Child abuser charged with murder of 5-year-old boy found dead in suitcase 9 years ago

The New York Daily News - 5/18/2023

A Massachusetts man has been charged with murdering a 5-year-old boy whose body was found in a suitcase on the side of a highway in 2014.

Alberto Sierra, now 32, pleaded not guilty Thursday in the death of Jeremiah Oliver.

Sierra was dating Jeremiah’s mother, Elsa Oliver, when the toddler was found dead on the side of Interstate 190, about an hour west of Boston, in April 2014.

Jeremiah was last seen alive in September 2013. He wasn’t reported missing until that December, and an extensive, community-traumatizing search finally ended on April 18, 2014 with the astonishing suitcase discovery.

“I am sorry, as a father and as a man, that I could not be there to protect you,” Jeremiah’s biological father, Jose Oliver, said at his son’s funeral, which was attended by many in their hometown of Fitchburg.

Sierra and Elsa Oliver, now 37, were already in police custody when Jeremiah’s body was found. Sierra was charged with abusing Oliver and her two other young children. Oliver was also charged with abusing the kids.

In 2017, investigators cut a plea deal with Sierra and Oliver. They pleaded guilty to the abuse charges and each accepted six-to-seven years in prison. In exchange, prosecutors dropped all charges connected to Jeremiah’s disappearance and death.

“The current charges involving the defendant and Jeremiah Oliver were ended at this time to allow the death investigation to continue and to eliminate any possible double jeopardy claim in connection with his death,” Worcester County prosecutors said at the time.

Sierra and Oliver both finished serving their sentences in early 2020, according to the Fitchburg Sentinel & Enterprise.

On Wednesday, Sierra was indicted by a grand jury for Jeremiah’s murder, the Boston Globe reported. Prosecutors did not publicly reveal the evidence that led them to finally pursue murder charges.

“Yesterday, I received a phone call that I’ve been waiting for for 10 years,” Fitchburg Police Chief Ernest Martineau, who was one of the investigators on the case in 2013, told Boston ABC affiliate WCVB. “We made a commitment 10 years ago that we would never give up and we would never forget. And that came to fruition yesterday.”

With News Wire Services