Blodgett: Lab finished with blood evidence

LYNN – Essex County District Attorney Jonathan Blodgett told The Item Wednesday night that the scientific lab results on the blood found at Ernesto Gonzalez’ apartment have come back.Blodgett said he technically cannot talk about what the results show because of the ongoing investigation but said, “We still have optimistic hopes Giovanni Gonzalez is alive.”Police found a bloody mop in Ernesto Gonzalez’ apartment during a search they conducted in the wake of his son, Giovanni’s, disappearance Aug. 16.The mop was damp and partly stained reddish brown when investigators found it. A State Police chemist tested the mop using what the police search warrant application referred to as a “presumptive screening test for blood.” They also tested the cover of a bottle of pine cleaner, which contained traces of blood.”The presumptive screening test for blood resulted in a positive finding on both the mop and the cover of the pine cleaner,” State Trooper Brandon Arakelian stated in the search affidavit.The discovery prompted police to file for a warrant to search Gonzalez’ apartment for signs of blood and other bodily fluids, as well as hair and other items.In the warrant application, Arakelian noted that police observed “an open cut and a bandaged finger” on Gonzalez’ left hand when they responded to his Brightwood Terrace apartment the night Giovanni was reported missing.”When asked how recent the injuries were, Gonzalez would not provide information about the injury,” the application stated.In addition to the mop and pine cleaner, police also took toys, two pairs of jeans, a belt, a child’s bicycle and helmet, lighter fluid, trash bags, a knife from a drawer, a knife retrieved from the apartment kitchen floor and other items including swabs from the kitchen and bathroom sink knobs following the search.They also took a Dell computer and Nokia cell phone.In applying for the warrant, Trooper Michael Murphy wrote: “I know that it is not unusual for individuals involved in homicides, child abuse, and child endangerment-related cases to memorialize their victims’ abuse and/or deaths through audio and or video media for later viewing, for guilt relief or for enjoyment as trophies.”Giovanni Gonzalez, 5, has been missing since his mother went to pick him up at his father’s downtown apartment building after dropping him off there on Aug. 15.After not being able to locate the boy or Gonzalez, she called police who questioned the father who, in turn, told them his son was not with him and that he had not seen the boy since the previous week. Gonzalez entered an innocent plea to a child endangerment charge and is being held in the Essex County House of Correction on $500,000 cash bail.