WORCESTER, Mass. (AP) — Nine years after the body of 5-year-old Jeremiah Oliver was found in a suitcase beside a Massachusetts highway, the former boyfriend of the child’s mother will be arraigned Thursday on a murder charge in connection with the death, prosecutors said.
Alberto Sierra Jr., 32, is charged with murder and disinterring a body and will be arraigned in Worcester Superior Court, the office of Worcester District Attorney Joseph Early Jr. said Wednesday. An email seeking comment was left with Sierra’s attorney.
Jeremiah’s body was found in April 2014 along Interstate 190 in Sterling, about an hour west of Boston. But the boy was last seen alive in September 2013, and was not reported missing until December of that year.
The family, which lived in Fitchburg at the time, was being supervised by the state Department of Children and Families. Even before the boy’s body was discovered, an investigation found that a social worker with the child welfare agency went months without visiting the family’s home — despite reports of abuse and neglect.