Missing for over 3 years, Marysville boy found in Seattle

MARYSVILLE — A Marysville boy who police say was taken by his father in 2021 and missing for over three years was found safe and healthy Tuesday.

After an anonymous tip this week, Marysville police found Carlo Ponte, now 6, with his father Jorge in Seattle. With the help of the Snohomish County Violent Offenders Task Force, police arrested the father for investigation of first-degree custodial interference.

Prosecutors had charged Jorge Ponte, 55, in August 2021, just weeks after he allegedly picked up his son for a scheduled visit and never returned him to his mother. A $100,000 warrant had been out for his arrest since then.

Carlo has a developmental disability and was non-verbal.

“It’s really upsetting, like I can’t even cry right now,” Carlo’s mother Rebecca told The Daily Herald in 2021. “I was crying every day. It’s just really hard.”

Jorge and Rebecca Ponte were in the midst of a divorce. For a few months before the boy went missing, the father had been able to see his son on Wednesdays and Saturdays, according to court documents.

He showed up the morning of Saturday, July 10, 2021, at the Marysville Police Department, where he met with a court-appointed guardian, then with Rebecca Ponte to exchange Carlo. He arrived wearing a wig and glasses, according to court papers. Jorge Ponte then buckled his son, then 3, into a car seat and seemed impatient, the guardian wrote in an email to lawyers the next day.

Jorge Ponte told her, “This is MY time with Carlo,” reported the guardian, who was supposed to supervise the visit, set to last from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.

The guardian told Jorge Ponte she would follow him wherever he wanted to go with his son. Without answering, he drove off.

Rebecca Ponte said she didn’t get to say goodbye.

The guardian tried to follow him, but he drove too fast and she lost sight of him, according to the charges.

Later, the father reportedly texted Rebecca Ponte, “Don’t bother to pick up” Carlo. She responded she was waiting at the police station.

“I’m not going to be there,” Jorge Ponte told her.

The defendant’s adult son told police his father had a history of leaving for long stretches of time, but would always run out of money. He reported giving $500 to Jorge Ponte and lending his father his car, according to charging papers.

Days after Jorge Ponte allegedly fled, a Snohomish County Superior Court commissioner granted an immediate restraining order, authorizing police to return Carlo to his mother. In a separate civil case, Rebecca Ponte reported in February 2021 her husband had threatened to take away Carlo so she could never see him again.

Carlo’s mother said she put up posters to find her son as far away as Tacoma.

Carlo was born prematurely, 23 weeks into the pregnancy. He then spent five months in the hospital. He was due to get surgery a couple months after he went missing.

“When I’m with other 3-year-olds, I’m just like sometimes in tears because he’s just been through a lot,” Rebecca Ponte said in 2021.

On Wednesday, Jorge Ponte was in the Snohomish County Jail. He has no felony convictions, but has over a dozen misdemeanors, including for assault, driving with a suspended license and theft, court records show.

Jake Goldstein-Street: 425-339-3439; jake.goldstein-street@heraldnet.com; X: @GoldsteinStreet.