30°
Nearly a month after Luz Vasquez's son, Chad Stuart, was killed outside of a Vineland bar in September 2022, she was contacted by Gregory Stefan, Jr., who explained he was the owner of Colonial Memorials, a headstone company.
And he wanted Vasquez as a client.
Vasquez set up a meeting with Stefan in her Vineland home on Oct. 21, 2022.
"He was a professional man, and seemed sympathetic," Vasquez said on a call with Daily Voice. "I just assumed he was connected in some way with my funeral home or the cemetery. Since then, I found out that was not the case."
During their meeting, Stefan helped Vasquez customize a headstone for Chad, and put in an order. Stefan told Vasquez if she didn't pay for the stone right then and there, it would come to about $8,000, she said.
It seemed like a good deal, so Vasquez wrote a check for $5,775 to Colonial Memorials. Stefan promised Vasquez she'd have the headstone in about six months, and that she didn't have anything to worry about.
It wasn't long before Vasquez realized, she did.
This Labor Day Weekend, Stefan was charged on a warrant by police in Vineland for scamming customers out of thousands of dollars, not long after it was revealed he had been doing the same with his father and brother with their Pennsylvania company, 1843 LLC.
Officials in Pennsylvania banned the Stefans from practicing and reached a settlement requiring the Stefans pay restitution to their hundreds of victims.
"At the five month mark I started to reach out to Colonial, and got no response," she said. "They didn't even acknowledge they got an email from me. I was calling, leaving voicemails. No response."
Vasquez figured she'd been scammed, and began contacting the Better Business Bureau and the Department of Consumer Affairs. Then, she found an article about 1843 LLC. That's when it clicked.
"I was physically ill," Vasquez said. "I was sick to my stomach: Migraines, nausea. I really didn't know what to do. That was for about three days but then I came to my senses, and I did what any pissed off consumer would do.
"I started making noise."
Vasquez contacted everyone she could think of: Prosecutors working her son's case, the New Jersey State Funeral Directors' Association, the state's Office of Victim-Witness Advocacy.
In the midst of her grief, Vasquez's priority became stopping Stefan from targeting other victims.
"I just felt like, I can’t believe this man is allowed to operate in New Jersey," she said. "Pennsylvania put a stop to him and he just moved the operation over. I have to let New Jersey know what this man is doing."
Last month, police told Vasquez an investigation found Stefan cashed her check the day after she handed it to him in her living room.
The Colonial Memorials' page on the Better Business Bureau website says it was founded in 2021 out of Bridgewater. Multiple customers wrote complaints saying they paid the company thousands of dollars for a headstone, but never got the product, and never heard back from the owner.
That is, until last week.
Vasquez, and presumably all of Stefan's clients, received the following letter from Colonial Memorials in the mail:
"He's a wolf in sheep’s clothing," Vasquez said. "He was sitting in my dining room asking me how my son died. I told him my son was murdered. He acted like he was crushed — and to find out this was a show? That made me sick.
"It was the ultimate violation. I’m telling someone how my son died in my home... in my safe place. I allowed a thief in my home. I was sick to my stomach."
Vasquez knows Stefan has other victims out there and suspects they may feel ashamed or too embarrassed to come forward. She's not.
"It just takes someone to lead the way," she said. "Forget about being embarrassed. We have to put a stop to this guy. When you’re grieving you don’t have a lot of energy to take this on, but you have to find it."
Anyone who suspects they may be a victim of Colonial Memorials is urged to contact their local police department. Vineland residents can contact Vineland police officer Felipe Laboy Jr. at 856-691-4111, immediately
Click here to follow Daily Voice Northern Highlands and receive free news updates.
