5-year-old boy's anxious mother waits for word on missing son
The fate of a 5-year-old boy last seen Saturday with his father in Lynn remained unknown yesterday, despite public pleas from the boy's heartbroken mother and an intense police search of the city.
Giovanni Gonzalez had been allowed to visit his father, Ernesto L. Gonzalez Jr., last weekend and was seen by the elder Gonzalez's neighbors around 1 p.m. Saturday near the father's apartment on Brightwood Terrace.
But Gonzalez, 36, an employee of a Lynn meatpacking company, has since Sunday insisted that the child was not with him and has refused to disclose his son's whereabouts.
The boy's mother, Daisy Colon of East Boston, spent yesterday at the Lynn police station waiting for word on her son, authorities said.
Essex District Attorney Jonathan W. Blodgett said in a phone interview yesterday that investigators are continuing to search the downtown neighborhood near where the elder Gonzalez lives, and to check Logan Airport and in Puerto Rico, where Gonzalez has relatives.
"We are still operating on the presumption that this young boy is alive," said Blodgett, whose office, along with Lynn and State Police, has been leading the search since Sunday afternoon. "That's what we are hoping."
Blodgett said police have searched trash bins, apartments, surveillance videos, stores, restaurants, a nearby cemetery, and Flax Pond near Gonzalez's apartment without success.
They were repeating the process yesterday with about 40 officers. Blodgett said four Lawrence police officers also volunteered to help Wednesday.
The FBI has spoken with Gonzalez's relatives in Puerto Rico, who told investigators they have had little contact with Gonzalez over the years, none of which was recent.
Blodgett said investigators are checking Logan Airport, with the federal Transportation Security Administration, and with airlines to see whether a boy flew out of there this past weekend with an adult. He said investigators do not believe that Giovanni would travel as an unaccompanied minor.
Blodgett said Gonzalez works as a meatpacker for Old Neighborhood, a mainstay in the city. "The company has been very cooperative," he said of investigators' requests for information about Gonzalez's work duties.
Gonzalez has been mostly silent since police located him Sunday after Colon called for help to find her son, Blodgett said.
Gonzalez is being held on $500,000 cash bail at the Essex County jail after pleading not guilty to child endangerment Monday in Lynn District Court. His lawyer, Halim Moris, declined to comment yesterday.
The boy's father appears to lack both the financial and social resources needed if someone were trying to hide the child, Blodgett said. He is something of a loner who does not own a car, does not have a girlfriend, and is not known to have a wide circle of friends, the prosecutor said.
"We do not believe he had a significant other or friend that would be helpful in this regard," he said.
Blodgett said the search will continue. "It is our duty to keep searching for him," he said. "There is a lot of manpower still being spent on this case. We are hoping and keeping ourselves optimistic that he is alive somewhere."
John Ellement can be reached at ellement@globe.com. 