30 years later..Wheres Etan Patz?

[Shellie435]

There was an article in todays Daily News . 30 years ago this month Etan left his home to get the bus. It was his first solo trip to school. He hasn't been seen since. Now these days we would NEVER allow a 6 year old go to the bus, let alone the park by himself. How the times have changed. Heres a few articles to get you familiar for those who don't know about the case.(we do have some young'uns here on D'D :)
http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/serial_killers/predators/etan_patz/index.html
Future Flight Captain
The morning of May 25, 1979, was hectic at the New York City home of Stanley and Julie Patz. They lived in a converted loft in Manhattan's Soho district, pioneers in a section of the city that would later become the place-to-be for New York trendsetters. Soho had been Manhattan's manufacturing zone, characterized by block after block of 19th century, iron-fronted factories standing shoulder to shoulder. On overcast days it was easy to imagine the gloomy sweatshop conditions of old New York, but in the 1970s, a fair number of these buildings were dark and empty, and the streets were desolate and forbidding at night. Still, people were making their homes in the neighborhood, breathing new life into it. Artists were first drawn to the area, attracted to the large, open spaces and cheap rents. Stanley Patz, a photographer, and his wife Julie lived in a loft on Prince Street with their three children: Shira, then age 8; Etan, 6; and Ari, 2.
and the Daily News article from today:
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ny_crime/2009/05/03/2009-05-03_etan_patzs_dad_wants_to_keep_perv_he_says_kille d_soho_6yrold_in_jail_new_hope_30.html

[swivel]

I have a book here called AFTER ETAN that is waiting to be read and reviewed by anyone interested in this case...

[Valasca]

You betcha, Swivel.
My volunteer work is missing persons and unidentified remains.
The Patz case has had me stumped for quite some time. He should be my age if he's still alive.

[Shellie435]

I'd love to read it Swivel..not too sure how I'd do as far a a reviewer, but I'd be willing to give it a try! I've been following the story from day one, the poor kid is probably in a vacant lot under a couch or a crackhouse that hasn't been demolished. NYC was a different place 30 years ago, and stuff like this was a daily occurence. It was the 70's...Son of Sam still on everyones mind, the black out..to much bad shit happened to NY in the 70's..worst of all the disappearance of Etan Patz. His disappearance still bothers me to this day. I hope before I leave this beautiful earth, his disappearance is solved...hey, I can dream can't I?

[Rockin Ma]

I have a book here called AFTER ETAN that is waiting to be read and reviewed by anyone interested in this case...

I signed up with you to do reviews. Got the address, you can send it over.

[Valasca]

Whaaa. I responded firsterest.

[swivel]

Whaaa. I responded firsterest.

That you did. PM me your info. And everyone else take note: once I start getting reviews, the most prolific reader/reviewer will be the one getting the books. Not the person who asks first or the person who spends the most time making the review "perfect."

What we need are a handful of people that can review 3 or so books a month in exchange for getting free books that usually aren't even out yet. There is a long list of people trying out, but nobody has made my "Send books to this person first" list.

[Unamused Cat]

This case has always haunted me.

[Wicked Doll]

"In our minds there were only two possibilities," said Stan Patz, the boy's father. "Either Etan was taken by a stranger and killed or he was taken by a very sad woman desperate for a child of her own, and we hoped that such a woman would at least take care of him and keep him safe."

Patz lived with this hope until 1982, when he learned of Jose Antonio Ramos' arrest and the surprising connection between him and a former babysitter of Etan's.

Ramos was a drifter who in 1979 lived in Alphabet City, a neighborhood not far from Soho. In 1982 he was arrested after boys in a neighborhood in the Bronx complained that he had stolen their book bags while trying to coax them into a drainpipe under a bridge, where he lived, said the Patzes and federal prosecutor Stuart Gabrois, who spent years investigating the case.

When police found Ramos in his drainpipe home, they found he had many photographs of small blond boys. They noticed that they looked a lot like Etan Patz, according to numerous published reports about the case.
Bronx police questioned Ramos, and he denied having anything to do with Etan's disappearance. But he did tell police that his girlfriend used to baby-sit for the boy, Gabrois said.

Prosecutors in the Bronx and Manhattan pursued this lead, but concluded they did not have enough evidence to connect Ramos to Etan's disappearance, Gabrois and a spokesperson for the Manhattan District Attorney's Office said.

Ramos was released when the parents of the Bronx boys chose not to press charges against him, according to published reports. He left town and disappeared for six years -- until federal Gabrois reviewed Etan's case. Gabrois said he focused on Ramos as the prime suspect.

Gabrois said he learned in 1988 that Ramos had been arrested and convicted of child molestation and was serving time in a Pennsylvania prison.
Gabrois said he brought Ramos to New York for questioning and surprised him with the question: "How many times did you have sex with Etan Patz?"
Ramos told Gabrois that he'd taken a little boy to an apartment he had on the lower East Side on the same day that Etan went missing. "He was 90 percent sure it was the same he'd seen in the news that was missing," Gabrois said.

According to Gabrois, Ramos claimed he released the boy and brought him to a subway station so the boy could go visit his aunt in Washington Heights.
"Etan did not have an aunt in Washington Heights," Gabrois said. When questioned further, Ramos refused to say anything more and asked for a lawyer, according to Gabrois.

Ramos is serving a 10- to 20-year prison sentence in Pennsylvania. He is scheduled to be released in November 2012, Gabrois said.
Gabrois said he had Ramos transferred to a federal prison, and planted informants as his cell mates. He wouldn't go into detail about what Ramos might have told them, but said he's convinced he's eyeing the right suspect.
Gabrois turned over his evidence to the Manhattan District Attorney's Office, but prosecutors have not brought charges. They say that without a body, they don't have enough evidence.


Full article here:

http://news.aol.com/article/milk-carton-etan-patz/480751?icid=main|main|dl1|link3|http%3A%2F%2Fnews. aol.com%2Farticle%2Fmilk-carton-etan-patz%2F480751

[Shellie435]

May 25th will be the 30th anniversary of Etans disappearance. He was the first "milk carton kid". I remember seeing the photos of all the missing children on the kitchen table, when you opened the fridge, when I went to the store. But that was the purpose. For these missing kids to be seen, and not forgotten throughout your day. I was 17 at the time, these milk cartons also scared the crap out of me just knowing that one of my younger siblings could be missing in a heartbeat, and THEIR photo could be staring back at me from the fridge was very frightening.With the Amber Alerts and the internet of course pictures of missing children are no longer needed on milk cartons. The NCMEC now has a screensaver you can download called the "Missing KidSaver" ..check it out. http://news.cnet.com/8301-10784_3-9755734-7.html
I've tried to find some statistics on just how many kids were found with the milk carton campaign, to no avail. Any help on this would be awesome!

[Lizard]

And everyone else take note: once I start getting reviews, the most prolific reader/reviewer will be the one getting the books. Not the person who asks first or the person who spends the most time making the review "perfect."

What we need are a handful of people that can review 3 or so books a month in exchange for getting free books that usually aren't even out yet. There is a long list of people trying out, but nobody has made my "Send books to this person first" list.

swivel's a dick.

[Shellie435]

It's the 30th anniversary of Etans disappearance and the 25th for National Missing Childrens Day. It's also Memorial Day. Thanks to all who work tirelessly in finding the lost, and those who fight for us to live free.

http://www.missingkids.com/missingkids/servlet/NewsEventServlet?LanguageCountry=en_US&PageId=1305
Between 1979 and 1981 a series of high-profile missing-children cases became national headlines. Three such cases contributed to the shock of the nation’s consciousness bringing attention to the seriousness of child victimization and forever changing the response by law-enforcement agencies to reports of missing children.

On May 25, 1979, Etan Patz disappeared from a New York City street on his way to school. Even before cases of missing children routinely garnered national media attention, Etan’s case quickly received a lot of coverage. His father, a professional photographer, disseminated black-and-white photographs of Etan in an effort to find him. The massive search and media attention that followed focused the nation’s attention on the problem of child abduction and lack of plans to address it

[ineedanap]

Imprisoned molester confesses?


The arrangement was special, according to Galligan. "The unique situation in this case, which I don't think I ever had again in my career was, we had two informants at the same time who didn't know there was another informant." Each convict's story could be corroborated by the other, making both stories more credible.

The first informant, called "John Morgan" in Cohen's book, told Galligan and GraBois that Ramos told him that he knew what happened to Etan. Ramos had even drawn a map of Etan's school bus route, pointing out that he knew Etan's stop was the third one, Morgan told the investigators. Galligan called this an "ah ha" moment in the case, "because there was no way that John could have known that information. I mean there are moments in this case that are beyond chilling ... Your mind has to take a moment to digest."

Then the second informant, "Jeremy Fischer," took his turn as Ramos' cellmate. A convicted con artist, Fischer's skills worked to perfection. "I set the stage and he spilled it, shall we say," Fischer told ABC News in a phone conversation from his current prison in Texas. "Pure and simple, it was a con!"
Ramos had a sex therapy workbook he needed to complete in order to be considered for parole. Fischer acted as his personal therapist, encouraging Ramos to "open up" about what he had done. Eventually, Fischer said, Ramos told him graphic details of what he had done that day. This time, according to Fischer, Ramos used Etan's name ... repeatedly. Fischer told the investigators that Ramos drew another map, identifying the exact spot where he claimed to have picked up Etan in SoHo and where he took him -- his apartment in the East Village. But he did not admit to killing the boy.

When Morgan later returned to the cell, that last piece of the puzzle may have fallen into place. Morgan told GraBois and Galligan that Ramos woke him in the middle of the night screaming that "there is no body, they're never going to find a body." According to Morgan, Ramos had dreams he described to Morgan about people burning. Morgan said Ramos told him that he helped the superintendent in his old apartment building clean out the incinerator in the boiler and that the "firebox was big enough for, like, two people to crawl inside of."

The whole story here:
http://abcnews.go.com/2020/Story?id=7698696&page=1

I can't imagine living 30 years with my child missing. Etan's parents must be living with broken hearts.

[Valasca]

I have just begun reading this book. I don't want to put it down. It's very fascinating and heartbreaking. The things people said to the parents... Wow, do the parents have self control.

One of the many things I was not aware of is that Mrs. Patz was with Reve Walsh when she got the news about Adam.

[Silvahalo]

Watched the video (http://abcnews.go.com/2020/Story?id=7698696&page=1). The mother is a very smart, articulate woman who is holding back tears the entire time she is speaking. I can see she is trying to be strong but is devastated in ways most us will never understand.

I cannot really imagine the anguish of living with this families reality. People she says, walk up to her and ask questions....complete strangers. That would be very hard. I don't know how she copes everyday, I would think the strength comes for caring and loving her other children. I hope this case is solved to give them peace, and put Etan to rest. I wonder if the mother still believes her son is alive? Is it easier to keep hoping rather than to put him to rest in your heart? I suspect I can't really answer that as I am not in that place, a place I never want to visit.

Rest in peace little Etan Patz.

[Dakota Valkyrie]

http://i46.tinypic.com/2dk0o6e.jpg
Jose Ramos mugshots: 1988 and unknown date
It is a case that has gone unsolved for decades and remains one of the most notorious of its kind.

Now, Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance has reopened the case of Etan Patz, who vanished more than 30 years ago.
[...]

The prime suspect in the case, Jose Ramos, is in prison for molesting two boys. He was never convicted of kidnapping or harming Etan, but law enforcement found that he had some connection to the little boy, at one time living nearby and dating a woman who used to walk Etan to school.

Stuart Grabois, who worked on the case as an assistant U.S. attorney and is now an adviser to the Patz family, believes there is enough evidence to prove Ramos guilty. But Ramos has long professed his innocence in the Patz case.

"I have no comment on the Patz case whatsoever," Ramos said years ago. "I don't know anything that Grabois knows. Why don't you ask Grabois about it?"

Ramos was found responsible for Etan's death in a 2004 civil case. He was ordered to pay $2 million to the Patz family. They haven't seen a cent. Ramos is scheduled to be released from prison November 2012.
http://abclocal.go.com/wabc/story?section=news/local&id=7462433

http://i46.tinypic.com/6j3azs.jpg

[Valasca]

After having read the book After Etan, this is NO DOUBT in my mind that Ramos killed him.
He just needs to give up where his body is.

[Valasca]

Federal investigators and New York City police are preparing today to dig beneath the streets near a Manhattan apartment building where 6-year-old Etan Patz disappeared 33 years ago.

The search for Patz has been one of the largest, longest lasting and most heart wrenching hunts for a missing child in the country's recent history.

Investigators are also reexamining the decades old assumption that Patz was abducted by convicted pedophile Jose Ramos. Ramos, now in prison for an unrelated case, was never charged with Patz's abduction.

At least two other potential suspects have been examined, sources told ABC News.

Patz vanished on May 25, 1979 in the SoHo neighborhood of Manhattan while walking alone to a school bus stop.

Patz became the first missing child whose face appeared on the side of a milk carton.


http://gma.yahoo.com/etan-patz-investigators-dig-clues-boys-disappearance-33-145914336--abc-news-topstories.html

Federal investigators and New York City police began tearing up the concrete floor of a Manhattan apartment building today searching for evidence 6-year-old Etan Patz, who disappeared 33 years ago.
Investigators are also reexamining the decades old assumption that Patz was abducted by convicted pedophile Jose Ramos. Ramos, now in prison for an unrelated case, was never charged with Patz's abduction.

The dig underway today at 127 Prince St., in the city's SoHo neighborhood, is related to a carpenter or handyman who had befriended the boy. The carpenter's name had surfaced in earlier investigations.

Investigators are excavating the 15-by-30 foot room that was the handyman's workshop. It was last searched in 1979, the year the boy disappeared.

Since then drywall has been put up over the room's brick walls. The drywall will be removed and the bricks examined and tested for blood evidence using advanced forensic techniques that were not available three decades ago, officials said.




The floor will also be dug up in a search for human remains, clothing or other evidence. The cement floor had been laid down around the time Patz was reported missing, but was never dug up, sources told ABC News.

The material removed will be taken to another site and preserved. Current forensics will allow authorities to look into hollows and to perform sophisticated DNA analysis on any potential evidence.

The search for Patz has been one of the largest, longest lasting and most heart wrenching hunts for a missing child in the country's recent history.

"It's a joint FBI- NYPD search for human remains clothing or personal effects," NYPD spokesman Paul Browne told reporters outside the building after investigators entered using a search warrant.

"This process right here, this process that you're witnessing, will take upward of five days," Browne said.

Patz vanished on May 25, 1979 in the SoHo neighborhood of Manhattan while walking alone to a school bus stop for the first time.

He became the first missing child whose face appeared on the side of a milk carton.

For the Patz family, it has been more than three decades of agonizing investigations and years of wondering what happened to their blond son with the gorgeous smile.

In an interview with "20/20" in 2009, the boy's father Stan Patz said, "I still gag with fear that this child must have felt ... when he realized he was being betrayed by an adult."

The case had been dormant until Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. reopened the case in 2010. Former DA Robert Morgenthau, who had declined to proceed with the case, citing insufficient evidence.

http://abcnews.go.com/US/fresh-search-etan-patz-york-boy-vanished-33/story?id=16171740

[VAS1326]

I sure hope they find something solid to bring closure to his family and I hope the person responsiblie is held accountable. If Ramos was involved now is the time for it to come to light as he will be back out on the streets this November according the article from 2010. I do hope Etan will be found and finally put to rest properly so his family has that closure and can trully start the process of healing.

[Whisper]

Search related to 1979 Etan Patz case under way in New York City

New York (CNN) -- More than three decades after a 6-year-old boy disappeared on his way to a bus stop in New York City, police and federal investigators relaunched their search for him Thursday, scouring the basement of a commercial building in Lower Manhattan. It is a largely unexplained development in a milestone case that helped draw the plight of missing children into the national consciousness.

"We're looking for human remains, clothing or other personal effects of Etan Patz," New York Police Department spokesman Paul Browne said. "It's a very painstaking process."

The Patz case for years garnered national headlines. Authorities splashed the child's image on the sides of milk cartons in the hopes of gathering more information. It's thought to be the first time that step was taken for a missing child.

It is not clear why the search has started anew, though a source with knowledge of the investigation says what can be described as a new development prompted the effort. The source did not elaborate.

The excavation is to include boring into the basement floors and walls of a SoHo building on Prince Street in Manhattan, near where Patz is believed to have walked on his way to a bus stop in May 1979.

Dozens of police and federal agents gathered outside the building and are expected to continue their search for the next five days.

"The FBI's Evidence Recovery Team is on the scene," FBI special agent Peter Donald said.
Investigators cordon off a street in SoHo on Thursday as part of the investigation into Etan Patz's disappearance.

Authorities have reason to think the new search could lead to the discovery of the boy's remains at that location, though they remain wary after past leads in the case failed to pan out, according to two sources familiar with the probe.

"I hope they find something," said resident Sean Sweeney, who says he's lived in the neighborhood since 1976.

SoHo, a lower Manhattan neighborhood now known for its boutique shops, art galleries and loft apartments, at the time was considered a grittier locale, where abandoned storefronts dotted the city streets.

Sweeney said he remembers the initial investigation into the Patz disappearance when police first knocked on his door in search of clues.

"That's odd, isn't it," he said, referring to the fact that 33 years later, police are again in his neighborhood searching for the boy.
Jose Antonio Ramos, a convicted child molester acquainted with Etan's baby sitter, had then been identified as a suspect in the case, but was never charged. He remains in a Pennsylvania prison on unrelated charges.

On the day of his disappearance, Etan's mother, Julie Patz, learned after her son failed to return home from school that he hadn't been in classes that day. She called the school, then called the homes of all his friends. When she found no one who had seen her son, she called police and filed a missing person report.

By evening, more than 100 police officers and searchers had gathered with bloodhounds. The search continued for weeks, but no clues to Etan's whereabouts were found.

The boy's disappearance was considered a key event inspiring the missing children's movement, which raised awareness of child abductions and led to new ways to search for missing children.

President Ronald Reagan named May 25, the day Etan went missing, National Missing Children's Day.
[...]http://www.cnn.com/2012/04/19/justice/new-york-etan-patz-investigation/index.html?hpt=ju_c2

[Silvahalo]

Etan Patz case: Disappearance led to Missing Children Day


http://i510.photobucket.com/albums/s341/silvahalo68/Fallen angels/Lost Children/0c817f65.jpg



It’s no coincidence that National Missing Children Day is observed May 25. The date marks the disappearance of Etan Patz, the young boy who vanished 33 years ago and is now the subject of anintense search (http://www.latimes.com/news/nation/nationnow/la-na-nn-etan-patz-20120420,0,2988278.story) by the FBI (http://www.latimes.com/topic/crime-law-justice/crimes/fbi-ORGOV000008.topic) and local authorities in New York.
FBI agents this week dug up the basement of a home in Manhattan’s SoHo (http://www.latimes.com/topic/us/new-york/new-york-city/manhattan-%28new-york-city%29/soho-PLGEO100100804012800.topic) district in search of his remains. Etan, with his flowing hair and soulful eyes, captured the public’s imagination, and his disappearance in 1979 changed the way the nation handles cases of missing children.
The boy’s photograph appeared on posters, and the “image of this little boy is absolutely haunting. It became an iconic image,” said Ernie Allen, president and chief executive of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (http://www.missingkids.com/missingkids/servlet/PublicHomeServlet?LanguageCountry=en_US). “Etan was the first missing child poster.”


[...]

New York police spokesman Paul Browne shows an original Etan Patz missing-person poster while speaking to reporters near an apartment building in Soho. Police officers and FBI agents began tearing apart a basement as part of a decades-old search for 6-year-old Etan Patz, who disappeared May 25, 1979, after leaving his family's apartment for a short walk to catch a school bus.
[...]


My heart is with the parents.

PhotosTheSearchForEtanPatz (http://www.latimes.com/news/nation/nationnow/la-33yearold-search-resumes-for-missing-youth-20120419,0,5174554.photogallery)

[Silvahalo]

Investigators rip up NYC basement in hunt for Etan Patz



----> VIDEO. (http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/story/2012-04-20/nyc-search-etan-patz/54443044/1)


. . .
Utility workers with jackhammers and saws helped chip away an area around aging pipes, then law enforcers wearing workmen's gloves carried out the basketball-size chunks of rubble and carefully placed them in bins. The material will be sifted and then taken elsewhere for testing.The space being excavated was about a block from the bus stop where Etan was headed when he vanished. It is one of the few secluded places, easily accessible from the street, that sat along his two-block walk to the bus from his home.At the time, part of the basement was being used as a workshop by Othniel Miller, a neighborhood handyman who had been friendly with the family.Police and FBI (http://content.usatoday.com/topics/topic/Organizations/Government+Bodies/Federal+Bureau+of+Investigation) officials haven't named a suspect in the case.
Miller, now 75 and living in Brooklyn, hasn't spoken publicly about the investigation. His lawyer, Michael Farkas, told journalists gathered outside Miller's home his client was cooperating with investigators and had "no involvement in this tragic event."


[...]

[Whisper]

New York (CNN) -- The search for Etan Patz, a 6-year-old New York boy who disappeared more than three decades ago, is expected to resume on Monday after being suspended for "operational reasons," an FBI spokesman said.

A law enforcement source briefed on the investigation said no evidence of human remains has been found so far in the basement of a building in Manhattan's SoHo neighborhood where investigators are looking.

Around 2 p.m. Sunday, investigators searching the basement abruptly folded up a tent they had erected to shield them from a nasty rainstorm.
Moments later, two large New York Police Department vans rolled in, obstructing most of the view of the scene. Through a small break between the vehicles, photographers were able to catch a glimpse of something being loaded into the side of an unmarked blue van.
FBI spokesman Peter Donald declined to discuss the reasons behind the search's suspension. "We'll be back in the morning," he said.

Sunday's developments came a day after investigators discovered a possible blood stain on a concrete wall while tearing apart the basement in their search for clues in the case, a second law enforcement source told CNN.FBI agents, assisted by the NYPD, discovered the stain by spraying the chemical luminol, said the second source, who was also briefed on the investigation.

The chemical can indicate the presence of blood, but is not always conclusive, according to that source. At this time, the stain is described only as an area of interest.

Investigators used chainsaws to dig out the portion of the wall with the stain, which will be sent to the FBI laboratory in Quantico, Virginia for analysis to determine whether the substance is blood and, if so, whose it is, the second law enforcement source said.
[..]http://www.cnn.com/2012/04/22/justice/new-york-patz-probe/index.html?eref=rss_us&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+rss%2Fcnn_us+%28RSS%3A+U.S.%2 9

[Whisper]

Updated at 11:04 p.m. ET: Dozens of items, including strands of hair, a piece of paper and other possible bits of forensic evidence have been found in a SoHo basement in the four days that investigators have been searching for clues in the 1979 disappearance of Etan Patz, NBC New York has learned.

Law enforcement sources tell NBC New York that investigators from the FBI, NYPD and Manhattan district attorney's office have told the Patz family that no human remains have been found. The family was briefed Sunday on the investigation and what has been found at the site.


Investigators discovered a "stain of interest" on a drywall Saturday while taking apart the basement in their search for the remains of Etan, according to law enforcement sources. But by Sunday, a law enforcement source told Reuters that "nothing conclusive had been found."

The stain was discovered Saturday in the ongoing search
[...]http://usnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/04/21/11328584-investigators-collect-hair-paper-in-search-for-etan-patz-missing-since-1979?lite

[Valasca]

The search of a New York City basement for possible clues in the disappearance of 6-year-old Etan Patz more than three decades ago has ended, with no human remains found, a source briefed on the investigation told CNN Monday.

Detective Joseph Cavitola, spokesman for the New York Police Department, also said the search was ending. An FBI evidence team, along with police, planned to do another check to be sure nothing was missed.

A field test on what was considered a possible bloodstain found in the basement was negative, the source said. The stain, some possible strands of hair, and a piece of paper will be analyzed at an FBI laboratory in Quantico, Virginia, the source said.

Officials were at the scene Monday, less than 100 yards from Etan's home. They removed two dumpsters that contained some concrete slabs taken from the basement, which was a carpenter's workshop at the time Etan vanished May 25, 1979.

The trash bins and their contents were taken to a location to be safeguarded, a source familiar with the investigation said.

Etan's family still lives in the home where he lived. He would have passed the workshop on the way to the bus stop, which he was walking to alone for the first time when he disappeared.

Days after Etan went missing, the carpenter who worked out of the basement poured a new concrete floor, and it was never dug up until now, according to a law enforcement source.

About a month ago, a cadaver dog reacted to the floor in a way that suggested the possibility of human remains, a law enforcement source said.

The carpenter, Othniel Miller, 75, has not been charged with a crime.

He had no involvement in the disappearance, his lawyer said.

"Mr. Miller has been cooperating with this investigation for over 30 years," attorney Michael Farkas said Friday. "He has continued to cooperate on multiple occasions. And I am going to assist him in cooperating to the fullest extent possible."

Miller's daughter, Stephanie Miller, told CNN affiliate WCBS that her father had cooperated with federal agents, saying he "doesn't have anything to do with it."

FBI agents, assisted by the NYPD, discovered the possible bloodstain over the weekend by spraying the chemical luminol, which can indicate the presence of blood, but is not always conclusive, according to a source, who was also briefed on the investigation.

Investigators used chainsaws to dig out the portion of the wall with the stain, which the FBI will analyze to determine whether the substance is blood and, if so, whose it is, one of the sources said. Anything with potential forensic value will be brought to Quantico, two sources said. Analysis could take several days or weeks, one of the sources said.

The search for Etan resumed Monday morning after it was suspended Sunday for what the FBI called "operational reasons."

Around 2 p.m. Sunday, investigators searching the basement abruptly folded up a tent they had erected to shield them from a nasty rainstorm.

Moments later, two large New York Police Department vans rolled in, obstructing most of the view of the scene. Through a small break between the vehicles, photographers were able to catch a glimpse of something being loaded into the side of an unmarked blue van.

FBI spokesman Peter Donald declined to discuss the reasons behind the search's suspension. "We'll be back in the morning," he said.

Investigators recently relaunched their probe of the cold case, often described as a milestone effort that helped draw the plight of missing children into the national consciousness.

Authorities said both new and old information led them to Miller, a part-time handyman, who met Etan the day before he disappeared and gave him a dollar.

It was interest in Miller that prompted authorities to bring a cadaver dog about 10 days ago to a SoHo basement, where Etan apparently had encountered the carpenter, then 42, a source said.

When agents interviewed Miller about his connection to the basement, the source said Miller blurted out, "What if the body was moved?"

Farkas, the attorney, said he would speak to authorities about that alleged remark.

"I don't know that he asked that," Farkas told reporters.

Miller was picked up by the FBI Thursday and was questioned and returned to his Brooklyn apartment, a source said.

In 2010, Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. said his office decided to take another look at the decades-old mystery. FBI leads were then culled from that case file, sources said.

The investigation garnered national headlines as authorities splashed the child's image on the sides of milk cartons in the hopes of gathering more information.

Etan was officially declared dead in 2001 as part of a civil lawsuit filed by his family against a drifter, Jose Antonio Ramos, a convicted child molester acquainted with his babysitter.

A judge found Ramos responsible for the death and ordered him to pay the family $2 million. He never paid the money.

Though Ramos has been considered a key focus of the probe for years, he has never been charged in the case. He is serving a 20-year sentence in a Pennsylvania prison for molesting a different boy and is set to be released later this year.

A source said investigators want to expand the pool of possible suspects beyond Ramos.

Stan and Julie Patz, Etan's parents, wouldn't comment on the developments. A notice on the apartment building said, "To the hardworking and patient media people: The answer to all your questions at this time is 'no comment.' Please stop ringing our bell and calling for interviews."

SoHo -- a Lower Manhattan neighborhood now known for its boutique shops, art galleries and loft apartments -- at the time was a grittier locale, where abandoned storefronts dotted the city streets.

The boy's disappearance raised awareness of child abductions and led to new ways to search for missing children.
http://www.cnn.com/2012/04/23/justice/new-york-patz-probe/index.html?hpt=hp_t1

[Dakota Valkyrie]

NYPD says New Jersey man implicated self in 6-year-old’s ‘disappearance and death’

The NYPD may have solved the heartrending mystery of little Etan Patz’ disappearance 33 years ago, police brass said Thursday morning.

"An individual now in custody has made statements to NYPD detectives implicating himself in the disappearance and death of Etan Patz 33 years ago,” Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said in a statement. “We expect to provide further details later today."

Pedro Hernandez was picked up in Camden, N.J., on Wednesday, a source told the Daily News.

Interest in the case was revived in April when law enforcement agents dug up a SoHo basement that was the workplace of former handyman Othniel Miller, who knew 6-year-old Etan from the neighborhood. The building was on the two-block route the boy was taking to his school bus when he disappeared on Friday, May 25, 1979.

But the search turned up no new evidence. Two Dumpsters filled with debris removed from the 800-square-foot basement at 127B Prince St. were sent to a Staten Island landfill for preservation.

Less than an hour after the NYPD and FBI formally ended their search on April 23, Miller's lawyer, Michael Farkas, said his client's reputation had been "dragged through the mud."

Miller, 75, of Brooklyn, remains "deeply saddened by what happened to young Etan Patz," Farkas said.

No one was ever arrested or charged with Etan's disappearance, but in 1985 a pedophile named Jose Ramos was identified as the prime suspect in the case. His girlfriend baby-sat for Etan.

Ramos, who is 68 and is doing time in a Pennsylvania prison for molesting two boys, has admitted taking a young boy back to his apartment to rape on the day Etan disappeared. He said the boy looked like Etan, but insisted he let the boy go.

The creep was declared responsible for Etan's death in 2004 in a New York civil case.

Ramos is due to be released in November.http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/etan-patz-case-nypd-person-custody-implicates-6-year-old-disappearance-death-article-1.1083765

[Dakota Valkyrie]

Sources say authorities do have some doubts about his story.

New details are also starting to emerge in published reports, though they do have conflicting accounts of what allegedly happened to Etan.

The New York Times reports a law enforcement official as saying Hernandez confessed to wrapping the six-year-old's body in a bag, putting it in a box and leaving it somewhere in Manhattan. However, the paper says another official said Hernandez couldn't find it when he returned to the location several days later.

The New York Post and Daily News say the boy was stabbed after being lured with candy.

Hernandez also apparently worked at a bodega near Etan's Prince Street home.

Law enforcement officials say Hernandez has been linked to the case in the past.

"It's a case that, to his credit, [Manhattan] District Attorney Cy Vance reopened in hopes not only of bringing justice but also offering some closure to Etan's parents. And as a father I just can't imagine what they've gone through and I certainly hope they are one step closer to bringing them some measure of relief," Mayor Michael Bloomberg told reporters Thursday.
[...]

Although convicted child molester Jose Ramos was suspected in the disappearance, and Brooklyn handyman Othneil Miller was also eyed during last month's search, no one has ever been prosecuted in the case.
http://www.ny1.com/content/top_stories/161820/man-implicates-self-in-soho-boy-s-1979-disappearance--police-say


The boy's disappearance 33 years ago Friday helped spawn a national movement to raise awareness of missing children, which involved a then-novel approach of splashing an image of the child's face across thousands of milk cartons.

Police were tipped off to Hernandez by someone who knew him, and whom Hernandez had confided in, the source said.
[...]

Hernandez's claim is considered "a good lead," the source said, but it's unclear where the new development will take the decades-old case.

However, a separate law enforcement source said Thursday that Hernandez's claims are being treated with "a healthy dose of skepticism." He was picked up Wednesday in New Jersey, two law enforcement sources added.

Hernandez, who has not been charged with a crime, had lived and worked in the same Manhattan neighborhood where the Patz family lives, the source said.

Investigators have looked at the man before in connection with the case, according to the second source, and his information is being treated very cautiously.

Renewed attention over the Patz disappearance sprung up last month when investigators scoured Miller's SoHo basement, where Etan had been seen a day before he went missing, but it produced no obvious clues.

Hernandez's name "came up more than once while interviewing others recently," said a law enforcement source, who added that authorities had been familiar with him years ago.

The person whom Hernandez had allegedly confided in contacted authorities months ago after news coverage about the renewed search, which -- in part -- prompted investigators to question Hernandez.

A spokeswoman for the Manhattan district attorney's office, which reopened the case in 2010, declined to comment on the recent development.

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg added that there's "still a lot more investigating to do."
[...]

Parents Stan and Julie Patz still live in their SoHo home and have not commented on the new developments.

Cohen, author of "After Etan: The Missing Child Case That Held America Captive," told CNN earlier that "the family's been living through this for 33 years. They've had many moments like this. They've learned how to deal with it."
[...]http://www.cnn.com/2012/05/24/justice/new-york-etan-patz/index.html

[Whisper]

Pedro Hernandez, a former Manhattan store clerk who once lived in the same neighborhood as Etan Patz, was arrested in the boy's 1979 death, New York Police Commissioner Ray Kelly says.

Kelly says police have a signed confession from Hernandez.
Patz's disappearance received national attention and helped trigger a national movement that focuses on missing children. http://www.cnn.com/JUSTICE/

[Whisper]

Missing child case 'awakened America'
http://www.cnn.com/2012/05/24/justice/new-york-etan-patz-significance/index.html?hpt=ju_c1

[Silvahalo]

They are covering the latest on Nightline right now. . .

[Valasca]

Nothing really pertaining to the case, but this was in local news.

J
ay Howell’s work as an attorney for the U.S. Senate in 1981 energized the national missing children’s movement with the help of a pleasant New York couple freshly grieving over the disappearance of their little boy.

Howell, a longtime victims rights attorney in Jacksonville, found Stanley and Julie Patz traumatized over the 1979 loss over 6-year-old Etan. But he said the couple was also determined to speak out for other boys and girls stolen off the country’s streets. They did so speaking on television shows, news conferences and Senate panels.

Howell’s early interaction with the Patzes included his invitation to them for a 1983 White House Rose Garden ceremony in which President Ronald Reagan signed a proclamation — written by Howell in Etan’s honor — designating May 25 as National Missing Children’s Day.

“I admired them because in the face of what has to be one of this earth’s cruelest blows, they were able to dedicate themselves and work to make changes that would help other people,” Howell said.

Howell spent Friday, the 29th anniversary of that day, relieved to know that police had finally made an arrest a day earlier in Etan’s kidnapping and slaying.

Police accused Pedro Hernandez, 51, of killing the New Jersey boy 33 years ago after luring him into a store where Hernandez worked, then choking him to death and stuffing his body in a trash bag. No motive has been given for the slaying.

Howell said he hasn’t spoken to Etan’s parents since the late 1980s, but he often thinks of the boy’s case. He said perhaps they can now find some peace.

“Hopefully for Stan and Julie there is evidence to convict this individual, and at least the uncertainly is finally explained,” Howell said.

Florida Sen. Paula Hawkins appointed Howell in 1981 as chief counsel to the Senate’s Subcommittee on Investigations and Oversight. He investigated and drafted legislation for issues including missing and kidnapped children, child pornography and serial murders.

Howell worked with the Patzes and other families, including the parents of slain Florida boy Adam Walsh, to develop a national program to help police and families in their search for the victims.

Howell’s work on the subcommittee and with the U.S Justice Department led to the passage of the 1983 Missing Children’s Act, which helped place more children in a national crime information database, and the creation of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. He co-founded the group in 1984 and worked as its first executive director from 1984 to 1987.

National Missing Children’s Day came out of a White House request of Howell to come up with a day to highlight the plight of such children and their families.

His local practice focuses on representing children and adults turned crime victims. He is also active among victim advocates, including serving on the Mayor’s Victim Assistance Advisory Council and hosting its annual awards ceremony. He received a lifetime achievement award from the group this year.

Howell still keeps volumes of records and pictures of his days on the Senate subcommittee and pulled some of those out Friday when asked about his work with the Patzes. The day turned out to be bittersweet for a local lawyer touched by one of the nation’s longest missing child odysseys.

“I feel relieved that Stan and Julie now know what happened,” Howell said. “You hope this truly has solved it.”


Read more at Jacksonville.com: http://jacksonville.com/news/crime/2012-05-25/story/jacksonville-lawyer-remembers-work-parents-etan-patz#ixzz1vv9TbsDh

[totallytoddler]

on yahoo this morning...


NEW YORK (AP) — The anniversary of the day 6-year-old Etan Patz vanished on his way to school dawned with his suspected killer in police custody, but it ended with a muddled portrait of the man who confessed to strangling the little boy and dumping his body in the trash.

A former neighbor who knew Pedro Hernandez as a teenager says he was someone you wouldn't want to cross — a reserved but "pent-up" young man. But the pastor of his church says Hernandez, now 51, is simply a shy and timid man who faithfully attends Sunday services.

Now on suicide watch at Bellevue Hospital, Hernandez was arraigned Friday via video link from a hospital ward on a charge of murder. His court-appointed lawyer, Harvey Fishbein, told the judge that Hernandez is bipolar, schizophrenic and has a "history of hallucinations, both visual and auditory."

Hernandez, who was a teenage convenience store clerk at the time Etan went missing, now lives in Maple Shade, N.J. He was arrested Thursday after making a surprise confession in a case that has bedeviled investigators for 33 years. Hernandez told police he lured Etan into the basement of a convenience store with a promise of a soda, choked him to death, then stuffed his body in a bag and left it with trash on the street a block away.

The legal proceeding lasted only about four minutes. Expressionless, wearing an orange jumpsuit and handcuffs, Hernandez didn't speak or enter a plea.

A judge ordered Hernandez held without bail and authorized a psychological examination to see if he is fit to stand trial.

The prosecutor who appeared in court, Assistant District Attorney Armand Durastanti, said it was 33 years ago Friday that 6-year-old Etan Patz left his home on Prince Street to catch his school bus. "He has not been seen or heard from since. It's been 33 years, and justice has not been done in this case," Durastanti, said.

Etan disappeared on May 25, 1979, on his two-block walk to his bus stop in Manhattan. It was the first time his parents had let him walk the route by himself.

Next to the bus stop was a convenience store, where Hernandez, then 18, worked as a clerk. Police interviewed him this week, acting on a tip.

Etan's remains were never found, even after a massive search and a media campaign that made parents afraid to let their children out of their sight and sparked a movement to publicize the cases of missing youngsters. Etan was one of the first missing children to be pictured on a milk carton.

Hernandez's confession put investigators in the unusual position of bringing the case to court before they had amassed any physical evidence or had time to fully corroborate his story or investigate his psychiatric condition.

Police spokesman Paul Browne said investigators were retracing garbage truck routes from the late 1970s and deciding whether to search landfills for the boy's remains, a daunting prospect.

Crime scene investigators also arrived Friday morning at the building in Manhattan's SoHo section that once held the bodega where Hernandez worked. Authorities were considering excavating the basement for evidence.

They also were looking into whether Hernandez has a history of mental illness or pedophilia.

Browne said letting Hernandez remain free until the investigation is complete was not an option: "There was no way we could release the man who had just confessed to killing Etan Patz."
more at link
http://news.yahoo.com/images-vary-man-charged-79-etan-patz-murder-112836319.html

[Whisper]

NEW YORK – When police dug up a Manhattan basement last month in a fruitless search for the remains of Etan Patz, a 6-year-old boy who disappeared in 1979, Lucy Suarez saw the news on TV and wished that the family of the missing child would finally get some peace.

"My sister and I prayed about it. We prayed and we said, 'Let justice be done,'" Suarez said. "Never did we think it was going to be done with our family."

On Friday, her older brother was charged with Etan's murder.
[...]
The admission surprised investigators, who had been confounded by the disappearance for three decades and never considered Hernandez a suspect until this month. Just weeks ago, they had focused their attention on another man, and even ripped up a basement he had once used as a workshop in the hope of finding clues.

Suarez said her family is reeling, too, despite having had concerns for years that her brother had once done something bad to a child.

Hernandez, now living in Maple Shade, N.J., was 18 when Etan vanished. When he moved to New Jersey not long after the disappearance, he said something to relatives about having hurt a child back in New York.

Suarez said her brother never spoke to her directly about what had happened, and the family's knowledge of the incident was vague.

"He didn't say, 'I killed somebody,'" she said. "My conclusion was that it was a hit and run, or he hit someone with a bike. Nothing like a murder."

Suarez said she was shocked to find out about his arrest early Thursday, but another of the suspect's sisters, Norma Hernandez, said at least some relatives had heard something far more horrifying about what he had done.

In the 1980s, she said, Pedro had confessed to a church prayer group that he had killed a boy. Norma Hernandez said she didn't have firsthand knowledge of this confession, and didn't learn about it until later. If she had known, she said, she would have turned her brother in.

"Even if it is my own child I will go to the police station and say, 'You'd better check them out,'" she said. "I'd consider the mother and her child and her wondering what happened to her child."

The people who heard him confess "should've said something even if it wasn't true," she said.

A defense lawyer told a judge Friday that Hernandez suffered from schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, and had a history of hallucinations. Suarez said she knew her brother had been taking psychiatric medications, but said she didn't think he had been debilitated by mental illness, and wasn't aware that he had been hallucinating. She also said she had never thought him to be capable of murder.

"My brother was not a monster like that. I don't know him like that," she said. Suarez said she was still holding out hope that her brother's confession might be false, prompted by a delusion, fueled by the media attention to the case.

"If he did do it, God will have justice," she said. Suarez said she would continue to pray for Etan's parents, Stanley and Julie Patz. "I would like to have a chance to meet them and apologize to them, whether my brother is guilty, or not."

Well-wishers left flowers, candles and dolls Saturday outside the New York City building that once housed the bodega where police said Etan died.
[...]http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/05/26/nj-man-charged-with-murdering-ny-boy-patz-in-17/#ixzz1w1d3F1UU
I really want to know why,did he sexually assault him??
B/c only thing they said so far was "maybe I did it b/c he reminded me of my least favorite nephew

[Whisper]

Suspect In 1979 Etan Patz Murder Has Schizophrenia And Hallucinations, Says His Lawyer

[...]
The NY Times' Jim Dwyer wrote yesterday, "The law enforcement official involved in the case said that investigators were now trying to find reasons to trust Mr. Hernandez’s story. Why would a man with no known history of pedophilia or murderous impulses lure a boy into a bodega basement and strangle him?" An official said, "He doesn’t give any motivation in the statement. The admission was totally unsolicited." And the Daily Beast's Michael Daly reports, "Detectives who questioned Hernandez on Wednesday and Thursday are said to have asked him his motive. His reply, they said, is that he had no motive, or that perhaps he acted because Etan reminded him of his least-favorite nephew."[...]http://gothamist.com/2012/05/26/suspect_in_1979_etan_patz_murder_ha.php#photo-1

imagine how his nephews feel wondering which one of them it was that caused his hatred

[Dakota Valkyrie]

I have to wonder... other than the confession of a mentally ill person, what proof do they have? Any person could confess to a crime but without additional proof, how could they charge - much less convict?? This guy could just be having a delusion brought on by his diagnosis and this would be nothing more than another media generated circus.

It's not unheard of for people to "take credit" for crimes - whether from desire for fame, to instigate "power", or from absolute weird mental issues.

[Whisper]

I have to wonder... other than the confession of a mentally ill person, what proof do they have? Any person could confess to a crime but without additional proof, how could they charge - much less convict?? This guy could just be having a delusion brought on by his diagnosis and this would be nothing more than another media generated circus.

It's not unheard of for people to "take credit" for crimes - whether from desire for fame, to instigate "power", or from absolute weird mental issues.

Saw documentary on false confessions awhile ago and it happens ALOT

[Dakota Valkyrie]

Saw documentary on false confessions awhile ago and it happens ALOT
Exactly what I mean. Even without the fact that many sane folks make false confessions, I have doubts. I have brother that is a schizophrenic and when he's not medicated life gets really weird... but logical if you can get into an alternate thought process. He's confessed to all sorts of ludicrous shit and accused many of shit that you have to prove (to cops!) that is false.

I'm very skeptical of this"confession" without additional proof.

[Whisper]

Exactly what I mean. Even without the fact that many sane folks make false confessions, I have doubts. I have brother that is a schizophrenic and when he's not medicated life gets really weird... but logical if you can get into an alternate thought process. He's confessed to all sorts of ludicrous shit and accused many of shit that you have to prove (to cops!) that is false.

I'm very skeptical of this"confession" without additional proof.

Look at John Karr/Carr said he killed Jon Benet

[Dakota Valkyrie]

Look at John Karr/Carr said he killed Jon Benet
Exactly! Some sicko just drags the family through more trauma drama.

[Silvahalo]

A defense lawyer told a judge Friday that Hernandez suffered from schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, and had a history of hallucinations. Suarez said she knew her brother had been taking psychiatric medications, but said she didn't think he had been debilitated by mental illness, and wasn't aware that he had been hallucinating. She also said she had never thought him to be capable of murder.I to wonder whether his confession is based on reality. He could have hallucinated doing something and IF he had troubling thoughts coupled with mental illness, who knows for certain without actual evidence, and that's not going to happen at this point.

This is interesting. I must have read over this part before. I thought he turned himself in but this says he confessed after a relative "ratted" him out and that he had confessed to the murder years ago.

Etan Patz’s alleged killer tried to confess to cops years ago that he had murdered the long-missing 6-year-old — but he was dismissed as a nutjob and detectives never followed through, the suspect’s sister told The Post yesterday.“Every time the anniversary of that little boy came up on TV, I would say, ‘Why doesn’t he turn himself in?’ ” recalled Lucy Suarez, 43, the youngest sister of Pedro Hernandez.
“And my sister said, ‘He did, but the police let him go because they said he was too crazy,’ ” Suarez said.


Sources yesterday also revealed that five days after Etan disappeared, cops saw Hernandez at the bodega, where one of the owners explained away his presence by noting he was merely his brother-in-law. There is no record that police ever interviewed Hernandez that day about Etan.

Hernandez, 51, confessed to the NYPD Wednesday after a relative ratted him out, police said. He was arraigned on a second-degree murder charge from Bellevue Hospital on the 33rd anniversary of Etan’s disappearance.
. . .
Read more: (http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/manhattan/too_crazy_for_cops_when_he_confessed_WY7fGMsSiaE3U YaCdc0A3J#ixzz1w2PzDzGo)




I'm dunno. I'm torn. A confession twice? seems likely he's guilty. It's all possible it's him even w/ mental issues. He was 19 when he allegedly killed Etan, hard to believe virtually a kid himself would do this but, well, we know killers come in all ages. I'm leaning to it being him but wondering how is it the cops arrest him without more...thinking maybe there is more and we just don't know.

[Whisper]

FBI not convinced that Pedro Hernandez actually killed Etan Patz

The nation breathed a collective sigh of relief Wednesday when NJ resident Pedro Hernandez confessed to the NYPD that he choked and murdered 6-year-old Etan Patz 33 years ago. Maybe now Etan’s parents could now have some peace, and some closure. But the FBI isn’t convinced that the Hernandez confession is the real deal.
[...]
some FBI higher-ups are expressing their doubts that Hernandez actually killed Etan Patz.
[...]http://www.examiner.com/article/fbi-not-convinced-that-pedro-hernandez-actually-killed-etan-patz

[Dakota Valkyrie]

[...]
Without a body or DNA evidence, the DA will not be able to prosecute Hernandez on his confession alone.

Meanwhile, Stan and Julie Patz are said to be skeptical of the confession, according to DNAInfo, as it is just the latest in a string of stories they have heard from various sources and people over the last 33 years.

As well as a number of false claims and wrong leads given to police - including the recent questioning of handyman Othniel Miller, the family have also had a number of young men come to the family home claiming to be Etan.

Sources told DNAinfo that one man actually walked up to Stan Patz and said, 'Hi dad, I am Etan.'

Another was so sure and insistent he was the missing boy from the milk cartons that he had to submit a DNA test to prove he was not him.

It is believed he had even convinced himself he was Etan after becoming obsessed with the infamous case over the years.
[...]

The Patz family have never been able to escape the publicity surrounding their youngest son's disappearance and have been particularly hounded in the weeks since the FBI dug up a SoHo basement believing they were going to find traces of the child's body.

Yesterday, Mr Patz pinned a note to their door saying: 'To all the media people hanging around here. You have managed to make a difficult situation even worse. Talk to your assignment editors.

'It is past time for you to leave me, my family and my neighbors alone.'

Stanley Patz has always maintained that convicted pedophile Jose Ramos is responsible for his son's death.

In 2004 Ramos,who dated Etan’s babysitter, was declared responsible for their son's death by a civil judge. Stan Patz has been so convinced of Ramos’ guilt that every year, on Etan's birthday and on the anniversary of his disappearance, Patz sends Ramos a Missing Child poster of his son.

On the back he writes, 'What did you do to my little boy?'

The FBI are also said to be skeptical that they have their man and Manhattan DA Cy Vance has expressed doubts over the bipolar schizophrenic's confession.
[...]

There is no physical evidence that Hernandez committed the crime and the only thing police are going on is his confession to police, a prayer group and relatives.

Hernandez’s sister, Norma, told The Wall Street Journal yesterday that after hearing from other relatives about his alleged confession, she went to the Camden, New Jersey, police.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2151870/Etan-Patzs-father-pictured-tragic-bike-ride-past-spot-son-killed--emerges-couple-skeptical-alleged-killers-confession.html

[Dakota Valkyrie]

Former suspect in Etan Patz case to be freed

http://i0.simplest-image-hosting.net/picture/121106-08.jpg#REMEMBER-TO-LINK-SIMPLEST-IMAGE-HOSTING.NET-WHEN-HOTLINKING (http://simplest-image-hosting.net/jpg-0-121106-08)
Jose Ramos in 2010
While prosecutors weigh what to do about a suspect who surprisingly surfaced this spring in the landmark 1979 disappearance case of Etan Patz, the man who was the prime suspect for years is about to go free after more than two decades in prison for molesting other children.

These two threads in the tangled story are set to cross next month, a twist that evokes decades of uncertainties and loose ends in the search for what happened to the sandy-haired 6-year-old last seen walking to his Manhattan school bus stop.

The new suspect, Pedro Hernandez, has been charged with Etan's murder after police said he emerged as a suspect and confessed this spring. But there's no public indication that authorities have found anything beyond his admission to implicate him, and his lawyer has said Hernandez is mentally ill.

The Pennsylvania inmate, Jose Ramos, was declared responsible for Etan's death in a civil court, but the Manhattan district attorney's office has said there wasn't enough evidence to charge him criminally. After serving 25 years on child molestation convictions in Pennsylvania, he's set to be freed Nov. 7, about a week before prosecutors are due to indicate whether they believe there's evidence enough to keep going after Hernandez.
[...]

In a letter last month to The Associated Press, Ramos said he was declining interviews while in prison but will be available to speak after his release.
[...]

After his arrest, the New York Police Department announced that Hernandez had admitted strangling the boy and leaving his body in a trash bag.

There has been no signal that an extensive probe in the months since has turned up further evidence against him. Hernandez's attorney, Harvey Fishbein, raised further doubts about the case, saying Hernandez is schizophrenic and bipolar and has heard voices.
[...]

A DA's office spokeswoman and Hernandez' lawyer declined to comment on Ramos' release, as did the now-retired GraBois. The Patzes' lawyer didn't respond to phone messages; the parents have asked to be left alone.

There's no time limit for bringing charges in a murder case, so prosecutors could charge Ramos — or someone else — in future if they decide not to pursue Hernandez. But from a practical standpoint, the fact that Hernandez was charged could be grist for any other suspect's defense.
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2012/10/28/etan-patz-case/1664179/

[Dakota Valkyrie]

http://i0.simplest-image-hosting.net/picture/121107-02.jpg#REMEMBER-TO-LINK-SIMPLEST-IMAGE-HOSTING.NET-WHEN-HOTLINKING (http://simplest-image-hosting.net/jpg-0-121107-02) http://i0.simplest-image-hosting.net/picture/121107-03.jpg#REMEMBER-TO-LINK-SIMPLEST-IMAGE-HOSTING.NET-WHEN-HOTLINKING (http://simplest-image-hosting.net/jpg-0-121107-03)
The kiddie perv, once suspected in Etan Patz’s disappearance, walked out of prison before he was locked up again for allegedly lying to cops about his living arrangement, authorities said today.

Jose Ramos, 69, was released from SCI Dallas Prison in northeast Pennsylvania late last night and then immediately rearrested for telling police he was headed for a home on Leggett Ave., in the Bronx -- a location he had no real plans to inhabit, officials said.

Ramos is required, under Megan’s Law, to tell police where he’ll be living.

Magisterial District Court Judge James Tupper this morning set Ramos’ bail at $75,000 and ordered him back to court on Nov. 15.
[...]

As he walked out of jail this morning, on his way to court, Ramos gave rambling answers to questions posed by The Post.

Asked if he killed Patz, Ramos said: "Does your mother know you're here?"

Asked why he’s been rearrested, Ramos nonsensically responded: "Because my pants are falling down.”

He declined to say whether he knew Pedro Hernandez, the New Jersey man who has confessed to killing Patz.

The white-bearded Ramos was dressed in a blue jail jumpsuit, waist shackles and white shoes, looking like a crazed, emaciated Santa Claus.
[...]

Unless Ramos makes bail, he’ll be spending the next week at the Luzerne County Correctional Facility. He faces up to 10 years in prison for allegedly giving bad information on his post-release whereabouts.
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/manhattan/longtime_etan_patz_suspect_jose_wzx0yPBr8nVFu7EJet V8aM

[Dakota Valkyrie]

http://i0.simplest-image-hosting.net/picture/121115-01.jpg#REMEMBER-TO-LINK-SIMPLEST-IMAGE-HOSTING.NET-WHEN-HOTLINKING (http://simplest-image-hosting.net/jpg-0-121115-01)
A grand jury has indicted a former SoHo bodega clerk on charges he lured 6-year-old Etan Patz into a basement and killed him 33 years ago.

Pedro Hernandez is charged with second-degree murder and first-degree kidnapping, the Manhattan District Attorney's office said Wednesday. He was set to appear in court Thursday.

Hernandez, who has a history of mental illness, was arrested last spring, 33 years after Patz disappeared off a SoHo street in a tragic case that mystified New York City for decades.

Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said at the time that police focused on Hernandez, who now lives in Maple Shade, N.J., after the Missing Persons Squad received a tip from someone who remembered Hernandez speaking of having killed a child.
[...]

Hernandez's attorney, Harvey Fishbein, said the trial would not solve the mystery of what happened to Patz.

He said Hernandez, who has taken medication for schizophrenia for years, has recently been diagnosed with schizotypal personality disorder, which includes hallucinations. Fishbein cited both court-ordered and private psychiatric evaluations and said the entire case is based on statements made by his mentally ill client.

"The statements alleged by the people are not supported by any evidence whatsoever despite extraordinary investigative efforts by the police, back then and now," Fishbein said.

A spokeswoman for the Manhattan District Attorney said the grand jury found sufficient evidence to charge Hernandez and that the office believes the case should go to trial.

"This indictment is the outcome of a lengthy and deliberative process, involving months of factual investigation and legal analysis," said Erin Duggan.
http://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/Etan-Patz-Suspect-Pedro-Hernandez-Grand-Jury-Charges-Indictment-179304281.html

[Jerri Blank]

Etan Patz Suspect Pedro Hernandez Pleads Not Guilty

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork/AP) – The man charged with killing a 6-year-old New York City boy in 1979 has pleaded not guilty to murder despite police saying he confessed to the crime.

The defense of a man charged with killing a 6-year-old boy in 1979 will revolve around his mental state and a false confession to the crime, but he is not pursuing an insanity defense in the sensational case, his attorney said.

Pedro Hernandez, 51, appeared in court Wednesday afternoon for an arraignment on the murder charge in the death of Etan Patz. Patz disappeared on his way to a school bus stop more than three decades ago.

Hernandez will maintain he didn’t kill Etan and argue he made a false confession because of his mental problems, among other factors, his attorney Harvey Fishbein said. An insanity defense would mean acknowledging he committed the crime but arguing that he was too psychologically ill to know it was wrong.

“The only part that mental disease plays in this case is its role in the confession,” he said before the court date.

Psychiatric exams of the jailed Hernandez have found that he has an IQ in the borderline-to-mild mental retardation range, his lawyer has said.

Hernandez also has been found to suffer from schizotypal personality disorder, which is characterized by hallucinations, according to his lawyer.

“The statements made by client are not reliable,” Fishbein said last month. [...]
http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2012/12/12/etan-patz-suspect-pedro-hernandez-due-in-court/


Etan Patz suspect reportedly said boy was still breathing when he dumped body

He claims he killed Etan Patz, but when the man accused of the murder last saw the missing child, the boy was still breathing, according to new details about the confession.

Pedro Hernandez — who was an 18-year-old SoHo bodega clerk when Etan Patz, 6, vanished near the store in 1979 — told cops he "placed the boy in a plastic bag [and] placed the bag in a cardboard box," according to defense papers filed in Manhattan Supreme Court yesterday.

"He then carried the box to the entranceway of a basement approximately one-and-a-half blocks away, where he placed the box on the ground just inside the open entranceway," the papers say.

Hernandez's confession was taped in May at the Camden County, NJ, prosecutor's office, near his current home in Mount Holly.

"According to the video-recorded statement by Mr. Hernandez, when he left the box, Etan Patz was still alive," the papers say.

A law-enforcement source who asked not to be identified told the Post that Hernandez said that although Etan was breathing, he was motionless.

"He said [Etan] was unconscious, but still breathing. He was almost dead," said the source. "Hernandez said he panicked and dumped the body."

It was some seven to eight hours after he was taken into custody that Hernandez, who has an IQ of approximately 70, made that first video-recorded statement to cops, his lawyer, Harvey Fishbein, told reporters after his client pleaded not guilty to kidnapping and murder charges.

In a second videotaped statement, made the next day at the Manhattan DA's Office, Hernandez added that “Etan Patz might have died because of his [Hernandez’s] actions,” the papers said.
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/12/13/etan-patz-suspect-reportedly-said-boy-was-still-breathing-when-dumped-body/

[Whisper]

A man who confessed to killing a long-missing New York City boy is asking a judge to throw out the murder case against him. His lawyer says the confession was false and there's not enough evidence to support it.

The dismissal request was filed Wednesday in one of the nation's most notorious child disappearances. Six-year-old Etan Patz (AY'-tahn payts) vanished en route to school in May 1979.

Maple Shade, N.J., resident Pedro Hernandez was arrested last year after police got a tip. He later told authorities he'd choked Etan, boxed his limp body and left it with trash.

Defense lawyer Harvey Fishbein has said Hernandez is mentally ill. Fishbein says in Tuesday's court papers Hernandez' confession included questionable claims.
[...]http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/man-asks-court-toss-1979-nyc-child-killing-18982249

[Dakota Valkyrie]

The case against a New Jersey man charged with murder in the disappearance of Etan Patz can proceed to trial, a judge ruled Wednesday.

Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Maxell Wiley declined to toss out the case against Pedro Hernandez from Maple Shade, N.J., who was charged last year.

Hernandez, 52, confessed to killing Patz, whose disappearance in 1979 when he was 6 years old has remained one of the city’s most high-profile unsolved crimes. The body has never been recovered.

His lawyer, Harvey Fishbein, had argued that his client is mentally ill and his confession to investigators was false.

Fishbein said there was no evidence to back up the confession, but authorities said Hernandez had made incriminating remarks to family members years before he confessed.

Under New York law, a person can be convicted based only on a confession if there’s additional evidence that a crime was committed.
[...]

Hernandez, a former SoHo bodega worker, told cops he saw the child at a bus stop and lured him to the basement of the store with the promise of a soda, prosecutors said. He said he then choked Patz and put him in a plastic bag and left him still alive in a box half a block away, according to authorities.
http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/etan-patz-murder-case-trial-article-1.1344881

I hope they have more than just his ramblings. I've heard the crap that comes out a delusional person and without additional evidence, there is no way I would believe them. My paranoid schizophrenic brother has called the cops and FBI with some really impossible whoppers that he truly believes at that moment.

Even if Pedro Hernandez had been confessing to everyone for years, I wouldn't believe him without something a bit more substantial than that to go on.