Public's help needed in search for East Boston boy missing since August

November 18, 2008 02:26 PM Email| Comments (0)| Text size – +

(Boston Globe) Steve O'Connell, spokesman for Essex County prosecutors, asked for help in finding missing East Boston boy Giovanni Gonzalez as the boy's mother, Daisy Colon, left court. (By John Ellement, Globe Staff)

By John R. Ellement, Globe Staff

LYNN -- The mother of Giovanni Gonzalez was in court today when the boy's father made his first public appearance since being charged for playing a role in the boy's disappearance on Aug. 16.

Daisy Colon, of East Boston, declined to talk with reporters following the brief hearing in Lynn District Court where Ernesto Gonzalez is charged with child endangerment.

Colon had allowed her son to spend the weekend with his father, who then lived in an apartment on Brightwood Terrace in downtown Lynn. But when she came to pick him up, Ernesto claimed their son was not with him.

Essex District Attorney Jonathan Blodgett's office alleges Ernesto is responsible for his son's disappearance. He has pleaded not guilty and is being held on $500,000 cash bail. His attorney today filed court papers demanding the charges be dropped for lack of evidence.

State, Lynn and area police have searched repeatedly for the child in Lynn, Lawrence, along the Massachusetts coast, and in Puerto Rico, where Ernesto has relatives.

No trace of the child has been found.

Blodgett's spokesman, Steve O'Connell, said today that authorities now want anyone who thinks they saw Ernesto Gonzalez at any time during the Aug. 16 weekend to contact Lynn or State Police.

"Tell us where, tell us when,'' O'Connell said at the courthouse. "That might be the key. We will spare no expense, we will spare no manpower, in order to bring this boy home.''