Jesten Mata, a 40-year-old Hispanic/Latino man from Grants, New Mexico, was one of four people murdered in a gruesome case that spanned two states. He was described by authorities as the boyfriend of Jennifer Lannon, another of the victims. The search for Mata, Lannon, and their friend Matthew Miller began after they were reported missing from the Grants area in January 2021.
The grim discovery was made on March 5, 2021, when security personnel at the Albuquerque International Sunport
investigated a foul odor coming from a pickup truck on the top level of the airport’s parking garage. Inside the vehicle, police found the bodies of Jesten Mata, Jennifer Lannon, 39, Matthew Miller, 21, and Randall Apostalon, 60. The investigation quickly focused on Jennifer’s 47-year-old ex-husband, Sean Lannon.
After his eventual arrest, Lannon told investigators that he had killed his ex-wife, Mata, and Miller at the family’s home in Grants in January 2021. He claimed he killed Jennifer after finding her with Mata, and then lured Mata and Miller to the house days later and killed them as well. Lannon dismembered their bodies and placed them inside plastic bins. He then met Randall Apostalon in Albuquerque, but when Apostalon refused to help transport the bins, Lannon killed him with a hammer. He abandoned all four bodies inside Apostalon’s truck at the airport.
After leaving the truck at the Sunport, Lannon fled New Mexico. On March 8, 2021, he murdered 66-year-old Michael Dabkowski in East Greenwich, New Jersey, beating him to death with a hammer. Lannon claimed Dabkowski had sexually abused him as a child. A manhunt ended on March 10, when Lannon was arrested in St. Louis, Missouri, while driving Dabkowski's stolen car. He subsequently claimed to have killed as many as 16 people, though authorities have only confirmed the five victims.
In October 2022, Sean Lannon pleaded guilty in New Jersey to the murder of Michael Dabkowski and was sentenced to 35 years in prison. Following that conviction, he was returned to New Mexico to face charges for the four murders there. In May 2024, Lannon pleaded guilty to four counts of second-degree murder for the deaths of Jesten Mata, Jennifer Lannon, Matthew Miller, and Randall Apostolon. He received a 60-year prison sentence, composed of four consecutive 15-year terms. According to his plea agreement, Lannon will serve his 35-year sentence in New Jersey before being transferred to New Mexico to serve the additional 60 years.
