Neighbor says police converged on Gonzalez apartment day after confession

SALEM – Prosecutors hope forensic testing results given to Ernesto Gonzalez? attorney will underscore why they think he should continue to be held without bail four months after the disappearance of his son.
Assistant District Attorney Jean Curran would not discuss the results at Gonzalez? arraignment in Salem Superior Court Thursday but a neighbor of the shaggy-bearded Gonzalez said police converged on his second floor Brightwood Terrace apartment a day after his Nov. 26 claim that he killed and dismembered Giovanni Gonzalez.
?I heard a lot of banging and sawing. I assume they were in the bathroom. It was right after the confession. Cops were all hanging around outside. They had plastic bags around their feet,” said Paula McKay.
Police will not discuss the Nov. 28 search or even confirm its location and a judge on Dec. 4 clamped a secrecy order on the search warrant.
Gonzalez in a published jailhouse confession Nov. 26 claimed he stabbed his son on Aug. 17 after the boy misbehaved. He said he dismembered the boy in his apartment bathtub, packed the six body parts into plastic bags and threw the bags into Dumpsters off Boston, Union and South Common streets.
Gonzalez is due back in court on Jan. 2, but details of the grand jury proceeding Wednesday that led to his indictment on charges of parental kidnapping and willfully misleading police will be forwarded to McGuire before then.
The indictment states Gonzalez “did hold or intend to hold said child permanently or for a protracted period or did take said child from his lawful custodian.”
The 36-year-old entered an innocent plea to the charges as Daisy Colon, the mother of the missing 5-year-old, watched from a seat several feet away.
McGuire refused to comment on the new charges against Gonzalez. He appeared along with Curran in Lynn District Court later on Thursday to dismiss the child endangerment charge filed against Gonzalez on Aug. 18.
Colon reported her son missing to police on Aug. 17 and told them she dropped him at Gonzalez? 2 Brightwood Terrace apartment two days earlier for a pre-arranged visit.
Police responding to Colon?s call initially could not locate Gonzalez. Once they did, he told them he had not seen his son since Aug. 10. Police arrested him after Colon let them examine her cell phone and verify she spoke with Gonzalez on Aug. 15.
Two searches of Gonzalez? apartment yielded knives, cleaning items and signs of blood later ruled out as belonging to the boy. McGuire on Nov. 18 asked the court to dismiss the endangerment charge and suppress evidence gathered in the searches. He also sought a January trial date on the charge.