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In December 2021, the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Violent Criminal Apprehension Program released a special missing persons poster. On it were two photos of the same person. One at six years old. The other was a 25-year age progression of the same little boy.
For 25 years, the disappearance of 6-year-old Jesus de la Cruz has hung over the state of Massachusetts as one of the most baffling missing persons cases in the Bay State history. Despite suspicion cast on a man in the neighborhood, rumors of a drug debt retaliation, accusations cast on the boy's own mother, and FBI involvement, Jesus' case remains unsolved.
Some wonder if maybe he could be alive out there somewhere. Now a 31-year-old man, looking just like the age-progressed photo on the FBI poster. This case is one that I've received multiple requests to cover from Dark Down Easter's in Massachusetts. When you bring these cases to my attention, I hear you. I'm Kylie Lowe, and this is the case of Jesus de la Cruz on Dark Down East.
In 1996, six-year-old Jesus de la Cruz lived with his mother, Magdalena Rodriguez, and four siblings on Park Street in Lynn, Massachusetts. The Boston Globe reports that Magdalena was born in New Jersey but grew up in Puerto Rico and returned when she was 21 years old. In 1996, she was the single mother of five children, and it hadn't been an easy life for any of them.
Two years earlier, while living in New York, Magdalena's children, including six-year-old Jesus, were removed from her custody and placed with their aunt, Magdalena's sister Alba, who lived in Lynn, Massachusetts. Magdalena said that health problems made her unable to care for her kids, but once she was well, she regained custody of her children and moved to Lynn, Massachusetts to be near her sister.
Lynn, Massachusetts was once a thriving mini-metropolis outside of Boston, known as the shoe capital of the world. Though first made by hand and in quantities of five shoes per day, not five pairs but five individual shoes, production was revolutionized by a man named Jan Matzeliger, who moved to Lynn from Africa in the 1870s.
Jan patented a machine that cut down manual labor and increased production to over 750 pairs of shoes a day. Just a few years after he introduced his shoe machine invention to the Lynn factories, WGBH reports that 234 factories were creating more than a million pairs of shoes each day. Lynn held its place as the shoe capital of the world for decades, though the Great Depression greatly impacted the industry.
Production began to move overseas, and by the late 70s, many of the factory buildings stood empty, and the city of Lynn made plans to revitalize the downtown district, defined by its big red brick shoemaking buildings. However, that plan was brought to a devastating halt in November of 1981, when fire raged through the old structures for 15 hours straight.
At least 27 buildings caught flames, 17 of them destroyed by the blaze. Over 600 firefighters responded to the scene, doing what they could to keep it at bay. One fire chief told the Boston Globe, quote, Technology has advanced to the point where we can put men on the moon and get them back, but no one has yet found a substitute for water and manpower when it comes to fighting a big fire, end quote.
By the end of it, 100 families lost their homes, with an estimated $70 million in damages to real estate and property across the city. It was total devastation for Lynn. Initial reports indicated the fire had been intentionally set. Today, Lynn's reputation varies depending on who you ask. Some say that the stunted revitalization never really gained momentum again, and the city struggled.
Areas are still downtrodden, with businesses shuttering and crime increasing. But others say that Lynn is safe in comparison to nearby Boston. The population is culturally and racially diverse, and the revitalization has seen renewed effort and pride in recent years. Some sources I referenced couldn't help but recite a poem that begins, Lynn, Lynn, the city of sin.
while others reminded the reader that in the early 1990s, Lynn was rebranded as the City of Firsts, a callback to the town's history in shoemaking, as home to the very first leather tannery in the United States. And though the last of the shoe factories burned to the ground in that 1981 fire, the shoemaking heritage of Lynn is the city's throughline.
Edgar B. Herwick III wrote for GBH News that Lynn Common, a small park in the town's historic district, is shaped like the sole of a shoe. That park, Lynn Common, was located at the end of the street where six-year-old Jesus de la Cruz would ride his bike and play with friends during the fall of 1996.
It was early evening on September 28th, 1996 and Jesus de la Cruz was making his way home after playing with his friend, nine-year-old Bernard Edwards, near Bennett Circle. Although Jesus had a bike that would have made the trip home a little faster as the sun came down, his pink Huffy bike had two flat tires, so he walked alongside it as he pushed the handlebars in the direction of home.
Although he was just six years old, playing with his friends in the neighborhood unattended was the norm for Jesus. It was the mid-90s, and while stranger danger was absolutely a concept kids and parents knew and understood, there's a perceived safety when you're playing off your own street, within walking distance of your own home.
As they made the slow and steady trek back home, a man walking his dog took notice of the two young boys, Jesus with his bicycle clearly out of commission. The man approached Jesus and his friend, leading his dog alongside him. The man began chatting with the two young boys and asked Jesus about his bike with those two flat tires. He told Jesus he had a brand new blue Huffy bicycle and Jesus could have it if he wanted.
Leaving his friend Bernard behind, Jesus followed the man on that promise of a new bike. When Magdalena Rodriguez got home around 7pm on the night of September 28th, 1996, Jesus wasn't there. Though he had free reign of the neighborhood during daylight hours, it was immediately concerning that he wasn't back home after dusk.
Magdalena knew all the places he was known to play, so she stepped back out the door and started looking for her son. She zigzagged the West Lynn neighborhood streets, calling out for Jesus, looking for signs of him in all the usual spots, asking neighbors if they'd seen her son. As each hour ticked by without a single sign of Jesus, the worry mounted. Finally, the mother knew this was a search she couldn't continue on her own.
After midnight, Magdalena Rodriguez called police to report Jesus missing. The report of a missing child triggered a massive response by Lynn Police, the fire department, and concerned citizens volunteering their time to search for the little boy. Meanwhile, detectives spoke with Jesus' friend Bernard, the last person known to see Jesus on the night he went missing.
Bernard had a sharp memory for an eight-year-old and told police all about the man who approached them with a promise of a new bike for Jesus. He described the man as 20 to 30 years old with shoulder-length black hair. The man had a dog with him, Bernard told police. It was a collie or a shepherd, and it had one white eye and one brown eye.
The identifying characteristics of the man and the dog led authorities to the door of 26-year-old Robert C. Levesque. According to reporting by Martin Finucane for South Coast Today, Robert Levesque moved into an apartment on Western Avenue in Lynn, around the corner from where Jesus lived and across the street from a playground, on September 27, 1996, just one day before Jesus went missing.
Robert Levesque was a stock clerk at Crosby's Market in Marblehead, but on the evening of September 28th, he called out sick from work, telling his supervisor he had a fever of 104. That, combined with the statements of Jesus' friend Bernard, led investigators to obtain four search warrants for the home and vehicle of Robert Levesque.
During that search, investigators found several items of interest, including duct tape and handcuffs. They were collected as evidence for further examination, and police arranged for a chat with Robert Levesque. Levesque denied any knowledge of the disappearance of Jesus de la Cruz, and whether he admitted to seeing or interacting with the two young boys on the night of September 28th isn't part of the public record.
Nine-year-old Bernard, though he had a sharp memory of the man and the dog who allegedly approached them that night, was unable to identify Levesque in a photo lineup. Analysis of the items seized from his home came back inconclusive. They really couldn't link the cuffs or duct tape to Azusa's disappearance. But the police weren't done with Robert Levesque.
He was arrested at his parents' home in nearby Lowell, Massachusetts, on unrelated stolen motor vehicle charges. As reported by South Coast Today, the car was allegedly stolen from Robert's past employer. Though it wasn't an arrest in the disappearance of Jesus, it was enough to get Robert in custody, while efforts to locate Jesus continued.
Prosecutor Fred McCleary argued that Levesque be held without bail, actually citing his call-out from work on the night Jesus went missing. A judge agreed and ordered that Robert Levesque be held on $50,000 cash bail on charges of receiving a stolen motor vehicle. Meanwhile, a discovery in a dumpster had investigators fearing the worst in the case of Jesus de la Cruz.
South Coast Today reported on October 1st, 1996, that state police recovered a pair of kids' jeans inside a dumpster in Jesus' neighborhood. But, despite their efforts to identify and determine if the clothing belonged to Jesus, they were unsuccessful. That lead fizzled out, and the search carried on.
For weeks, authorities and volunteers looked for Jesus in and around the neighborhood, scouring wooded areas and even draining a pond in a nearby cemetery for any sign of the six-year-old boy. But the continued searching and hundreds of incoming leads left them with a whole lot of nothing except rumors and growing suspicion cast on the family of Jesus de la Cruz.
As the disappearance of Jesus de la Cruz consumed front page headlines and A Block news, the media was quick to cast aspersions on the little boy's mother, Magdalena Rodriguez. They pointed fingers at her "neglectful" parenting practices, allowing a six-year-old boy to freely wander without supervision at all hours of the day. Other sources reported on rumors that Jesus was taken as collateral payment for a drug debt.
Investigators turned their gaze to Magdalena Rodriguez and didn't seem to mind sharing that part of the investigation with the press. An investigator told The Lynn Item that Magdalena wasn't being cooperative. Another paper printed that investigators had reason to believe that her boyfriend owed someone money for a drug debt and they took Jesus until the $3,000 was paid up.
"There is a feeling that the mother may have owed someone money, and they grabbed the kid. The feeling is that she may know who did this but is afraid to say anything." According to reporting by Barbara Termina, Magdalena failed a polygraph test. Her answers about that possible drug debt indicating possible deception.
But Magdalena's attorney, Michael McDonald, explained that she was distraught over the disappearance of her son and that a lie detector test is not conclusive. Later, her attorney also said that "to say Magdalena did not know or was not associated with people who were involved in drugs and kneeling would be inaccurate."
He told reporter Barbara Taramina that on the night of Jesus' disappearance, she was with her boyfriend, bailing out a friend who had been arrested on charges of selling cocaine. Still, McDonald insisted, quote, I have never seen a single piece of evidence of drugs in this case. Never, end quote.
Magdalena herself vehemently denied any and all rumors that she was somehow wrapped up in the disappearance of her own son or that he was taken as payment for a drug debt.
She categorized the accusations as racist, telling the Springfield Sunday Republican, quote, Hello, this is a Spanish family. The attitude around here is that if you are Spanish, you sell drugs. It's a kid who disappeared. That's what is important. The police don't feel it. It's not their blood. It's only we who feel it.
Magdalena is also quoted in the Boston Globe, saying, It's like they put this seal on us. Just because you're Hispanic, they think we have to be lowlifes. The issue here is my son. I'm like any mother, loving her kids. End quote. In mid-October 1996, the State Department of Social Services cited Magdalena Rodriguez with neglect for waiting more than five hours to report Jesus missing.
Authorities speculated that she may have waited to report him missing for fear of losing custody of her children again. The citation was a blow to a mother who was already dealing with so much. FBI agents from the Special Federal Task Force for Missing and Exploited Children were brought in to assist the case, though as weeks passed, the official search for Jesus de la Cruz was waning.
Authorities had failed to uncover anything of note across the nearly 100 miles they'd scoured for the boy over several weeks. It was unusual to not find something, anything, when a child disappears. No clothing linked to the boy, no sign of his bicycle with the two flat tires. But while the formal search faded out, lacking anything new to go on, Magdalena led her own search for her son.
Reporter Pamela Ferdinand of the Boston Globe shadowed Magdalena for a day in mid-October 1996. Magdalena kept notes of tips she'd received, the psychic readings she'd heard. While her other children were at school, she answered phone calls and hung up posters. She wandered wooded areas and kept her eyes trained for hints that her son was still out there somewhere.
Magdalena even contacted producers for the Montel Williams show, writing in a letter, "'Dear Mr. Montel, the local police really haven't done anything to help me find my son. We have started our own searches and have come up empty. And then it's time to pick her kids up from school and another day passes without Jesus.'"
In November 1996, the only named suspect in Jesus de la Cruz's disappearance, Robert C. Levesque, pleaded guilty in district court to receiving a stolen motor vehicle. His sentence was a year in prison with 58 days to be served and 18 months probation. According to the Nashua Telegraph, Levesque had served those 58 days while awaiting trial, and so he was released.
With nothing concrete to tie him to the disappearance of Jesus, Robert Levesque faded from view and was never charged with any crimes in connection with the case of Jesus de la Cruz. Jesus' father, Juan de la Cruz, arrived in Lynn, Massachusetts from his home in Miami within days of his son's disappearance.
He spoke publicly through the media, saying, quote, But the media did not neglect to dig up details on Juan de la Cruz's past, just as they had done with Magdalena.
The Boston Globe learned that in 1994, court records showed Magdalena had obtained a restraining order against Juan, alleging abuse against herself and her children. In the request for court protection, Magdalena wrote, "He threatened to me that he will take my kids away and I will never see them again." Eight months later, Magdalena asked the court to drop the charges, citing that they had resolved their differences.
Although this raised suspicion around Jesus' father, investigators were able to verify his whereabouts on the night of Jesus' disappearance. Juan was home in Miami, 1500 miles away. With each passing day, with each new rumor, Magdalena Rodriguez remained hopeful that her son was out there, still alive. That he'd come back to her, if only the person or persons who took him would let Jesus go.
Quote, whoever has him, I want him to let him go. I want my son back. He's only six years old. He's just a baby. End quote. Two years after the disappearance of six-year-old Jesus de la Cruz, the popular television show Unsolved Mysteries aired a special bulletin about his case. Though the national coverage generated some buzz and new leads came into the Lynn Police Department, they were all dead ends.
Rumors continued, many of them still pointing at Magdalena Rodriguez herself and that alleged drug debt she owed. Some sources said they heard Jesus was shipped off to New York or Puerto Rico or the Dominican Republic as part of payment that kept Magdalena out of trouble, but none of those rumors were ever proven to have any basis in fact.
Police periodically revisited the case in those first years, re-interviewing individuals they'd spoken with in the earliest days of the investigation. But eventually, Magdalena moved out of Lynn and got a job as a counselor in a group home for troubled youth. For years after his disappearance, she's quoted in the media saying she held out hope that he'd come home, that he was alive.
Jesus's father, Juan de la Cruz, gave a DNA sample for profiling. It was uploaded to CODIS, the Combined DNA Index System, in case unidentified remains are ever found. The fact that investigators never uncovered any sign of Jesus, not a single shred of physical evidence, lends to the theory that maybe he is still out there, as his mother so badly hopes is the truth.
In 2021, on the 25th anniversary of Jesus de la Cruz going missing, the FBI's Violent Criminal Apprehension Program released the updated missing persons poster with those two photos of Jesus. The age progression photo shows what he might look like today, a 31-year-old man. The poster reads...
Jesus de la Cruz was last seen on September 28, 1996, walking on Park Street near his residence in Lynn, Massachusetts. He was six years old at the time of his disappearance and has not been seen since. De la Cruz has a scar above his left eye, birthmarks on his left calf and the left side of his forehead, and his left ear is pierced.
He was last seen wearing a white t-shirt, blue jeans, and brown and yellow boots. If you have any information regarding the disappearance of Jesus de la Cruz, contact Captain Marco Tool of the Lynn Police Department at 781-595-2000 or the FBI VICAP at 1-800-634-4097.
Last summer, in July 2021, police in Lowell, Massachusetts had a bizarre encounter with a man in Heritage Park. As reported by Boston 25 News, state and local authorities responded to the park on reports that a man operating a white Ford Crown Vic Interceptor with lights and a siren that made the vehicle look just like a police cruiser.
When authorities located the man in question, he was wearing a jacket emblazoned with a Fox 25 News logo, and he told officers that he was a photographer for the media outlet. He gave his name, Robert Levesque. Police learned he was, of course, not a police officer as his car may have led bystanders to believe, and he was not and never had been employed by Fox 25 News.
Despite this, Levesque was not arrested or cited, only ordered to remove the flashing lights from his car. He was the same Robert Levesque held on suspicion of involvement with the disappearance of Jesus de la Cruz from 25 years earlier. To this day, Robert Levesque remains a person of interest in the case.
Thank you for listening to Dark Down East. Sources for this case are listed at darkdowneast.com so you can dig in and learn more. This week for Missing New England, I want to bring your attention to the case of Anson Snowdeal. According to a Maine State Police press release, 41-year-old Anson Snowdeal was last seen in Ellsworth early in the morning on February 9th when he left an apartment on Water Street on foot without his phone or wallet.
Snowdiel was wearing tan work pants, a gray t-shirt, gray hooded sweatshirt, and a black jacket. He lives in Sullivan and may be in the Surrey or Blue Hill area. Anyone who knows his whereabouts should call 207-973-3700, extension 9. This information and photos are listed at darkdowneast.com slash missing.
Thank you for supporting this show and allowing me to do what I do. I'm honored to use this platform for the families and friends who have lost their loved ones, and for those who are still searching for answers in cold missing persons and murder cases. I'm not about to let those names or their stories get lost with time. I'm Kylie Lowe, and this is Dark Down East.
