FITCHBURG, Mass., April 24 (UPI) -- A Massachusetts judge ordered the remains of 5-year-old Jeremiah Oliver be held so an autopsy can be performed on behalf of the boy's mother and her boyfriend.
Elsa Oliver, 28, and her boyfriend, Alberto Sierra, Jr., 23, were arrested in December on assault and child endangerment charges related to the then-disappearance of her son. He was reported missing in December, but investigators believe he'd been missing since September.
His body was discovered Friday in a suitcase along the side of Route 190.
Worcester Superior Court Judge James Lemire issued an order Wednesday preventing the boy from being buried until a private autopsy could be performed.
"We're waiting for him to be released from the medical examiner's office," funeral director Walter C. Taylor of Smith-Mallahy-Masciarelli Funeral Home in Fitchburg, Mass., said Wednesday. "Injunctions filed by the mother and boyfriend's lawyer held it up. They want a private autopsy done."
The examination of the body is expected to take place no later than Monday.
