Current Conditions
32°F - P/SUNNY
(286) (201) (86) (5) (2)
The 33-year-old sat on her stoop with two men she had been letting stay with her. The oldest of her three sons played outside.
"She was really social and happy that day," said her next-door neighbor, Bianca Coates, 24. "She looked like she was having a good day."
That night, Colon-Torres vanished.
Eleven days later, her family learned she was dead after her body had been pulled from the Susquehanna River in an isolated, brushy area of Manor Township she had never been to, a spot hidden from the road that her family "never knew even existed," one said.
Police are investigating her disappearance.
What happened to this mother of three? Was she murdered? Did she commit suicide?
"We are all stunned," said her brother-in-law, John Suarez. "We're just waiting for the police."
Colon-Torres' family got its first hint something was wrong on the day she disappeared.
Late that day, around 11 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 25, her mother, Felicita Morales, stopped to see her daughter and her three grandsons.
But Colon-Torres, whose first name is Lydia but who goes by the nickname Lilly, was not home, Suarez said.
One of the two men staying with her was there, along with Colon-Torres' three sons.
Her mother picked up the three boys and took them to her house on Juniata Street.
The members of Colon-Torres' large, tight-knit family immediately started to worry about her whereabouts.
It was unusual for Colon-Torres to leave her sons, said Suarez, who is acting as the family spokesman.
"Nobody knew where she was," he said. "Nobody from the family communicated with her before she left. … Everybody was just waiting. We were all waiting. We were all shocked. We just didn't know."
The family waited all day Saturday for Colon-Torres to return home or to call.
"No Lilly," Suarez said.
Sunday, still no Lilly.
That was the day Suarez called the police to file a missing person report. The family also posted fliers, seeking information about her, all over the city.
•••
Four days later, a body was pulled from the Susquehanna River, near the intersection of Route 441 and Donegal Street in Manor Township. It was found not far from the river bank in an area just beyond the railroad tracks that run parallel to the Susquehanna.
Colon-Torres' family members wondered if it was their missing loved one but waited for the final word.
"It was a long wait," Suarez said.
Five days later, after poring over dental records, authorities positively identified the body as Colon-Torres.
"I think reality had already sunk in," Suarez said.
Police are investigating what happened to the city woman. As that investigation continues, the county coroner, Dr. Stephen Diamantoni, has not released the cause or manner of Colon-Torres' death.
Diamantoni said he is waiting for the results of toxicology tests as well as the results of other tests and studies, which he said he could not discuss. Authorities also are gathering "historical information," he said.
Lancaster city police Detective Lt. Kent Sweitzer said, "At this point, we are looking at all possibilities. We're just exploring everything."
Sweitzer would not comment on whether Colon-Torres had obvious injuries or whether she was found in the nude, which has been reported by other media.
"We are working diligently on this," he said.
•••
Those who knew Colon-Torres don't believe she took her own life.
"She was devoted to her kids," her brother-in-law said.
Her neighbor, Coates, said, "I don't believe it was suicide. She loved her kids too much. That's a mother, period. Sometimes people feel like they don't have nothing else to live for, but she wasn't that kind of a person."
And Colon-Torres' sons needed her. Her two oldest sons, ages 17 and 14, both are physically and/or mentally disabled. Her youngest is only 6.
Colon-Torres watched over them, Suarez said, teaching them daily living skills, taking them to the park and the movies.
A native of New York, Colon-Torres had lived in Lancaster since she was a youngster. One of nine children of Felicita and Samuel Morales, she attended McCaskey High School until the 11th grade.
After high school, she had her three children, worked for a security agency and also took care of foster children for a time.
She was divorced from the father of her youngest son and was a single, stay-at-home mom. She moved her three sons last spring to the house Suarez owns on Beaver Street, where she was well-liked by her neighbors.
Colon-Torres had a soft heart, Suarez said, cooking for others and trying to help people in need.
"She was very humble and she was giving," he said. "It didn't matter if it was guys or girls. She would help anyone who needed a hand."
That's why she opened her home to the two men, who both needed a place to stay. One, who answered the door of her home Wednesday, was just a friend, he and her family said. He was the man who was with her three sons the night she disappeared.
The other man and Colon-Torres had, in the past few weeks, a budding romance. The family asked him to leave the home after she disappeared, Suarez said.
Suarez said he doesn't know if either of the men talked to his sister-in-law just before she left her home.
"I haven't talked to them," he said.
Coates said she knew something was wrong when she saw members of Colon-Torres' family outside her home the day after she was reported missing.
"I was like, 'What happened?' They said, 'Lilly's missing!' I said, 'What do you mean, missing? She was just here!' " she recalled.
She said it still doesn't seem real.
When she heard that a body was found in the river, she said, "I couldn't believe it was her."
