- Massachusetts Department of Revenue
Wednesday, September 12, 2007
Robert R. Bliss
blissr@dor.state.ma.us
617-626-2369
One of the state's new Ten Most Wanted for failure to pay child support, Peter Gerald Cantin, was arrested last night in Conway, NH by local police who had received a tip on his whereabouts.
Cantin, 49, formerly of Beverly, who owes $75,496 in unpaid child support, appeared this morning in Northern Carroll County (NH) District Court. Cantin signed a waiver of extradition, meaning he will be held in the Carroll County House of Correction in Ossipee NH until he is brought back to Massachusetts for arraignment in Salem District Court on criminal charges of failure to comply with a support order and leaving the Commonwealth without supporting a child, according to the Massachusetts Department of Revenue.
The mother of Cantin's children, Glenda Cantin of Beverly, said today she was both "glad and sad" about the arrest. She said Cantin has been out of the lives of their two children for 10 years, and disappeared nearly four years ago, during which time he was out of touch not only with his children but with his own immediate family as well. "This is going to be very emotional for a lot of family members," she said.
Lt. Gov. Tim Murray, at the release of the new Ten Most Wanted list Monday morning, had observed that "if history is any indicator, the publicity this poster will generate will help locate some of these parents." Today, Murray said "The arrest is fresh evidence that this poster campaign works to send the message about the importance of supporting children and the consequences of failure to do so."
Listed on the poster are 10 parents who together owe $646,913 in unpaid child support for 19 children. The poster is the 14th edition of the Ten Most Wanted for failure to pay child support, a list prepared by the Department of Revenue's Child Support Enforcement unit. In the previous 13 posters, 97 of the 113 people displayed were located resulting in the collection of about $3.6 million in unpaid child support.
Cantin was a glass glazer who had been ordered to pay $285 weekly in child support by the Essex Probate and Family Court. He and Mrs. Cantin divorced in 1998 and he was ordered to pay support for the couple's two children who are now ages 27 and 19. Cantin was trained as a glass glazer and at one time owned his own company which was considered profitable. Despite his skilled profession, he stopped making any support payments in 2004 and until his arrest there had been very few leads on his whereabouts in recent years.
