Voices of the past brings to you anoth gripping tale of an unidentified woman. While I sit on the balcony of the hotel I am staying at, for a much needed day away from home and all that it brings, overlooking the beach, I think of all of these eople and these cases that I bring to you in which these people never get to go home again, and their lives and names are taken from them in an instant.
This is the story of “Beth Doe”.
On December 20,1976, under a bridge on I-80 in Cabon COunty, Pennsylvania, Three suitcases were found with the remains of a pregnant woman, between the ages of 16 and 22-years old. The woman had been strangled, shot and then completely dismembered. What is even more disturbing is that inside one of these suitcases were also the remains of her unborn baby.
Written on one of the missing woman’s hands were numbers. This turned out to be the only clue ploice would have. They were unsure if the numbers represented a license plate or not.
In 2014 with new technologies, experts composed a DNA profile of this woman. It detemined that she is from Eastern or Central Europe. The woman was bured underthe name “Beth Doe:
Beth Doe’s case created national attention. On March 31, 2021 , they officially announced that the victgim in this case was that of 15-year-old Evelyn Colon of Jersey City, New Jersey. The identity of her alleged killer was also made public when charges were filed, to be that of Luis Sierra.
When Evelyn Colon’s body was discovered she was carrying a nine-month-old fetus and she had been sexually assaulted. The gunshot wound she sustained had been done postmortum. It is believed that teses suitcases had bbbbbeen thrown out of a vehicle traveling west. Likely the intention being to land in the water below , to lessen the chances of being found. Two of these suitcases had landed in the woods, 20-ft from the river, and the third, which contained the head and the fetus was found on the river bank.
These suitcases had fallen 300 feet which caused two of the suitcases toopen and the body parts to emerge., leaving the head, fetus, and the two halves of the torso exposed.
During the investigation 12 women had been excluded as a possible victim. The Pennsylvania State Police, in September 2019, announced a possible connection between “Beth Doe” and that of Madeline “Maggie” Cruz. The police recieved at tip from an individual who had gone to shcool with Cruz and saw the resemblance to the reconstructions of “Beth Doe”.
Madeline Cruz had spent time in the Massachusetts citites of Lenox and Framingham. While in Framingham she resided with a foster family. At approximately 16-years-old, in 1974, she had run away to Tarrytown with her foster sister, who returned after a week.
In the summer of 1976, she called a friend asking for money, claiming she was pregnant. Evelyn Colon was never heard from again until the media reported the potential link to “Beth Doe”. Madeline Cruz has been confirmed alive and well by the police and has been elliminated as a potential identity for Beth Doe.
Familial DNA was eventually used and led the investigators to Luis Colon Jr., Evelyn’s nephew. His identity was released on March 31, 2021. Luis Sierra was charged with Evelyn’s murder at the age of 63. He was residing in Ozone Park, New York at the time of his arrest.
At the time of Evelyn’s murder, she was dating Sierra, who was also the father of her unborn child. Because of her pregnancy, Evelyn’s parents had allowed her to move into an apartment with Sierra.
On one particular day, Evelyn had contacted her mother stating that she wasn’t feeling well for her mother to bring her soup. When her mother arrived no one was there and neighbors told Evelyn’s family that they had moved away.
In 1977, the Colon family received a letter, written in Spanish, stamped from Connecticut, stating that Evelyn had given birth to a baby boy and not to worry. It also stated that Evelyn would contact them if she needed anything.
The Colon family did not initially report Evelyn missing because they had believed her to be safe with Sierra. After a few years of no contact, they attempted to report her disappearance, but due to the letter, the police refused to file a report. By the time Evelyn Colon was identified, both her parents had died.
I look out at all these kids with their parents, and I think of my own at home, safe and sound. I only wish they could have identified who “Beth Doe” was sooner to give the parents some peace.
Thank You for joining Voices of the Past and Present on the journey to discovering who “Beth Doe” truly was.
Voices of the past, present and future 