Jovanna's mother's then-boyfriend, Ronald Garrett, was watching Jovanna in her family's residence in the P. T. Barnum Housing Project in the 80 block of Taylor Drive in Bridgeport, Connecticut on June 5, 1981. Jovanna's mother told him to bring Jovanna to her maternal great-grandmother, Mary Moales, who also lived in the housing project. Garrett later stated that an unidentified boy arrived at the home at 10:20 a.m. and told Garrett that Moales had sent him to retrieve the child. He described the boy as about 10 or 11 years old, African-American, with small braids in his hair. He stated he thought he recognized the boy as a neighborhood child, and permitted him to take Jovanna. She has never been seen again. Some agencies may spell Jovanna's first name "Jovonna" or her middle name "Stacy." Her ears are pierced.