Fitchburg man facing charges in 2013 murder of 5-year-old boy

WORCESTER, Mass — A Fitchburg man previously charged in connection with the death of a five-year-old boy who went missing in 2013 is now charged with his murder.

Alberto Sierra Jr. will be arraigned in Worcester Superior Court Thursday on charges of murder and disinterring a body. The charges come 9 years after his girlfriend’s son, Jeremiah Oliver’s remains were found in a suitcase alongside Route 190 in Sterling, the Worcester County District Attorney’s Office said Wednesday.

Oliver was first reported missing on December 13, 2013 after his sister told Fitchburg school officials Sierra was abusing the children and she had not seen her brother for weeks.

Sierra was arrested in December 2013, on two counts of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon (knife) and two counts of assault and battery on a child causing bodily injury.

Worcester County DA Joseph Early ruled the boy’s death a homicide in April 2014 after his remains were found. Early cited the official cause as “homicidal violence of undetermined etiology.”

In 2017, Sierra pleaded guilty to three counts of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, two counts of assault and battery and two counts of reckless endangerment of a child. The seven charges stemmed from incidents involving his girlfriend, Elsa Oliver, and two of her three kids. He was sentenced to six to seven years in state prison with three years of probation.

Elsa Oliver pleaded guilty to assault and battery and two counts of reckless endangerment of a child in August 2017.

Jeremiah’s death led to intense scrutiny on the Department of Children and Families; a caseworker has been assigned to the Oliver family and the worker hadn’t noticed Jeremiah was missing for several months.

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