John Gianot Colonna Aponte

Status:

Open

Missing From:

Luquillo, Puerto Rico

Summary:

John Gianot Colonna Aponte was a 12-year-old boy who disappeared on May 5, 1974, from Luquillo, Puerto Rico, along with his 11-year-old sister Giannina as they traveled to meet a family friend at the beach. Police believed the siblings were abducted based on a suicide note left by a man named Tomás Rodriguez, a businessman and family neighbor, stating he knew details about the disappearance and a plan to collect a ransom of $72,000. The case remains unsolved.

Vital Statistics

Circumstances of Disappearance:

John and his sister Giannina were last seen alive on May 4, 1974, after 7:30pm in Luquillo, Puerto Rico. The children had left home to meet a family friend at the beach, but their mother later contacted the friend, who said he had not seen the children that day. The friend confirmed that the children had not arrived with him or his three children, heightening concerns as evening approached, and the mother contacted local authorities to report them missing on May 5, 1974. The siblings were never found.

Additional Details:

Police believed the siblings were abducted based on a suicide note left by a man named Tomás Rodriguez, who had moved to Miami shortly after the disappearance. In the note, he said that he knew details about the disappearance, including a plan to collect a ransom of $72,000 by the unidentified kidnappers, and Rodriguez was a businessman, as well as a neighbor of the Colonna family when the disappearance took place. Despite this confession, no arrests were ever made and the investigation stalled. According to information given by Noemí Aponte in 2013 to the Puerto Rican newspaper Primera Hora, the FBI had disclosed to her in 2002 that they had found a woman in Mayaguez whom they believed to be Gianinna Colonna, and DNA testing was conducted in 2005 with samples taken from her and the exhumed body of her husband John, and she was informed that the Colonna children were not John Colonna Sr.'s biological children, a claim she denied. In 2012, Alberto Grajales, the director of Interpol in Puerto Rico, said that the Forensic Sciences Institute certified that John was not the father of the Colonna children, and he said that if Noemí proceeded as planned to declare her children legally dead, the case would be archived by his agency. Noemí died on April 2, 2023. The disappearance remains an open and active investigation with the Puerto Rico Police Department and is listed as unresolved in federal databases, including the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System.

Case Last Updated:

Nov 13, 2026