Several years after he disappeared, Patz was one of the first children to be profiled on the "photo on a milk carton" campaigns of the early 1980s. He had been pushing for more independence, his mother said, and amid the bustle, he spotted an opportunity: He wanted to walk to school by himself. But a jury in February ultimately found Mr. Hernandez's statements compelling and determined. Deceased/Not Found - NY - Etan Patz, 6, New York, 25 May - Websleuths Within a few weeks, though, a man from New Jersey, Jose Lopez, reached out to investigators: He believed that his brother-in-law, Pedro Hernandez, could have been responsible for Etans disappearance. (Mr. Ramos had a relationship with a woman who had been hired at one point to walk Etan home from school.). His lawyers depicted Mr. Hernandez as struggling with a mental illness that loosened his grip on reality. The FBI reached out to an American man living in Europe just last month to see if the 30-year-old man was the 6-year-old boy who went missing from Manhattan in 1979. In 2001, however, the family obtained a court order declaring Etan dead as part of a lawsuit in which a convicted child molester was held responsible for their son's death. Mr. Hernandez told investigators he had led the boy to the basement and started to choke him. Little Boy Lost: Why Etan Patz Still Matters Today At the time of Patz's disappearance, the 13-by-62 basement at 127B Prince St. was being used as a workshop by Othniel Miller, a handyman who was friendly with the Patz family. Ramos said that he was "90 percent sure" it was the boy whom he later saw on television. At the time of Patz's disappearance, Hernandez worked in a bodega just blocks from the boy's home. When police questioned Hernandezs family about the incident, his brother-in-law and wife confirmed the story and that the church confession was a longtime open family secret that had been anxiously discussed again with news of the basement excavation. Triple digit temps in Southwest in April! So, they contend, he may have confessed to something he believed he had done, but that does not mean he did it. The slain boys father, Stan Patz, was being comforted by the ex-jurors and appeared to wipe tears from his eyes. Paula S. Fass, a historian and the author of the book Kidnapped: Child Abduction in America, told The Times in 2015: This case served as a wellspring of the idea that when little boys and little girls but especially boys were taken, that it was almost certainly by a pedophile., Despite all the attention paid to his case, no answers came. We all had different hangups, Ms. Kiernan told reporters. It was the Friday before the Memorial Day weekend; she was busy tending to her other children, and Etan jolted out of bed. Harvey Fishbein, the lawyer for Hernandez, charged with 1979 killing of Etan Patz, says his client will plead not guilty because he made a false confession. [46][47] The International Centre for Missing & Exploited Children (ICMEC) coordinates the "Help Bring Them Home" campaign in 22 countries in conjunction with International Missing Children's Day. The heartbroken father of little Etan Patz called his son's convicted killer a "monster" Tuesday before a New York City judge closed the book on the 38-year saga and sentenced the bodega worker. "We didn't want to get tunnel vision," Zimmerman said of trying to remain open to finding a suspect other than Ramos. [27] Hernandez was charged with second-degree murder. What happened to Etan Patz is a 21-year-old mystery. Investigators last month searched a handyman's former workshop near the Patz family home. US media said that police had been tipped off by someone Mr Hernandez had confided in, possibly a family member. Stan and Julie never changed their phone number or moved, in the hopes that their son would reach out or return home. They waited and waited and never left because God forbid there was something to wait for, said Meisel, who spoke to the family this past week. Lt. Zimmerman tells Schlesinger how difficult it was to inform Stan and Julie Patz about Hernandez's shocking confession, and how it understandably required time for them to begin to digest the stunning development, much less believe it. He was never seen alive again. Police end search for Etan Patz remains - NBC News 2018 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. The disappearance of Etan Patz haunted families in New York and across the country for nearly four decades, Vance said. Pedro Hernandez, center, appears in Manhattan criminal court with his attorney Harvey Fishbein, left, on Nov. 15, 2012, in New York City. Pedro Hernandez Found Guilty of Kidnapping and Killing Etan Patz in We believe that this is the individual responsible, the police commissioner, Raymond W. Kelly, told reporters at a news conference. I had no idea who Etan Patz was.". Unfortunately, in the end, we dont believe this will resolve the story of what happened to Etan back in 1979.. In 1983, President Ronald Reagan declared 25 May National Missing Children's Day. Pedro Hernandez was sentenced Tuesday to 25 years to life in prison for killing Etan Patz. [31] His lawyer has stated that Hernandez was diagnosed with schizotypal personality disorder, which includes hallucinations. For Stanley Patz, the verdict meant a vigil of almost 38 years was close to an end. New York police started searching the basement of an apartment that could have the buried body of Etan Patz: a 6 year-old boy missing since 1979. He said he had put the boy into a plastic bag and put the bag into a box that he left with garbage nearby. After his brother-in-law called the police, Mr. Hernandez was interviewed by investigators. On the back, he typed the same message: "What did you do to my little boy? Every year, on Etan's birthday and the anniversary of his disappearance, Stan Patz sent Ramos a copy of his son's missing-child poster. A Manhattan jury convicted Mr. Hernandez on the ninth day of deliberations after the second of two lengthy trials that brought renewed attention to Etans disappearance on May 25, 1979, as he walked to his school bus stop alone in SoHo for the first time. I feared slowly passing cars and the solitude of my bedroom. The FBI did not respond to a Daily News request for comment. Hernandez, who has a history of mental illness, confessed to strangling Patz in the basement of a SoHo bodega in 1979. 17:28 EDT 10 Feb 2014 Mr. Castellon said he found Mr. Hernandezs confessions credible, and although he believed Mr. Hernandez might have a personality disorder, none of the experts who testified convinced him that it could make him confess to something he had invented. But Hernandez is set to go on trial for the boy's murder in April. When she realized that Etan was missing, Ms. Patz said, she fell into shock. But when Hernandez was retried the new jury found him guilty of kidnapping and murder. Despite a massive nationwide search effort, Etan could not be found and police were unable to find any answers as to who was responsible. Pedro Hernandez of Maple Shade, New Jersey, told police he choked Etan Patz to death and left his body in a bag in an alley, New York Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly told reporters. But there was no hard evidence linking Ramos to the crime. [36], A September 2014 hearing was conducted to determine whether Hernandez's statements that were made before the police had read the Miranda rights to him were legally admissible at trial. A judge ordered Jose Antonio Ramos, who knew Etan's babysitter, to pay $2m (1.3m) to the Patzes. This residence had been newly refurbished shortly after Etan's disappearance in 1979, and the basement had been the workshop and storage space of a handyman. Lori Vallow and Chad Daybell case: A timeline of events, Chad Daybell's kids claim he was "fooled in worst, most deadly way possible", Father told daughter, 14, to drive siblings home as he abducted their mother, Exonerated man fulfills dream of walking daughter down the aisle, Chilling details revealed in JJ Vallow and Tylee Ryan deaths. Then, Etans older sister did not want to get out of bed. Agents asked the man about where he had gone to school and where he'd lived over the years, the news outlet reported. Today, SoHo is a bustling, high-end shopping and tourism area. He was never seen. No trace of him has been found since the May day he vanished, on the first day he got the grown-up privilege of walking alone to the bus stop about two blocks away in the then-edgy but neighborly SoHo section of lower Manhattan. He walked away carrying a $1 bill, planning to buy a soda on the way. Harvey Fishbein, the lawyer for Hernandez, charged with 1979 killing of Etan Patz, says his client will plead not guilty because he made a false confession. Pedro Hernandez showed no reaction as jurors delivered their verdict. Things were hectic in the Patz household on the morning of May 25, 1979, the last day of school before the Memorial Day weekend. She said that she had reluctantly agreed and had walked him outside. No body or bag has ever been found. In 2014, the case went through a series of hearings to determine whether or not Hernandez's statements before he received his Miranda rights were legally admissible at trial. Ms. Patz, with some reluctance, agreed. (Bryan Smith/for New York Daily News). Though it may now seem like a thing of the past, it wasn't too long ago that thousands of children's faces appeared on milk cartons across the U.S. under the bold black heading "MISSING." Then, he started telling people that he had killed a child in New York City: He opened up to an elder from his church group at a religious retreat, and confessed to a prayer group, falling to his knees in tears. The FBI provided no answers to the man about why they were still making calls about the missing boy after Pedro Hernandez came forward to admit to killing the boy in 2012 and now faces trial this spring. And one that literally changed the way parents looked after their children, and ultimately defied several generations of law enforcement from the NYPD, the FBI and prosecutors in the Manhattan District Attorney's office. Under New York law, a person can be convicted based only on a confession if there's additional evidence that a crime was committed. The authorities turned their attention to Mr. Hernandez, who lived in a small New Jersey town near Philadelphia, after his brother-in-law called detectives in 2012 to share his suspicion that he could be responsible. Not only had people come forward claiming to be their son's killer, or provided what they said was critical information, several blond haired men at various times had shown up at their door, and announced that they were their long-lost son.