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