The dark mystery of a missing boy
THE WHOLE WORLD knows the story of a delusional man who called himself Clark Rockefeller and kidnapped his daughter from a high-end Boston neighborhood.
Someone, somewhere in the world, must know what happened to Giovanni Gonzalez, a 5-year-old boy who was last seen with his father last August in Lynn. The father told a Globe reporter he killed his son, but refuses to talk about it to law enforcement authorities.
"I think about this case every day," said Essex District Attorney Jonathan Blodgett, who is working with Lynn detectives and State Police to solve the mystery of the little boy's disappearance. "Everyone in law enforcement is hoping for one lucky break that will help us come to the truth. It's a truth-finding mission."
The disappearance of Giovanni, who was 4 feet tall and wearing a red shirt and Spiderman sandals when he was last seen, continues to generate local coverage. But it's nothing like the glut of attention paid to another parental kidnapping case, last July's snatching of a little girl from a Back Bay street.
Wealth and celebrity - even when it's fantasy conjured up by a con man - have a way of capturing media hearts and the public's imagination.
For years, Christian Karl Gerhartsreiter posed as a member of the illustrious Rockefeller family, duping acquaintances and his Harvard-educated wife. When he took off with 7-year-old Reigh, during a supervised visit after a bitter divorce, the child's kidnapping touched off an international manhunt. Father and daughter were found in Baltimore six days later. The girl was unharmed.
Gerhartsreiter's just-completed trial was a media extravaganza. His lawyers argued that he was legally insane at the time of the abduction. On Friday, a jury found him guilty.
His life of manipulation and illusion may hold other dark mysteries. Gerhartsreiter could also be charged in connection with the disappearance of a California couple nearly 25 years ago. One of Rockefeller's previous aliases, Christopher Chichester, was identified by California investigators as a "person of interest" in the 1985 disappearance and presumed death of Linda and John Sohus in San Marino.
But what can be darker than the circumstances surrounding Giovanni Gonzalez's disappearance?
The boy vanished during a weekend visit with his father, Ernesto L. Gonzalez Jr. His mother, Daisy Colon of East Boston, reported her son missing on Aug. 17 after she went to Gonzalez's apartment to pick up her son.
Last November, the boy's father offered a chilling confession to Globe reporter Maria Sacchetti. He said he stabbed his son, dismembered his body, and disposed of the remains in three different trash bins near his apartment in Lynn. He was indicted in December on charges of parental kidnapping and willfully misleading a person in the furtherance of a continuing investigation. He pleaded innocent and is being held without bail in Essex County jail in Middleton.
Gonzalez won't speak to law enforcement officials, and so far police have been unable to corroborate his terrible story.
Trash bins were searched. Police helicopters flew over the area with infra-red cameras. Police dogs sniffed assorted bodies of water. Based on scripture quoted by Gonzalez, police searched nearby cemeteries. A new batch of specimens was recently sent out for DNA testing, and if it comes back positive Gonzalez is expected to be charged with murder.
Police continue to search for signs of the boy and recently offered a $7,000 reward for tips leading to his whereabouts. His mother continues to pray for his safe return.
"We are doing everything in our power to find him . . . We want closure for his mother," said the district attorney.
Police and prosecutors speak daily to Giovanni's mother, who is tortured by guilt. She told the Globe that even though things between her and Giovanni's father were not "100 percent," she urged him to get together with his son.
Their relationship "was not about me," she said. "It was about a little boy who wanted his father in his life."
That is a universal yearning. It led Giovanni Gonzalez to a fate the world should care about, even though he was not rich or famous.
Joan Vennochi can be reached at vennochi@globe.com. 