‘UNDETERMINED’ DEATH
Death of woman found in trash bag inconclusive >>
TRENTON » Lillian Duran’s death remains a mystery as family speculates whether drugs led to her demise.
Duran’s manner of death remains undetermined, prosecutors said Wednesday.
Her mother, Lilliam De La Cruz, told The Trentonian she hopes her daughter’s death doesn’t turn into one of Trenton’s notorious cold cases.
“I want to know what happened to her,” she said in a phone interview late Wednesday. “I’m in the dark.”
De La Cruz said she received a letter from prosecutors about two weeks ago saying they would not release her daughter’s autopsy report because it was part of a criminal investigation.
The Mercer County Prosecutor’s Office said in a news release it received the 43-yearold woman’s autopsy results, but did not specify what date the report was completed.
Spokeswoman Casey DeBlasio did not respond to a detailed list of questions left unaddressed in the statement.
Duran, a former teacher’s aide and mother to two sons, was dead by the time she was found around 5 p.m. Sept. 4, wrapped in a plastic bag on the sidewalk of the 400 block of Lamberton Street.
The woman’s family told The Trentonian they believed Duran, who battled drug addiction throughout her life, was murdered and cited a visit from nefarious men over a drug debt as reasons for their suspicions.
Duran lost a lot to drugs, her mother said: custody of her children, her sobriety, and ultimately, her life.
De La Cruz said she last spoke to her daughter around 2 a.m. on Sept. 3. The family had been intimidated and harassed by “dangerous” men over Duran’s drug debt in the days before she was found dead.
The Mercer County Homicide Task Force was called to investigate after Duran’s body was discovered by a boy riding a bicycle, the family said.
There was about a 15-hour gap between her last conversation with her mother in the kitchen of their home, and when Duran was found brutally dumped on the street, a heinous act that at least amounts to criminal desecration of a body.
Police sources contend Duran’s body was badly decomposed despite being found less than a day after she went missing, perhaps explaining why the medical examiner couldn’t reach a conclusion about the cause and manner of death.
Perhaps repeating rumors that she heard on the street, De La Cruz previously told a detective during a phone call at a friend’s home that her daughter’s body was smelly and had already started to decompose, suggesting it had been there for some time.
De La Cruz was told that investigators explored the drug angle, interviewing the men who came to Duran’s door before her disappearance. That turned out to be a dead end, as street code kicked in.
“They all said they don’t know Lillian,” her mother said. “I told the detectives, ‘They are lying.’”
Investigators hoped the autopsy, performed by the Middlesex County medical examiner, might lead to answers but it was inconclusive.
Prosecutors did not mention results of toxicology tests in the news release. De La Cruz, who plans to meet with prosecutors next week, said that information wasn’t conveyed to her either. Duran worked as a teacher’s aide at Grant Elementary School until she became addicted to drugs. She was reassigned from Grant after several incidents at the school with the father of her son. She didn’t like the new school she was assigned to and stopped showing up for work, her mother said. The district was forced to fire her. After that, Duran started running with people in the streets. A friend introduced her to prescription pills, and from there, she took up crack, her mother said. Duran was with her mother in the kitchen of their city home around 2 a.m. Sept. 3 when Duran walked in and told her she was leaving to take care of the drug debt. Duran’s mother, looking to smooth over the situation, had previously given one of the men, someone known on the streets as “Black,” a payment of $50 to appease them. Duran told her mom she wanted the family to be left alone for good. De La Cruz remembered telling her daughter to be careful. “You know how it is outside,” she said. Duran never returned home. De La Cruz still hopes detectives crack the case. “I work. I deal with the kids. And I go to the detective at least once a week,” she said. “I cry sometimes when I think of her. And pray that somebody talks and they find who did this.” Anyone with information is asked to call 609-989-6406 or use the Trenton Police tipline at 609-989-3663.