HILLSBOROUGH — When Beth Colon pictures her son Jared, the Hillsborough teen who died on Monday after he suffered a punch to the head during an argument, the first thing she thinks of is the mud.

Jared loved to ride dirt bikes and ATVs and almost daily came home in pants "that could stand up on their own when he took them off," Beth Colon said. "The muddier the better."

Beth Colon said she never seemed to mind the mud, despite its impact on her supply of laundry detergent. She said her son had a special communion with nature, the outdoors, animals and people, and was "an old soul," wise beyond his years.

"He had such incredible empathy and concern for everyone and everything around him," she said. "Even when he fished, he always caught and released."

Jared Colon, 17, a rising senior at Hillsborough High School, was punched on Saturday evening during a verbal argument with another Hillsborough teen, according to Somerset County Prosecutor Geoffrey Soriano. Detectives were informed Monday he had died, Soriano said. The other teen is now in custody at the Middlesex County Juvenile Detention Center and has been charged with second-degree reckless manslaughter, he said.

When Jared Colon wasn't on a dirt bike or ATV, he was often fishing — he'd sometimes spend eight hours in his favorite fishing spots, his mother said.

"He caught the biggest bass," she said. "He created his own secret bait and that was his goal — to catch the uncatchable one. And he did."

And there were creatures beyond the fish, too: His mom said Jared Colon took on most of the care for the chickens and goats his family raised and imagined that he may have gone on to work in organic farming after high school.

"When Jared Colon was into something he would research it like crazy," Beth Colon said. "He could look at a chicken and tell you what kind it was, what it was a cross between and what color egg it would lay."

Within his family, Beth Colon said, her son starred as the household comedian, who was "funny as the day is long." He was a caring little brother to his two older sisters, Joelle and Melissa, and the fun "Uncle Wow-wow" to Melissa's four young children, she said.

Beth Colon said Jared Colon was also a great friend. Hours before he was fatally injured, he'd been to the same hospital to visit a Hillsborough teen who was critically injured after falling from the bed of a moving pickup truck. Jared Colon had been a passenger in the truck, and stayed at his friend's side until EMTs arrived after the accident, his mother said.

Jared Colon's kind-hearted disposition and aversion to fighting make the circumstances surrounding his death all the more difficult, Beth Colon said.

Though she declined to speak about the teen who delivered the fatal punch, Beth Colon said she was home during the incident and remembers her son saying "I'm not going to hit you" to the other boy during their argument.

"I hope these kids learn that they need to resolve their problems peacefully," she said. "This violence is ridiculous and it's got to stop. I really hope they are able to learn that lesson from this."

When Jared was hit, it caused bleeding to an area of his brain where doctors could not operate, said Beth Colon, who is a former EMT herself. After she learned her son would never breathe on his own again, Colon said she was asked if he had a life directive by hospital staff.

"When we knew it was hopeless, I felt like something good had to come from all of this," Beth Colon said. "And so we donated all of his organs. His skin, eyes, everything. The one thing that has kept me going is that he would live on in others. That some other parent could maybe still have their son or daughter because of Jared."

Colon said she has already received news from the NJ Sharing Network donor organization that Jared's organs have saved a life, and she hopes one day she might be able to meet the recipients.

"And let him give something to someone else, because that was so Jared," she said.

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As she lives through "every parent's nightmare," Beth Colon credited the staff members of Robert Wood Johnson Hospital in New Brunswick, who she said were "compassionate beyond belief," and Hillsborough High School psychologist Janet Tracy, who helped manage and counsel the more than 50 friends who came to visit Jared Colon while he was in the hospital.

Among those friends was Irene Rabinowitz, 15, a sophomore at Hillsborough High School who said she was Jared's former girlfriend, and they had recently begun to rekindle their relationship.

"I got to hold his hand for 10 minutes, and 10 minutes later he was gone," Rabinowitz said. Jared Colon succumbed to his injuries on Monday afternoon, according to his mother.

Rabinowitz called Jared "the sweetest guy I ever met," and said she connected with him instantly.

"He was a great person to be around," she said. "He helped me through a really hard time in my life where I was depressed. I could call him at 2 a.m. and he'd be there."

Rabinowitz said her parents loved Jared because he was the kind of kid who "knew right from wrong," who was mature, and who was often the peacemaker among his friends.

But Rabinowitz said she is comforted by the thought of what Jared might tell those who are grieving.

"He'd say to stay strong and be happy," she said. "And that he is always going to be watching over us."

Beth Colon said she has taken consolation from a great support system of friends who have not left her side. And she's looking to make something else good come from the loss, starting a memorial fund in her son's name.

In lieu of flowers, Beth Colon asks for friends and family to make a donation to the Jared Colon Memorial Fund by visiting pacf.org/jared-colon-memorial-fund

Jared Colon's viewing will be held on Friday from 2 to 4 p.m. and 7 to 9 p.m., and his funeral will be held on Saturday at 11 a.m. at Hillsborough Funeral Home.