked in a sweatshirt. The only thing missing from
the home was his car.
Speaker 5: I was really shocked. I was really upset to find
out like who it was.
Speaker 3: Mike was a real good guy, you know. He was
the type of guy that would help you out if
you need a hand, if you see you out in
the yard work, and always we when you go by,
always had a kind thing to say to you. Never
seen him, you know. Mad just just a total shock
that it happened to him.
Speaker 1: Mike never married. Instead, he spent his time away from
work as an engineering consultant volunteering in the community. He
was active in his church, taught religious education, and was
a member of the Catholic fraternal organization Knights of Columbus.
He was even a big brother of America mentoring youth.
Speaker 3: It's a terrible way for anybody to go. You know,
you're in your own home and you know, to be
cut down like that by yourself alone.
Speaker 5: I just hope it doesn't happen again around here. That
was horrible to see.
Speaker 1: It all started with a call from a woman named Carol.
She spoke with Mike multiple times a day every day.
That afternoon, at about one pm, she was talking to
Mike when his demeanor suddenly changed. He ended the call
saying he would call her back. She was left on
the other end of the phone wondering what was going on.
When she never heard back from him and was only
getting to his voicemail, she called police. The police conducted
a welfare check at his residence eighty five Myrtle Avenue.
There was no response when they knocked on the door.
They walked around the house looking through the windows for
any sign of Mike. Finally, they managed to lift the
garage door a few inches. That's when they noticed his
car was gone. They ran the plates through the system.
They found out that the license plate was scanned by
an automated plate reader in Camden, New Jersey, Carol told
police that Mike would only ever visit his brother, but
that he would take a train. As far as she knew,
he didn't have any trips planned. The police decided to
go into the home. They lifted the garage door just
enough for an officer to crawl underneath. Once in the garage,
he immediately noticed the interior door had signs of fourth entry.
On the other side of the door was the laundry room,
and on the floor was Mike in a pool of blood.
Mike put up a fight, though the struggle that ended
in his death had started in the kitchen, went through
the living room and ended up in the laundry room.
When police told Carol about Mike's death, her first question
was whether Sean Lannin had murdered him.
Speaker 6: Breaking news the search for a person of interest in
a South Jersey murder.
Speaker 7: We have a scary situation here in Gloucester County. What
could this guy could be anywhere? At this point police
are looking for.
Speaker 6: Sean lannon is wanted in connection with yesterday's homicide, and
East Greenwich Township.
Speaker 7: Investigators say he's considered absolutely armed and dangerous.
Speaker 8: Yeah, this is a national manhunt right now. There's a
stolen car from South Jersey that he may be using,
a blue hon the CRV with Jersey plates. Also, they
think he was spotted at the water Rad Transportation Center,
which will likely send off alarm bells all over the
Filly area because that is the bus station right next
to the Ben Franklin Ridge. You could take a bus
in the Billi in five minutes. You could take the
river line up and down the river where you could
take the Pat Goalie speedline to Locus Street if you wanted.
Speaker 1: The manhunt for Sean Lanin was nationwide, but he was
from New Jersey. He grew up there. He went to
high school and ran track. Nobody thought his name would
be in the news for anything like this, though. But
the reason Carol suspected Sean was that Mike had been
in Shawn's life since he was a child. Sean didn't
have a father growing up, so his mother Lynn enrolled
him in the Big Brother program. Mike became his big
brother and father figure.
Speaker 9: His father was a career criminal I Americ in nineteen seventy.
I was a couple of years in.
Speaker 2: I knew I did english to be married him anymore.
Speaker 1: She explained life was so hard when Sean was young,
and over time she came to rely on Mike.
Speaker 10: Too because I was a single parent.
Speaker 9: And I worked, so I counted on Mike to kind
of picked up the slack. We were pushed we were
just four because single women are just poor. It's just
part of the Yeah, it's just he's what. So I know,
Mike was good to him in terms of, you know, possessions,
because I couldn't. I couldn't and it was hard, and
I was grateful for Mike that the kids could have
clothes that, you know, Otherwise we shopped in goodwill.
Speaker 1: Mike became a lifelong fixture in Sean's life, following him
into adulthood and even marriage. His in laws even knew
the man everyone called Uncle Mike.
Speaker 2: We knew Uncle Mike.
Speaker 11: Uncle Mike was at plenty of birthday parties and dinners,
dinners at the house, and.
Speaker 12: He was a big brother that stayed in his life.
He was his father. He was family friend that was
like a father figure to him. I can't remember his name,
was just like, oh, uncle Mike, Uncle Mike.
Speaker 1: Everyone who knew Uncle Mike knew him as an upstanding
citizen and a great man. Who devoted himself to others
rather than selfish pursuits. But years after his big brother mentorship,
when Sean grew up, he started sharing his childhood trauma
with his wife.
Speaker 11: I knew Jen had said that he was molested when
he was a kid.
Speaker 2: They never said uncle Mike. He never showed any dislike
of Uncle Mike. Uncle Mike was always wonderful.
Speaker 12: My sister told me at one point, I didn't know
it was him. That Sean had been Melissa as a kid,
had childhood, but I did not know it was him.
I didn't connect the dots there. But everything seemed normal
when we met. I met Mike. I see you know.
I knew they were close friends. It was a father figure.
I didn't see anything out of the ordinary there.
Speaker 1: While everyone seemed to know about Sean's childhood trauma, no
one put two and two together. It was too hard
to imagine that Mike, the man who gave so much
to the land and family and asked for nothing in return,
could be the one who had molested Sean. But there
was one person Sean shared more with, the longtime nanny
to his kids. Remember Sean mentioning an old score that
needed settling and Mike.
Speaker 5: I've known for years about Mike.
Speaker 2: He would never really post kids alone with Mike.
Speaker 13: So he had mentioned sexual assault that of herd when
he was a young boy, right before his teens, up
until I mean he went off to the R and I.
Speaker 5: He had said that was an old school that he
needed to say for Mike.
Speaker 1: The anger he must have felt, the shame that must
have lingered with him for ye years. Two days after
the murder, on March tenth, the man hunt was over.
He was arrested and questioned about his reasons for killing
a retired old man, the man that molested.
Speaker 10: Me, his child, my big brother, big brother's big sisters,
and there the lists too.
Speaker 1: At forty seven years old, something snapped in Sean Lannon.
He had three young kids. People who knew him say
they were his whole world. But somewhere along the line,
something in Sean's world shifted. You could no longer live
with what he claimed Mike Debkowski did to him as
a child. He had to take control back.
Speaker 10: Who wanted the pictures, Sir Michael wanted the pictures back.
He want to give them pictures.
Speaker 1: I step being on March eighth, when Mike saw Sean
Lannon walking up to his driveway. He ended the call
with Carol because he knew it couldn't be good. Mike
had been lending Sean money for years, but he never
seemed to get back on his feet. This time, Sean
didn't want money. He wanted the sexually explicit photos he
claimed Mike took of him as a kid. Sean said.
Mike denied having those photos, so he punched him in
the face a few times.
Speaker 10: Just give me the fucking pictures about.
Speaker 1: It, Sean said. After a few stiff punches, Mike gave
him the pictures, but Sean wasn't done. He escalated the
situation and the two started to scuffle. At sixty six
years old, Mike wasn't as strong as he used to
be and quickly tried to retreat through the living room,
but Sean pursued. The laundry room connects the rest of
the house to the garage. Mike was trying to escape,
but Sean found a hammer. He struck Mike on the
head and he collapsed to the floor. With his mission complete,
Sean locked the house and left, planning to steal Mike's car,
but when he got outside, he realized he didn't have
the keys. He had to force his way back into
the home to get the keys off of Mike's dead body.
The problem was Mike wasn't dead. He lay on the floor,
barely breathing. Sean grabbed a nearby sweatshirt and placed it
over his head so he wouldn't get covered in blood,
and swung the hammer a few more times.
Speaker 10: He expired the moment today realized I had time to
finish it. It's ekscite. That's horrible too. I don't give
a fuck about meus years, that's just fine. I feel bad.
Speaker 1: Sean took Mike's life. He called this man uncle since childhood.
He expressed remorse, but there was no emotion behind the words.
What happened to Sean that, after all of these years,
he suddenly let all this harbored aggression out.
Speaker 9: It was it was a nice young man. He ran tracked,
he ran on cross country. He was it was fun loving.
I didn't know that he had potential sexual molestation front.
Speaker 10: I didn't know that.
Speaker 1: After his arrest, Shawn's mother, Lynne said she never knew.
She claimed naivete for not seeing it, but there was
a lot about Sean she didn't know, didn't see until
it was too late. Two days earlier, on March eighth,
before he was arrested. It wasn't just a national manhunt,
it was a national concern.
Speaker 6: Police standing guard tonight at the scene of yesterday's homicide
on East Greenwich Township, Gloucester County, and at this hour
the search continues for Sean Lannon, not only for this crime,
but also in connection with a multiple killing. Herns out
that Lanin is also a person of interest in a
quadruple murder in New Mexico.
Speaker 1: By the time the sun set on March, Michael Debkowski
was dead and the search for Sean Lannon had crossed
state lines. News reports painted a picture of a violent attack,
a desperate escape, and a suspect now tied to four
more murders in New Mexico, but the headlines didn't explain
how Sean got there.
Speaker 9: And when he graduated high school he went into the
army for five years, he went to Costvo, which, if
you know the history of Kosovo, it was a violent
mass grave, the littlest bitch ethnic cleansing.
Speaker 12: I mean, it was just like night.
Speaker 2: But he didn't back. The same young man he went
over with I'm sure a lot.
Speaker 10: Of soldiers are the same line.
Speaker 9: They see atrocities, and I said, Sean, you need some
of PTSD help.
Speaker 10: You need some help with this. This is too much.
Speaker 1: Sean was never the same after his tour in Kosovo,
lingering mental scars added to his already damaged mental health.
It seemed his whole perspective on life had shifted.
Speaker 9: He divorced his first wife. When he came home, he
told me there could be no God because of what
he saw.
Speaker 1: What he saw in combat took a toll on Sean.
But it wasn't long before the old Sean started to
shine through.
Speaker 9: It was in McDonald's one day and he met a
girl named Liz. They were a whole other seven years together.
Speaker 1: For a short time, Sean seemed content, but it wouldn't last.
It was while he was with Liz that he met
Jennifer Whitman.
Speaker 12: I mean, he met probably about nine years ago. She
had been married at that point and from her first husband.
She was in her home nurse and that's how they met.
She was in there working and that's how they met.
Speaker 1: It wasn't long after jen started working as an in
home nurse for Shawn and Liz At. A relationship developed
and they were having a secret, you know, a secret
affair at that point, which eventually came out.
Speaker 9: She was married to somebody else. They had an affair
and then just they were just like you know, starcross
the lovers and everything was like wonderful and like them.
Speaker 12: At that point, she lost her first husband. They got together.
Speaker 1: Both Sean and Jen were already married, but that didn't
seem to matter. They're fair turned into a full fledged
relationship and then they got married.
Speaker 12: She went off for Sewan did, but they did. They
got married in March of twenty thirteen. None of us
were there. We found out through Facebook.
Speaker 1: Their relationship blossomed and it wasn't long before they welcomed
their first child into the world, a little girl. About
a year later, they had a second little girl. Not
long after that, Jen was pregnant again, this time with
a boy. From the outside, everything was perfect.
Speaker 2: He had a decent job. You know, he was good
at his job.
Speaker 9: He enjoyed his job, he enjoyed the you know, being
able to provide.
Speaker 11: He liked Saul was a hard worker. He was an
excellent dad. He loved Jen and he did anything for Jen.
Speaker 4: I mean.
Speaker 12: Through the years, they seemed to be okay.
Speaker 1: But behind the scenes, the couple was struggling.
Speaker 10: On some level.
Speaker 9: She wanted that picture of the because he grew up
in church and you know, everybody wants to be married
and you know, have that happy little house with the
white picket fens and kids running around. She wanted to
put on a side that she was all together and
and she she could maintain that for a while until
the need for you know, drugs.
Speaker 14: To go work.
Speaker 1: Jen started to slip into drug addiction.
Speaker 12: Jen was having some troubles with prescription drugs. She hurt
her back before she left her first husband, and she
was on some pain pillows for her back.
Speaker 1: It started slowly at first, but then escalated quickly. She
lost her nursing license because of her addiction and sank
deeper into it. Soon there were issues that couldn't be
missed even through the facade of the perfect life.
Speaker 15: And now.
Speaker 9: The first time dyfus was called in New Jersey was
because she was violent. She was on the drugs. She
was violent and she threw like barb chairs at them
and the babysitter got bad.
Speaker 1: Babysitter called them diffus as it's referred to or DYFS
stands for the Division of Youth and Family Services in
New Jersey.
Speaker 2: Then we had to have protection plans in place.
Speaker 9: So was Manson on the protection plan, and she couldn't
be left alone with the kids on superpest.
Speaker 1: Gen's addiction only got worse.
Speaker 9: In twenty sixteen, she had a heroin overdose.
Speaker 10: Dyphus took the.
Speaker 2: Kids in twenty seventeen.
Speaker 10: I got the.
Speaker 9: Call that night, shown says, come home, they're taking the kids.
Speaker 10: I got them home.
Speaker 9: They bade fast him one house and so we had
the kids for the next forty nine days.
Speaker 11: While she was.
Speaker 2: Supposed to be getting herself together, Sean was getting therapy.
Speaker 1: And that was their life, a cycle of Jen strung
out on opiates, going to rehab, getting out, and eventually
relapsing again, all the while they were trying to convince
DYFS that the kids weren't in danger. Sean worked at
an oil refinery, putting in a lot of hours. Sometimes
he would be gone for weeks at a time, leaving
the kids with Jen. This led to a lot of
calls to DYFS. Needless to say, they weren't convinced, but
in late twenty seventeen, Sean got an opportunity within his company.
He was offered another job in New Mexico to get.
Speaker 12: Ready to move to Mexico about three four years ago.
Speaker 1: I think it was I'm sure they looked at it
as a fresh start in a new state. Sean moved
to New Mexico with the kids and Jen returned to rehab.
Speaker 2: You know, she got out of rehab. She came back,
He divorces her.
Speaker 9: He takes her to you know, DIYFIS and get through
parental rights taken away.
Speaker 11: She didn't really deserve any rights. They were divorced just
by paper. They were still together as a husband and wife.
They never left each other only the time that Jen
was in rehab for three or four.
Speaker 12: Months, so I knew about it. I didn't know why. Well,
I think from what I understood, it was that they
ran to lose custody of the kids if Dick stayed marriage.
So they got worse, so Sean could hold full costoy
to the kids and the kids would be safe, so
they won't lose because j Chen was going through her
drug problem.
Speaker 1: Of course, Jen was still there. She lived the house
with Sean and the kids. She had no rights on paper,
but in reality, when Sean wasn't home, she had full
responsibility for their three small children. Taking care of her
kids was difficult for Jen. She often chose her addiction
over her children. Then Sean got sick.
Speaker 5: I wasn't really living nanny in the past couple of years.
But when Sean got diagnosed with cancer, I was there
a lot. I want to say it's his lungs. I
think it's mesophelioma. I'm not sure. I know he's been
saying he was seeing a doctor. I used to take
on the treatments every day up until October when he
was real bad.
Speaker 13: When he first started getting female he used to have
to be like just walked to the bathroom and everything,
like he could barely stand up.
Speaker 5: So I would stay there. A lot of times I
didn't stay there.
Speaker 1: Sean was so sick that he was physically wrecked. Jen
wasn't any help, so they had to hire a nanny
to help take care of the kids. Then Sean lost
his job because of all the time off. The little
money they had started to dwindle fast, and the problems
with Jen got worse.
Speaker 12: Jen had run off with somebody after had an argument
that she hit him with a frying pain and he
was bruised up and marked up from that, and then
she ran off with some guy that went to Arizona.
Speaker 2: That they had a big fight and Jen left with
a guy.
Speaker 1: According to Sean, Jen abandoned her family at their lowest point.
Speaker 14: It's unlike my daughter to go two weeks without calling us,
then three weeks. It's unlike my daughter not calling us
or texting us three weeks January.
Speaker 12: February moved forward talk to my parents about finally missing
Presson report because Sean wasn't really communicating to my parents
as much. He gave us a little information, and all
of a sudden, once we started pushing the police, it
seemed like that's where you started talking. You know, I
saw her two weeks ago, where she only comes around
for money. You know, I'll see her soon. I mean
even said that he saw her in town, and I
just I just kept saying, this guy, Uh, something doesn't
seen right.
Speaker 1: On March fifth, one, three days before the murder of
Mike Dobkowski and the national manhunt, in the concrete shadows
of an Albuquerque airport parking garage, a worn down pickup
truck waited for someone to find what was inside.
Speaker 15: Albuquerque International Sunport. This is James James. This is our
Space Defense officer Martinez with CIS. I'm on patrol in
the garage. I have a vehicle here on the fourth
floor and within five feet of the vehicle you could
smell some sort of rotten cringing order.
Speaker 1: On the fourth floor of the airport parking garage was
a maroon Ford Ranger backed into a spot far from
all the other cars. While the truck was suspicious with
all the storage bins loaded inside and out, it was
the wafts of rot that got the security guard's attention.
Speaker 15: The vehicle is filled with multiple tubs storage containers, plastic
storage containers throughout the bed of the vehicle as well
as the cab. All right, we'll just keep an eye
on it and if anything changes, let us know if anything. Okay,
are you going to No, I'm not sending no, I'm
not sending an officer because the vehicle stinks. Okay, all right, well,
thank you very much.
Speaker 1: The truck didn't have any signs of a break in
and no one was inside. It was just very smelly,
but the guard couldn't let it go. You finished checking
the rest of the garage and then took his suspense
his boss. His boss couldn't let it go.
Speaker 12: Either, confers, this is mark nine to one down at longside.
How are you good?
Speaker 15: How you doing good?
Speaker 11: Good?
Speaker 5: Hey?
Speaker 12: I went up to level four.
Speaker 6: It just looks weird, man, it is.
Speaker 15: It is packed full of stuff, like carp.
Speaker 16: Down in the back, and every seat in the cab
is fully loaded, including the past the driver's seat with
like rubber made toads and stuff.
Speaker 15: And there is an odor there.
Speaker 16: And he said, he talked to you guys, and I
understand that the truck is registered, and you know, there's
really not a whole lot to go on, but I mean,
it might not be a bad idea that maybe I
have an Obviously, look at it, dude, it just looks weird, dude.
Speaker 1: Eventually, patrol officers were dispatched to the fourth level of
the Sunport Parking garage. The bed of the little pickup
truck was filled with storage toats, covered with a deflated
air mattress, a broken headboard from a twin bed weighed
all down. The cab of the truck filled with miscellaneous items.
Every surface, even the driver's seat, was packed with stuff.
Boxes of loose clothing were scattered in the back seat
a Thomas the tank engine. Theeinged toy box was ran
behind the driver's seat. The passenger seat was piled with
stuff and covered by a tarp. It was more than
just a little strange that someone would park a truck
loaded with personal items at the airport and leave it there.
It's not like people usually need to catch a flight
in the middle of moving. And I'm pretty sure that
people that live out of the car aren't world travelers.
Speaker 10: Yeah, Like beyond the seat right hand, the culture's blood
on her shirt.
Speaker 5: Like those loppers right there, I can't sell that's rest.
Speaker 10: On it or I don't know, like around the blade
part and kind of looks red reddish could be based
off what we're looking at.
Speaker 1: It means the patrol officers immediately understood what the security
guards were talking about. This truck reeked of decay. They
called a forensic investigator to determine if they were justified
in their concerns.
Speaker 5: We have a suspicious situation here. It's a bunch of fat,
thin couple were cut.
Speaker 10: In the back.
Speaker 5: It smells off your dads.
Speaker 10: No, we kind of pulled one over and it looks
like there might be.
Speaker 17: So.
Speaker 5: Then nobody heard this kitty.
Speaker 1: It was such an outlandish idea that the officer giggled
body parts, you say, don't be silly shoulders. When officers
peeled back one of the tot's lids, they were smacked
in the face with the thick stench of decomposition. Patrol
officers led the forensic investigator around the truck, pointing out
what looked like blood, hair, and human skin. The police
weren't sure what was going on with that little red truck,
but they were going to find out. The truck was
registered to sixty year old Randall Apostolon, an Albuquerque local.
He had no criminal record. How his truck ended up
at the airport was a mystery. The major Crime scene
team and the Office of the Medical Investigator methodically documented
the contents of each toe. The first tote contained a bloody,
deflated swimming pool, but underneath was a male torso. The
torso was missing ahead a left arm and the legs
below the knees. It was covered in tattoos and clothed
from the waist down. Whoever dismembered his body was in
such a hurry that they cut through the clothes in
the second tote, they found another torso covered by a
red and white blanket. It was missing the head, both legs,
and a right hand. The blade from a reciprocating saw
was lodged into the rib cage. It had a tattoo
on the right shoulder and was clothed from the waist up.
In the third tote, they found a single human thigh.
In the fourth tote, they found a fully clothed and
fully intact body of a female under a blanket. Her
hair was dyed blonde with streaks of red. She was
curled in a fetal position and crammed into a fifty
gallon bin. Each tote added a piece to the story.
They found human remains, but also the tools used to
dismember them. They found black gloves and multiple knives covered
in blood. In the Thomis the Tank Engine themed toy box,
they found a head, two legs, and strands of hair
clinging to a bloody hacksaw. I don't think I have
to stress how unsettling it is to find this cruesome
scene inside a children's toy chest. It's downright nightmare inducing.
It was already one of the most disturbing crime scenes
in Albuquerque's history, and then they pulled back the tarp
in the front seat. Underneath was the complete body of
a man. He was curled in a fetal position with
his knees on the floorboard. His arms were pinned under
his body, and his head was forced into the seat back.
There was evidence of severe trauma to the head and face.
When they pulled the crumpled body out of the truck,
they understood why underneath the body was a blood covered
short handled sledgehammer. It was clear that the body in
the passenger seat was the owner of the Randall, from
what officers could tell, looked like his license photo. Detectives
now had to find out why Randall was dead in
his own truck with the dismembered bodies of three others.
They also needed to identify the man caught on airport
surveillance cameras parking the truck. But they started their investigation
with the address associated with Randall's license To help you, Johnathan.
Speaker 4: With he's my brother, right, we did you're looking for him? Yeah?
Speaker 18: I really don't know where he is to be honest
with you, Okay, all he does is to receive his
mail here.
Speaker 10: Oh okay, okay, So where do you think he's living.
Speaker 18: I truly think he's living out of his vehicle. I
truly tell me why you think that? Because he's destitute,
he's broke. Okay, he's scraping for gas to put it
in the truck.
Speaker 1: Randall's brother Mark didn't seem surprised when police showed up
asking about him. Randall was homeless, living out of his truck.
He did random tree trimming to make money, but Mark
was adamant that Randall couldn't be responsible for anything that
required a police investigation.
Speaker 10: What I will do, gentlemen, is I will give.
Speaker 18: Can I get your name too down that way and
if you want to put your number two, I'll tell
you to call these guys if you're a person of
interest in a murder.
Speaker 10: I'm kidding about that.
Speaker 1: You know, being a police officer is hard. Can you
imagine having a conversation with someone all the while knowing
that their brother is dead, but you can't tell them
because they haven't been positively identified yet. Just imagine how
painful that would be.
Speaker 18: But I'll just tell him your person of interest, yes,
and to talk to him so I don't know what's
what's going on.
Speaker 6: And even if you don't hear from him, but hear
from somebody else that might know where he is.
Speaker 12: Please call us.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 1: The police still couldn't divulge that information, not until lay
knew the connection to the other murders. Thankfully, they didn't
have to wait long. The Sheriff's office from Sibola County,
New Mexico called to explain that the descriptions of the
dismembered body parts matched the descriptions of three missing persons
in their jurisdiction.
Speaker 19: Police so identified four bodies that were found in a
vehicle at the Sunport on Friday. Three of the victims,
twenty one year old Matthew Miller, forty year old Justin Mata,
and thirty nine year old Jennifer Lannon, had been reported
missing out of grants back in January. Officials are investigating
how the fourth victim, sixty one year old Randall Apostolone,
is connected to the other.
Speaker 1: The heavily tattooed torso was identified as forty year old
Justin Mata, last seen by his girlfriend on January seventeenth.
The torso with a single shoulder tattoo was identified as
twenty one year old Matthew Miller, seen by his grandmother
on January twenty fourth. The intact female body was identified
as none other than thirty nine year old Jennifer Lannon,
Shawn's ex wife. The Cibola Sheriff's office also told Albuquerque
detectives that all three were tied to drugs and that
their main suspect, Sean Lannon, had already likely fled to
New Jersey.
Speaker 17: We're just in that the multi state manhunt is now
over for a man wanting the connection with five murders.
Minutes ago, we learned that federal marshals captured Seawan Lannon
in Saint Louis, Missouri.
Speaker 1: Sewn fled New Mexico with his kids on March fourth.
The bodies in the truck weren't found until the following day,
March fifth. By March seventh, the local police and New
Jersey were already taking the kids from Shawn's family. Shawn
was on the run in Virginia. He spoke with police
that night. They told him they wanted to talk to
him and that they had already found the body his wife.
He agreed to return home, but never did. Instead, he
made a bee line for Mike's house. He arrived on
March eighth. By the time Sean was arrested on March tenth,
he had already made it all the way to Saint
Louis in Mike's car. He was caught sleeping inside. He
had some questions to answer.
Speaker 10: One day, I took a walk of Walmart person devils
stronger empty to get groceries. Hal if I were into
the walker, Rella was in my food car, turned around,
came back in the front door, went down the hallway
to get my food card on my dresser, and it
was quiet. When he had kids open the door. Gentlemen
est on their fucking. I knew they were. They were divorced.
Whenever I was like idiots, suck at the kids grabbing
a card.
Speaker 1: Seeing Jen fucking another man didn't really face Sean. He
was just worried about the kids. He didn't see them
or hear them.
Speaker 10: So called kids. Nothings on the door crush her mind.
Some palla blankets, mind of blankets.
Speaker 9: Are the kids?
Speaker 1: Sean runs to his kids and picks up one of
his daughters.
Speaker 10: Doesn't seem like any reasons to flip now against I could.
Speaker 1: Feels his daughter is non responsive, barely breathing. He looks
at the other two kids. Neither one seemed to have
a pulse.
Speaker 10: I'm flipping out, what the fuck you do? Justice putting
off his clothes comes in like done times and you're like,
they're fine, they're fine. I'm like to find that reason.
Fuck you do? Says when they drugged them something they medicine.
Speaker 1: Justin assured Sean that he and Jen had done this
a hundred times. They drugged the kids so they would
go to sleep so they could fuck. Sean was livid
the room at the house. Immediately, Jen picked up their son,
the youngest. He showed no signs of pulse or breathing.
Their baby was dead.
Speaker 10: She kisses the kids on the forehead, all three of them.
She scares the jewel for shit.
Speaker 1: Jen, believing she was responsible for the death of her kids,
didn't call for help. She went to the bedroom and
prepared her heroine. Sean, with his medic training from the military,
didn't give up so easily.
Speaker 10: They said. They also blue a heroin smoke in her faces,
so they have nark hamon works looked around the fountain.
Speaker 1: In case you don't know, nark Ann is a brand
name for a drug called the Loozone. It reverses the
effects of opioids. A person overdosing on opiates and near
death can be brought back in seconds with this drug,
but Sewan only found a single dose, so in a
matter of moments, he grabs some straw and some duct
tape and rigged a dual applicator. He placed it under
the noses of the two kids without a heartbeat. Normally,
people who overdosed snap awake, but with Sean's kids, nothing happened.
He was convinced they were beyond saving. He placed the
barely breathing daughter on the couch so that nanny would
see her when she arrived. With the other two kids dead,
Sean felt like a failure. He no longer had a
reason to live.
Speaker 10: That's a heroine. It was enough to take her life,
so they really should breathing.
Speaker 4: She was.
Speaker 1: Jen had shot up the rest of her heroine in
an attempt to end her life, but it wasn't enough.
She was breathing, and she wasn't going to die. Sean
psyched himself up for what he was about to do.
He blamed her over and over for their children's deaths,
and then, with.
Speaker 10: The pistol on her head, pulled the trigger, come sick
later to put the pistol on my mouth. Man, Hello,
this is the past one teeth I am, His son
cried out. I was like, what the fuck you know?
Speaker 1: Right before he pulled the trigger and blew his own
brains out. His son woke up and cried out, the
kids weren't dead. Sean immediately abandoned his suicide attempt. Now
the only problem was that he had already shot his
wife anyway.
Speaker 10: I was living on bar time at that point, so
I need to get my kids are safe. Come.
Speaker 1: Sean knew he would eventually get caught, but he wanted
to get his kids to his family so they wouldn't
be taken away. He starts preparing for their trip, but
can't shake his anger for Justin. He blames him for
the whole situation. He decides to kill him. He used
Jen's phone to text him that everything was fine and
to come over.
Speaker 10: Oh well, still beating justin moultime my kids. It took
me like a week. They came to the house, the
launcher room connected to the garage. Kill him before I
kill him. He offered up a trade's phone hand pictures
of Shawn Michael stand them naked, in my living room.
I don't know what fuck his name is, William or
Matthew Miller, whever that thought his name is this fucking
dick on my sun shoulders.
Speaker 1: In an attempt to save his life, Justin offered picks
to Sean. The pictures were of his naked son. On
one side of his son was Matthew Miller, On the
other was a man named Daniel Limos. Both had their
exposed penises resting on the little boy's shoulders. Shahn's childhood
trauma must have flooded back at that moment. He was
tempted to let Justin go until he confessed he was
the one who took the picture. Flashbacks of Uncle Mike
probably flooded his brain, along with all the unresolved feelings
of anger and shame. Then he realized why Justin had
the pictures. He was selling them.
Speaker 10: He wanted He wanted to know if he could do
a Sean Harem for it. So I said, well, if
you find any events. He was looking down at the event,
you can see it coming shot him back. The head
disgusted me.
Speaker 14: Cross.
Speaker 1: Sean now had two murders to clean up, but he
wasn't done yet. Sean wanted to kill the two men
in the picture abusing his son. He tried to lure
them to the house one at a time. Eventually, Matthew
Miller showed up alone.
Speaker 10: I asked him about the thing with He said that
it wasn't his idea, and I was like, you have
an interaction in the picture, like you force someone have
an direction in here? The child man shot him in
the garage, said disgusting.
Speaker 1: This time, Sean planned ahead and lined the garage floor
with tarps and whatever he could find so there wouldn't
be much to clean up. But Matthew's body missed the fact.
Speaker 10: Kid felt kind of weird and my hand was like
a part of bran and picked up his head, his hair,
and he kind of wiggled the back of one so
I had to contain it. Yeah, you're disgusting.
Speaker 1: Sean was running out of time. Ever since he lost
his job, he'd been living off of unemployment, but with
gens let's say, spending habits, they were getting kicked out
of the house. The water and the electricity had already
been shut off. He didn't have time to get to
his next target.
Speaker 10: And I've been trying to get Daniel L. Rose to
the house for froken weeks. He just wasn't that stupid.
Speaker 1: His original idea when he started dismembering Justin and Matthew
was that maybe he could get away with it, maybe
he could cut them up small enough that he could
get rid of the pieces discreetly. But after he started,
he found out how hard it was and also how
utterly disgusting. He tried using a reciprocating saw to cut
through Matthew's torso, but rather than cut through the bone,
it got stuck and started violently shaking the corpse instead. Yeh,
that's terrifying. So he resorted to knives and hand sauce
and settled for just making them small enough to fit
in storage toats. He spent the better part of the
month cleaning the home. He ripped up the carpet and
scrubbed the garage floor. He used so much bleach that
he got blisters. Then came the time when he needed
to dispose of the bodies. He had a literal truckload
of storage bins. That's when he met Randall Apostolon.
Speaker 10: And then meet up with Randy Says Movement.
Speaker 1: Sean didn't have a car, so he needed help moving
the toats. He asked around the street until he heard
about Randall or Randy. Randy was living out of his
truck and was always looking to make a quick buck.
Randy told Sean he could not only move his stuff
but also store it, but it would cost one hundred
and fifty bucks. He took him to one storage unit,
but it was full, so after driving around for a while,
Randy changed his mind. He told Sean it was going
to cost him another one hundred and fifty bucks.
Speaker 10: He just fleecees me for the one fifty. Tragic back
like eat your shit out, and I'm like what. He's like,
He's like, yeah, you look, I don't say nothing about
what's in the boxes. At that point, I'm getting a fight.
Speaker 1: Of course, Randy knew what was in the boxes. It
had been weeks at this point, even in the chile
temperatures of Albuquerque in February. The smell was starting to
point to signs of something something sinister.
Speaker 10: I think death. That's a smell that you're not going
to forget any something.
Speaker 1: Soon, Randy knew. As Sean slowly realized, Randy knew he
was left with only one option. He had to kill him.
If he ratted him out, he'd never get his kids
to safety. He had to for his kids.
Speaker 10: He was in traversy. I couldn't hit him two or
three times in my hands, flipped the key at off position,
something my hand got sore. Hit him with the hammer.
I love a slatter. It's pretty discussing, huge potl chuck,
come on, sand or horrible, pretty horrible taking a pleasure
that I was discussing when my kids to be safe.
I could have failed that last year now.
Speaker 1: He claimed he took no joy in what he did
and that he did it all for the safety of
his kids. But Sean's story didn't end with Jen or
with Mike in custody. He would make a claim so staggering,
so horrifying, that investigators couldn't even believe.
Speaker 4: It at first.
Speaker 1: He said there were more, many more. Sean's childhood was
marked by sexual abuse. His adult life and marriage to
Jen unraveled under the weight of addiction and violence. He
killed four people in New Mexico, including Jen, and tried
to hide their bodies in a truck at the airport.
Days later, he showed up at Uncle Mike's house. Mike
was a mentor, a father figure, but he had abused
Sean as a child. That night ended with another brutal murder.
When cot he confessed, but when police thought he was done,
he had more to say.
Speaker 10: And the one time I have stayed in the back
the kids one came in started beating the fuck out
of Gen. Okay, she's on the own, just pumped from
the face. I don't think he realized that was there.
Speaker 1: Sean saw the violence in his home against his wife,
near his children, and he lost it. He claimed this
was the first time he took a life.
Speaker 10: Yeah, it was always always something relative to my kids.
Speaker 1: He claimed there were eleven others he killed connected to
Jen through drugs. When they came looking for the money
she owed and got violent, Sean would have to step
in to protect his kids. The lavatives, Sean claimed to
a dumped all eleven others in the Malpies. Apparently that
part of New Mexico has old lava tubes traveling deep underground.
If he threw any bodies in there, they'd never be found.
He admitted that if he hadn't been caught in Saint Louis,
he would have returned to New Mexico to hunt down
Daniel Limus and kill him. Sean didn't blame Jen for everything.
He blamed himself a lot too. But the kids deserved
better and that was his driving motivation. Jen's drug associations
put the kids in danger, but so did her neglect.
Speaker 5: But yeah, she was always heavilymbopic drugs. When I first
met her, it was pillows and then she lost her
nurse's license because of it. They just got it. She
just got a deeper and deeper and deeper with it.
Speaker 9: I know that he talked all the time about her
having boyfriends and at some point he thought she was
prostituting herself for drugs. She would be like a drug mule,
like if she came to New Jersey. They I didn't
even know they did stuff. They hide things in their bodies.
Speaker 2: I didn't even know about that Jennifer.
Speaker 13: I mean, I've seen her get high in front of
the kids, beave her kids for hours, She never reached,
hit their diapers like they'd sit for days. They wouldn't
eat nothing.
Speaker 1: Jen's addiction affected their kids before they were even born.
Their second daughter was born with a heart defect. What
a mom. And yes, I am victim blaming susan victim
blaming the drug addict. Horrible mother, that's probably better off
in the ground. Go tell your friends.
Speaker 5: Becca and Savannah both had far problems. That was way
for us off. With Savannah, I mean she almost died though.
Speaker 2: She first was born.
Speaker 12: Like, she's has.
Speaker 15: One venture born her heart.
Speaker 5: She requires a lot more medical attention. The other children.
Speaker 10: She makes it to fifteen.
Speaker 20: Twenty would be unless they come out with some new
medical technique. San has hard as she's also, yes, Shan
is not expected to have a full life. She's gonna
eat a pacemaker sooner than later. And Sean Mike wanted
to be detoxed when he was.
Speaker 9: Born, but the baby was born rug addicted, So when
the baby was born, Sean and myself had the whole
GENCD A baby coming off.
Speaker 10: From that was like, it's horrible just holding him and
these bodies racking me screaming.
Speaker 1: The short lives of those three children sound like utter turmoil.
Before Shawn's arrest, the kids were taken by the state.
After his arrest, the children went to Jen's brother Chris.
He noticed the neglect immediately.
Speaker 12: I mean when he came in, you could tell they
wrote malnourished. I mean, you can see it in their face,
and like I said, you could see their colors, like
their eyes were like sunken in almost like all around here.
You didn't look like they were not fed. You can
tell there's some definitely neglect there, some malnourishment. They had
trouble eating when we've sat down for dinner or anything
like that. And they're getting better. You can see in
their face they got better color, they're eating better, they're growing.
It seems like God knows what they've been through. I mean,
you know, if they were left alone to fend for themselves.
Speaker 1: It's heartbreaking to think of what those kids must have experienced.
But now they're safe. The way Sean Lannon was arrested
was about as peaceful away as a national manhood could end.
And when he was caught, he confessed, and he didn't
just confess once. He confessed in every jurisdiction in which
she committed a crime. He pleaded guilty in New Jersey
to the murder of Michael Dibkowski. He was sentenced to
thirty five years in prison. He pleaded guilty in New
Mexico for the murderers of Justin Matta, Matthew Miller, Jennifer
Lannon and Randall Apostolon. He was given fifteen years each
for sixty years total. They'll serve the thirty five years
in New Jersey first, then be transferred to New Mexico.
Speaker 4: Murderer, now you live your life miserably, feel the pain
which you deserve to feel daily about taking the lives
of innocent people. I can only wish it be hell
on earth for your actions you committed.
Speaker 21: I don't know what evil poisoned your heart and mind
that caused you to murder my brother rant will Postlot.
What deranged state of mind consumes you to murder your
ex Jennifer Lannon or Justin Madra, or Matthew Miller or
Michael Dapolski. I do wish that New Mexico had the
death penalty. The murderer deserves the death penalty.
Speaker 1: Sean committed horrible, deplorable acts. He said he did it
for the sake of his children, But was he right?
I don't know. This is a tough one. What I
do know is this, if someone had harmed my kids,
I would be pretty relentless in protecting them. Not sure
if I'd murder someone, but you could probably push me
there with enough trauma. I think a lot of parents
would feel the same way. Sean loved his children, that
much is undeniable. But the love became twisted into enabling Jen,
into endangering the very kids he wanted to protect, and
finally in violence he couldn't take back. He saw horror,
he carried trauma, and he became a monster in trying
to fight monsters. I guess it's a good lesson for
us all. I don't excuse what he did, but I
also don't mourn every life he took. I can't feel
sympathy for people who prey on children or people who
put their own children in danger. That's the tension in
Sean's story. Love twisted into vengeance, protection warped into destruction.
And maybe the scariest part is this, Sean Lannon believed
he was doing the right thing. Isn't that something? How
often does that happen in society? When people who think
they're doing the right thing are just misinformed or tricked
by those with ulterior mode. You could do a lot
of harm trying to do the quote unquote right thing.
Speaker 13: I think what happened there was when he went to
a Jersey I think seeing those pictures of that situation
might have triggered something to do with Mike, and he
was like just one of those pictures out, you know,
that of Mike's possession, And I don't know.
Speaker 12: If there's truth to that, but I mean, I've just
heard that he's had pain in his life and that
I'm like, that probably makes sense knowing that. Okay, if
this happened to him as a kid, maybe that's why
he stayed offish. I guess it just makes sense if
that that really did happen. I mean, you know, I
can't imagine. I've never been through that, but I mean
I can imagine that would really torment him, and that's
why he felt like he needed to control certain situations.
Speaker 1: In the end, authority searched but never found evidence of
the eleven bodies Sean claimed were hidden in the lava tubes.
Whether it was truth, exaggeration, or manipulation, nobody wherever recovered,
and those questions remain unanswered. They never found any proof
of any of the pictures either. Sean said he destroyed
Justin's phone and burned the photos Mike gave him. His
three children were placed in the care of family far
from the chaos. Their parents left behind, and Sean Lannon,
a man who said he killed to protect his kids,
will spend the rest of his life behind bars, unable
to protect anyone from anything ever again. After thirteen years
of doing this, I'm still trying to figure things out.
Is trying to figure out what's moral and just and
what isn't. So I just wanted to say that I
appreciate all of you. We stick around for it.