The city of Lynn, Massachusetts

The city of Lynn, a suburb north of Boston, is a little rough around the edges.

It is primarily a bedroom community for Boston commuters. Each morning and afternoon a chorus of car horns can be heard on busy Western Avenue as they stampede by the neighborhoods that are just a quick turn off the main drag.

Young Jesus de la Cruz lived in one of those neighborhoods.

Park Street, a narrow one-way street off of Western, is dominated by apartment houses—large 3-story freestanding houses divided up into rental units with multiple entrances. It’s a short street, and if you follow it to its opposite end, you’ll run into Lynn Common, a long and narrow affair. And off of Park Street, between the park and Western Avenue, is a short, dead-end street called Bennett Circle.

It was “circle” in name only – there was no big cul-de-sac or park at this circle. Kids loved it, though, because it was quiet—cars wouldn’t often interrupt their play. They would draw murals on the pavement with chalk, ride their bikes in endless circles, and invent worlds of their own creation.

Jesus de la Cruz

6-year-old Jesus De La Cruz of Park Street was one of Bennett Circle's biggest fans. The morning rays of Saturday, September 28, 1996, charged up his batteries for another day of playtime around the neighborhood. He knew his mother, Magdalena Rodriguez, who often left them alone, wouldn’t interfere. He knew he had the run of the street.

Jesus was the youngest of the five siblings. He had one older brother, 8-year-old Jonathan, and three older half-siblings: 12-year-old Jeovanni, 14-year-old Jaime, and 16-year-old Maria. With five children and one adult under one roof, it could be chaotic, but Magdalena was just grateful to have all her children together. The family’s journey to Lynn was quite a story.

The journey to Lynn

In 1968, long before any of her own children, 9-year-old Magdalena was uprooted from her childhood home in Jersey City to move back to her parents’ home country of Puerto Rico, and it is there that she spent her teenage and young adult years.

As a young woman, she met and married her first husband, Jaime Flores. By the time she was 21, in 1980, she welcomed her first child, Maria, to the world, and over the next two years, she had Jaime Jr. and Jeovanni.

At 27, she decided to leave her husband and return to the US with her three children. She chose New Jersey, her home state, to start a new life, and they settled in the city of Passaic, just 30 minutes from where she grew up.

Shortly after her return to New Jersey, she met Juan de la Cruz, who became her second husband. Two years later, in 1988, the couple welcomed their first child together—Jonathan—and two years later, the couple had their final child, Jesus De La Cruz, who was born on January 3rd, 1990. Their time living together as a family didn’t last. Magdalena and Juan decided to divorce, and not only were they separating, Magdalena decided to move again—this time to another state.

In 1992, she and her five children moved into the Bronx, a borough of New York City. Juan moved to Florida, but he kept in touch Jonathan and Jesus over the phone. In 1994, a neglect petition was filed against Magdalena in the Bronx Family Court. The exact details were undisclosed, but Judge Rhonda J. Cohen ordered Maria, Jeovanni, and Jaime Jr. to live with another family member for a period of time. Why Magdalena was allowed to keep Jonathan and Jesus was unknown, but her three other children temporarily moved into the home of Alba Rodriguez, her sister.

Once again, Magdalena wanted a fresh start. She thought that the Bronx was too dangerous for the children. She picked the community of Lynn, Massachusetts, a place she envisioned as a “safe harbor”. She found a 3-bedroom rental in an apartment house on Park Street.

Jesus had the run of the road

Some of the neighbors noticed that Jesus and Jonathan played outside unsupervised for hours, even after dark, and were worried about their safety. But that was not their biggest complaint: Ward 5 Councilman Donald January later told the local Lynn paper, the Daily Item, that there were complaints of people coming and going at all hours, and of loud noises coming from Magdalena’s apartment. A neighbor described a particularly memorable incident that happened in the middle of the night. A car pulled into their driveway, and a woman jumped out and started screaming, “I want my crack! I want my crack!” Rumors swirled around Magdalena in particular and her potential involvement in Lynn’s underground drug scene.

By Fall of 1996, the three children that had been removed by the state and placed with her sister (Maria, Jeovanni, and Jaime Jr) were reunited with rest of the family in Lynn as Jesus was starting first grade.

At the same time, US President Bill Clinton was running for reelection and his wife, first lady Hillary Clinton, was scheduled to visit Lynn to discuss their education plans for the future. Patrick McManus, Lynn’s mayor, showed his support for Hillary, telling the community how the president’s education initiatives would benefit Lynn as a community, but McManus had no idea that Lynn’s sense of community was about to be challenged. What lay ahead was the greatest tragedy of his time in office—and he would not escape unscathed.

A promise of a new bike

It was a Saturday evening in September of 1996 and as sunset drew near, 6-year-old Jesus De La Cruz and 9-year-old Bernard Edwards were playing in the neighborhood. Jesus was bummed about his bike, which had suffered two flat tires and was inoperable. It also didn’t have a seat. They were on Bennett Circle and the lone streetlight that illuminated the area had just clicked on as the sun began to set.

Jesus saw a man with a dog approaching them from the other end of the short street. He was white with a slim build, and appeared to be in his mid-20’s. His shoulder length dark brown hair was pulled back, and he wore a long coat and sunglasses.

Bernard noticed that the dog had two different-colored eyes. As he came closer, it was apparent that he wanted to engage the boys. Bernard looked away and tried to ignore him—his father always told him not to talk with strangers—but Jesus was enticed by his offer.

“I have a blue mountain bike that you could use,” the man said to Jesus, who jumped in excitement.

Bernard was a bit annoyed. Why did this man only extend his offer to Jesus? Ignoring his father’s advice, Bernard asked him, “Could I have one too?”

The man glanced over to Bernard and shook his head. “I only have one, and it’s for him,” he said and pointed to a still-ecstatic Jesus. He beckoned the boy to follow him. Jesus picked up his broken pink Huffy bicycle with green handlebars, and excitedly bid farewell to Bernard.

Bernard watched the backs of a man, his dog, and the 4’6” little boy with his broken bicycle turn the corner on Park Street and disappear toward Lynn Common around 6:00PM. After a short wait, the sun began to set, and Bernard headed home. He had no idea he would be the last person to see Jesus.

Panic sets in

Sometime around 7:00 or 7:30PM, Magdalena realized Jesus wasn’t home, and none of his siblings had seen him since he left to play with Bernard. Police would later state that there were differing accounts of the moment she realized he was missing, and never clarified which was the truth. The first account was printed by the Boston Herald. It said that Magdalena returned home around 7:30PM and noticed that both Jesus and his pink bike were missing. The second is from the Boston Globe, and stated Magdalena was already home and cooking Jesus’ favorite meal of rice, beans, and steak when she realized around 7:00PM that he hadn’t returned home yet.

In both accounts, after this realization, Magdalena and the other children started to search for Jesus to no avail. She made calls and asked around, walked the neighborhood, and checked Bennet Circle, but it too, was empty. When nobody could find Jesus, the frantic mother picked up the phone to report her son missing to the Lynn Police Dept. That was at 12:30AM, just past midnight into the early morning hours of Sunday, Sept 29th. Shortly after, the entire Lynn Police Dept of about 20 officers was dispatched to the Park Street home to join in the search.

Around 4:00AM, Magdalena telephoned Juan de la Cruz, Jesus’ father, in Miami. The news about his son shook him, so he and his current wife packed their things and they headed to Lynn to help.

The next day

When the sun rose the next morning, the home of Jesus De La Cruz was in chaos. The first-grader had been missing for nearly twelve hours.

As Magdalena’s other children processed the situation, the rest of Lynn had woken up and were learning of the disappearance.

By mid-morning, a convoy of news vans and police cruisers had assembled on Park Street, right in front of his home. A description of Jesus was circling, telling people to be on the lookout for the little boy, who had one pierced ear and was last seen wearing a white tee shirt, jeans, and brown high-top sneakers. The neighbors were all out, curious about what had happened and shocked about the terrible news.

When police spoke with Bernard, he told them about the man and his dog, and how Jesus had left with him sometime between 6:00 and 7:00PM. His father was shocked at what his son said he had witnessed. When a reporter for the Boston Herald asked him for his thoughts, all he could say was, “Thank God he didn’t go with him.” Investigators used Bernard’s account to construct a profile of both the man and his dog.

Police needed Bernard’s help, and he spent four hours of his Sunday being driven around town in a cruiser. His classmates were jealous because none of them knew what the inside of a police car looked like, but Bernard promised to tell them all the details. During the drive, officers told him to point out anything he saw that could relate to Jesus or the man, but Bernard did not see anything. After returning to Park Street, he joined the rest of the neighborhood children playing in Bennett Circle. This time, several parents had joined to keep an eye out. One neighbor told a nearby reporter. “I’ve been here for a year and a half. That’s why I moved here. I thought it was safe.”

The police asked the children if they recognized the description of the man and his dog, and to their relief, several did. One 10-year-old girl claimed to regularly see the man walking his dog through the neighborhood, and added she frequently caught him staring at both her and other children. A 12-year-old boy echoed this sentiment and claimed he saw the man in the neighborhood earlier that week. “He comes up and down the street,” the boy told a reporter. “He likes kids, I guess. I see him a lot.”

Meanwhile, Magdalena was among the first to be questioned. She told investigators the last time she saw her son was around 2:30pm on Saturday when he was playing outside with Bernard when she was leaving to go out.

She also told them she was at a friend’s house and returned home around 7:00 PM. She noticed Jesus wasn’t there, and searched the neighborhood for any signs of him before she called to report him missing. The fact it took her 5 hours alarmed police. They suspected that Magdalena might not have returned home until closer to 12:30AM, leaving the children unattended all day and believing that Jesus was unsupervised when he was taken. They reported the information to child protective services who then launched an investigation into Magdalena’s actions that night.

 To make matters worse, an anonymous source from DHHS who spoke to the Lynn Daily Item said that another claim being investigated was that Magdalena allegedly went on a Caribbean cruise for vacation, and left the children at home unattended. I couldn’t verify if this claim from 1996 was true, or merely gossip.

Police instructed her to stay home for the next few days, but Magdalena was undeterred. Not only did she plan to participate in any searches, she also planned a candlelight vigil for her son that evening. She was determined to be a vocal public advocate for her young son. Even the mayor of Lynn, Patrick McManus, called the house to arrange a meeting with her and her family.

Mystery man identified

Investigators got a break on Sunday when a Lynn landlord called police and told them that they knew the dog that police were searching for. It belonged to one of her tenants, Robert Levesque, who lived at 637 Western Ave, a five-minute walk from Magdalena’s home.

He formerly lived in a third-floor apartment with his dog, Peaches, who had heterochromia (which means the dog had two different-colored eyes). The landlord had a no-dog policy, and after discovering Robert’s large mutt, a Rottweiler and Husky mix, they asked him to leave. He moved out, but called the landlord back after a short time, explaining he had ditched the dog and wanted them to rent to him again. They agreed, and he moved back in—this time to a first-floor apartment... with his dog, Peaches.

Once Robert’s name was revealed, investigators looked into his past.

Robert never lived in one place too long—he had at least seven addresses in six years.

Robert had had a string of odd jobs—a stint as a limo driver, 7 years as an EMT for three different companies, at Woolworth’s (a department store), and, currently, a part-time grocery stocker at Crosby’s Market in Marblehead. Detectives called his boss to find out if he worked on Saturday night. He told them that he was scheduled to work an overnight shift that began at 7:00PM, but at 4:00PM, he called in sick, claiming to have a 104-degree fever.

Investigators examined Robert’s criminal record. During his career as a limo driver, he accumulated three speeding tickets. But more seriously, he regularly stole from his employers (including a limo and jewelry) and had racked up six larceny convictions which landed him a hefty probation sentence (and was still in effect). Although he had a record, none of his offenses were violent crimes.

Meanwhile, other investigators were trying to track down Robert.

Robert Levesque apprehended

On a late-night train out of Lynn, on Boston’s subway system (called the T), Robert headed to his parent’s apartment in Lowell, Massachusetts. At 11:40PM he disembarked and walked the short distance to his parent’s 3rd floor apartment, but when he knocked on the door, he was greeted by the Lynn police. His parents had cooperated with the investigators, and they put him in handcuffs and brought him back to the station. It turned out that Robert had violated his probation stemming from the $9,000 of rings he had stolen from a previous employer. As part of his sentence, he was ordered to pay restitution, which he had failed to do. He was violating a condition of his probation, and police had a good reason to arrest him.

Around this same time, police had obtained a warrant to search his Lynn apartment, and in the early morning hours of Monday, went looking for clues at 637 Western Ave.

They immediately found his dog, who had been left alone. The mutt perfectly matched Bernard’s description, and they took her to an undisclosed kennel to be held under police custody.

According to court records, on a table in the living room, they found handcuffs, a roll of plastic garbage bags, and a small piece of used duct tape. A role of duct tape was found in the bathroom, and they also found a pair of children’s blue jeans. Police seized the comforter on his bed and a part of the box spring, swabbing for blood and fluids along the way.

Police also found the Oldsmobile Cutlass he was driving that, after running the tag, was discovered to have been reported missing by his former employer. On top of the probation violation, police charged Robert with possession of a stolen vehicle. The car was impounded and the rest of evidence from the inside of the apartment was taken to the crime lab for analysis.

9-yr-old Bernard shown a line-up

Earlier that night, Bernard was shown a series of photos, one of which was Robert. He observed each photo closely as investigators waited with bated breath. After what seemed like forever, Bernard finally raised his arm and pointed to one of the photos. "I think that's him," he said. When investigators followed his pointer finger, they were forced to hide their disappointment. It was not Robert. Jesus had been missing for over 24 hours.

Magdalena’s fight for justice

Across town, Magdalena was leading a candlelight procession that started at her home on Park Street. The unison sound of “we want justice” rang out in the streets. When they arrived at their destination, the Lynn Police Dept, a shaken Magdalena stepped in front of the crowd and began to speak about her son.

She talked about her family history and their lives in Puerto Rico, New Jersey, the Bronx, and now Lynn. She reiterated that she came to Lynn because she thought it was safe. Through her tears, she issued a warning to the crowd. Her words hung in the chilly evening air:

"If this happened to me, it can happen to anyone.”

Jesus leaves a void

It was Monday, September 30th, and Jesus had now been missing for 48 hours. His empty desk served as a grim reminder to his classmates of his unexplained absence. Connery Elementary School, where Jesus was a first grader, was filled to the brim with police officers, parents, and counselors to help calm the children.

Park Street was almost inaccessible thanks to the clutter of news vans, police cars, and reporters. The abduction had captured the attention of Boston, and reporters from the Herald flocked to Lynn to get the full story. Playtime had been ruined, but above all, they missed their friend Jesus, who they knew was in danger.

One of his friends told a Boston Herald reporter she was scared, but she believed Jesus would inevitably return because he loved Bennett Circle so much. She missed her friend. “I feel bored when he’s not here with us, I wish he would come back and play again.”

Juan De La Cruz, Jesus’ father, had also arrived in Lynn, accompanied by his current wife.

Lynn Police understood the gravity of the situation and Captain Joseph Rowe told the press, "All I can say at this point is the child is not with his mother and he's six years old.” Rowe was one of six local and state police who hadn’t slept since the search began on Sunday.

Bernard is given a new line-up

Still reeling from Bernard’s misidentification and believing the child may have just made an error, police took him to the animal shelter to see if he could identify Peaches, Robert’s dog, out of a lineup of other canines. Bernard was ushered into a room and a parade of dogs soon joined him. Officers tried to keep them from barking at one another so Bernard wouldn’t get distracted.

“Do any of these dogs look like they belong to the man you saw?” the detective asked.

He scanned the row, and almost immediately pointed to one of them—Peaches. “That’s the dog,” he said as the detective eagerly listened.

Police Efforts

Police were also looking into a report that Jesus had been seen walking on the railroad tracks late Saturday night with a man and a small brown dog, and another that he had been spotted at Flax Pond in East Lynn with two men.

But Lynn Police Lt. John Ushkevich was wary, and he told the press, "All we got right now is a third-hand report that a woman saw two men with a small child in that area around midnight. We’re now chasing down the aunt to find out where the woman is who gave this information."

It was all hands on deck to find Jesus. Even the US Postal Service pitched in an effort through Eagle Eye Child Network, using the system for the first time ever in Massachusetts and distributing flyers and missing posters to every Post Office in the state, and to over 26,000 employees and carriers.

Because it was a kidnapping case, the FBI also got involved early on. Road blocks were set up near North Common and Western Avenue to question all passing motorists: Were they in the area on Saturday the 28th? Had they heard or seen anything? Unfortunately, the block didn’t prove to be fruitful.

The FBI helped to bring attention to the case on a national level, petitioning Unsolved Mysteries to tell the story on NBC.

Later in the week, Law enforcement, local and state police, and dozens of volunteers set out on one of the largest searches to date—of Pine Grove Cemetery—where Levesque commonly walked Peaches. After almost two days, searchers combed the cemetery’s 82 acres for any signs of Jesus. While various articles of clothing were found, none of them belonged to the boy. Juan later recalled that he had noticed the large crowd driving past the cemetery, unaware that they were searching for his son.

Thumbscrews put to Robert

Investigators heard back from the crime lab: none of the evidence from Levesque’s apartment had any trace of Jesus. There was no evidence beyond Bernard’s identification of Peaches to implicate him. Investigators interrogated him, but he was uncooperative and said he had no idea what they were asking him about. He refused to take a polygraph test.

His court-appointed defense attorney, David Twohig, challenged the public’s perception of his client, saying he was from an upstanding Lowell family, and that despite the clamor there simply wasn’t enough to charge anyone, including Robert, for the kidnapping.

A few days after his arrest, on Wednesday, October 2nd, Robert showed up to a bail hearing at court with a pillowcase covering his head, which was a request made by his attorney to avoid the possibility of false eyewitness accounts and was granted by the judge. Twohig contested the high bail of $50,000 that had been previously set in connection with the stolen vehicle charge.

But the Essex County prosecutor warned that, “Mr. Levesque is a suspect at this point in the De La Cruz case. We're looking at every aspect of his recent life in Lynn and elsewhere."

The judge acquiesced to Twohig’s demands and reduced it to $10,000.

Who is Robert Levesque?

Around town, Robert was known as a loner. Many recognized his photo on the news, despite his attempts to hide. He commonly walked Peaches through a variety of neighborhoods, where he regularly spoke to children. One parent remembered him approaching her to ask why her children were playing in the street instead of the park. Magdalena herself had seen him on Park Street several times and publicly accused him of being responsible for her son’s disappearance. She theorized Robert had spoken to him repeatedly over multiple days or weeks and built some rapport, because Jesus, despite his age, was street-smart and cautious with strangers.

Investigators discovered that Robert had lived on Park Street in 1993, 3 years prior, just a few houses away from Jesus. It was just a room in a home, and it happened to be supplied with children’s games. The landlady recalled that he had requested extra mattresses for, quote, “his nephews”. His former neighbors from Park Street said he often had several young boys over at the house, but never noticed anything suspicious. They likened the relationship to the dynamic of a mentor and apprentice. Later, at one of his other apartments, Robert would routinely let boys use his room when he wasn’t there. A former neighbor of his said that he had 2 or 3 boys living with him, whom Robert referred to as his brothers. They had keys and would come and go as they pleased. One time his neighbor confronted Robert about the loud music that they would play and Robert said, “If you ever touch my brothers, I’ll kill you.” Another acquaintance recalled that he was particularly close with one 14-year-old boy named Joey, who had known for about 6 years, but the relationship abruptly ended in April of 1996. A former roommate recalled that Robert had told her, “I don’t want to be a father. I like being an uncle.”

Two of Levesque’s current neighbors described him as pleasant, but shy. To many, he was the nameless man who walked his dog.

Investigators take a close look at Magdalena

Magdalena, joined by a group of family and friends, held a protest outside of Mayor McManus’ home. She expressed her frustration with the investigation and said the police were not doing enough to find her son.

Throughout the past few days, she had organized several volunteer searches for her son. The searchers combed through the surrounding forests of Lynn. The weight of her son’s disappearance was overwhelming—a photo showed her leaning against the side of a car, hiding her tears in one hand and clutching a missing poster of her son in the other.

However, unbeknownst to her, things were about to get worse. Investigators had kept an eye on Magdalena ever since the other Park Street residents told them their complaints regarding the de la Cruz home—particularly the drug allegations. When first interviewed, she said she was at a friend’s house around the time Jesus disappeared, so they caught up with her friend to confirm the account. She dropped a bombshell and told investigators Magdalena had never stepped foot in her house that day.

Police publicly expressed their concern about her, telling the Boston Globe, “It’s her kid’s life at stake here, and she’s not being straight with us.”

Magdalena’s actions the night before Jesus’ abduction raised some eyebrows. She and her boyfriend, Ramon Castro, visited the police station that Friday night, September 27th, to bail out her neighbor, Javier Torres, who she allegedly referred to as her “family”. He had been arrested after he was caught delivering crack cocaine during a drug raid. Police discovered Javier had “extensive connections” with Lynn’s underground drug scene.

A theory was proposed: had Jesus been abducted because of something to do with drug trafficking involving Magdalena? On October 4, nearly a week after her son went missing, she was brought into the police station for another round of questioning. Despite her friend’s account, she maintained she was at her friend’s house when Jesus disappeared and returned home around 7:30 p.m. Police then confronted her with the allegations of her involvement in drugs, which she emphatically denied. She told officers she did not use, sell, or distribute drugs at any point in her life, and Javier Torres was just a friend. Police were not convinced and asked her to take a polygraph test.

Magdalena failed the test and she had shown deception during all of her denials of involvement in the drugs as well their possible association with her son’s disappearance. An inside source within the police department spilled the details to the Boston Herald, and once the news of the results broke, many wondered if Robert Levesque was simply a red herring.

Magdalena and her supporters were unfazed by the public’s shift in opinion. She told a reporter that she simply did not care that her friendship with Javier Torres had been exposed. She said she knew there was no connection to her son’s disappearance, which was her main priority. With regard to the polygraph, her lawyer pointed out that Magdalena had been subjected to five hours of intense questioning before she took the test, and said that polygraphs have been shown to associate stress with deception. Reporters camped outside of her Park Street house, bombarding her with questions about her alleged drug involvement, but Magdalena brushed them off and even yelled, “Why can’t you just print the truth?” to one Boston Herald reporter.

A few days after her interview, Magdalena contacted police again. She had enough time to decompress and wanted to follow up with them to “clear the air”. Police agreed, and interviewed her again on October 8 (this time, with her lawyer present). The exact details of the interview were undisclosed, but Magdalena’s lawyer said they had a “lengthy discussion” about all possible leads, including the drug link. Investigators told her she wasn’t a suspect, and she left the interview clutching a photo of her son as a crowd of reporters waited outside. She did not speak, but her lawyer did.

"Magdalena believes the lines of communication are open again with police”, her lawyer said. "She and the police are of one mind—and that's of getting Jesus home quickly."

The next few days were a blur of searches, flyers, and media speculation. Several of Jesus’ friends asked their teachers if their classmate, whose desk remained empty, would ever come back. After two weeks without him, all the teachers could do was encourage the children to hold out hope for his safe return.

On October 11, police made a grim announcement they had exhausted all leads and appealed to the public for more information.

Levesque Abduction Theory

There are two theories of what happened to Jesus. The first is that Robert Levesque abducted him after luring him away with the promise of a working bike.

This theory is supported by Robert’s habit of talking to children, and him having called out of work the night Jesus disappeared, which gave him a window of time to abduct him. Additionally, two witnesses on Park Street saw a man and a child walking with a dog towards Western Avenue. The descriptions of the pair and the time of the sighting matched that of Robert and Jesus. The night of the abduction, Robert also telephoned his parents to ask if he could stay with them in Lowell the next night, which struck them as odd, because he had not communicated with them in months. When police initially spoke with his parents, they said they didn’t even know where their son was living.

Robert had also been rejected from two different Big Brother programs because the organizers were suspicious of his motives and intentions with the children.

And although Bernard Edwards failed to identify Robert’s photo in a lineup, he had identified his dog, Peaches.

However, there is no concrete forensic evidence. The items taken from his apartment were tested for the presence of DNA and hair, but both came back negative. One of Robert’s former roommates came to his defense and said the duct tape discovered in his apartment was nothing unusual. She claimed he was extremely conscious of his clothes and would use duct tape to remove cat hair and other unwanted fibers from them. The roommate also expressed her disbelief that he was a suspect, saying "From what I saw during the four months we lived together, I don't think he's capable of such a thing."

She argued that his interactions with children were due to his experiences as an EMT. She told the Daily Item, "As an EMT, he would see the kinds of situations [children] were in, see them in trouble, and he'd want to do something to help them. It wasn't unusual for him to just give them money.”

But Robert remained uncooperative when questioned about Jesus and repeatedly argued that he had no idea who he was even though Magdalena herself claimed to have seen him walk Peaches down Park Street several times. Several of the neighborhood children supported her claim. People also reportedly saw Robert on Park Street in the days prior handing out chocolate and candy to children.

To this day, Robert Levesque remains the only named suspect in the disappearance of Jesus de la Cruz.

Drug Debt Theory

The other theory is that his abduction was connected to Lynn’s illegal drug trade. While she wasn’t named as a suspect, Magdalena had been connected to drugs. There was the incident on her lawn of a woman desperately seeking crack cocaine, the heavy car traffic coming to and from her apartment, her performance on the polygraph, and the fact that she had bailed out Javier, a known drug dealer, just 24 hours before her son went missing.

Drug kidnappings are rare. One had never occurred in Lynn, but one drug investigator on the case told the Boston Herald that they had been recorded in other parts of the United States. Magdalena and her family had also been targeted in the past. In October of 1995, Samuel Gonzalez, a former friend of hers, broke into the Park Street family home and threatened her with a knife. Investigators considered Gonzalez, but quickly ruled him out because he was in jail for an unrelated robbery. Nevertheless, the family had at least one enemy capable of violence. Could there be more?

One of Magdalena’s harshest critics was the media, who frequently called out her perceived “lack of emotion” at public events. However, her friends and family came to her defense, and said she let “all of her tears out” in the one place cameras weren’t allowed—her own home.

Magdalena’s sister, Alba Rodriguez, claimed that the emotional turmoil caused her to stop eating and sleeping, and the other family members had to help her. Alba also explained that she wanted to appear “strong” in public to encourage search efforts.

Police said the gangs they were aware of had connections as far as Colombia and the Dominican Republic. The secretive nature of drug operations made the further investigation difficult. A source “close to the investigation” told a reporter that a Colombian drug ring based in New York might be holding Jesus for ransom to settle a drug debt.

Several others also defended her because it was clear from the outset that she wanted as many people looking for her son as possible. She joined and organized searches, conducted press interviews, met with the mayor, communicated with the police, and even contacted the Montel Williams Show in the hopes of having a segment dedicated to her son. The family also hired a private investigator named Conrad McKinney less than 2 weeks after the abduction in hopes of finding answers.

Her actions did not match the profile of someone who knew or was afraid of the truth. On the one-year anniversary of the disappearance, in one of her final interviews, Magdalena told the Boston Globe that she didn’t want to consider the possibility that Jesus wasn’t coming home, quote, "my instinct as a mother, and my hope tell me that my son is alive."

Robert released from jail and the case goes cold

Robert was eventually released from jail on November 28, 1996, exactly two months after Jesus disappeared. John Valerio, his new private attorney hired by his family, spoke to the press on his behalf. Valerio said Robert denied any involvement and was happy that the nightmare was finally over because he was ready to move on with his life. To his dismay, Peaches was not returned to him, because her ownership was never registered with the state. Her new owner, if she had one, remained a mystery.

Robert’s later bizarre crimes

Robert is still considered as person of interest in the case and currently resides in Lowell, Massachusetts.

In December of 2021, Bob Ward of Boston 25 News traveled to Lowell in the hopes of tracking him down. While he was unable to track him down, Ward did learn about Robert’s more recent and downright bizarre run-ins with the law.

In 2009, someone stole a car belonging to the Lowell Fire Department from one of their fire stations. The driver tried to flee from the police, resulting in a lengthy chase. Eventually, the vehicle pulled over, revealing that the driver was Robert, and he was sporting a Lowell Fire Department uniform as a disguise. He was arrested on another stolen vehicle charge—his third since 1990. Investigators explained to the Boston reporter that he was notorious amongst the department because of his bizarre crimes, particularly his recurring impersonations of emergency personnel.

In July of 2021, a Ford Crown Victoria, complete with emergency lights and a siren, recklessly blared through Lowell’s Heritage Park. Annoyed neighbors called 911 because they believed the man was impersonating a police officer. Once actual officers came to the scene, they saw the man, who announced himself as Robert Levesque. He wore a jacket that bore the logo of Fox 25, a local news station, and claimed he worked there as a photographer. No arrests were made but officers did instruct him to remove the emergency lights from his car. Bob checked to see if Levesque had indeed worked for Fox 25, and there were no records of his employment. Bob asked Robert for an interview through his landlord, and though he got no reply, Bob says the offer is always open.

A fresh start

Magdalena Rodriguez and her remaining children moved to Lowell, Massachusetts, where they can still be found today. She never gave any additional interviews about her son following the first few weeks. One of the last people to speak on her behalf was her lawyer, who told the press in 1998 that her son’s disappearance had made her slip “in and out of depression” throughout the previous year. She allegedly wanted to move on for the sake of her other children, but had trouble containing her emotions when faced with the absence of her youngest son. Her bouts of depression continued throughout the years. According to Lt. Joseph Rowe, they kept in contact with her through her sister, Alba Rodriguez. Alba has since passed away, and Magdalena’s current communication with Lynn police is unknown.

Reflection

Juan de la Cruz, Jesus’ father, returned to Florida heartbroken. Every 28th of September, he calls the Lynn Police Department for any updates on his son’s case. Although he has been given the same disappointing news each year, he continues to hold out hope. His most recent confirmed call was on September 28, 2016, twenty years after the disappearance of his son.

The community of Lynn returned to their regular rhythm of life. Jesus’ abduction remained in the headline for years but the story was the same. Time and again, no one had any information about what happened to him. Even today, most Lynn resident know who he is, including the person at Lynn Public Library who we asked about the case.

The abduction of Jesus de la Cruz remains one of New England’s most tragic mysteries. Jesus was only six-years-old, but his name has survived for decades. Residents still remember Lynn’s lost boy and anticipate the day that he finally returns home and plays in Bennett Circle again.

Take action

As of this publication, Jesus de la Cruz would be 32-years-old. He is of Hispanic descent, and has brown hair and eyes. He has a scar above his left eye, and two birthmarks: one on the left side of his forehead and on his left calf. His left ear was pierced at the time of his disappearance on Sept 28th, 1996.

If you have any information about the abduction of Jesus de la Cruz, I urge you call the Lynn Police Dept at (781) 595-2000.

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Sources For This Episode

Newspaper articles

Various articles from Boston Globe, Boston Herald, Daily Evening Item, North Adams Transcript, and The Morning Call, here.

Written by various authors including Ann E. Donlan, Beverly Ford, Bill Hutchinson, Brian MacQuarrie, David Lisico, David Weber, Howard Manly, Jason B. Johnson, Judith Gaines, Kathy McCabe, Kevin Cullen, Lauren Brown, Laurel J. Sweet, Mark Mueller, Michele McPhee, Pamela Ferdinand, Ric Kahn, Shirley Leung, Thor Jourgensen, and Tom Farmer.

Photos

Photos from Google Maps and various newspaper articles and NCMEC.

Credits

Created, hosted, and edited by, research and writing support by Kristen Seavey

Writing, research, and photo editing support by Byron Willis

Research and writing by Corey Sobell