Now, police records released to the I-Team through a Freedom of Information Act request reveal a tangled plot and a fatal attraction love affair that led to the family's demise.
The investigation files reveal a Streamwood couple, Nathaniel Huey, Jr., 32, and his fiancée Ermalinda Palomo, 50, were behind the murders. Huey, Jr. thought he was carrying out a drug cartel hit, when in reality, Palomo was pulling the strings and manipulating him to put an end to his illicit romance.
Body-worn camera footage from the night of Sept. 17, 2023, shows Romeoville officers responding to the home of Rolon and Bartolomei for a welfare check after they hadn't been heard from.
Officers then discovered all four family members, who had been executed nearly 24 hours earlier.
Hundreds of pages of police records reveal that the family had been killed with a 9mm gun, fired by Huey, Jr. who was a former security guard and paramour of the married Bartolomei.
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Romeoville's investigation determined Huey, Jr. and Bartolomei had met while working at an engineering company in Glendale Heights, and at some point "developed a romantic relationship."
The police records state that Bartolomei's husband, Rolon, had found out at some point, and even damaged the tires of Huey, Jr.'s vehicle, "in retaliation for Nathaniel engaging in a relationship with Zoraida."
Rolon wasn't the only scorned lover.
Palomo had also discovered the affair and in a convoluted plot, police said she "created multiple online personas" to communicate with Huey, Jr. and "convince [him] that he was part of a Mexican and Bulgarian criminal organization."
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"Ermalinda [Palomo] further convinced Nathaniel [Huey, Jr.] that a 'mole' was planning to attack him," the case summary report states, adding that two days before the murders took place, a message informed Huey, Jr. that "Zoraida [Bartolomei] was the 'mole' who has been targeting him."
"Ermalinda sent Nathaniel a message using the Pinger mobile messaging application," the report reads. "Nathaniel was not aware Ermalinda was the author and instead believed it's source to be from a Mexican drug cartel he was convinced he was affiliated with."
Over the course of messaging, Huey, Jr. and Palomo, posing as a drug-cartel character, "began planning Zoraida's murder."
"They discuss[ed] the persons residing at the residence, including Zoraida, Albert, and their two children as well as the number and types of dogs in the house. Ermalinda tells Nathaniel to cause damage to make the scene appear to be a burglary committed by kids. Ermalinda reassures Nathaniel by saying, 'Many murders go unsolved,'" the report states.
Palomo drove Huey, Jr. to the murder scene on Sept. 16, 2023, around 3:17 a.m., according to home surveillance footage later obtained by investigators.
"Phone records, tollway records, license plate recognition camera records, vehicle infotainment records, and security videos all corroborate a timeline and route of travel from Nathaniel and Ermalinda's residence to Zoraida and Alberto's residence, then back," investigators stated in their report.
A day after police discovered the murdered family, on Sept. 18, 2023, Romeoville police tracked down Huey, Jr. and Palomo separately, and questioned them.
"You wouldn't be covering for Nate at all?" an officer asks Palomo, who can be heard responding in the recorded interview, "No, he was here [at her home.]"
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The body-worn camera footage shows when officers met Huey, Jr. at his work, they tried to convince him to cooperate and share his phone for analysis, as well as asking him to take a polygraph test.
"Would you ever be willing to take a polygraph test, if needed?" an officer asked Huey, Jr.
"I guess," Huey Jr. responded, but he refused to turn over his phone and promised he would drop it off with police later that day.
Both denied any involvement in the killings, and without solid evidence, Huey, Jr. and Palomo were free to go.
The two would eventually flee town and on Sept. 20, 2023, with both now solid suspects in investigators' eyes, Huey, Jr. and Palomo were sighted in a Walmart parking lot in Catoosa, Oklahoma, records obtained by the I-Team show.
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After the couple left the store, Catoosa police were waiting in the parking lot and when they tried to pull the couple over, a police chase ensued, ending with a fiery highway crash.
The report notes that Huey, Jr. shot Palomo to death, and then killed himself.
"This brings evil to a whole new level," said ABC7 police affairs consultant and former suburban police chief Bill Kushner, adding that he's never seen a murder case so complicated and convoluted.
"[Palomo] started this, based on the report, to keep [Huey, Jr.] faithful, given his infidelity... and it grew into the drug cartel story and multiple ping or phone numbers and text messages," Kushner said. "She really wove quite a web of deception."
Early in the investigation, Palomo was described as an abduction victim who was held against her will, and her family even filed a missing persons report, according to records obtained by the I-Team.
The new records show that at least one family member of the shooter, Huey, Jr. knew about what happened.
Romeoville police said the day before Huey, Jr. killed himself, he had confessed to his own mother that he was the killer.
What the mother did with that information is not apparent from the investigation files.
An attorney who at one time represented Huey, Jr. and Palomo, John Paul Ivec, told the I-Team he did "not know who [Huey Jr.'s] mother is and have no information as to his conversation with her or what she knew."
Romeoville police declined to be interviewed on Thursday, but in a written statement, Romeoville's police chief Brant Hromadka said, "The tragic deaths of a young family, including two young children, will forever impact the surviving family and those that investigated this case."
"Nothing can prepare a person for such an incident, and nothing can justify such a senseless act of violence," Hromadka wrote. "Although finalized, the finality of this case unfortunately does not mean closure for so many continuing to grieve."