Cops still resolute in Giovanni search

LYNN – A Lynn police captain reiterated at a Thursday press conference that no stone would be left unturned in the search for 5-year-old Giovanni Gonzalez.Mark O’Toole, Captain of Lynn Police Detectives, said Lynn, state and federal investigators had a “productive” meeting Thursday to review every point of the search, which began on Aug. 17.”It was conducted to analyze all the information obtained thus far and to determine the next course of action,” O’Toole said, adding that the meeting was “to insure that all avenues are being explored ? to verify that things aren’t being duplicated and resources are being utilized in the best manner possible.”The boy’s mother, Daisy Colon, 33, of East Boston, has made repeated pleas for Giovanni to come home safe. Colon, who walks with a cane due to chronic back pain and has abandoned her daily drive to Lynn since the search began due to her condition, has drawn strength from her mother, Luz, who flew in from Puerto Rico to be with her.Colon said Tuesday she hopes Giovanni would return home in time to start kindergarten Sept. 8.”I keep praying,” she said.O’Toole said authorities have received approximately 50 to 100 calls from people who thought they may have information leading to Giovanni’s whereabouts.While investigators have gone to Puerto Rico to speak with family members of Giovanni’s father, Ernesto Gonzalez, 36, O’Toole said the Puerto Rico angle has not turned up much information.”We have not been able to verify any information that Giovanni has been taken or went to Puerto Rico,” he said.Gonzalez has not talked to investigators since his arrest for child endangerment Aug. 18. Police say his son disappeared during a scheduled weekend visit but Gonzalez denies his son was even at his home.”He’s still in custody at the Essex County House of Correction. He has not been questioned since he’s been there,” O’Toole said.Several Lynn patrolmen were observed looking through abandoned buildings on Johnson Street around 2 p.m. Thursday as part of the search. The now 13-day search has taken investigators through High Rock Park, the St. Mary’s and Pine Grove cemeteries and Flax Pond multiple times.”The officers who were in the patrol divisions know their areas better than anyone so they’re conducting searches of any vacant buildings, homes, (or) dwellings,” O’Toole said.The Item reported Wednesday night that blood test results taken from a bloody mop inside Ernesto Gonzalez’ apartment on Brightwood Terrace in Lynn were finished. While District Attorney Jonathan Blodgett would not discuss the results, he did say, “We still have optimistic hopes that Giovanni Gonzalez is alive.”O’Toole said officers from other units of the police department, including the gang, domestic violence, juvenile and special investigation units and patrolmen are all assisting in the search.The captain said that, unfortunately, his department has experience in looking for a missing child after the 1996 disappearance of Jesus De La Cruz.”Our department has been through it before and it is an expenditure of significant resources but it’s something we are obviously willing to do,” O’Toole said. “Personally, myself and all the officers want to bring a child home safe.”