Missing Person Photos
A missing person is a person who has disappeared and whose status as alive or dead cannot be confirmed as their location and condition are unknown. A person may go missing through a voluntary disappearance, or else due to an accident, crime, death in a location where they cannot be found (such as at sea), or many other reasons. In most parts of the world, a missing person will usually be found quickly. While criminal abductions are some of the most widely reported missing person cases, these account for only 2 to 5 percent of missing children in Europe.
By contrast, some missing person cases remain unresolved for many years. Laws related to these cases are often complex since, in many jurisdictions, relatives and third parties may not deal with a person's assets until their death is considered proven by law and a formal death certificate issued. The situation, uncertainties, and lack of closure or a funeral resulting when a person goes missing may be extremely painful with long-lasting effects on family and friends.
A number of organizations seek to connect, share best practices, and disseminate information and images of missing children to improve the effectiveness of missing children investigations, including the International Commission on Missing Persons, the International Centre for Missing & Exploited Children (ICMEC), as well as national organizations, including the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children in the US, Missing People in the UK, Child Focus in Belgium, and The Smile of the Child in Greece.
Resources for Missing Persons
According to current statistics, 4,000 people in the United States go missing every day.
Sometimes a child suddenly vanishes from the bus stop or the local park or even from their own yard or bedroom. Or a teenager doesn�t return home after a walk to the neighborhood grocery store or a bike ride or a party with friends.
Other times, an adult is mysteriously absent from their job or neighbors haven�t seen them for several days, and family and friends haven�t heard from them either.
Missing Person Photos
Giovanni Ernesto Gonzalez
Giovanni, date, approximate 2008; Age-progression to age 12 (date, approximate 2015); Ernesto Gonzalez; Daisy Colon; Giovanni's Spiderman sandals
Date Missing 08/16/2008
Missing From
Lynn, Massachusetts
Missing Classification Endangered Missing
Sex Male
Race
Hispanic
Date of Birth 05/01/2003 (19)
Age 5 years old
Height and Weight 4'1, 40 pounds
Clothing/Jewelry Description A red t-shirt, blue jeans, black sandals with a Spiderman logo, and a braided silver chain necklace. A photograph of the sandals are posted with this summary.
Markings and/or Distinguishing Characteristics Hispanic male. Brown hair, brown eyes. Some agencies refer to Giovanni as Giovanni Colon-Gonzalez or Giovanni Gonzalez-Colon. He has a small scar above his right eyebrow, a small birthmark on the inside of his left ankle, and a faded skin pigmentation mark on the lower right side of his chest. He is of Puerto Rican descent.
Details of Disappearance Giovanni's mother, Daisy Colon, dropped him off in the area of Brightwood Terrace in Lynn, Massachusetts at 4:00 p.m. on Friday, August 15, 2008. He was carrying a Transformers backpack containing some of his clothes and toys. He had a weekend visitation with his father, Ernesto L. Gonzalez Jr.
Colon was unable to reach Ernesto or Giovanni by phone all weekend. When she came to pick Giovanni up on Sunday, no one answered the door at Ernesto's apartment. Colon called the police, who came over and got inside.
Ernesto was there, but Giovanni wasn't with him. Giovanni's toys were inside the home, but not his backpack or any clothing. The child has never been heard from again.
When questioned, Ernesto said he wasn't aware of any scheduled visit with Giovanni and hadn't seen the boy since August 10. However, witnesses at the Lynn Behavioral Clinic on Union Street say Giovanni accompanied Ernesto to a scheduled appointment between 11:00 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. on August 16, the day after Colon last saw him.
That's the last confirmed sighting of Giovanni, but Ernesto's neighbors say they heard a child's voice coming from his apartment later that day.
Photographs of both of Giovanni's parents are posted with this summary. They separated when Giovanni was two years old. Colon says Ernesto had little contact with his son until the summer of 2008, when he asked to become part of Giovanni's life.
Colon and Ernesto went into counseling so they could maintain consistent parenting techniques. They developed a verbal agreement for scheduled visits until September 15, at which time they would go to court and work out custody and visitation rights. Ernesto also filed for joint custody of Giovanni in June 2008.
On August 18, authorities arrested Ernesto and charged him with child endangerment in his son's disappearance. He reportedly refused to cooperate with the investigation, and he had a cut on his left finger and wouldn't say how he got it.
Several days after Ernesto's arrest, police searched his apartment and seized several items, including knives, a bloodstained bottle of household cleanser and a bloodstained mop that had been cleaned with bleach. Testing later proved the blood wasn't Giovanni's.
Ernesto has a history of substance abuse and violent behavior. He has been arrested three times, the last time in 2001, when he punched his girlfriend, chased her with a knife and damaged her car. He was convicted of multiple assault charges and served three months in jail. Colon said that, while Ernesto had violent outbursts and once threw a chair at her, she never saw him abuse Giovanni.
In November 2008, in an interview with the Boston Globe, Ernesto confessed to Giovanni's murder. He said he'd stabbed his son to death, dismembered the body in the bathtub and discarded the six parts in trash bins around Lynn. Ernesto said the murder wasn't planned, he didn't know why he'd done it and he regretted it. Authorities have expressed skepticism of Ernesto's statement, however; there's no evidence in his apartment to corroborate his story.
In December the child endangerment charge against Ernesto was dropped and he was instead charged with parental kidnapping and misleading police. The parental kidnapping charge was dismissed in June 2011, but restored a year later. In November 2011, he was additionally charged with assaulting a cellmate in jail.
Ernesto was declared incompetent to stand trial in October 2013; he apparently suffers from mental illness, but has refused to take medication or cooperate with his doctors. He's staying in the forensic section of Bridgewater State Hospital and can't face trial for the charges against him until he is pronounced competent again.
Colon doesn't believe Giovanni is dead; she believes Ernesto hid him and he's still alive. She speculated that Ernesto had taken Giovanni to Puerto Rico. Both Ernesto and Colon were born in Puerto Rico and have family there. Investigators looked into that theory and contacted Ernesto's Puerto Rican relatives, but they found no evidence that Giovanni was on the island.
Colon stated after one visit with his father, Giovanni came back "pretending to be someone else." She believes Ernesto was coaching him to use a false name. She said when Giovanni was packing for his final visit with Ernesto, he wanted to pack considerably more clothes than he needed.
Giovanni was enrolled at the Samuel Adams School in East Boston, Massachusetts at the time of his disappearance; he was due to start kindergarten in September 2008. He previously attended St. Mary's School, a Catholic school that closed in June 2008.
Both Giovanni's mother and the police believe he's probably still alive. His disappearance remains unsolved.
Investigating Agency
Lynn Police Department
781-595-2000
Other
The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children
WCVB Boston
NECN
WBZ 38
America's Most Wanted
The Boston Globe
The Lynn Daily Item
ABC News
WHDH 7 News
The Salem News
Missing Person Photos
A missing person is a person who has disappeared and whose status as alive or dead cannot be confirmed as their location and condition are unknown. A person may go missing through a voluntary disappearance, or else due to an accident, crime, death in a location where they cannot be found (such as at sea), or many other reasons. In most parts of the world, a missing person will usually be found quickly. While criminal abductions are some of the most widely reported missing person cases, these account for only 2 to 5 percent of missing children in Europe.
By contrast, some missing person cases remain unresolved for many years. Laws related to these cases are often complex since, in many jurisdictions, relatives and third parties may not deal with a person's assets until their death is considered proven by law and a formal death certificate issued. The situation, uncertainties, and lack of closure or a funeral resulting when a person goes missing may be extremely painful with long-lasting effects on family and friends.
A number of organizations seek to connect, share best practices, and disseminate information and images of missing children to improve the effectiveness of missing children investigations, including the International Commission on Missing Persons, the International Centre for Missing & Exploited Children (ICMEC), as well as national organizations, including the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children in the US, Missing People in the UK, Child Focus in Belgium, and The Smile of the Child in Greece.
Resources for Missing Persons
According to current statistics, 4,000 people in the United States go missing every day.
Sometimes a child suddenly vanishes from the bus stop or the local park or even from their own yard or bedroom. Or a teenager doesn�t return home after a walk to the neighborhood grocery store or a bike ride or a party with friends.
Other times, an adult is mysteriously absent from their job or neighbors haven�t seen them for several days, and family and friends haven�t heard from them either.
Missing Person Photos
