EXCLUSIVE: Suspect in 1976 gruesome murder of pregnant teen, ‘Beth Doe', released on bail pending trial

Luis Colon of Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania, is shocked to learn the suspect in the murder of his sister is out of jail after posting a $250,000 bail.

​Luis Anthony Sierra, 64, of Ozone Park, New York, was arrested in April 2021 for the 1976 murder of 15-year-old Evelyn Colon of Jersey City, New Jersey. The teen's dismembered remains and her unborn child were found stuffed in suitcases dumped along the Lehigh River in Carbon County five days before Christmas. No one knew her identity until DNA revealed it in March of 2021. Follow-up interviews with Evelyn's family led investigators to Sierra, her then 19-year-old boyfriend, who she had moved in with a few weeks before she was due to have the couple's baby. The retired bus driver was extradited to Pennsylvania and held at the Carbon County Correctional Facility without bail due to the nature of the charges.

Colon told me that he and his family found about Sierra's release this morning.

"The trooper text me saying that recent changes to Pennsylvania's bail law required a bail amount to be specified, and I guess he was able to post the $250,000. I just can't believe this. No one called me or my family to tell us or to explain these changes in the bail law in Pennsylvania. We literally just found out that he's out and back with his family."

According to court records, a hearing took place on June 8 at which time bail was set at $250,000. Sierra posted bail on June 15, court records show.

"I cannot believe this!" Colon said. "This isn't some minor crime he's accused of doing. He's accused of killing my sister, and he gets to go home until the trial? Now there's a dangerous man out there free like nothing. Someone needs to explain this to us."

Sierra is charged with one count of criminal homicide. A trial date has not been set.