Police say suspected killer’s girlfriend involved in slayings of Romeoville family

The girlfriend of the suspected killer responsible for the massacre of a Romeoville family in September had known about his intent to commit the slayings and was involved in the planning of it, police said.

The police investigation has revealed that Zoraida Bartolomei, 32, the wife of Alberto Rolon, 38, was in a relationship with Nathaniel Huey, Jr., 31, of Streamwood, the man whom police identified as the suspect in the killing of the Rolon-Bartolomei family, according to a statement Thursday from the Romeoville Police Department.

The existence of the relationship was known to Bartolomei’s husband and Huey’s girlfriend, Ermalinda Palomo, 50, police said.

Police officials have pointed to Huey Jr. as the suspect who shot and killed Bartolomei, Rolon and their two sons, ages 7 and 9, last September, in their home in the 500 block of Concord Avenue in Romeoville.

The killings may have occurred over an eight-hour time span, between 9 p.m. Sept. 16 and 5 a.m. Sept. 17.

“Evidence indicates Palomo had prior knowledge of Huey Jr.’s intent to commit the murders, was involved in the planning, and drove the vehicle to the crime scene,” police said.

Plainfield attorney JohnPaul Ivec said last September that Palomo had “nothing to do with the murders.”

Palomo was “shot in the head” and died in a Tulsa, Oklahoma, Ivec said last September, relating information he received from her family. Huey Jr. also reportedly died there as well following a police chase.

Police have not released further information about the circumstances of the incident in Oklahoma.

The police investigation in Romeoville also revealed digital evidence that showed the “path of the vehicle used to commit the crime” had traveled from the Streamwood home of Huey Jr. and Palomo to the Concord address and then back to Streamwood at the time the murders took place, police said.

“Huey Jr. exited and re-entered the offending vehicle from the passenger side and Palomo was the driver of the vehicle,” police said.