Disappearance of Etan Patz Puns

New York, USA, 1979.

6-year-old Etan Patz convinces his mother that he is independent enough to take the bus to school. In the morning he leaves his apartment at 113 Prince St and walks towards West Broadway, where the school bus stops every morning to take the kids to school. Etan had about 500 feet to walk. He never got on the bus.

The boy's teacher notices his absence from school but does not report it to the principal. Etan's mother Julie notifies the police the moment the boy does not come home after school. The search involves nearly 100 officers, as well as teams with tracking dogs. The search goes on for weeks, but yields no results. There is no trace of the boy. Etan's father, Stanley, is a photographer, and he manages to use his son's photos and place them everywhere he can - in newspapers, on the streets, as well as on the big screens of Times Square and... on milk cartons.

At first, the police, as is usually the case, suspect Etan's parents of abducting him, but they back off rather quickly.

Jose Ramos

The police begin to suspect a local pedophile - Jose Ramos, who in addition at one time was in a relationship with a woman who for a time walked the boy to the bus stop. In 1981, pictures of boys similar to Etan, but not himself, were found in the drain pipe where Ramos lived. One detective managed to get him to talk, and the confession is known as the "90% Testimony." Ramos admitted that on the day Etan went missing, he had sex with some boy in his apartment and that he was 90% sure it was the boy they showed on TV. However, he claimed that he didn't do anything to him and that he put him on the subway afterwards. Ramos seemed like a promising lead. He was even able to draw a map of the school bus the boy was supposed to be riding on at the time. Unfortunately, he could not be linked to Etan's disappearance. In 2000, police officers searched the basement where Jose Ramos once lived and indeed bones were found there, but animal bones. In an interview (2009) with "20/20" magazine, the boy's father said that every year he sends a letter to the prison where Ramos is being held. He sends him a poster with a picture of the boy and with the caption: "What have you done to my child?"

Ramos was released in November 2012 after serving a 25-year prison sentence for molestation.

Pedro Hernandez

The case stagnated for more than 30 years. In 2012, investigators were approached by a man, Jose Lopez, who claimed that his brother-in-law, Pedr

Background

Etan Patz was born in 1972 and was six years old when he disappeared from his Lower Manhattan house, in New York City.

Disappearance

Etan was walking down to the bus stop, two blocks away from his house, for the first time the morning he went missing. His mother sent him off in a green shirt and blue captain hat and thought he was at school all day. When 3:30 came around and Etan didn't come back home, his mother became worried and called the police. A very intense investigation began. The Patzs were at first suspected but were soon cleared.

Investigation: possible leads?

The primary suspect was José Antonio Ramos, a convicted child abuser who was a friend of Etan's one time babysitter. Little boys accused him of trying to lure them into a drainpipe, where he lived and where police found pictures of him with young boys resembling Patz. He was cleared when they found he'd been in custody for an unrelated child molesting claim. He was questioned a few years later and confessed he took a boy of Etan's age the day he disappeared, raped him and "put him on a subway" and was 90% sure he was Etan. When convicted of unrelated child molestation charges, he told a fellow convict he knew what happened to Etan and even drew a map of his school bus route. He was declared responsible of his death in a civil case but has never been prosecuted. He still denies his involvement.

On 2010, police reopened Etan's case. They wanted to excavate a SoHo basement that was being refurbished around the time of his disappearance. It yielded nothing conclusive.

On 2012 a man called Pedro Hernandez while in custody implicated himself in Etan's disappearance. He confessed to strangling Etan and dumping his remains in the garbage. Police suspect Hernandez may have come into contact with Etan through his bodega: Etan had a dollar on the day he disappeared and wanted to buy a soda for lunch. Hernandez, though, has a history of mental illness that includes hallucinations. This, paired with the fact that no physical evidence has ever been found, doesn't lend much credibility to his case. His sister told police that Hernandez had confessed to the same thing in the family's parish in the 80s and that it was an "open family secret". He has been indicted and may face trial.

** Discussion **

Hernandez's case seems somewhat strong but I'm not convinced of his guilt. This is NYC's most famous child disappearance so it looks good for them if it's finally solved.