BOSTON -- Police are searching for a missing 5-year-old Lynn boy, whose father has been charged with child endangerment.

Giovanni Gonzalez weighs approximately 40 pounds and is 49 inches tall with black hair and brown eyes. When last seen, he was wearing blue denim jeans, a red T-shirt, a silver braided chain and black Spiderman sandals.

He was carrying a black backpack that had the Transformers robot characters on it, and it contained some of his clothes and toys.

He has a faded skin pigmentation mark on the lower right side of his chest and a small scar above his eyebrow.

The boy was last seen Friday at 4 p.m. in the area of 2 Brightwood Terrace in Lynn, where he was dropped off for a weekend visit with his father.

The child's father, Ernesto Gonzalez Jr., 36, of Lynn, was arrested Monday and charged with child endangerment in connection with the child’s disappearance.

He denies that the boy was staying with him.

"The defendant, when confronted, has refused to cooperate with the police and assist them in looking for the child. That, coupled with the fact that he had a recent, undisclosed -- and he refused to confirm how it happened -- cut to his left finger, gives us cause for concern," state prosecutor John Dawley said.

The boy's mother speculated that Gonzalez may have taken the child to Puerto Rico, where his daughter lives, and he often talked about taking his son there for a vacation.

Gonzalez was ordered held on $500,000 bail by Judge Stacey Fortes-White and ordered to return to court for a pretrial hearing on Sept. 17.

Despite the man's arrest, Giovanni’s whereabouts remain unknown.

Anyone with information about the child’s disappearance or whereabouts is asked to call 911 or Lynn police at 781-595-2000.