Midweek Mini | Jealousy, Paranoia, and Murder – The Fallout of a Love Triangle | Nathaniel Huey

A routine welfare check at a home in Illinois turns into a murder investigation

On September 17, 2023, a routine welfare check at a home in Romeoville, Illinois turned into a shocking murder investigation. Police arrived at the house at 8:43pm After 38 year old Alberto Rolon failed to show up for his 6am work shift and family members won able to reach his wife, 32 year old Zoraider Bartolome. Inside the house, police discovered overturned tables and a cracked window. They also found the lifeless bodies of Alberto zoraida and their two young sons, Adriel, who was 9 and Diego, who was 7. All had been shot to death along with the family’s three dogs.

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Welcome everyone. Welcome to Love and Murder, Heartbreak to Homicide, your midweek mini edition. If you’re new here. Hi, my name is Ky and I’ll be your host. I invite you to sit down, take a listen and if you like it, don’t forget to subscribe so you don’t miss any more true crime episodes. If you’re returning LaM, thank you so much for your continued support. It means so much to me. Before we begin, I want to let you know that this episode is sponsored by my Amazing LaMs in patreon. patreon.com Love and Murder if you want to be one of my, um, amazing exclusive LaMs in my Patreon and get case extras and bonuses, commercial free episodes and intro free episodes then head on over to patreon patreon.com forward/love and Murder I actually have a December sale going on right now where you get half off of your first month’s membership. patreon.com forward/love and Murder now without further ado, let’s get right back into your midweek mini.

Nathaniel Huey Jr. allegedly murdered Alberta Roland and her two sons

So as police are looking around, they noticed that the crime scene had shell cases littering the floor. And investigators later determined that the victims had suffered a total of 20 gunshot wounds. What initially seemed like a senseless act of violence soon revealed itself to be a targeted attack that was fueled by the flames of jealousy, manipulation and betrayal. Police immediately began a murder investigation. Alberta Roland and Zoraida Bartolome had moved into their Romeoville home just five months earlier. By all accounts, they were a loving family. Alberta worked night shifts to provide for his family, while Zoraida worked at Avanti Engineering, which is a machine parts manufacturer. Their two boys, Adriel and Diego, were described as bright, energetic children who adored their parents. However, this is love and murder and although everything seemed great from the outside inside, the marriage cracks had started to form. Zoraida’s work at Advanti Engineering introduced Her to a man named Nathaniel Huey Jr. Nathaniel was a troubled man who, at the time of this case, was 32 years old, and he was living in Streamwood, Illinois, with his fiance, Irma Linda Palomo, and her adult daughters. Nathaniel actually had three children of his own from a previous relationship, but he hadn’t seen them in over a year. His relationship with Ermelinda, um, described by some people as fiance and by others as his wife, had a lot of issues within it. Now, the reason we don’t know if they’re a husband and wife or just fiance is because they actually had a church ceremony, but they never filed for a marriage license, so their marriage was just up in the air. Are they really married? Are they really not? According to the state, Nathaniel owned and operated Black Bear Security, llc, which was an unlicensed, uh, security company in Illinois. Through this business, he had access to firearms and extensive firearm training, which he liked to showcase on the company’s social media accounts. He usually posted stuff like images of assault rifles, tactical gears, and even ads for armed personnel and bodyguard security services. Now, even though he had a 2017 court order prohibiting him from owning firearms because of a history of arrests, including charges for battery and multiple DUIs, he still kept his arsenal of weapons. Police records report Nathaniel as, quote, irrational, uh, and erratic and prone to paranoia. He was convinced that people were watching him, even covering his home’s doorbell camera and the red light on his TV with black tape, which. Why did you buy a doorbell with a camera? Because that’s not something that’s installed in your house. That’s something you bought separately. So maybe you shouldn’t have bought that. Just have a regular doorbell. But I digress. Then if anyone ever attempted to remove these coverings, he would basically yell at them and scream, and what the frick are you doing? Don’t you know the government is watching? They’re always watching. In the coming months, his behavior grew increasingly erratic. A former colleague reported Nathaniel’s significant cocaine use. Yeah, that’s what you want to do when you’re already paranoid. Noting that he appeared, quote, very sweaty, his eyes were bloodshot, and he was very paranoid. So let’s add to that paranoia by snorting coke, shall we? His paranoia got even worse as Irma Linda started poking Nathaniel with fictional cartel Personas who convinced him that he was under constant surveillance. Sir, this is supposed to be your wife slash fiance. So she was doing that, making up, uh, pretend cartel Personas. Because what had happened was Irma Linda had known about Nathaniel’s history of cheating. Now, the current affair he was having was with Zoraida for about a year now, and Ermelinda was having none of it. Zoraida and Nathaniel began an affair in May of 2023 after meeting at work, like I said, where they were both machinists. To her sister, Zoraida described Nathaniel as, quote, her soulmate liken in their relationship to that of Romeo and Juliet. Ma’am, first of all, Romeo and Juliet were children. I don’t understand why Romeo and Juliet is a huge thing anyways, but, uh, let me not get into that. Second of all, they killed themselves. And third of all, you’re a married woman with children. Grow up and stop it. If you don’t want to be with your husband, get a freaking divorce and don’t mess with a married man. A handwritten post it note was found in Nathaniel’s workstation from Zoraida saying, quote, you mean so much to me. Like, I don’t think you understand how much I actually love you. Ma’am, go home to your husband and take care of your children. Stop it. Now. I say all this, but that’s not an open invitation to murder. I’m just saying, don’t cheat. Stay in your marriage. So then when Alberto found out about the affair, so now both Ermelinda and Alberto found out that their significant others are having affairs, he confronted Nathaniel, threatening him and even slashing the tires on his car, warning him to stay away from his wife. So he went tete a tete, like, you leave my wife alone. Get out of here. Go find your own people. This is my wife.

Irma Linda devised elaborate plan to drive wedge between Nathaniel and Zoraida

Now back to Irma Linda, her plan. Instead of going tete a tete, you know, she decided to go behind the scenes undercover and devise a whole different type of plan. She decided to do an elaborate scheme to drive a wedge between Nathaniel and Zoraida. Me, I’m more tete a tete. First of all, I wouldn’t go to the other person. I’m dealing with, the person that I’m married to. And I’ll be like, look, look what I found. You’re cheating on me. This is who you want to be with, be with them. I don’t want to hear anything. I’ve already dealt with cheating. I’m not dealing with it again. End of story, period, point blank, no excuses, not dealing with it again. And I’m a confrontation type person. I’m not confrontational, but I will confront you. So I’m not like Irma Linda. I’m not gonna do all this under the undercover fake follow. You around plant stuff in your. I’m not doing all of that. I don’t have time for all of that. But this is what she decided to do. She ended up making multiple fake online Personas and phone numbers posing as members from a fictional Mexican and Bulgarian cartel. Both of them. That’s so random. Mexican and Bulgaria, that’s like two different places on the planet. Like, each fictional character had detailed backstories. Ma’am, this is not World of Warcraft. And relationship within the organization. Her Personas included organization bosses and shot callers, professional hitmen and computer hackers. She would send threatening messages to Zoraida and Alberto, warning them about Nathaniel’s dangerous past and claiming their lives were in danger if they kept dealing with him. They also claimed that Nathaniel will soon be involved in a murder investigation, which to me, I’d be like, who’s murder? What? Excuse me? But also, you had time to do all of this. You could have just taken that time to pack up your children and leave. I mean, you chose to use your time wrong, ma’am. Like, you had children. Well, I guess they were adults. Huh? Huh? But still, you could have just left Ask whenever you’re adult. Well, no, they lived with her, but you could have used that time to work overtime, save money, be able to get your own place and move on. So still, yes, you chose to use your time incorrectly. On June 27, 2023, Irma Linda messaged Alberto in character saying, quote, I don’t believe she believes my warnings. And for the safety of your family, she really needs to be honest with you. Huey Jr. Has rifles and guns he carries with him. Alberto responded to these messages saying, quote, all I want to do is work and go home and be with my kids. I’m not a complicated person. I. And I don’t want all this drama. Two weeks before the murders, Alberta received another message saying, quote, this will be the last I say of this. Alberto, this stupid girl will be the reason you have no children. And Alberto, on that note, I’d pack up my children and drove for the hills. For real. Like, okay, you want to keep messing with this dude? Come on. Kids drove straight for the hills. That’s it. I’m also taking this to the police because I don’t know if these cartels are real. I’m taking this straight to the cops asking if they can help protect me and my children. And I’m telling you right now, I’m out of Zoraida’s life. Like, that’s it. You’re not going to put my children in danger because you want to have an affair. And even though I’m telling you of these messages that are coming through saying that this guy is about to be in a murder investigation, like, I’m. You can stay there with that if you want. I’m taking my children and I’m out. But like I said before, Ermelinda, uh, was also messaging Nathaniel himself through these Personas. She convinced Nathaniel that he was part of a criminal organization and under constant surveillance. Dude, he was already thinking he was under constant surveillance. You just ramp this up to, like, 155. She also used these Personas to encourage his faithfulness to his wife. What the hell? So you’re talking about we’re watching you, but also be faithful to your wife. What do you care? The Mexican cartel. What do you care? The. The. The Bulgarian cartel? What do you care that I’m faithful to my wife or not? Is that part of the code of, you know, thieves and murderers or something? I don’t. I don’t understand. She also fueled his paranoia later planting the idea that there was a, quote, mole within the organization who planned to hurt Nathaniel. Which I would be like, why me? You literally just started talking to me. Why is the mole coming after me?

Police began interviewing Zoraida’s co workers about her affair with Nathaniel

Now back to the investigation. Investigators determined that the killings occurred between 9pm on September 16 and 5am on September 17. Police began interviewing Zoraida’s co workers and found out about her affair with Nathaniel. This led police to start suspecting him. The day after the murders, police interviewed Nathaniel at work, and he admitted to having a relationship with Zoraida, but was like, just because I slept with her didn’t mean I killed her. Like, I didn’t have any involvement in these murders. And so police were like, well, if you don’t mind, we’d like to go through your car. And he was like, no. Police also interviewed Irma Linda, and she said that m. No, Nathaniel couldn’t have done it. He was at home with me. We were watching the prices, right? So police were like, okay, no worries. And continued their investigation. Part of the investigation was that they tracked Nathaniel’s car and revealed that Ermelinda had driven him to Concord Avenue, where Zoraida’s house was at 3:17am on September 16th. Digital evidence tracked their journey from Streamwood to Romeoville and back, including phone records, tollway data, and surveillance footage. Everybody you know and everybody you don’t. So this placed him at the crime scenes around the times of the murders. Did you. I were y’all even thinking, I don’t. Okay.

Nathaniel believed he was under constant surveillance by the cartel

Anyways, so now Irma Linda was also named a person of interest. Police found out about Ermelinda’s fake Personas. She even used a mobile app to generate different phone numbers for each Persona. This woman had time, time on her hands. She needs to let me know how she had all this time, because I need that time. These fake Personas encouraged Nathaniel to be faithful to Ermelinda again. What? Through these messages, Ermelinda, uh, gradually convinced Nathaniel that he was under constant surveillance by this cartel, who the cartel was questioning his loyalty and trustworthiness. It’s like, dudes, y’all just came out of nowhere. How are you questioning me? I should be questioning y’all. Y’all came out of nowhere and then told me I was in this. I don’t even know what’s going on. As I told you before, she’d introduced the concept of a mole who was planning to attack him. And on September 14, a message came from one of Irma Linda’s fake Persona named, quote, Turtle, who identified Zida as the mole, claiming she was the one targeting him. Quote, huey fully believed the information being fed to him by Irinda, but did not know Irma Linda was the person he was communicating with. This was a quote by Detective Daniel Zakula. Fearing for his life, Nathaniel called in sick to work and began planning Zida’s murder, believing he was acting on orders from the cartel and carrying out a preemptive strike, which Zoraida decided to leave her husband to be with Nathaniel, who all it took was for some fake people he never met before in his life to say that she was a mole. And he was like, okay. This cartel hitman, Turtle, guided him through the planning process. They discussed everything from the layout of Zoraida’s house to how to, quote, caused damage to make the scene appear to be a burglary committed by kids. Irinda, uh, even reassured Nathaniel, telling him that, quote, many murders go unsolved. Now, when I said ir, uh, Melinda, she’s still under the fake Personas. Nathaniel conducted detailed research of Zer’s entire property and surrounding areas. His preparation included studying the house layout map in the neighborhood and surveillance cameras, identifying entry and exit routes, and confirming the vacant status of neighboring properties. Wow. He thought he was a spy. Now he’s double O. Nathaniel, like, wow. On September 16, in the early hours of the morning, Ermelinda drove Nathaniel to Zoraida’s home and waited in the car as he went inside and carried out the murders. He shot all four members of the family and their three dogs. Using spray paint to vandalize the house, trying to stage this break in, which I don’t understand. Why would teenagers come in there, shoot up a family, and then spray paint? You’re trying to think like a teenager. That’s like me trying to use this new verbiage saying I’m a teenager. Talking about Skibidi, Ohio, or whatever the crap they say, like, what the hell? Who go. I think this is what a teenager will do. They’ll go in the house, meticulously shoot everybody, including the family pets, and then use spray paint to spray the walls. Bob was here. Yeah, and WZ was. Bob was here. Class of, um, 2024, whatever. What are you talking about? You did all this 007 research and then went in there and just flopped. Like, what are you okay? During their investigation, police found out that two hours after speaking with them on September 18, surveillance footage captured Nathaniel meeting someone in his employer’s parking lot. He had transferred an AR15 rifle and a duffel bag containing at least one Glock pistol to an associate in a red Chevy SUV. The bag, which was later discovered in Irmelinda’s car trunk, contained over 100 rounds of ammunition, multiple gun magazines, several pairs of gloves, black zip ties, and a knife. Dude thought he was 007 and Rambo, apparently. Investigators discovered that in his final conversation with his mother, Nathaniel explained that he committed the murders because, quote, people were after him and that Irma Linda had waited in the car while he did it. And they maintained radio contact the entire time. That cold blooded Irma Linda, wow. She listened to the entire thing. And then when he was questioned about killing the children, he said that they were, quote, better off dead than alive without parents. Or you could have just left the parents alive and try to. All the planning you did to get rid of the, quote, mold you could have done planning to, like, get out of the cartel, get away from the cartel, get away from surveillance, get away from, like, basically live under the grid, you know what I’m saying? You could have just used that planning to try and get away from the cartel instead of planning to kill somebody. And then after you did that, you were like, oh, these children are without parents and they’re better off dead than alive without parents. I mean, I understand he’s on coke. That is not an excuse, but I understand he’s not. He’s on coke and not thinking right. Again, still not an excuse. But, I mean, he still had options. And so did Irma Linda, 100%. She sat in the car and listened while this happened. Craziness. After gathering enough evidence, police went in search of the couple with an arrest warrant, only to find out that they had fled to Oklahoma. Oh, okay. Sorry. Police were able to track their car where a license plate reader in Catusa, Oklahoma, uh, alerted them to Nathaniel’s black GMC that was parked at a Walmart. In the Walmart security cameras, police captured the couple shopping inside the store. They appeared relaxed, holding hands and buying hair dye, a burner phone, and cosmetic supplies. So they were going to try and disappear. Police affairs consultant Bill Kushner reviewed the footage and said, you don’t want to be caught, you don’t want to be found if you’re going to change your appearance. This is almost a Hollywood plot. That’s what I’m saying, the craziness of it. The couple then left the store laughing, unaware that Katoosa Police department officers waited in the parking lot. Instead of confronting the suspects inside the crowded store, police made a, quote, very good decision to wait for their exit. When Nathaniel and Ermelinda came out of the store, they saw police and ran, but in their car. So basically they started a, uh, car chase. During the chase, the GMC crashed into a barrier near the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino, bursting into flames. Quote, we were fortunate enough to have immediate assistance from the Oklahoma Highway Patrol. The pursuit went probably two, maybe three miles before the individuals crashed. Body cam footage captured officers approaching the burning vehicle yelling, quote, step out of your vehicle. Open the door and step out. As flames threatened to engulf the car, police fired bean bags at the driver’s windows while shouting, quote, less lethal, less lethal. As all this was going on, police heard two gunshots from inside the car. When police finally approached the car, they found Nathaniel dead in the driver’s seat from a self inflicted gun wound. So basically, he’d shot Irinda and then himself. Police pulled Ermelinda, uh, from the passenger seat, but she died later at the hospital. So while she stayed alive longer and suffered longer, uh, one officer’s assessment that was captured on body cam footage noted, quote, it didn’t look like she was being held against her will. After a year long investigation, the murder weapon was never recovered. But Romeoville police concluded that Nathaniel and Irma Linda were solely responsible for the murders. Now, my question is, could the murders have been prevented? I asked this because police record revealed a series of threats and warnings in the months leading up to the killings that were known to several people, but no one ever reported it to police. So a bunch of people knew about this, but nobody told police.

Could these murders have been prevented if people had spoken up

Ermelinda Herself had sent threatening messages to Alberto warning him about the affair and claiming that Nathaniel was a dangerous individual. So she did that in her Persona, not even in the fake Personas. And she was warning him that he was dangerous and posed a threat to his family. But he didn’t call the police. And then a co worker of Zorider also knew about the threats, but also didn’t say anything. So why wouldn’t people speak up? That’s what I’m saying. Could these murders have been prevented? And I think absolutely it could have if people would have spoken, spoken up. What do y’all think I want to hear from you. Do you think these murders could have been prevented? Or what would you have done if you were Alberto and you were being sent these messages? Let me know your thoughts on that. And in the Patreon, I’ll also include three news reports from the case, as well as pictures. So the news reports are like three videos, three video news reports from this case. And I’ll also con and I’ll also include some pictures from the case. Now, these are the kinds of case extras that you’ll find by becoming a part of the Patreon. And right now, we do have a December sale going on, as I mentioned at the beginning of the show, where you do get half off of your first month on any tier that you join in on. So if you were still interested in joining the Patreon and you missed the November sale, you can catch the December sale at patreon.com forward/, uh, love and murder. Choose any sale and you get 50 off the first month. You’re in our LaM Patreon Patreon now. Also, a free and easy way that you could help out the podcast is just by simply sharing this episode. So you share it with everyone you know and everyone you don’t. You already know the deal of how to do that. Send this in a text message to your family and friends and then go to our social media and grab any clip you see there and share it on your social media. Everyone you know and everyone you don’t. And that is all I have for you for this midweek mini episode. Let me know your thoughts on what you would have done if you were in Alberto’s shoes. And if you were anybody, like friends or family who heard about this, would you have called the police to tell them that, you know, this family is being threatened? What’s going on? Can somebody help? Can you research this? Anything? Let me know if you would have spoken up. Thanks for listening. Don’t forget to subscribe and I will see you in the next episode. Bye.