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No Bail Set For Suspect In Murder Of North Salem Socialite

The former day laborer charged in the bludgeoning death of an 83-year-old socialite on a sprawling 300-acre estate that shocked the bucolic town of North Salem and the area returned to court on Tuesday.

Esdras Marroquin Gomez

Esdras Marroquin Gomez

Photo Credit: New York State Police
Lois Colley and Eugene Colley.

Lois Colley and Eugene Colley.

Photo Credit: Courtesy New York Social Diary
State police patrol Windswept Farm, the 300-acre property in North Salem after Lois Colley's Nov. 9, 2015 murder.

State police patrol Windswept Farm, the 300-acre property in North Salem after Lois Colley's Nov. 9, 2015 murder.

Photo Credit: Daily Voice

After pleading not guilty of murder in the second degree (a Class A-I felony) at his arraignment on Monday, Esdras Anibal Marroquin Gomez was assigned a new defense lawyer on Tuesday. He has been remanded to the Westchester County Jail without bail.

Gomez, an illegal alien from Guatemala, had fled the United States after Lois Colley’s murder in Nov. 9, 2015. The 32-year-old Gomez was apprehended by the FBI in coordination with Mexican and Guatemalan authorities, who took him into custody in Cancun, Mexico on Nov. 7.

After arriving in federal custody at the LaGuardia Airport on the evening of Friday, Nov. 10, he was subsequently turned over to the New York State Police.

Gomez may have been involved in a dispute involving money with the Colley family at the time of the homicide, Westchester County District Attorney Anthony Scarpino said on Monday.

Much speculation had surrounded the homicide of the wife of multi-millionaire Eugene Colley, which occurred two years ago almost to the day. Lois Colley was bludgeoned to death late in the afternoon, with the blunt-force trauma believed to have come from a missing fire extinguisher at the couple's  Windswept Farm estate.

Colley was found lying on the laundry room floor of her home by a caretaker at approximately 5 p.m. on Monday, Nov. 9, 2015. The caretaker called 911 to report the matter.

There were no signs of forced entry into Colley's residence, and nothing was out of order -- except for Colley's body and the missing fire extinguisher.

State police had looked at several employees, including two grounds workers who later pleaded guilty to stealing $30,000 worth of hay from the family's Windswept Farm.

Both 33-year-old men -- Angel H. Parra Penafiel and Hugo Ramirez-Morales -- lived on the farm where they were employed as laborers. They stole and then sold the hay over several years, police reported.

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