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Giovanni Gonzalez

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Giovanni Ernesto Gonzalez-Colon was a young boy who disappeared in 2008. His age progression depicts him at age 18.

Background[]

Giovanni's parents, Ernesto Gonzalez and Daisy Colon, divorced when he was two years old after Ernesto allegedly threw a chair at Daisy. Although Ernesto had a history of violent behavior, Colon stated that he had never hurt their son. He had little involvement in Giovanni's life until June 2008, when he petitioned the court for joint custody.

Giovanni's parents verbally agreed for Ernesto to have weekend visits with his son until September 15, when they planned to go to court to work out legal custody. The first two visits went well.

However, Colon claims that after a visit with his father, Giovanni once came home "pretending to be someone else." She believes Ernesto may have been teaching Giovanni to use a false name. Giovanni reportedly wanted to pack more clothes than needed when packing for his last visit with his father.

Case[]

Giovanni’s mother last saw him around 4:00 p.m. on August 15, 2008, when she dropped him off for a visit with his father. He was carrying a "Transformers" backpack with his clothes and toys.

The following day, between 11:00 a.m. and 12:30 p.m., Giovanni accompanied his father to a therapy appointment at the Lynn Behavioral Clinic. This is the last sighting of Giovanni, although neighbors reported hearing the child in his father's apartment later that day.

Colon was not able to contact Ernesto or Giovanni all weekend. On Sunday, August 17, when she went to Ernesto's residence to pick her son up, no one answered the door. She called the police, who were able to enter the apartment.

Ernesto was inside, but Giovanni was nowhere to be found. The child's toys were there, but his clothes and backpack disappeared. Ernesto, who had an unexplained cut on his left finger, told investigators that he had not seen his son since August 10 and was not aware of any scheduled visits.

On August 18, Ernesto was arrested for child endangerment. Authorities searched his residence days later and found multiple bloodstained items. However, testing showed that the blood was Ernesto's, not Giovanni’s.

In an interview with the Boston Globe in November 2008, Ernesto confessed to his son's murder. He claimed that he stabbed Giovanni to death, dismembered his body in his bathtub, and disposed of it in 6 trash cans across the city. He denied that the murder was planned and stated that he regretted it. There is no forensic evidence in Ernesto's apartment to support this version of events, and authorities are skeptical of his confession.

The child endangerment charge was dropped in December of that year, and Ernesto was instead charged with misleading police and parental kidnapping. The latter charge was dismissed in June 2011 but reinstated by the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court a year later.

Ernesto was found incompetent to stand trial in October 2013. Massachusetts law stated that if an incompetent defendant had served over half the maximum potential sentence, the charges against them could be dismissed. The maximum sentence for the charges against Ernesto was ten years. Therefore, the charges of kidnapping and lying to police were dismissed in December 2013.

Ernesto remained incarcerated at Bridgewater State Hospital due to allegedly attacking a fellow inmate and assaulting a prison guard. In November 2016, doctors believed he might be competent again, although further evaluations were needed. It is unclear what happened after this.

Investigators and Giovanni’s mother both believe that Giovanni is probably still alive. Colon has theorized that Ernesto took their son to Puerto Rico, where both Colon and Gonzalez had relatives. However, there is no evidence that Giovanni is on the island.

Characteristics[]

  • Black hair.
  • Brown eyes.
  • Small scar above the eyebrow.
  • Faded skin pigmentation mark on the lower right side of the chest.

Clothing and accessories[]

  • Red T-shirt.
  • Blue jeans.
  • Black Spiderman sandals.
  • Black backpack.
  • Silver braided chain.

Sources[]

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