Police broaden search for Lynn boy

Essex DA thinks 5-year-old is alive

Investigators searching for a 5-year-old boy who disappeared last month while visiting his father in Lynn are expanding their search to include other North Shore coastal areas, according to the official leading the effort.

Jonathan Blodgett, the Essex district attorney, also said in a phone interview yesterday that State Police and Lynn police continue to explore the possibility that someone might have assisted the father in the child's disappearance - but have so far found no evidence to support that theory.

"We have no information or evidence to date that there was an accomplice, but we are exploring that possibility only given the fact that the father had no visible means of transportation, save a bicycle," Blodgett said.

Police and prosecutors have been searching for Giovanni Gonzalez, who was last seen Aug. 16 playing with his father, Ernesto Gonzalez, near the elder Gonzalez's Brightwood Terrace apartment in downtown Lynn.

The child had been brought to Lynn for a weekend visit by his mother, Daisy Colon, who lives in East Boston. But Ernesto Gonzalez, who is currently being held on $500,000 cash bail in the Essex County jail on a child endangerment charge, said Giovanni was never with him, according to court records. He has refused to talk further with investigators.

In a phone interview yesterday, Colon said she is frustrated she has not spoken with her son in 23 days. But, she said, authorities have been persistent in their search, and she is optimistic there will be a positive outcome.

"I know in my heart, he is still out there. He's alive," Colon said.

Colon said that she now wishes she had been trained as a private investigator and not in business accounting, as she was years ago.

"It gets frustrating for me, and sometimes I wish I could do more," she said, adding that she believes it is best to let law enforcement lead the search for her son.

A Lynn police spokesman, Lieutenant William Sharpe, said his department remains committed to finding Giovanni.

In a separate phone interview, Blodgett said he is convinced the boy is alive. He said investigators initially focused their investigation on areas that Gonzalez and his son could reach on foot or by mass transit because the father does not own a car.

He said investigators, including divers, have searched Flax Pond multiple times because it is close to the father's apartment. In the coming days, a State Police search team will probably scour some other North Shore coastal areas, possibly on jet skis, to make sure the boy is not there.

"We've expanded the actual search area beyond a reasonable walking distance," Blodgett said. "We have nothing to date that indicates that he is not alive."

Anyone with information is asked to call Lynn police at 781-595-2000 or the State Police unit in Blodgett's office at 978-745-8908.

John Ellement can be reached at ellement@globe.com.