Kidnapping charge for father of missing boy

Ernesto L. Gonzalez Jr. was indicted yesterday.

The father of a missing 5-year-old East Boston boy was indicted yesterday on charges of parental kidnapping and misleading police in the ongoing probe into his son's disappearance.

The indictment of Ernesto L. Gonzalez Jr. was the latest twist in a case that has captured nationwide attention. Gonzalez, 36, who confessed to a Globe reporter that he had killed his son, Giovanni, in his Lynn apartment, was expected to be arraigned in Salem Superior Court today.

Gonzalez's lawyer, Lawrence McGuire, could not be reached for comment yesterday. A spokesman for Essex District Attorney Jonathan Blodgett declined to comment beyond a news release sent out late yesterday afternoon.

The eight-paragraph statement did not say why Gonzalez was not be ing charged with murder or why Gonzalez is accused of kidnapping the boy and misleading investigators.

Authorities have expressed skepticism over Gonzalez's confession in a jailhouse interview, which took place the day before Thanksgiving.

They have not discounted the possibility that Giovanni, an energetic boy who was supposed to start kindergarten this year, is still alive.

The boy's mother, Daisy Colón, has said she prays he will come back safe. Yesterday she declined to comment.

Giovanni has been missing since Aug. 17, when Colón went to pick him up at his father's home after a weekend visit and found the boy was not there.

A day later, Gonzalez, a former meatpacker, was charged with child endangerment. For three months, he sat in Essex County Jail, refusing to tell authorities what he knew about his son's disappearance. At first, he even denied seeing his son that weekend.

But last month, he told the reporter that Giovanni had been misbehaving during the visit, spitting and throwing bottles. On Sunday morning, the day Colón was scheduled to pick him up, Giovanni began screaming in front of the refrigerator, Gonzalez said. That is when Gonzalez said he picked up a red-handled knife and stabbed Giovanni to death.

Then, he said, he dismembered the boy in a bathtub and placed the remains in six bags, which he then discarded in trash containers at three sites in Lynn.

"It happened," Gonzalez said during the interview. "I didn't want to do it."

A senior law enforcement official has said, however, that police have not found evidence that would substantiate Gonzalez's statements.

Gonzalez could face a maximum of 10 years in state prison if convicted of misleading police and a maximum of one year in a county House of Correction for parental kidnapping.

Misleading police carries a longer sentence because it is considered more "egregious," said J. Soffiyah Elijah, deputy director of the Criminal Justice Institute at Harvard Law School.

"Parental kidnapping is not considered to be as serious because there are mitigating circumstances," she said. "As a parent, you have some rights as it regards your child."

Maria Cramer can be reached at mcramer@globe.com.