Nearly a decade after the body of 5-year-old Jeremiah Oliver was found stuffed in a suitcase off of I-190 in Massachusetts, prosecutors have finally identified a suspect in the boy’s murder.
Alberto L. Sierra Jr., 32, was indicted by a grand jury on charges of “homicidal violence” and pleaded not guilty in court on Thursday. At the time of the boy’s death, Sierra was the boyfriend of Jeremiah’s mother, Elsa Oliver.
The news of Sierra’s arrest was welcomed by police chief Ernest Martineau, a sergeant when the investigation into Jeremiah’s disappearance and death began. Martineau said the case was “haunting to any parent,” and the police department had committed ten years ago never to give up or forget.
The medical examiner concluded that Oliver was the victim of “homicidal violence of undetermined etiology,” the case exposed serious issues in the Massachusetts Department of Children and Families. An independent report found that DCF staff had not done their jobs and that DCF and the adults in Jeremiah’s life had failed to protect him. One DCF worker even lied about visiting Oliver’s home in September 2013, the month and year that the boy was first considered missing and last seen alive.
Jeremiah’s mother and Alberto Sierra have served prison time recently, but not for abusing the 5-year-old boy. While Sierra was convicted as recently as 2017 of abusing Jeremiah’s siblings, and the boy’s mother, Elsa Oliver, pleaded guilty to abusing and endangering her two other children the same year. Sierra now faces charges of murder and disinterring of a body and was ordered held without bail at his Thursday arraignment. The suspect is expected back in court next Thursday, May 25.
The death of Jeremiah Oliver is a tragedy that has haunted the Massachusetts community for nearly a decade. The indictment of Alberto L. Sierra Jr. is a step in the right direction for justice, and hopefully, the case will bring closure to the Oliver family and the community.