It was May 25, 1979 that little Etan Patz mysteriously disappeared on his walk during his two-block walk from his house, located at 113 Prince Street in SoHo, to catch his school bus. Ironically, this was the first time that little Etan Patz was allowed to walk to the bus stop all by himself.
When Etan Patz Disappeared It Was National News
It seemed like a brush fire, spreading rapidly across the country, the way the media picked up the story of Etan Patz and his dissapearance. Etan’s story was front page news and all over Radio and Television news programs coast to coast.
The fervor over Etan Patz disappearance was so prevalent that his case was the flash point for the “Missing Kids on Milk Cartons” campaign with little Etan Patz having the unfortunate honor of being the first child to be shown on a missing kids milk carton run.
The Etan Patz Case Goes Cold
As unfortunate as it is, the Etan Patz case went cold. Police leads dried up and eventually Etan Patz was put on the shelf with other cold cases that also hadn’t been solved.
Fast forward 33 years to April, 18 2012 and news breaks that New York City police and the FBI are searching the vacant basement of a lower Manhattan building for the possible remains of none other than Etan Patz.
Spokesman for the NYPD, Paul Browne, said that investigators started the search of the 13 by 62 foot vacant basement located at 127B Prince St. and about a block from the home of Etan Patz, at 8:30 a.m. Eastern time 04-18-2012.
Investigators are planning to hack-hammer and dig their way through the concrete floor and then sift the dirt for bone particles, clothing fragments and other assorted personal items that Etan Patz may have had with him at the time of his disappearance. Investigators also plan to take down walls so as to expose the original brick foundations. According to sources, this dig could take as long as a week but Investigators are hoping that they’ll be able to finish digging in as little as 5 days.
Official Statements on the Etan Patz Case
Picture of 6 year old Etan Patz
Etan Patz at 6 Years Old
Spokesman Paul Browne had this to say:
“We are looking for human remains, clothing or other personal effects of Etan Patz,” said Browne.
“Information that was known at the time is being re-examined. It does involve a suspect,” Brown stated.
The Warrant for the search of the basement was issued after a cadaver-sniffing dog picked made a “hit” for the scent of human decomposition and remains in the basement 2 weeks prior.
Interestingly, the basement at 113 Prince Street, contained a carpentry business during the time of Etan Patz disappearance. The case is starting to heat up again; Daily News reports a link with Othnie I. Miller, a handyman who gave Etan $1 for assisting him the night prior to Etan’s vanishing. Miller was questioned by Police but the basement was never searched after parents of Etan Patz assured authorities that Miller was a close family friend.
For now, old winesses are being questioned once again after Jose A. Ramos, a pedophile who sits in prison, bragged about killing Etan and jailhouse snitches reported Ramos’ admissions to authorities.
As things stand there is really very little new information that can be reported beyond what has already be stated. We will just have to be patient and wait, like everyone else, to see what, if anything, turns up in the basement, or rather under it.
In 2001 Etan Patz was declared legally dead.
UPDATE:
Monday, March 23rd 2012 Authorities suspended their search in the basement location indefinitely.
Police and FBI, spokesman stated that no remains were discovered on the premises and the section of wall, that was thought to have blood stains on it, proved to be mistaken identity. The stain wasn’t any type of blood at all. Originally authorities used chain saws to remove a section of wall which had stains on it so that they could send it to a crime lab for testing.
Police and FBI agents will continue to investigate the Etan Patz case but the building they were searching in has proved to hold no evidence of any crime related to Etan Patz.
Etan Kalil Patz (born October 9, 1972; declared legally dead in 2001)[3] was an American child who was six years old when he disappeared in Lower Manhattan, New York City, on May 25, 1979.[4] He is arguably the most famous missing child of New York City.[5] His disappearance helped spark the missing children's movement, including new legislation and various methods for tracking down missing children, such as the milk carton campaigns of the mid-1980s. Etan was the first ever missing child to be pictured on the side of a milk carton.[6]
In 2010, the New York District Attorney's office reopened the case into Patz's disappearance. In April 2012, the FBI excavated a basement near the Patz residence, which revealed no new evidence.[7]
On May 24, 2012, Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly announced that a man was in custody who had implicated himself in the Patz disappearance. According to The New York Times, a law enforcement official identified the man as Pedro Hernandez and said that he had confessed to strangling Etan Patz. Hernandez, age 51, had been a 19-year-old bodega worker at the time of Etan's disappearance.[8]
Etan Patz was the first-ever missing child to appear on a milk carton.
That was May 25, 1979, and his case has been reopened in 2012.
The six-year-old boy who went missing from the Soho area of New York City is back in the news after police and the FBI are investigating a possible new lead.
A tip apparently has led officials to the basement of a building on the corner of Prince and Wooster streets, about a block and a half from where Etan had lived.
Etan Patz Case Reopenedplay
Etan Patz Case Reopened
The name Etan Patz has become a trending topic on Twitter as people weigh in on the tragic case, in which Etan vanished on his way to the bus stop one day.
Stuart GraBois, as an assistant U.S. attorney under Rudolph Giuliani, has pursued the case for years. It became the most famous missing-person case in NYC.
Prompting a nationwide spotlight on missing children, and generating headlines around the globe, it was unable to result in a conviction, however. Until now?
It's premature, but new evidence suggests another suspect: a local handyman named Othniel Miller, who gave Etan $1 for helping him the night before.
Investigators plan to be at the site, 127 B Prince St., which is now a Lucky Brand jeans store, for the next two to three days to search for human remains.
The man's name had come up in an earlier investigation, but he was a friend of the Patz family who lived nearby, and the NYPD did not follow the lead.
The case initially pointed to a suspect, convicted child molester Julio Antonio Ramos, who is currently in prison. Patz's babysitter had been dating the man.
Ramos did know the kid, but has denied abducting him.
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