LOCKPORT — A Niagara County grand jury has indicted a Falls man on charges that he killed his live-in girlfriend and then buried her body in the backyard of the house next door to their 22nd Street apartment.
The indictment, unsealed in Niagara County Court Wednesday morning, charges Christopher J. Colon, 49, with single counts of second-degree murder and concealment of a human corpse. He also faces a previous indictment charging him with aggravated family offense.
Colon pleaded not guilty to his new charges during a brief proceeding before County Court Judge Caroline Wojtaszek. She ordered Colon held without bail pending further proceedings in his cases.
He is accused of murdering Michelle L. Destefano, 38, of the Falls, during a domestic violence incident in June. Prosecutors charge Colon with concealing Destefano’s body in a shallow grave behind an abandoned house in the 400 block of 22nd Street.
Falls Police Criminal Investigation Division (CID) and Crime Scene Unit (CSU) detectives made the grisly discovery of Destefano’s remains in a shallow grave, roughly 2 feet wide, 3 feet long and about 18 inches deep in the backyard of a vacant home at 417 22nd St. around mid-morning June 9. Detectives had begun searching the area after receiving a tip that the body of a woman had been buried there.
The remains were found wrapped in a blanket and investigators said they could not immediately determine how long the body had been buried. Prosecutors have not revealed the manner and cause of Destefano’s death, as determined by an autopsy performed by the Erie County Medical Examiner.
Sources have also indicated that a forensic anthropologist is assisting in the ongoing investigation.
Neighbors said Destefano lived with Colon in an upper apartment at 423 22nd St. Those same neighbors said they sometimes heard and observed the couple “fighting.”
“Oh, you could hear them yelling,” one neighbor said. “Not that that is unusual in this neighborhood.”
Neighbors also said that the blanket Destefano’s body was wrapped in had previously been draped over the front porch railing of the lower apartment at 423 22nd St.
Colon was reportedly hospitalized with a broken leg two days before Destefano’s body was found after an incident involving Falls police. Police also reportedly received a “check the welfare” call for Destefano that same day.
Friends of Destefano and neighbors said they had not seen her in “several months.”
Police said they initially searched the backyard at 423 22nd St. before bringing in a K-9, specially trained to locate missing persons. The K-9 located the makeshift grave and detectives spent about four hours digging and sifting through the area around the grave.
They reportedly recovered evidence, including stuffed animals and jewelry alongside Destefano’s body.