Search continues for 5-year-old boy missing in Lynn

By John R. Ellement, Globe staff

Police in Lynn are spending another day scouring the downtown neighborhood for any sign of 5-year-old Giovanni Gonzalez who was last seen Saturday afternoon with his father, an employee of a city meatpacking company.

Ernesto L. Gonzalez Jr. on Sunday told police he did not know where his son was and has since refused to talk with police about Giovanni, who had been allowed to spend the weekend with his father by the boy’s now heartbroken mother, Daisy Colon of East Boston.

“We are still operating on the presumption that this young boy is alive,’’ said Essex District Attorney Jonathan Blodgett, whose office along with Lynn and Massachusetts State police, have been leading the search since Sunday afternoon. “That’s what we are hoping.’’

Blodgett said police have already searched trash Dumpsters, apartments, surveillance videos, stores, restaurants, a nearby cemetery and Flax Pond near Gonzalez’ home address of Brightwood terrace without success.

They are repeating the process again today and using as many as 40 officers in the effort. He said four Lawrence police officers showed up Wednesday and volunteered to help. The FBI has spoken with Gonzalez’ relatives in Puerto Rico and they have told investigators they have had little contact with Gonzalez over the years, none of which was recent.

Blodgett said Gonzalez works for Old Neighborhood, a mainstay in the city, as a meatpacker. “The company has been very cooperative,’’ he said of investigators’ requests for information about his work duties at the plant.

Blodgett said Gonzalez continues to maintain the same stony silence he adopted when police located him on Sunday after Colon called for help to regain her son.

Gonzalez appears to lack both the financial and social resources needed if someone was trying to hide their child. He is something of an loner who does not own a car, does not currently 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,’’ Blodgett 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.’’

Gonzalez has pleaded not guilty to one count of child endangerment and is currently being held on $500,000 cash bail at the Essex County jail.

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