Oct. 17, 2024

The Cartel, the Mistress, and the Mastermind: The Gruesome Truth Behind Four Murders

The Cartel, the Mistress, and the Mastermind: The Gruesome Truth Behind Four Murders

The Cartel, the Mistress, and the Mastermind: The Gruesome Truth Behind Four Murders

In this episode of 10 Minute Murder, we untangle the jaw-dropping saga of Ermalinda Palomo, Nathaniel Huey Jr., and a plot so bizarre it could only belong in the...

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The Cartel, the Mistress, and the Mastermind: The Gruesome Truth Behind Four Murders

In this episode of 10 Minute Murder, we untangle the jaw-dropping saga of Ermalinda Palomo, Nathaniel Huey Jr., and a plot so bizarre it could only belong in the darkest corners of true crime. What started as an elaborate charade, with Ermalinda masquerading as a cartel puppet master, spiraled into a deadly love triangle that ended with four people, including two young children, brutally slain. As Ermalinda’s deception deepened, she wielded fake cartel threats, secret affairs, and the ominous presence of an “assassin” named Turtle—all to manipulate Nathaniel into doing the unthinkable. Join us as we follow the sinister path of lies and shattered lives that led to a bloodbath, a police chase across state lines, and a final showdown that left everyone wondering just how far someone would go to protect their twisted sense of control.


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WEBVTT

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Maybe the story today is a twisted game of cat

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and mouse that makes even the wildest soap operas look

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like polite disagreements over brunch. Imagine this. A cop knocks

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on the door of Ierma Linda Palomo, a fifty year

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old woman who might as well be a character plucked

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straight out of a telenovella. The CoP's got that stern

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you know what this is about look on his face,

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and he's about to drop the bomb that he's there

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to investigate a murder. Little does she know he's not

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talking about one body, but four. What unraveled inside that

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house was the kind of tangled web where years of jail, deception,

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and some seriously unhinged online personas conspired to end in

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the merciless killing of an entire family. Yeah, we're diving

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into a plot involving fake cartel accounts, a secret lover,

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and a puppet master who just couldn't stand to lose

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control of her personal soap opera. And did I mention

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that it all starts unraveling because of a guy named Turtle.

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To really understand this bloodbath, you've got to go back

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a few years when Ermelinda started playing a dangerous game

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with her fiance, Nathaniel Huey Junior. Think catfishing, but with

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an extra dash of paranoia and a side of fake

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Mexican cartel threats. It was all fun and games until

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a secret affair came to light, one that would spiral

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from a love triangle into a full blown massacre. So

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buckle up as we followed the breadcrumbs left by Turtle,

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an assassin who gives new meeting to working remotely. Welcome

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to ten minute Murder. I know you know what's going

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on and why we're here. An officer spoke to the

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person who just opened the door he'd knocked on. We're

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investigating a murder. The woman he was talking to was

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fifty year old Ermelinda Palomo. But what the officer didn't

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tell her in that initial conversation was that they weren't

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there to investigate just one murder, but four. The foundations

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for those incredibly shocking and devastating murders were laid years before,

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and almost unbelievably when one of the victims had been

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only five years old. But to understand how years of

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planning and calculations ended in the cruel slaying of innocent children,

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we have to understand the role of their parents and

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how that played into their demise. It started around twenty

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twenty two when Ermelinda Palomo realized that her fiance, thirty

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one year old Nathaniel Hughey Junior, was having yet another affair.

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This was by far not the first, but if Ermalinda

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would have her way, it would most certainly be his last.

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About a year before she'd discovered his latest fling, Ermalinda

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set up a series of online accounts under different pseudonyms.

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Through these, she'd convince Nathaniel that he'd been recruited and

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was now directly working for the Mexican cartel. Ermalinda used

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social media accounts and phone numbers, and often used them

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to coerce Nathaniel into treating her quote better. She would

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then force his hand into acting the way that she

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wanted him to by feeding him details and information about

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his life and routine, giving Nathaniel the impression that these

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dangerous cartel bosses had people constantly watching him. For the

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most part, Nathaniel did as he was told, but the

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delicate balance and tentative hold that Ermelinda had on her

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fiance became endangered when she found out about thirty eight

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year old Zorida Bartholome. Zorida was in a long term

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relationship with thirty two year old Alberto Rolone, and together

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they had two sons, nine year old Adriel and seven

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year old Diego. For about a year, Zorida had been

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in a secret relationship with Nathaniel, a relationship that would

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tear her entire life apart. That's because, unbeknownst to Zorida

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or even to Nathaniel himself, the man behind the curtains

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of the Mexican cartel was none other than Erma Linda,

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and she wasn't about to take Nathaniel's latest affair. Lying

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down the accounts that Nathaniel was communicating with then began

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ramping up the pressure. Now it wasn't enough for them

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that Nathaniel was treating Erma Linda better, but someone close

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to Nathaniel was a mole and had directly targeted him

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for information. These accounts then went silent for days, leaving

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Nathaniel to stew and grow increasing paranoid. He knew that

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the cartel was not to be messed with, and he

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knew that if he had knowingly or unknowingly fed information

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to a mole the cartel would be coming for him next.

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By the time these accounts came back online, Nathaniel was

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in a complete panic and was tearing his hair out

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desperately trying to figure out who it was in his

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life that was the mole. But finally the accounts had

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an answer for him, and with it they would provide

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a solution to his problem. It turned out that the

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mole was Zoraida, and her entire relationship with Nathaniel had

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all been a ruse. She'd only had an affair with

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him so that she could draw information about the cartel

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out of him, and now his bosses needed Nathaniel to

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get rid of her. To help him do that, they

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put him in contact with the cartel assassin who went

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by the name Turtle. Turtle would help Nathaniel put together

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a plan to rid themselves of this potentially dangerous mole

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before she could do any damage to the cartel or

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maybe even just attack Nathaniel now that her cover had

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been blown. A police report detailed the steps that Nathaniel

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and this mysterious Turtle aka Ermalinda, using yet another online

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fake account, would take next. They the report reads, researched

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Zorida's house to determine the layout within. They researched the

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neighborhood to locate cameras, planned how to get in and

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out of the house, and learned that the house behind

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Zorida was vacant. In messages, Turtle advised Nathaniel on what

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order he should take care of his victims, and that

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he should mess up the scene to make it appear

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to be a burglary committed by kids. Just three days

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after he'd been informed that Zorida was in fact a mole,

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Nathaniel and Ermalinda drove to Sarida's home in the dead

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of the night. Ermalinda stayed in the car with a

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walkie talkie that she and Nathaniel used to communicate with

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each other while he went in and did what he

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believed he'd been sent there to do. Nathaniel used a

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knife to cut through two screens and then walk through

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the kitchen to unlock the door. But further inside the house,

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Alberto had heard Nathaniel coming, and he went to investigate.

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Alberto only made it a short way towards Nathaniel before

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Nathaniel spotted him and opened fire. Alberto managed to turn

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around and start heading back towards his bedroom where Zorida

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and the children were sleeping, but all the while he

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was being struck with bullets. Alberto died before he could

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protect his family. Nathaniel then moved on to the bedroom

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where Zorida and her boys had been sleeping. They'd all

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woken up from the sounds of the gunfire and had

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closed the door, but by then it was already too late.

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Nathaniel shot through the door, hitting Zorida several times, killing her.

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Now with all of the adults out of the picture,

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Nathaniel was able to force his way into the bedroom

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and shot both Adriel and Diego together. Zorida and her

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family were shot a total of twenty times. Nathaniel then

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moved throughout the house and set the scene. He shot

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and killed all three of the family dogs, tossed furniture about,

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and spray painted things on the walls, all in an

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attempt to throw the investigators off of his trail. It

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was after Alberto failed to show up for work and

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riot as family members grew concerned that they couldn't reach

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her or the boys, that the police were called to

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perform a welfare check. They found the family butchered in

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their home on September seventeenth, twenty twenty three. The discovery

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shocked the community and fueled the investigator's drive to track

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down the person capable of massacring an entire family, including

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two small children. Using door bell cams, cell towers, and

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camera systems, the detectives were able to spot a car

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traveling between Streamwood and Romeoville on the night of the murders,

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and driving that vehicle was none other than Nathaniel himself.

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And it was through a series of online investigations and

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just old fashioned police work that the detectives were able

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to uncover a dark, complicated web of lies and deceit

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that had culminated in a quadruple murder. While Ermelinda had

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been convincing Nathaniel that he was now working for the

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Mexican cartel, she had also reached out to Zorida and

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her family three months before the killings, and in a

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direct message to Alberto Rmalinda had actually warned him that

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Zorida was having an extramaro affair with Nathaniel. When Alberto

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didn't break up with Zoraida, Vermalinda then ramped up her

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warnings even further in messages and handwritten letters. Ermelinda told

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both Zorida and Alberto that Nathaniel was a dangerous member

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of the Mexican cartel and that they should stay clear

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of him for their own safety. I don't believe she

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believes my warnings. Rmalinda wrote in a message to Alberto

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about Zorida and for the safety of your family, she

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really needs to be honest with you. Nathaniel has rifles

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and guns he carries with him. Mother of your children

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is putting them in danger and she knows this. Just

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two weeks before she would drive with Nathaniel to Alberto's home,

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she sent one last message. This will be the last

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I say of this, Alberto. This stupid girl would be

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the reason you have no children. The police then tracked

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Nathaniel down at his place of work and confronted him.

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In the report, they state Nathaniel admitted to his relationship

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with Zorida, but denied any involvement in the murders. He

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refused to allow police to search his GMC Yukon at

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this time. Later this day, he was seen transferring a

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bag containing firearms from his GMC to another person. From there.

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The officers then went to Nathaniel's house, where Ermalinda opened

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the door, only to be told that the officers were

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there to investigate a murder. Ermlinda feigned ignorance, and that

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night she and Nathaniel slipped away. They first stopped at

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a nearby target, where Nathaniel met up with his mother

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and confessed. He told his mother that he had killed

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Zarrida and her family because people were after him. When

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asked why he killed the children, Nathaniel's response was because

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he believed the kids were better off dead than alive

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without parents. Shortly after all that, Erma Linda's family reported

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her as missing and expressed concerns to the local police

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that she'd been taken away by Nathaniel against her will.

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Using cameras, the investigators were able to track them to

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a wal mart in Oklahoma. The pair of them were

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confronted by local police in the parking lot, but they

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managed to get away and began recklessly involved in a

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police chase a short distance later. The police report read,

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the GMC drifted to the center divider and crashed. Before

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coming to a stop. Nathaniel shot Ermalinda in the head,

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killing her. He shot himself under his chin, but that

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gunshot didn't kill him, so he shot himself again in

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the head. Both died. It was later determined that Ermlinda

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had been the mastermind behind the entire plot, and that

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she had willingly left with Nathaniel that day. That is

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ten Minute Murder for today, brief and binge able true crime.

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go talking about true crime podcasts. Hey, let me tell

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if they're the kind of person that would actually like

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to listen to that. But now I'm a little bit

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different because you never know anymore. So my advice now

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is grab somebody sexy, tell them hey, check out ten

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minute Murder. And I know what you're thinking, Joe. In

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this economy, can I afford to be losing friends like that?

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And that's just a sacrifice that we may need to make.

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Of course, I'm kidding about that part. But anyway, if

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you think that they could be into true crime, if

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you even get the inkling, then let them know about

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the podcast. Ten minute murder dot com is my websites,

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my email address Joe at ten minute murder dot com.

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And that's it. That is your podcast episode for today.

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Thank you so much for listening.