GLOUCESTER COUNTY, N.J. — A man suspected in the deaths of his ex-wife and four others — including a South Jersey resident — has stunned authorities by confessing to 16 homicides overall.
Sean Michael Lannon, 47, was arrested by US Marshals earlier this month after a multi-state manhunt, Law Officer reported.
Now, he’s admitted to New Jersey investigators that his killing spree included “11 drug dealers,” NJ.com reported.
Assistant Gloucester County Prosecutor Alec Gutierrez said in court Friday that Lannon “admitted to killing a total of 16 people.”
“Fifteen being in New Mexico and one in the state of New Jersey,” Gutierrez said, according to the news site. “It’s my understanding that the FBI is assisting New Mexico in their investigation.”
Lannon, of Grants, New Mexico, is charged in New Jersey with the death of his one-time youth mentor Michael Dabkowski, who was found beaten to death in his East Greenwich Township home on March 8.
Lannon reportedly told detectives that Dabkowski sexually abused him as a child and that he went to the home to obtain sexually explicit photos of the pair, New York Post reported.
Although he has only been charged in that murder, authorities said he is suspected in at least four others, including the death of his ex-wife, Jennifer Lannon, 39.
Jennifer Lannon (Grants Police Department)
According to investigators, Lannon admitted to a witness that he “murdered his wife and her boyfriends in New Mexico,” NJ.com reported.
The couple, who had three children, had moved from New Jersey to New Mexico before they were divorced in 2019.
Authorities have not released details of Lannon’s additional victims.