DNA testing company tries to solve disappearance of Lynn boy

(NECN: Josh Brogadir) – It has been one year since Giovanni Gonzalez was reported missing. The Lynn, Massachusetts boy, 5-years-old at the time, disappeared during a weekend visit with his father. A DNA testing company that has worked on a number of high profile cases across the nation is now trying to solve this mystery. “It’s just hard,” said Daisy Colon, trying to hold back tears. It’s been a year of waiting, hoping, and crying for Colon – a year since she last saw her son Giovanni Gonzalez. Colon dropped 5 year old Giovanni off at his father Ernesto Gonzalez’s apartment in Lynn, August 15, 2008. When she went back to pick him up two days later, the boy was gone. “It’s not easy knowing that your son is somewhere and that you don’t have any clue of where he is,” Colon said. Despite an exhaustive search of dumpsters, woods, and a pond in Lynn and beyond, the boy hasn’t been seen since. “We have followed leads from Lynn to Lawrence to Florida to Puerto Rico, back to Florida so we’re very intense in pursuing any information that we have,” Essex County District Attorney Jonathan Blodgett said. Ernesto Gonzalez has been indicted for parental kidnapping and lying to police. He remains in prison awaiting trial. In a jailhouse interview last November, he allegedly confessed to a Boston Globe reporter that he killed his son. “I cannot comment on that. Again, any information we have, any theories are being pursued vigorously,” Blodgett said. Blodgett says though it’s a year later, the case remains a top priority. “We’re going to dig and continue to dig and do the best we can to get to the truth but there’s no time clock on investigations, particularly investigations of this magnitude. There’s a child out there that’s missing,” he said. Back to Daisy Colon who stood on the steps outside her East Boston home and showed us a photo collage she made on Giovanni’s 6th birthday in May. “I feel that he’s alive. There’s no doubt in my mind,” she said. Colon was planning to hold a prayer vigil at her home tonight. There is a $7000 reward for anyone who has information that can help locate the boy. Blodgett says he’s hoping some DNA samples will help lead investigators to a resolution. They have been sent to the state police crime lab, others to a nationally known lab called CellMark Diagnostics. It’s the same lab that tested samples in the Jon Benet Ramsey and OJ cases.