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Reward offered in case of missing Lynn boy

E-mail|Link|Comments () May 30, 2009 04:30 PM

Globe reporter Maria Sacchetti talked in November about the jailhouse confession Ernesto L. Gonzalez Jr. made to her, noting that authorities were skeptical of his account.

By Globe Staff

A $7,000 reward is being offered for tips leading to the return of Giovanni Gonzalez, a Lynn boy who has been missing since August, Lynn Police said.

Giovanni was 5 years old when he disappeared Aug. 16. When last seen, he was 4 feet tall, weighed 40 pounds, and was wearing a red shirt, blue jeans, and Spider-Man sandals, Lynn Police Captain Captain Mark O’Toole said in a statement.

Giovanni’s mother, Daisy Colon, raised $2,000 with help from family, friends and the general public. The Carole Sund/Carrington Foundation, a Modesto, Calif. organization that works to publicize missing person cases, donated an additional $5,000.

Lynn Police urged anyone with information to call 781-477-4436. Tips may be made anonymously, but callers must identify themselves to be eligible for the reward. Law enforcement officials and anyone charged with a crime connected to Giovanni’s disappearance are ineligible for the reward.

In November, Giovanni's father, Ernesto L. Gonzalez Jr., who was being held in jail for refusing to tell authorities what had happened to his son, told a Globe reporter in a jailhouse interview that he had stabbed Giovanni to death, dismembered his body in the bathtub of his Lynn apartment, then discarded it in different trash bins around Lynn.

Authorities remain skeptical of Gonzalez's confession and he has not been charged in the case.