Nathaniel Huey Jr.: Romeoville Family Murders and Catfishing Plot

The Romeoville family murders committed by Nathaniel Huey Jr. were a quadruple homicide carried out on September 17, 2023, in which the 32-year-old Streamwood, Illinois, man shot and killed Zoraida Bartolomei, her partner Alberto Rolon, their two young sons, and the family’s three dogs at the couple’s home southwest of Chicago. Investigators later concluded that Huey’s 50-year-old fiancée, Ermalinda Palomo, had orchestrated the killings through a years-long catfishing scheme after learning Huey was having an affair with Bartolomei, his coworker. Three days after the murders, Huey shot Palomo and killed himself following a police chase in Oklahoma. The case was officially closed in October 2024.

The Family Killed on Concord Avenue

Zoraida Bartolomei, 32, and Alberto Rolon, 38, lived with their two sons — Adriel, 9, and Diego, 7 — in a home on Concord Avenue in Romeoville, a suburb roughly 30 miles southwest of Chicago.¹ Neighbors described the couple as quiet and hardworking; they had recently purchased their first home.² Both boys attended R.C. Hill Elementary School in the Valley View School District.³

Bartolomei worked at an engineering company in Glendale Heights, where Huey was a coworker. That workplace connection is where the events leading to the murders began.⁴

Romeoville police found the family on the evening of September 17, 2023, after Rolon failed to show up for his 6 a.m. work shift and Bartolomei’s relatives could not reach her or the children. Officers arriving around 8:43 p.m. saw a cracked window and overturned furniture through the glass, and two dogs dead in the backyard. Inside, all four family members and a third dog had been shot. A police report noted the four had been shot a combined 20 times.⁵ Investigators estimated the shootings occurred between 9 p.m. Saturday and 5 a.m. Sunday.⁶

Why It Happened: Ermalinda Palomo’s Catfishing Scheme

The motive that eventually emerged was jealousy, executed through elaborate deception. Palomo had discovered Huey’s affair with Bartolomei and set out to end it by having Bartolomei and her family killed — without Huey ever knowing Palomo was behind the plan.⁴

Starting as early as December 2021, Palomo used a mobile messaging app called Pinger to generate fake phone numbers and build multiple online personas: Mexican cartel bosses, hitmen, hackers, and other criminal figures. Through these identities she convinced Huey he was affiliated with a Mexican and Bulgarian criminal organization and under constant surveillance.⁷ Investigators concluded Huey likely never realized the messages were coming from his own fiancée.⁵

Palomo also worked on the victims’ side. On June 27, 2023, she contacted Rolon through social media, warning him that Bartolomei was having an affair with Huey and that Huey “has rifles and guns he carries with him” and that “the mother of your children is putting them in danger.” Less than two weeks before the killings, Rolon received another message: “This will be the last I say of this Alberto this-stupid girl will be the reason you have no children.” Bartolomei told a coworker she was receiving threats from unknown numbers and was frightened, but the threats were not reported to police before the murders.⁸

The Night of the Killings

On September 14, 2023, a fake persona controlled by Palomo told Huey that Bartolomei was a “mole” planning to attack him. Over the next two days, Huey and a persona he knew as “Turtle” researched the home’s layout, mapped neighborhood security cameras, and worked out entry and exit routes.⁹ The fake accounts told Huey to stage the scene as a burglary by teenagers; he later cut window screens and used spray paint inside the house.¹⁰

In the early hours of September 17, Palomo drove Huey to the house, arriving around 3:17 a.m.¹¹ She waited in the car. Huey went inside, communicating with Palomo through two-way radios and messages to the “Turtle” account. The fake persona gave him explicit orders: “drop dogs as they present… move through locate and hit the two adults first… then two kids.”⁷ Huey shot and killed Bartolomei, Rolon, both children, and the family’s three dogs.

Identification and the Chase to Oklahoma

Within hours of finding the bodies, Romeoville police identified Huey as a person of interest, using Ring doorbell footage, I-PASS toll records, cell tower data, and automated license plate readers to trace a vehicle from Streamwood to Romeoville the night of the murders.⁵

Officers interviewed Huey at his workplace in Glendale Heights on September 18. He acknowledged the relationship with Bartolomei but denied any role in the killings and refused to let police search his phone or his GMC Yukon. Investigators later said probable cause to arrest him did not yet exist. After the interview, Huey was seen handing a bag of firearms to a former associate from his private security company, Black Bear LLC. Police later seized that bag.¹⁰

That day, Huey confessed to his mother at a Target store that he had killed Bartolomei and her family, saying “people were after him.” Asked about the children, he said “he believed the kids were better off dead than alive without parents.” Palomo waited in the car.¹² On September 19, Palomo’s family reported her missing and endangered, and Romeoville police issued a statewide bulletin naming Huey as a credible suspect with “extensive firearms training.”¹³

On the morning of September 20, a license plate reader in Catoosa, Oklahoma, near Tulsa, flagged Huey’s vehicle. Officers tried to pull him over; he sped onto Interstate 44. After a brief chase, the vehicle struck a concrete barrier and caught fire near the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino Tulsa. Approaching officers heard two gunshots from inside the burning car.¹⁴ Huey had shot Palomo in the head and then shot himself. He was pronounced dead at the scene. Palomo was pulled from the vehicle still breathing but died later that day at a hospital. Her death was ruled a homicide.¹⁵

The Murder Weapon Was Never Found

The gun used to kill the family has not been recovered. The former Black Bear associate who took Huey’s bag of firearms on September 18 told investigators he moved the items, at Palomo’s request, to the couple’s Streamwood home and placed them in the trunk of her car. On October 6, 2023, Palomo’s relatives found the duffel bag in that trunk and called police. It contained a pistol, ammunition, magazines, gloves, a knife, and zip ties. Testing ruled out that pistol as the murder weapon, and the firearm recovered at the Oklahoma crash was ruled out as well. Romeoville Deputy Chief Christopher Burne confirmed the murder weapon is still missing.¹⁶

No one was charged with helping conceal evidence. The Will County State’s Attorney’s office and Romeoville investigators concluded Huey and Palomo were “solely responsible” for the murders.¹⁶

Who Nathaniel Huey Jr. Was

Huey lived in Streamwood and had run a private security company called Black Bear LLC, which the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation confirmed was never licensed to operate in the state. His record included multiple arrests, a 2016 battery conviction, and a 2017 aggravated DUI for which he served at least 30 days in Cook County Jail followed by house arrest and two years of probation. A 2017 court order barred him from possessing firearms or dangerous weapons.¹⁵ A former associate said Huey “appeared to have changed” after Black Bear lost a security contract about two years before the murders, and began using cocaine regularly.¹⁶ He had three young children with another woman; she told investigators he had not seen them in more than a year.

How the Case Ended

The Romeoville Police Department officially closed the investigation in October 2024, after Detective Daniel Zakula and Will-Grundy Major Crimes Task Force Detective Jeff German presented their findings to the Will County State’s Attorney’s office and village officials. Because both perpetrators were dead, no criminal charges were ever filed. Romeoville Police Chief Brant Hromadka said: “Although finalized, the finality of this case unfortunately does not mean closure for so many continuing to grieve.”⁹

1
CBS News. Police: Murder of Illinois Family Including 2 Children and 3 Dogs Was Not Random
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New York Post. Alberto Rolon, Zoraida Bartolomei and 2 Kids Found Fatally Shot
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ABC 7 Chicago. Shooting in Romeoville
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Fox 32 Chicago. Woman Manipulated Boyfriend Into Romeoville Family Execution With Fake Mexican Cartel Threat
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NBC Chicago. Shocking Details Point to New Motive, Evidence in Romeoville Quadruple Murders
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NBC Chicago. Timeline: 4 Killed in Romeoville Shooting With Suspects Found Shot in Oklahoma
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NBC Chicago. How Missing Endangered Woman Became the Mastermind Behind a Quadruple Murder
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ABC 7 Chicago. Red Flags Led to 2023 Mass Murder of Romeoville Family
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NBC News. Illinois Man Manipulated by Girlfriend Into Killing Romeoville Family of 4
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NBC Chicago. Police Docs Paint Horrifying Picture of What Led to Shocking Romeoville Quadruple Murder
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ABC 7 Chicago. Shooter’s Fiancée Was Mastermind Behind Romeoville Family Murder, Police Files Show
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HuffPost. Romeoville Murders Catfish Motive
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Romeoville Police Department. Romeoville Police Department Civic Alert
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The Oklahoman. Nathaniel Huey Jr., Romeoville Illinois Mass Murder Suspect, Dies in Oklahoma
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CBS News Chicago. Now-Dead Man Suspected of Murdering Illinois Family Had Lengthy Criminal Record
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ABC 7 Chicago. Romeoville Murders: Gun Never Recovered, New Questions About Whether Huey Had Help Hiding Evidence