Locals mourn murdered New Jersey teen, baby, 44 years after death
Apr. 6—Evelyn and Emily Grace Colon's family aren't the only people mourning the young mother and daughter's death.
Numerous flowers, a stuffed animal, a child's toy and other markers and signs now adorn their grave in the Laurytown Road Cemetery in Lehigh Twp., near Weatherly.
The pinks, reds and yellows provide a bright spot in the rows of weathered, white crosses in the countryside cemetery, which once served Carbon County's poor house.
Former deputy coroner and retired funeral director Phil Jeffries placed a temporary marker with Evelyn's and her daughter's names next to a wooden cross with the name Beth Doe on it.
For 44 years, Beth Doe is the only name people in Northeast Pennsylvania have known for the 15-year-old girl, whose murdered, dismembered body was found stuffed in suitcases at the base of an interstate bridge over the Lehigh River in East Side borough.
DNA profiling gave investigators the break they needed in giving her back her name and finding her alleged killer. Luis Sierra Jr., 63, of Ozone Park, New York, was arrested last week on homicide charges.
Sierra, Colon's teenage boyfriend and father of her baby, is awaiting extradition to Pennsylvania on the charges.
People learning Colon's identity have found their way to her rural grave site, where they left flowers, a child's toys and a piece of wood with her name, Evelyn Colon. Some flowers were planted alongside the cross reading Beth Doe, and another sign added, saying, "So sad. Not forgotten. RIP."
Jeffries was surprised by the graveside additions when he traveled to the cemetery Saturday to place a temporary grave marker with Colon's true name, and the name her family gave her unborn daughter.
The cemetery is off a country road set amid large tracts of farm land and woods with only two ways in, he said. Someone would really want to find it in order to place flowers, and several people did, he said.
Jeffries placed a small, weather-resistant marker similar to others that the Carbon County Coroner's Office used on nearby graves in more recent years, he said. Jeffries still assists the coroner's office and helps at the Weatherly funeral home from where he retired.
Coroner Robert Miller said that Jeffries, who was present when investigators exhumed her body years ago for additional testing, asked to place the marker on the grave, now that her name is known.
Colon's family started a GoFundMe page to raise money for a memorial, and nearly $6,000 has been raised in days since it was created.
Miller said the family wants to place a permanent marker on the grave with the funds.
They also plan to visit the grave for a memorial and meet the people from the area who have mourned an unknown murder victim and her child, kept their memory and never stopped looking for answers, said Miriam Colon Veltman, Colon's niece.
She and family members never stopped hoping to one day reconnect with Colon, who disappeared on a December day in 1976 presumably to start her own life and family.
Only in the last few weeks did they learn her true fate thanks to a DNA profile that Veltman's brother kept public, in the hopes that Evelyn's children would find them. That match was the break investigators needed in the 44-year-old cold case.
Veltman said her family is still shocked, grieving and heartbroken, shedding many tears this Easter holiday, but she is truly touched by everything people have done, and continue to do, for her family.
The flowers and marker are some of those kindnesses, she said.
Contact the writer: kmonitz@standardspeaker.com; 570-501-3589
