Deadly Mirage - The Man on the Motorcycle

Episode Date: December 3, 2024

Detectives pursue multiple potential suspects, a key witness comes forward, and stunning secrets are revealed.

Every day they roll through Tehachapi, California by the dozens. Freight trains, some several miles long, are traveling what's called the Tehachapi Loop. It's a 19th century engineering marvel, one that enables heavy trains to cross the Tehachapi Mountains, climbing 77 feet in less than a mile. The loop is essentially a big helix, which attracts train buffs from around the world. It also attracts train robbers, or tweakers,

who prey upon any trains that might break down there. Keeping those tracks clear and the trains moving is the job of the rapid responders who work out of the Burlington Northern Santa Fe shop east of town. That was the job Rob Limone was doing on the day he died in August 2014. Remember, this wasn't his normal gig. Rob usually worked 90 miles away at the big train yard in Barstow. He just happened to be filling in that day, doing a favor for a friend. Had Rob been killed by a tweaker?

Someone who'd wandered into the train shop looking for something to steal? That's what Rob's friends thought. We thought maybe it was some kind of railroad robbery. BNSF put out a reward, you know, if anybody knew of anything. Silent witness, that type of thing. knew of anything. Silent witness, that type of thing. The reward was for information leading to an arrest and conviction. A hundred grand. And wouldn't you know it, the tip line phones soon started ringing. How many phone calls you get? A lot. I would say in the 50s or more, there was a lot of phone calls.

This is the story of that hunt for a killer and of the twisted trail that led to a conspiracy to hide the truth. Truthful people usually don't get caught in those kind of traps. In this episode, you'll hear how the murder of Rob Lamone shined a bright light on high times in the high desert. So many salacious details started coming out. They made their choices, they're adults. Unfortunately, sometimes it doesn't work out the way you'd hoped. You'll hear how that murder destroyed close friendships.

After that, I had to get a restraining order. And how the investigation revealed some stunning secrets that many were desperately trying to keep hidden. That's what this story is about. It's peeling apart the layers, and you go deeper and deeper into Hellendale and Silver Lakes, and things are not as they appear. I'm Josh Mankiewicz, and this is Deadly Mirage,

a podcast from Dateline. Episode two, the man on the motorcycle. It was late afternoon on the Friday before Labor Day. Detective Randall Meyer rocked back in his office chair, leafing through the Lamone murder file. Police reports, witness statements, tip line leads. Two weeks had gone by since Rob Lamone's murder, and as far as Meyer could see,

it all added up to a nickel's worth of nothing. He tossed the file back on the desk and stared at it, half hoping a solution would pop out of that pile of paper, like a fly ball to shallow right. Well, none did. So he reviewed it all again. The limping man seen on security camera video? Well, investigators found a man living nearby who matched that description.

However, he had a solid alibi for the time of the shooting. There was also a theory going around that Rob Limone's killing might have been a case of mistaken identity. Because Rob had only been filling in that day, and on short notice at that, some wondered if a killer had come looking for somebody else. That theory even seemed plausible when the guy Rob was covering for told investigators he'd had a run-in with someone in a bar

the night before Rob was killed. He told me that he and some fellow friends went to a local bar and got into a small argument with some of the patrons inside the bar. That's the voice of lead detective Randall Meyer. Argument about what? I believe he said he bumped into somebody and then it caused some confusion, and that's where it occurred. The bar's security camera seemed to confirm the railroad man's story.

Except, all that unblinking eye saw that night was some alcohol-fueled jawing. Did it get to the point of, you know, punches being thrown? No, he said quickly once the argument started, he then left the bar with his friends and they went home. On the face of it, it doesn't seem like a big a deal. No, it didn't seem to be a big deal at the time. Except it was the night before Rob Lema was killed. Yes. One of the more promising leads in the file had come from the tip line.

A gunsmith in Tehachapi called in to say the day after the murder, one of his regulars, a man named Mark, had brought him a.44 caliber Ruger to repair. He said the gentleman, Mark, was having issues with the firearm and asked the gunsmith to change out the firing pin. I'm no gun expert, but how often do people change out the firing pins in their guns? Not very often. That was very suspicious to us.

Cops went to work tracking down that gun's owner. Turned out, Mark was an older guy who owned a business there in the industrial complex. He did not limp, and he did not own a motorcycle. At the time, all investigators knew about the murder weapon was that it had been a large-caliber weapon. Then the report came back from firearms analysis and it turned out the slug pulled from Rob Lamone's brain was a.45, not a.44. Meaning the Ruger with the new firing pin

was not the gun they were looking for. It was not the gun that was used to kill Rob Lamone. Disappointing? It was disappointing at first. Back to the grind. Of the remaining clues, one still nagged at the detective. It was the security camera video

of that motorcyclist riding through the industrial park on the afternoon Rob Lamone died. The man was wearing a backpack, a helmet, long sleeves, and long pants. The timestamps on that video made for a compelling timeline. At 4.15, the rider is seen traveling east toward the railroad shop. The detective knew Rob Limone was not at the shop at that point because the same security camera had recorded him leaving the complex minutes earlier. About an hour later, Rob returns. Now here's the thing.

According to cell phone records, Rob's last text message, his last sign of life really, was at 528. And the motorcyclist? Well, at.48, the rider is seen headed west out of the complex. Where had that rider been for those 20 minutes? The detective didn't know. He did know he needed more facts before he could get beyond a lot of unanswerable questions. before he could get beyond a lot of unanswerable questions. It was about then that his phone rang. On the other end of the line was a man's voice, said his name was Bernatine, Jason Bernatine.

He told the detective he was a firefighter in Hellendale and a close friend of the Limones. He said he knew some things about the Lamones he thought the detective should know. Then he said something about a creepy voicemail he'd received that morning from a fellow firefighter. I asked him what was suspicious about the message. He said the message basically was him asking for forgiveness for some stuff he'd done in his past, which he thought was very odd.

The detective told Jason Bernatine he'd meet him on Monday at the firehouse in Hallandale. To be continued... Bernardino County Fire Station No. 4 in Hellendale. It was Labor Day 2014. Soon after he walked in the door, he recognized Jason Bernatine. Meyer had met Jason and his wife Kelly a week earlier. I had met the Bernatines at Serena Limon's house

when I did my first interview with her in person. But that was just happenstance because they had to be there consoling her. Yes, it was just briefly. At 36, Jason Bernatine looked like an Eagle Scout, clean cut and wide eyed, as wholesome as a tall glass of milk. After shaking hands and finding a quiet place to talk, Jason got straight to the point.

Jason told me that he knew of a prior affair. A prior affair with Sabrina Lamont. Yes. Who had told you there were no problems in her marriage. Yes. According to Jason Bernatine, the affair started a couple of years earlier, when Sabrina got involved with a firefighter Jason used to work with, a guy named Jonathan Hearn. Jason told Detective Meyer that he'd thought the affair had ended, but then days

earlier, he'd gotten some texts and an odd voicemail from Jonathan Hearn that made him think maybe he was wrong. Jason actually told me that he wasn't going to say anything to law enforcement at all about it. However, with the text message and then another text message and a voicemail, he thought it was very suspicious. Jason Bernatine played the message for Detective Meyer. Hello, Jason. This is Jonathan Hearn. I'd really like to talk to you sometime soon. I just got back from San Diego and went into Costco and heard about Rob. So at that point, had you even heard the name Jonathan Hearn? No, not at all. I am begging you on my knees right now that I could perhaps meet with you and your wife and say sorry for the hurt that I caused you.

To the detective, the voicemail sounded like the anguished cry of a guilty conscience. There was a lot of talk about contrition and forgiveness and the Almighty. I feel numb and you know what? I feel like God has crushed me and he has gotten my attention. Detective Meyer's attention was now laser focused on Jonathan Hearn. He wanted to know more of the backstory. So he listened intently to what Jason Bernatine and later his wife Kelly had to say about Jonathan Hearn and their good friend, Sabrina Limon. According to the Bernatines, it all started back in the fall of 2012. That's when Sabrina Limon got a part-time job handing out free food samples at the Costco in Victorville, a town about 15 miles south of Hellendale. It was there that she met a young fireman who was doing the shopping for his firehouse.

Soon after, Sabrina mentioned meeting the fireman to Jason and his wife Kelly. Sabrina told us, like, hey, I met one of the guys you used to work with. That's Jason Bernatine. And I was like, oh, what's his name? She says, John. And I know a lot of Johns from the fire department. So I said, well, find out what department he works for next time you see him. And then maybe I can figure it out. So next time I saw her, she said that he worked for Redlands. And I'm like, oh, it's got to be Jonathan Hearn. I mean, one of the smartest guys I've ever met. I said a lot of good things about him.

How long did you work with him? He wasn't actually assigned to my station, so I would work what we call overtime. I would go work his station sometimes. I can't really recall. And that was all there was to it. Or so it seemed at the time. So it's Christmas 2012 at Brooke's house. That year, the Silver Lakes Wolfpack celebrated Christmas and New Year's together, as they always did.

Happy New Year's. Sabrina, wearing a black blouse and hot pink pants, lifted her wine glass and toasted the camera with a smile and an air smooch. Happy New Year. The alcohol flowed freely that night, while love and laughter filled the room. Though none of her friends knew it at the time, Sabrina Limon's life had already taken a turn. According to the Bernatines, the first sign something was going on with her came a few months later in March 2013 at another Wolfpack gathering. Since five members of the Wolfpack had birthdays in March,

the group typically celebrated those birthdays with a big night on the town. They called this annual outing March Madness. This particular year, the Wolfpack caravan to a bar called Beefo Brady's in Hesperia, a town about 20 miles south of Silver Lakes. Kelly Bernatine remembers the evening this way. So when we go to this bar for our March Madness birthday party, we'd already all been kind of drinking before we left

and we were ready to go have some more drinks. And Jason had gone in before me and I went in with some of the girls and I saw him talking to his captain at the bar and a couple other guys were around him. And so I walked up to him talking to his captain at the bar and a couple other guys were around him. And so I walked up to say hi to his captain and he said, hey, honey, you remembered Jonathan Hearn? And I more remembered him from what Sabrina told me than when Jason had worked with him. And I was like, oh, hi. Hi, Jonathan. Nice to see you.

Like, oh, hi. Hi, Jonathan. Nice to see you. Small world, isn't it? Jonathan Hearn was a tall, handsome guy. Clean cut. A thick thatch of brown on his head. Conservatively cut. Blue-gray eyes, bright as high beams. Hearn said he lived there in Hesperia. He looked younger than the Wolfpack crowd, and he was. Just 22 that evening. Even so, Kelly says, he seemed to mingle easily with the older men at the bar. And I was like, oh, you know,

Sabrina. So I called at her from across the bar and I said, hey, Brina, Jonathan's here. And now Sabrina is normally like a, oh, hi, like very animated kind of person. And this time she was like, oh, like a fake surprise look. And you noticed that. And I noticed it. And I was like, oh, that was weird. So she comes over and says hi. And he mentions, this is like the first time he saw her without a hairnet on.

And I was like, okay. you noticing any of this at the time no no I'm a guy I'm a guy you on the other hand are decoding the signals yeah and Rob was on the right of me and Jason and I said hey Rob do you know Jonathan Sabrina's told me about him at work she knows him from Costco and he looked at me like confused and he goes, yeah, yeah, Kel. But like, he really didn't. So she had mentioned him to me earlier, but I don't think she ever mentioned him to Rob. If Rob Lamone was upset by the way his wife looked at this young stranger, the way she stood so close to him as the night wore on,

he said nothing, at least not there. Rob had plenty to say to Sabrina once they got home. The next day, she calls me and said, Rob, Rob asked me what was going on with Jonathan. Why was he there that last night? And I asked her, I said, is there something going on? Did you tell Jonathan to come last night? And asked her, I said, is there something going on? Did you tell Jonathan to come last night? And she said, no. And I said, are you sure there's nothing going on between you guys? And she said, well, no, he's just my friend. The Bernatines say they might have accepted that

explanation at face value, if not for the fact that soon after that night at the bar, Jonathan began texting Jason. He had my phone number saying, you know, hey, I had a really good time with you and your friends last night. You know, you guys are so cool. I would love to come hang out with you guys and go to some barbecues or go hang out on the lake with you guys. And at the time I was like, oh, okay, yeah, sure, someday we could do that, Jonathan, cool. But then the text messages started coming every couple days. And this guy was not a really close friend of yours? No, no, it was to the point where it was obsessive to where I was getting multiple texts a day, and I started showing Kelly, like, hey, look, it's Jonathan again.

Yeah, like we thought he was hitting on him. I thought Jonathan was hitting on me. And it became a joke. The Bernatines told Detective Meyer that a few weeks later, Rob was over at their house helping with some remodeling work. It just so happened that while Rob was there, Jason received another text message from Jonathan. One of the text messages said, Jason, I really need

to talk to your buddy Rob. I need his phone number. I thought this was suspicious. I went outside and I called Jonathan and I asked him, like, Jonathan, what's up, man? Why do you want to talk to Rob? Are you having an affair with Sabrina? Is something going on?

No, it's your radar that's going on. Yeah, my radar finally goes off. And he says, yes. He says, Jason, I'm sorry, but I've been living my life wrong. He says that particular phrase. I've been living my life wrong, and I need to get right with God, and I really need to talk to Rob. and I really need to talk to Rob. I just really need to talk to Rob. Suddenly, this thing with Jonathan seemed as serious as a heart attack. Jason knew where this was going

and he didn't like it, not one bit. So I told him, well, if you're not going to tell me everything that's going on, you need to tell Rob and then you disappear. Like, this is over. This is done. And he said, okay, thank you, Jason. And you're thinking, oh, God, this is the last thing I wanted to hear.

I'm pretty upset because I realized that all these text messages he sent me, he's been trying to get close to Sabrina. It was then that Jason walked back to the house and handed his phone to Rob. It was then that Jason walked back to the house and handed his phone to Rob. So I go inside the house and I tell Rob, I don't know how to tell you this, Rob, but I got Jonathan Hearn on my phone and he wants to talk to you. Apparently, he's been having an affair with Sabrina. And Rob says, I know, buddy. I know. I found out the other day. Rob told the Bernatines that shortly after the March Madness outing, he and Sabrina had gone to a wedding, and Sabrina had too much to drink. On the drive home, she evidently sent out a group text that included Jonathan Hearn.

Rob told them Hearn had responded to that text with a flurry of text messages of his own. And her phone kept shooting off with all these messages that she was getting. So he's driving. He picks up her phone to see what the heck's going on. I still remember his face. Like he rolled his eyes back in his head. He was like pages and pages of this like, poems and I love yous and you're so beautiful and all this. And so he said he called him right then on her phone. He called him and said, this is Rob Lamone. What are you talking to my wife for?

And hangs up, breaks her phone, they fight. Rob told the Bernatines he and Sabrina made up the next day and that he bought her a new phone. Rob had hoped that would be the end of it, but now here was Hearn again on the phone. I was kind of right there in our kitchen. Rob takes the phone and he goes into our backyard and I look at him out there. He's just sitting there holding the phone, shaking his head like this. It's almost like he didn't even talk. Then Rob comes back and what? And tells us that Sabrina's really embarrassed. We're okay.

We're working it out. It's over. We got it handled. You know, please don't tell anybody. And we just were like, okay, Rob, we promise. Like, we won't say anything to anybody. The Bernatines were as good as their word. For more than a year, they kept the Lamone family secret from the rest of the Wolfpack. As far as they could tell, everything in the Lamone household was back to normal. They assumed Sabrina's affair was a thing of the past. They were wrong.

Kelly Bernatine was in a hurry that day in February 2014 when she decided to quickly dash into the Costco in Victorville to pick up a few groceries. Normally, she would have texted Sabrina to ask if she was working that day so Kelly could say hi. On that day, she did not. I walked by an aisle and I saw her and Jonathan together talking. And I waved to her and say, hi.

And she has a big smile, runs over to me. And she's like, oh, what's in your cart? What are you doing here? And I'm like looking over at him like I see him right there. And she pretends like he's not there at all. And you don't say because you're being such a good friend. Isn't that the guy you were just having an affair with who you said you weren't going to see anymore?

Yeah, no, I didn't say that. I just was like, I'm going to go check out. So I was upset. I think she could tell I was upset. Naturally, when Kelly told Jason about that encounter, he hit the roof. I called him and I said, Jonathan, what the heck are you doing in Costco talking to Sabrina? And at this point, Jonathan starts saying, you know, Jason, I'm sorry, it's not like that.

Sabrina and I are just friends now. We have a spiritual relationship. And I told him, well, Jonathan, you've had an affair with this woman. You've caused damage to this family. You don't need to be talking to her. You stay away from that family. I'm guessing you were maybe a little bit more emphatic than you are right now. Yeah. I said a lot of words I probably can't say here, but there was a lot of yelling. And at one point in time, he tells me, so what am I supposed to do? Just not see her anymore? You're like, yeah, now you've got it. Yeah. I started to get

a really bad feeling. Like he believes he has a right to see her. He doesn't see this as an out of bounds for him to be talking to a woman he's had an affair with. So in the end, I tell him to never go into her Costco again. And I'm yelling at him emphatically. And he agrees. He says, OK, I won't. Six months after that, Rob Limone was dead. Jason told Detective Meyer how at first he did not think Rob's murder and Sabrina's affair could possibly be connected. Because he couldn't imagine a straight arrow guy like Jonathan Hearn having anything to do with murder.

Then, Jonathan left him that voicemail. voicemail. So 12 days after Rob's murder, my phone rings. I look down at it. It's Jonathan Hearn. I was in a doctor's office with my son. I wanted to take my phone and smash it against the wall because he is the one person I did not want to hear from. And I didn't answer it. I let it go to voicemail. A few minutes later, I started getting texts from him saying he needs to talk to me. Jason was curious enough as to what all of this was about that he pressed play. I just realized now life is so short and I'm shaky right now. I'm sorry. I would really like to talk to you. Was this about the affair? As far as Jason knew, Jonathan's affair with

Sabrina had ended months earlier. Now you wondered if perhaps Hearn's tone was hinting at something else. I did talk to Rob and I was able to apologize to him and that was something that was very meaningful to me and he forgave me. Jason listened to all of it. Then he listened to all of it again. I want to fix this with you. So if you could give me a call back, I would really appreciate it. Thank you so much. He came home from the doctor's office and he asked me if there was one person that would want Rob out of the picture, who would it be? And I said, Jonathan. And then he said, he called me.

So we went in the backyard and we didn't want our kids to hear the message or anything. And he played the message for me and immediately I got goosebumps all over and I was just sickened. Because the message was so disturbing. It was like he was forcing himself to breathe heavy and be upset. Well, you don't think that's genuine? Definitely not. It was creepy. It was like, oh, my gosh, this guy is crazy, and this is possible. He could have killed Rob.

That was on a Friday morning. It was later that afternoon when Jason Bernatine dug out Detective Meyer's business card and first gave him a call. The following Monday was Labor Day, the day Jason agreed to meet with Detective Meyer. And even before that meeting took place, Kelly was able to add a new piece of information to the puzzle. This one came from Sabrina herself. She told me that Monday morning that he had come over the night before with his sister and brought flowers. And we're not talking like a little thing of flowers. I mean, we're talking like a huge bouquet of flowers. I mean, look, okay, the guy's presumptuous. Okay, none of this makes him a killer. Just makes him a kind of a guy you'd

rather stay away from. Absolutely. Along with the flowers, Sabrina told Kelly how Jonathan had written her a sympathy note that read in part, quote, all the things that I have read in the paper and on Facebook about Robert was that he was such an amazing man. I'm going to try to live She's reading me this letter. And here, I've already heard this voicemail. I'm already freaked out by him. And she's reading you the letter like, can you believe this jerk? Or she's reading you the letter like, isn't this sweet? Isn't this sweet? Isn't this sweet?

Listen to this. Listen to how sweet Jonathan is. So I'm trying not to throw up. I'm trying not to scream. So I just listened. As far as the rest of the wolf pack was concerned, nothing appeared to be out of the ordinary. Sabrina filled the role of grieving widow

just the way everyone expected she would. She posted a glowing tribute to Rob on Facebook. She sent out thank you cards to funeral guests. She was somber and emotional when speaking of her late husband. None of the other members of the Wolfpack knew anything about Sabrina's relationship with Jonathan Hearn. Well, except, of course, for the Bernatines. In the weeks after Rob's murder, they say, their feelings for Sabrina began to change from sympathy to suspicion.

Coming up next on Deadly Mirage. You know, if that's what a couple agrees with in their marriage and that's their business she went to robert and she said this needs to stop now and he said oh we're just having fun hi hi am i beautiful early november, I was able to get a wiretap authorized. And so we were able to go up on the phones and listen to their conversations. You and I have an affair, you know, and it's like, well, of course they're going to look into that. Deadly Mirage is a production of Dateline and NBC News. Tim Beecham is the producer. Brian Drew, Kelly Laudeen, and Marshall Hausfeld are audio editors.

Carson Cummins is associate producer. Adam Gorfain is co-executive producer. Paul Ryan is executive producer. And Liz Cole is senior executive producer. From NBC News Audio, sound mixing by Katie Lau, Bryson Barnes is head of audio production.