Pedro Hernandez On Trial For 2nd Degree Murder & 1st Degree Kidnapping Of Etan Patz~ Former Murder Suspect Jose Ramos Released From Prison After Serving 27 yrs~
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Pedro Hernandez On Trial For 2nd Degree Murder & 1st Degree Kidnapping Of Etan Patz~ Former Murder Suspect Jose Ramos Released From Prison After Serving 27 yrs~
Now, the Manhattan district attorney's office will take a fresh look at the evidence collected against the prime suspect, a convicted child molester serving 20 years in prison in Pennsylvania.
By looking into the cold case, Cyrus R. Vance Jr. will be making good on a campaign promise. A spokeswoman for Vance said Wednesday she could not comment further on an open investigation.
Etan Patz (pronounced AY'-tahn payts) vanished while walking from his lower Manhattan home to a bus stop two blocks away. His disappearance spawned the national movement to publicize the cases of missing children. His photo was the first put on a milk carton, and his case turned May 25 into National Missing Children's Day.
The longtime former district attorney, Robert Morgenthau, said repeatedly he didn't have enough evidence to charge anyone. But Etan's father, Stan Patz, said that while there is little forensic evidence, he believes there is enough to convene a grand jury and get an indictment.
"All we have been asking for is the district attorney to take a good look at the information," Patz said. "I realize this is not like `CSI.' That's why it's been a tough case all along. But there is enough evidence that a competent attorney can use to prosecute."
Jose Ramos, who had dated Etan's baby sitter, has been the prime suspect all along, according to the boy's family. Ramos allegedly admitted to Pennsylvania authorities that he tried to molest Etan on the day of the child's disappearance but has denied harming him. It was unclear Wednesday if Ramos has an attorney, and Ramos was unreachable at the prison.
After Etan's disappearance, his parents kept the same number and stayed in the same SoHo apartment, in case he returned. But in 2001, after waiting 22 years, they obtained a court order declaring the boy dead.
In 2004, a Manhattan judge ruled Ramos was responsible for the boy's disappearance and presumed death, after the inmate ignored orders to answer deposition questions for a lawyer for the boy's parents. He was later ordered to pay $2 million to Etan's family.
Ramos is to be released in 2012 after a 20-year sentence for sexually abusing an 8-year-old boy, bringing a certain urgency to the case, which was never officially closed, the boy's father said. At least one FBI agent and a New York Police Department liaison is assigned to the case.
Patz is hopeful a fresh pair of eyes will yield some results.
"He (Vance) says he's willing to do that, and the fact he's willing to say it in public is very encouraging," Patz said.
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lisette- Join date : 2009-05-29
Re: Pedro Hernandez On Trial For 2nd Degree Murder & 1st Degree Kidnapping Of Etan Patz~ Former Murder Suspect Jose Ramos Released From Prison After Serving 27 yrs~
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Etan Kalil Patz (October 9, 1972 – unknown; legally declared dead 2001[1]) was a six-year-old child who disappeared in lower Manhattan on May 25, 1979. At the time, news coverage of Patz's disappearance was made into a media circus in the New York City area. He is arguably the most famous missing child of New York City.[2] His disappearance helped spark the missing children's movement, including new legislation, new awareness, and various methods for tracking down missing children, such as the milk carton campaigns of the mid eighties.
On May 25, 2010, Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. announced that he had reopened the case into Etan's disappearance.
On the morning of Friday, May 25, 1979, six-year-old Etan put on his prized blue captain's hat and left his SoHo apartment by himself—for the very first time—to walk the two blocks to catch the school bus. He did not reach the bus stop.
When he did not return home from school at 3:30 that afternoon, his mother reported him missing. An intense search, using nearly 100 police officers and a team of bloodhounds, began that evening and would continue for weeks. Various circumstances surrounding this case, such as it being Etan's first time outside alone, made it into a greatly media-driven incident.
In 1991, jailhouse informants claimed that Jose Antonio Ramos, a convicted child sexual abuser imprisoned in Pennsylvania, admitted to his murder. Ramos had been a friend of Etan's one-time babysitter. He promised that no body would be found, saying "It's too horrible. No one would ever represent me". In a special feature on missing children, the New York Post reported on October 23, 1999 that Ramos was the prime suspect in Etan's disappearance.
His parents, Stanley and Julie Patz, pursued a civil case against Ramos, who was found liable for Patz's wrongful death in May 2004. They were awarded a sum of $2 million, which they have never collected, as Ramos is serving a prison term for molesting boys in the State Correctional Institute, Dallas, PA. His scheduled release date is November 11, 2012. Without evidence, a body, or a crime scene, some New York investigators do not believe they will ever be able to convict Ramos for Patz's death.
Each year, on the anniversary of Etan's birthday and his disappearance, Stan Patz sends Ramos a copy of his son's MISSING poster. On the back he types the same message: "What did you do to my little boy?".
National Missing Children's Day
The day of Etan Patz's disappearance, May 25, is now designated National Missing Children's Day in popular culture.
In the 1983 movie Without a Trace, starring Kate Nelligan and Judd Hirsch, a six year old boy disappears while walking to school in Manhattan. The Stanley R. Jaffe film was loosely based on the Patz case. While in production, this movie was titled Still Missing, based on the Beth Gutcheon novel of the same name. It was retitled when someone realized that audiences might mistake this film for a sequel to the unrelated movie Missing.
On May 7, 2009, Lisa R Cohen published her book After Etan: The Missing Child Case that Held America Captive, detailing the case and its effect on America.
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Re: Pedro Hernandez On Trial For 2nd Degree Murder & 1st Degree Kidnapping Of Etan Patz~ Former Murder Suspect Jose Ramos Released From Prison After Serving 27 yrs~
In 2001, after waiting 22 years, Etan's parents obtained a court order declaring the boy dead.
His parents, Stanley and Julie Patz, pursued a civil case against Ramos, who was found liable for Patz's wrongful death in May 2004. They were awarded a sum of $2 million, which they have never collected, as Ramos is serving a prison term for molesting boys in the State Correctional Institute, Dallas, PA. His scheduled release date is November 11, 2012. Without evidence, a body, or a crime scene, some New York investigators do not believe they will ever be able to convict Ramos for Patz's death.
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Re: Pedro Hernandez On Trial For 2nd Degree Murder & 1st Degree Kidnapping Of Etan Patz~ Former Murder Suspect Jose Ramos Released From Prison After Serving 27 yrs~
Authorities in New York may finally be zeroing in on Etan Patz, the boy who disappeared 33 years ago and became the first missing child to be featured on a milk carton.
NYPD officers and FBI agents were searching a Manhattan basement Thursday, acting on new clues to the landmark case. Etan was last seen May 25, 1979 walking two blocks from his family's home in the SoHo section of Manhattan to a bus stop for the ride to school.
The 6-year-old boy was the subject of one of the most extensive missing-child searches ever. He was never found, but was officially declared dead in 2001.
NYPD spokesman Paul Browne told the Associated Press that the building being searched is roughly a block from where the family lived. Browne said the excavation stems from a recently ordered review of the case by Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance, who re-opened the case after taking office in 2010.
Browne said a forensic team would dig up a floor and search through the rubble for blood, clothing or human remains. The work is expected to take as many as five days.
He wouldn't say what evidence led investigators to the property, but a law enforcement official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told The Associated Press that at the time of the boy's disappearance, the building housed the workspace of a carpenter who was thought to have been friendly with the boy.
In the past few months, the official said, investigators had received information that Etan's remains might be buried in the basement. Then, within the past few weeks, an FBI dog indicated the possible presence of human remains in the space, prompting the decision to dig.
"There's an active investigation on Prince Street," a police source told FoxNews.com. Additional details were not available.
FBI officials are looking at possible suspects in the case, WABC/Channel 7 reports. Some sources told ABC News that prosecutors are now skeptical whether convicted child sex abuser Jose Antonio Ramos -- long considered Patz abductor and killer -- did in fact commit the crime.
At least two suspects have been investigated in connection to the boy's disappearance, although they have not been identified, ABC News reports.
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lisette- Join date : 2009-05-29
Re: Pedro Hernandez On Trial For 2nd Degree Murder & 1st Degree Kidnapping Of Etan Patz~ Former Murder Suspect Jose Ramos Released From Prison After Serving 27 yrs~
raine1953- Administration
- Join date : 2010-01-21
Re: Pedro Hernandez On Trial For 2nd Degree Murder & 1st Degree Kidnapping Of Etan Patz~ Former Murder Suspect Jose Ramos Released From Prison After Serving 27 yrs~
Slys Hunny- Join date : 2011-01-30
Re: Pedro Hernandez On Trial For 2nd Degree Murder & 1st Degree Kidnapping Of Etan Patz~ Former Murder Suspect Jose Ramos Released From Prison After Serving 27 yrs~
Investigators swarmed into the basement of a building in SoHo on Thursday with jackhammers, pickaxes and orders to carry out the most extensive search to date for the remains of Etan Patz, a 6-year-old boy whose disappearance more than 30 years ago focused national attention on the problem of missing children.
Officials said they would dig for five days, a much more extensive effort than was made 12 years ago, when detectives searched the basement of an apartment where the primary suspect, Jose A. Ramos, a former mental patient who was serving time for molesting a boy in Pennsylvania, lived when Etan disappeared.
The new search focused on a basement area that had been used as a workshop by a carpenter and handyman from Etan’s building. Investigators are working on the theory that the handyman, Othniel Miller, killed the boy and buried him there, one law enforcement official said.
In recent days, according to the law enforcement official, Mr. Miller was interviewed by agents with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and when the possibility was raised that the boy had been buried in the basement, he blurted out, “What if the body was moved?” the official said.
Investigators from the Police Department and the F.B.I. spent much of Thursday dismantling shelving in the basement, in a seven-story building less than a block from where Etan lived with his parents, Stanley and Julie Patz (rhymes with plates). The walls were to be checked for traces of blood, and the concrete floor was to be excavated.
“I think that there is guarded optimism that they’re going to find something,” an official said.
The search signaled a revival of a case that changed the rhythms and routines of a generation, and that Cyrus R. Vance Jr., the Manhattan district attorney, said in 2010 he would reopen. In the wake of headlines and a widespread search, many parents stopped letting children go to the school bus stop by themselves. Etan, a first grader who was wearing sneakers and an Eastern Airlines pilot’s cap, had pleaded with his parents that he was old enough to make the trip alone. He disappeared on the first day he was allowed to do so.
The basement being searched — at 127B Prince Street, at the corner of Wooster Street — had also been used by the SoHo Playgroup, a parent-led space for preschool children. A woman who had participated in the group as a child said she believed Etan was a member of the playgroup.
The basement is along the route Etan was to have followed that morning in May 1979. Somewhere between his parents’ loft at 113 Prince Street and the bus stop, on West Broadway, he disappeared.
Since then, the timeline of the case has been filled with despair. In the days after he vanished, parents tacked up posters in SoHo, and later his photograph was printed on milk cartons in hopes of jarring memories and generating leads.
On Thursday, officials cordoned off the corner, stretching a blue tarpaulin between the basement entrance and the back of one of the police vans. Onlookers took pictures as investigators milled beneath signs for boutiques like Lucky Brand, WiNK and Fred Perry, which now occupy the corner.
The stores and tourists threw into dramatic relief just how different SoHo is today than at the time of the boy’s disappearance, when it was gritty and largely empty, with many of the former light-manufacturing buildings now occupied by artists. It was almost as though those taking pictures were witnessing a dig into a distant epoch, one that felt far further in the past than 33 years.
In fact, the corner at the time had been home to the cooperative restaurant Food, one of the only places to eat in a neighborhood now jammed with expensive dining options.
The current search is largely being conducted by an F.B.I. evidence recovery team as part of a joint investigation by agents from the bureau and the Police Department’s missing persons and cold case squads. Archaeologists from the medical examiner’s office were also on hand.
Three law enforcement officials said that investigators had brought a cadaver-sniffing dog to the basement within the last few weeks and that the dog had indicated the possibility of remains.
F.B.I. agents were seen escorting Mr. Miller to his apartment in Brooklyn on Thursday afternoon; a law enforcement official said investigators had tried to elicit information from him.
A cousin of Mr. Miller’s, Merdine Splatt, said any suggestion that Mr. Miller was a suspect in Etan’s death was “ridiculous.”
“How did they get him involved in this here? ” she said. “Well, if he was working in the building, quite naturally they will want to know what he knows.”
Efforts to reach Mr. Miller were unsuccessful.
The night before he disappeared, Mr. Miller had given Etan “his dollar wage” for doing chores, wrote Lisa R. Cohen, in “After Etan: The Missing Child Case That Held America Captive.”
More than a decade ago, Mr. Miller invited the police to come in and examine the basement, suggesting that they could tear up the floor if they wanted, but that they would have to pay to replace it, a person involved in the inquiry at the time said. Because Mr. Miller was not a suspect, they did not take him up on his offer, the person said.
Paul J. Browne, the chief spokesman for the police, said investigators would tear apart the 13-by-62-foot space, removing drywall and searching the cinder-block walls underneath. He also said they would break through the concrete floor.
No criminal charges have ever been filed in Etan’s death or disappearance.
When Etan vanished, the police assigned 30 officers and 5 detectives to the case and began what a deputy inspector called a “floor-by-floor, wall-by-wall, rooftop-by-rooftop, backyard-by-backyard search.” They also called in helicopters and bloodhounds.
Within a week, the police contingent had grown to 300 officers and detectives. They were handling 500 calls a day from people who said they had seen Etan or had ideas about how to crack the case. But nothing panned out, and two months after he disappeared, the missing persons squad said it had been the longest search for a missing child in New York in decades.
In 1983, President Ronald Reagan declared May 25 — the day on which Etan had vanished four years before — National Missing Children’s Day.
In 2001, Etan was declared legally dead. His family filed a wrongful-death suit against Mr. Ramos, the man convicted of abuse in Pennsylvania; in 2004, a Manhattan judge ruled that Mr. Ramos had been responsible for Etan’s death. But the authorities said they never had enough evidence to file criminal charges against him in Etan’s case.
Mr. Ramos has been in prison in Pennsylvania since 1987 and is scheduled to be released on Nov. 7. He has been denied parole nine times in the last 13 years. Leo Dunn, a spokesman for the Pennsylvania Board of Probation and Parole, said Mr. Ramos’s last parole review, in July 2009, referred to a “negative recommendation” from the Department of Corrections and said he would pose “a risk to the community.”
In 2000, the police searched the basement of the building at 234 East Fourth Street on the Lower East Side where Mr. Ramos was living when Etan disappeared. Investigators carted out an old coal-fired furnace along with barrels of ash and dirt from the basement floor.
Mr. Ramos was said to have admitted that he was with Etan the day he vanished, but denied abducting and killing him.
Etan’s father, Stanley Patz, did not return a call for comment on Thursday.
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lisette- Join date : 2009-05-29
Re: Pedro Hernandez On Trial For 2nd Degree Murder & 1st Degree Kidnapping Of Etan Patz~ Former Murder Suspect Jose Ramos Released From Prison After Serving 27 yrs~
The carpenter's name had surfaced in earlier investigations." Both the Post and Daily News say that man is Othneil Miller, now 75, who reportedly "gave Etan $1 in 'pay' for helping him the night before the disappearance." Investigators think Miller may have renovated his basement workspace around the same time. According to the Post's sources, investigators questioned Miller recently after the dogs smelled human remains and he responded, "What if the body was moved?"
Florida arrest records reveal a New York man named Othniel Miller of the same reported age as the handyman, with the same Quincy St., Brooklyn address.
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Dig continues for Etan Patz in NYC basement
NEW YORK (AP) – Investigators continue to rip apart the basement of a building in New York City's fashionable SoHo section, looking for any trace of a 6-year-old boy who vanished in 1979.
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FBI agents have been digging up the floor and removing drywall in the building for three days in a hunt for any remains of Etan Patz (AY'-tahn payts).
Agents and police officers were on the scene again Saturday morning.
Forensic teams have been breaking up the floor with jackhammers and passing the rubble out by hand.
Etan was on his way to his school bus stop when he disappeared. He would have passed the stairwell leading to the basement during his walk.
Authorities say they began the search after an FBI dog indicated the scent of human remains in the room.
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Official: Possible blood stain found in basement search for Etan Patz
FBI agents, assisted by the New York Police Department, discovered the stain by spraying the chemical luminol, said the law enforcement source who has been briefed on the investigation.
The chemical can indicate the presence of blood, but is not always conclusive, according to the 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 law enforcement source said.
The basement is about a half-block from where the boy's family still lives. Etan vanished May 25, 1979, a block from his home in the New York City neighborhood of SoHo. It was the first time he walked to a bus stop by himself.
A carpenter whose former Manhattan basement is the scene of the search said through his lawyer Friday that he had no involvement in the disappearance.
Search for Etan Patz's remains under way Lawyer: Miller did not kill Etan Patz Runnion: I hope they get day in court New clues in Etan Patz mystery
Othniel Miller, 75, who has not been charged with a crime, has long cooperated with authorities and plans to continue to do so, his lawyer said.
"Mr. Miller has been cooperating with this investigation for over 30 years," attorney Michael Farkas said. "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."
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
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raine1953- Administration
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Lead sleuth’s torment ended in suicide
Wearing a suit and tie, clutching the doe-eyed child’s picture, Missing Persons Detective William Butler spent four years chatting up everyone he met as he plowed the same course along the gritty downtown blocks.
Butler, an imposing 6-foot-2 chain smoker, never lost hope that he would crack the crime that changed the city forever.
“I think he’s still nearby,” he told The Post at the time. “I feel we’re going to come out good on this.
“By now, I feel like he’s my own son and you can’t give up.”
But eventually he did.
On April 2, 1986, seven years after Etan vanished, the set-to-retire 56-year-old from Flatbush, Brooklyn, put his .38 caliber against his head and pulled the trigger.
His body was found in the kitchen by his cop daughter, Jacqueline.
Butler, who was promoted to sergeant in 1984 and transferred to an East 21st Street station house, didn’t leave a note, but he had a collision of personal and professional distress.
His wife, Joan, had left him, and he remained haunted by the biggest case that got away.
Stanley Patz, Etan’s father, told The Post after the news of Butler’s shocking death that the veteran was “disappointed” that he never solved the boy’s mystery.
This week’s resurrected search for Etan’s remains has brought back memories of the 31-year veteran whose family life suffered from his obsession.
“I saw him on TV the other day,” said his youngest daughter, Patricia, the only one of his children not on the force. Butler’s other six children followed in his footsteps.
His hope for solving the case never wavered, according to interviews he gave during the search.
“Etan Patz was let out of this door by his mother,” Butler told an NBC-TV crew in his thick New York accent. “That is the last sighting we have of the boy on that morning.”
Butler flashed the little boy’s black-and-white photo as he combed the same streets for clues and fielded hundreds of phone calls with tips that never panned out.
He would walk into neighborhood bodegas and ask the clerk working at the counter: “Have you heard anything? Anybody talking? Anybody say anything?”
Butler said he lost a lot of sleep over the lost boy.
“There are times when you wake up at 3 o’clock in the morning and just think: ‘Did I do this, or did I do that?’ Just trying to give yourself an idea: ‘What did I miss? What didn’t I do?’ ” he said.
“This is a tough one, but he’s out there somewhere.
“We’ll find the answer.”
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SAD: Detective William Butler shot himself after years of futility in hunting for leads.
raine1953- Administration
- Join date : 2010-01-21
Investigators collect hair, paper in search for Etan Patz, missing since 1979
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 for clues in the case of the 6-year-old boy who went missing 33 years ago on his short walk to the school bus stop.
NBC New York was first to report the break in the cold case on Thursday.
By Saturday, investigators had finished ripping up the basement's concrete floor with jackhammers and saws, and were digging through the dirt in hopes of finding the boy's remains, or any other evidence.
It was while investigators were taking apart the basement floor and walls that they found a "stain of interest" on a drywall, according to law enforcement sources. Officers from the NYPD Emergency Services Unit used a chainsaw to cut out a piece of the wall, which is being preserved for analysis at the FBI Laboratory in Virginia. It's not clear how significant it is.
Other debris was also being tested, a process that could last into next week, chief police spokesman Paul Browne said.
At the time of Patz's disappearance, the 13-by-62 basement at 127B Prince Street was being used as a workshop by Othniel Miller, a handyman who was friendly with the Patz family.
Miller, now 75, has been interviewed by investigators several times over the years, but he recently made statements that raised their suspicions, according to law enforcement sources.
Etan Patz, who vanished on May 25, 1979, and has never been found, after leaving his family's SoHo home for a short walk to his school bus stop in New York.
In a recent interview with investigators, he blurted out “What if the body was moved?” according to an official.
Sources also say they have evidence to suggest Patz had been in the basement before.
Miller hasn't been named a suspect, and his lawyer says he has nothing to do with the case.
Investigators Saturday were mostly concentrating their search towards the rear of the basement, where a cadaver-sniffing dog recently picked up a scent.
It's unclear what the renewed probe may turn up, if anything.
"We're hopeful that we can bring some level of comfort to the parents, perhaps find some — obviously, the body of this poor child — but evidence that may lead to a successful investigation in this case," Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said. He was a lieutenant working on organized crime cases when Etan Patz vanished.
As for whether authorities were optimistic, he said, "I really can't say."
Through a lawyer, Miller denied having anything to do with Etan's vanishing, which helped turn missing children into a nationwide cause. Miller's grandson, Tony Miller, said Friday outside his home that his grandfather is a "good guy" who "wouldn't do this."
Investigators have also questioned a second person, Jesse Snell, in connection with the re-examination of evidence. NBC New York has learned that on the morning Patz disappeared in 1979, Snell was observed at the building where police are searching now, and also worked with Miller. Investigators would not elaborate on why they met with Snell.
The investigation into the disappearance of Patz has stretched through decades and countries, from basements to rooftops and seemingly everywhere in between.
No one has ever been charged criminally — and Etan Patz, the little boy with sandy brown hair and a toothy grin, was declared dead in 2001.
This week, after more than a decade of relative quiet, the case suddenly ran hot again, after the cadaver-sniffing dog picked up the scent.
The investigation has reached similar highs before — only for the trail to go cold for years at a time.
Patz vanished on May 25, 1979, while walking alone to his school bus stop for the first time, two blocks from his home in New York's SoHo neighborhood.
There was an exhaustive search by the police and a crush of media attention. The boy's photo was one of the first of a missing child on a milk carton. Thousands of fliers were plastered around the city, buildings canvassed, hundreds of people interviewed. SoHo was not a neighborhood of swank boutiques and galleries as now, but of working-class New Yorkers rattled by the news.
Etan's parents, Stan and Julie, offered a $25,000 reward for information leading to the boy's whereabouts, and sightings were frequently reported, to no avail. In 1986, a child resembling Etan was spotted in Israel, which prompted detectives to circulate his photo there. Nothing came of it.
A name gradually emerged as a possible suspect: Jose Ramos, a drifter and onetime boyfriend of Etan's baby sitter. In the early 1980s, he was arrested on theft charges, and had photos of other young, blond boys in his backpack. But there was no hard evidence linking Ramos to the crime.
Missing persons cases, like homicides, are generally considered cold after six months, but they're never closed. And with seemingly no new leads, the case would go quiet for years. In three decades, 10 detectives have been assigned to head up the case. The FBI and police are working jointly.
"Those cases are still maintained by someone, but the attention they get diminishes over time," said Joseph Pollini, a retired NYPD lieutenant in the cold case squad, now a professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice. "There's often nothing you can do, when you have no new leads."
Reviving the case
A fresh lead came in 2000, after Ramos, now in prison in Pennsylvania for sexually molesting two boys in unrelated cases, admitted he was with Etan the day he disappeared. He was said to have told a cellmate: "Etan is dead. There is no body, and there will never be a body."
That prompted police to scour for clues in the building where Ramos lived at the time. They dismantled the furnace and searched it for DNA. But they found only animal traces.
By the next year, father Stan Patz, who never moved or even changed their phone number in the hope their son would reach out, had Etan declared dead in order to sue Ramos in civil court. He was tired of waiting for justice, he said at the time.
A civil judge in 2004 found him to be responsible for the disappearance and presumed death of the boy, after he disobeyed her orders to answer deposition questions under oath for a lawyer representing Etan's parents. Ramos says he didn't do it.
The ruling provided a tiny measure of comfort to the family, though Stan Patz never collected the $2 million the judge ordered Ramos to pay. But the criminal case continues, and prosecutors lacked enough evidence to charge Ramos criminally.
The case was quiet until 2010 when new district attorney Cyrus R. Vance said he was going to revisit it.
Ramos is scheduled to be released from prison in Pennsylvania in November. His pending freedom is one of the factors that has given new urgency to the case.
The basement space being searched sits beneath several clothing boutiques. Investigators began by removing drywall partitions so they could get to brick walls that were exposed in 1979. The work will continue through the weekend.
About 50 law enforcement agents including forensics experts and an anthropologist are on scene. While cadaver-sniffing dogs are capable of detecting scents much older than 33 years, it's also possible the dog picked up an animal scent or was plain wrong.
The swank cobblestone street remained closed off and was a veritable media circus, with trucks and crews parked along the curb and gawking tourists stopping to snap photos.
The Patz family hasn't commented or turned up near the site, though it's visible from their home — they've seen the circus before.
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raine1953- Administration
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FBI ends basement search for Etan Patz, but no reports of human remains found
Published April 23, 2012
FoxNews.com
DEVELOPING: The search of a basement for missing 6-year-old Etan Patz ended Monday, the FBI told FoxNews.com, with no obvious human remains found in the decades-old cold case.
"The FBI has concluded the on-site portion of the search," FBI spokesman Peter Donald said. "The street and local businesses will be re-opened."
Authorities began ripping up the basement's concrete floor with jackhammers and saws last Thursday in their renewed search for Patz, who disappeared on May 25, 1979, while walking alone to his school bus stop for the first time. A cadaver-sniffing dog had recently indicated the scent of human remains in the basement located in Manhattan's SoHo neighborhood.
The basement, just steps away from the boy's home, is the former workspace of retired handyman Othniel Miller, 75, who was seen with Patz the night before he disappeared.
The exhaustive search of the space, however, yielded no obvious human remains or conclusive evidence in the case, authorities said Monday.
A source close to the case said over the weekend that authorities are testing a stain found on one of the basement's walls. The source said when investigators sprayed Luminol on the wall, they detected "an organic substance" -- "possibly blood." The stain has been sent to the FBI lab in Quantico, Va., for further testing.
The source also confirmed reports that an unrelated molestation claim prompted police to reexamine Miller, who is now being described as a main "person of interest" in the Patz case. Miller's ex-wife told law enforcement last year that she divorced her husband in 1986 after learning he had sexually assaulted her 10-year-old niece a few years after Etan disappeared, the source said.
Miller's workshop was on the route the boy would have taken to his bus stop, authorities said.
The boy's disappearance in 1979 prompted an extensive search by police and nationwide media attention. Etan's photo was one of the first of a missing child to appear on a milk carton.
Investigators have long focused their attention on Jose Ramos, a drifter and onetime boyfriend of Etan's baby sitter. In the early 1980s, he was arrested on theft charges, and had photos of other young, blond boys in his backpack. But there was no hard evidence linking Ramos to the crime.
Ramos, now 68, reportedly admitted trying to molest Etan on the day of his disappearance, but denied abducting him or killing him. Ramos has never been charged criminally in the Patz case and is currently serving a 20-year prison term in Pennsylvania for abusing an 8-year-old boy there. Ramos is scheduled to be released from prison in November.
In 2002, Etan's father, Stan Patz, had Etan declared dead in order to sue Ramos in civil court. A civil judge in 2004 found Ramos to be responsible for the disappearance and presumed death of the boy, after he disobeyed the judge's orders to answer deposition questions under oath for a lawyer representing Etan's parents.
Prosecutors, however, lacked enough evidence to charge Ramos criminally.
In 2010, Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance Jr. decided to reopen the case.
The focus of the investigation shifted to Miller after investigators received new leads in the case. Miller, originally from Jamaica, was interviewed after the boy disappeared and had what authorities deemed a solid alibi at the time.
Authorities, however, noticed that Miller had a newly cemented concrete floor around the time of Etan's disappearance, but opted not to dig it up.
A source close to the case said "there is truth to that" when asked about news reports that Miller blurted out, "What if the body was moved?" when taken by police to the basement in recent days.
Miller has so far not been named a suspect and has denied any wrongdoing through his lawyer.
The Patz family, who has remained in the same apartment for 33 years in the hopes their son would one day return home, has declined to comment on the recent developments.
"To the hardworking and patient media people, the answer to all your questions at this time is no comment," reads a note outside their apartment, just one block away from dozens of FBI trucks and police cars. "Please stop ringing our bell and calling our phone for interviews."
"Stan Patz, 3E."
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Re: Pedro Hernandez On Trial For 2nd Degree Murder & 1st Degree Kidnapping Of Etan Patz~ Former Murder Suspect Jose Ramos Released From Prison After Serving 27 yrs~
Published May 24, 2012
A New Jersey man once looked at as a possible suspect in the disappearance and death of 6-year-old Etan Patz has "implicated" himself in the decades-old case, the New York City Police commissioner said.
Law enforcement sources told the New York Post that the man's name is Pedro Hernandez, though police have not yet released his identity. Sources said the man was previously questioned by investigators and is not a new figure in the 33-year-old cold case.
Patz disappeared on May 25, 1979, while walking alone to a bus stop in Manhattan's SoHo neighborhood. The boy's photo was the first of a missing child to appear on a milk carton.
Local news website DNAinfo, quoting sources within the New York City Police Department, said the man in custody told officers, "I did it." But a source close to the investigation told Fox News that investigators are skeptical of the man's claim.
New York City police commissioner Raymond Kelly said in a statement Thursday that "an individual now in custody has made statements to NYPD detectives implicating himself in the disappearance and death of Etan Patz 33 years ago."
"We expect to provide further details later today," Kelly said.
The man in custody allegedly told investigators that he lured the boy with candy, stabbed him, cut up his remains and put him in plastic bags, according to the New York Post.
The man was reportedly arrested in Camden, N.J., on Wednesday and taken to New York City for questioning by the Manhattan district attorney's office. He worked and lived in the neighborhood where the boy disappeared.
The April excavation of a Manhattan basement yielded no obvious human remains and little forensic evidence that would help solve the mystery of what happened to Patz. The boy was officially declared dead in 2001.
Authorities began ripping up the basement's concrete floor with jackhammers last month after a cadaver-sniffing dog had recently indicated the scent of human remains in the basement located steps away from the boy's home.
The basement is the former workspace of retired handyman Othniel Miller, 75, of Brooklyn, N.Y., who was seen with Patz the night before he disappeared. Miller, whose workshop was on the route the boy would have taken to his bus stop, has denied any wrongdoing.
Investigators have long focused their attention on Jose Ramos, a drifter and onetime boyfriend of Etan's baby sitter. In the early 1980s, he was arrested on theft charges, and had photos of other young, blond boys in his backpack. But there was no hard evidence linking Ramos to the crime.
Ramos, now 68, reportedly admitted trying to molest Etan on the day of his disappearance, but denied abducting him or killing him. Ramos has never been charged criminally in the Patz case and is currently serving a 20-year prison term in Pennsylvania for abusing an 8-year-old boy there. Ramos is scheduled to be released from prison in November.
The Patz family, who has remained in the same apartment for 33 years in the hopes their son would one day return home, has not commented on the recent developments.
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lisette- Join date : 2009-05-29
Re: Pedro Hernandez On Trial For 2nd Degree Murder & 1st Degree Kidnapping Of Etan Patz~ Former Murder Suspect Jose Ramos Released From Prison After Serving 27 yrs~
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At least your link above gives the name and more details, lisette. How awful if true he was cut up, because then they would never be able to find a body to give the family some closure.
I really hope something happens so that Ramos doesn't get out in Nov. though. He should be kept locked up for life.
samgoodwin- Join date : 2011-02-10
Re: Pedro Hernandez On Trial For 2nd Degree Murder & 1st Degree Kidnapping Of Etan Patz~ Former Murder Suspect Jose Ramos Released From Prison After Serving 27 yrs~
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A suspect is in custody after making statements to NYPD detectives implicating himself in the disappearance and death of Etan Patz, a 6-year-old boy who vanished 33 years ago from his Manhattan neighborhood. WNBC-TV's Jonathan Dienst reports.
By Jonathan Dienst and Shimon Prokupecz, NBCNewYork.com
A New Jersey man claims he lured Etan Patz, the 6-year-old boy who vanished more than 30 years ago as he walked to the school bus from his SoHo home, into a nearby store with candy and later killed him, NBCNewYork.com reported Thursday.
The NYPD is questioning the man, who was taken into custody Wednesday evening. He has been identified by law enforcement officials as Pedro Hernandez of Camden, N.J., and hasn't been charged with any crimes yet.
Hernandez was previously known to investigators, law enforcement sources said, and worked and lived in Patz's neighborhood when the boy disappeared. Officials said they recently received a tip about him from the suspect's brother-in-law.
The store that the boy was lured into was close to Patz's house, the suspect told officials, NBCNewYork.com reported Thursday. He claimed he then attacked Patz.
The man who gave police the tip said he remembered Hernandez speaking of having killed a child and disposing of the body at the SoHo bodega here he worked, a source told NBCNewyork.com. Both the tipster and his wife, as well as a religious mentor, say they remember Hernandez saying he harmed a child in 1979.
Hernandez never mentioned a name when he spoke about the child he had caused harm to, they all said in interviews with police.
Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said in a statement that the suspect "has made statements to NYPD detectives implicating himself in the disappearance and death of Etan Patz 33 years ago."
But law enforcement officials cautioned it was too early for police to know if the account could be corroborated. Police are working on verifying it and the investigation is continuing, they said.
Hernandez so far has not provided details that would lead them to Patz's body, sources said.
An intensive search for Patz was renewed several weeks ago when police dug up the basement of a handyman's workshop near Patz's SoHo home. A new layer of concrete had been laid over the foundation of the basement shortly after Patz disappeared.
That search yielded no new evidence of value, police said.
Several sources have indicated some skepticism exists about the man's story, but police are being thorough in their investigation of any possible leads.
One other man has remained a longtime possible suspect: Jose Ramos, a drifter and onetime boyfriend of Patz's babysitter. In the early 1980s, he was arrested on theft charges, and had photos of other young, blond boys in his backpack. But there was no hard evidence linking Ramos to the crime. He is in prison in Pennsylvania on a separate case.
Investigators collect hair, paper in search for Patz
Patz's disappearance touched off a massive search that has ebbed and flowed over the years. It also ushered in an era of anxiety about leaving children unsupervised.
His parents, Stan and Julie Patz, were reluctant to move or even change their phone number in case their son tried to reach out. They still live in the same apartment, down the street from the building that was examined in April. They have endured decades of false leads, and a lack of hard evidence.
The family did not immediately return a message requesting comment.
Stan Patz had his son declared legally dead in 2001 so he could sue Ramos, who has never been criminally charged with the boy's death and denies harming the boy. A civil judge in 2004 found Ramos to be responsible for the child's death.
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Pedro Hernandez, 51, of Maple Shade, N.J., was charged with the slaying of Etan Patz
A New Jersey man who confessed to choking a 6-year-old New York City boy to death in 1979 was arrested on a murder charge on Thursday, police said, the first arrest in a case that helped give rise to the nation's missing-children movement.
Pedro Hernandez, 51, of Maple Shade, N.J., was charged with the slaying of Etan Patz, who vanished on his way to school in his lower Manhattan neighborhood, police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said.
Hernandez, who had worked at a convenience store near Etan's home, confessed after hours of police questioning, Kelly said. Kelly said Hernandez told police he lured the boy to the convenience store with the promise of a soda, then took him into the basement and choked him.
"He was remorseful, and I think the detectives thought that it was a feeling of relief on his part," Kelly said. "We believe that this is the individual responsible for the crime."
Detectives are typically barraged with hoaxes, false leads and possible sightings around the anniversary of Etan's disappearance, which became National Missing Children's Day by presidential proclamation in 1983.
CBS News senior correspondent John Miller earlier reported the individual, identified as Hernandez, then 18-years old, once worked in a SoHo shop just blocks from Patz's home in lower Manhattan. Detectives say he confessed to killing Patz. Sources say that Hernandez admitted to luring the boy into the store, strangling him, and placing the body in a box. He said he put the box out with the trash and when he came back later, it was gone.
"He basically said he did it," a law enforcement source told CBS News. Investigators say while Hernandez's story may be difficult to corroborate, they believe he is credible.
While a source who has been briefed on the investigation could not provide details, the source indicated that it is unlikely a body will be recovered. "The way he [Hernandez] described how the body was disposed of, it does not sound like we would be able to recover remains at this point."
Hernandez was questioned by New York City detectives for hours in Camden, N.J., Wednesday before agreeing to come to New York City with investigators, where he has been questioned further at the office of Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance.
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Re: Pedro Hernandez On Trial For 2nd Degree Murder & 1st Degree Kidnapping Of Etan Patz~ Former Murder Suspect Jose Ramos Released From Prison After Serving 27 yrs~
lisette- Join date : 2009-05-29
Re: Pedro Hernandez On Trial For 2nd Degree Murder & 1st Degree Kidnapping Of Etan Patz~ Former Murder Suspect Jose Ramos Released From Prison After Serving 27 yrs~
I find it hard to believe Pedro would have killed this small boy when he was only 19 years old and then has never harmed or hurt anyone since. Something seems off here. Wondering if Pedro, Ramos and Miller were all in it together. Or if LE is just trying to quickly close this case before some election? If Pedro truly confessed to so many people (his family, etc) back then, why did no one follow up on anything?
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samgoodwin- Join date : 2011-02-10
Re: Pedro Hernandez On Trial For 2nd Degree Murder & 1st Degree Kidnapping Of Etan Patz~ Former Murder Suspect Jose Ramos Released From Prison After Serving 27 yrs~
NiteSpinR- Tech Support Admin
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Re: Pedro Hernandez On Trial For 2nd Degree Murder & 1st Degree Kidnapping Of Etan Patz~ Former Murder Suspect Jose Ramos Released From Prison After Serving 27 yrs~
The New Jersey man arrested for allegedly murdering 6-year-old Etan Patz was hospitalized and placed on suicide watch Friday -- the day he was supposed to appear in court on the 33-year anniversary of the New York City's boy's disappearance.
Pedro Hernandez, who authorities say confessed to choking Patz in 1979, was taken to Bellvue Hospital in Manhattan and placed on suicide watch, sources close to the matter told the New York Post.
"He has been talking about killing himself," a source told the newspaper.
New York City Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly announced Thursday that Hernandez, 51, of New Jersey, confessed to luring the child into a store with the promise of a soda before strangling him and disposing his body.
Kelly said Hernandez, who was then 18, was working as a stock clerk at a bodega in Manhattan's SoHo neighborhood when he spotted Patz walking alone in the early morning of May 25, 1979. Hernandez then allegedly led Patz down into the basement of the bodega, where he choked him and disposed of him by putting Patz's body into a trash bag outside. Kelly said the motive of the murder is still under investigation.
Hernandez was due to appear in court Friday afternoon on a second-degree murder charge. It is not known whether the court appearance is being postponed.
Before coming to the police to confess his role in Patz's death, Hernandez expressed remorse to a family member, saying sometime in the past few decades that he had "done a bad thing and killed a child in New York," police said.
Hernandez, who moved to New Jersey shortly after the boy disappeared, was picked up there late Wednesday in Maple Shade and was questioned Thursday at the Manhattan district attorney's office.
On Wednesday evening, Hernandez brought investigators to the scene of the murder and told them what happened. Police recorded three and a half hours of videotaped statements made by Hernandez.
"He was remorseful, and I think the detectives thought that it was a feeling of relief on his part," Kelly said Thursday. "We believe that this is the individual responsible for the crime."
Police notified the Patz family that Hernandez had come forward and implicated himself in the crime. When the NYPD determined that an arrest was appropriate, they called the family back this afternoon. Stan, the boy's father, was described as surprised and taken aback by the news, the NYPD said.
"He had a few specific questions. He was a little surprised, but I think after everything Mr. Patz has gone through, he handled it very well," said Lt. Christopher Zimmerman of the Missing Persons Squad.
"We believe that this is the individual responsible for the crime."
- -- New York City Police Commissioner Ray Kelly
Neighbors in Maple Shade said Hernandez lived with his wife and a daughter who attends college. They expressed surprise Thursday night at the arrest.
"I knew the guy. He was not a problem. His family was great people," said Dan Wollick, 71, who rents an apartment in Hernandez' home ."He didn't bother anybody."
After Patz's disappearance in 1979, he was the first missing child to appear on a milk carton. President Ronald Reagan declared May 25 -- the day the boy disappeared -- National Missing Children's Day. The boy was officially declared dead in 2001.
Last month, the FBI ripped up a Manhattan basement for any forensic evidence that would help solve the mystery of what happened to Patz. The search turned up nothing.
The basement is the former workspace of retired handyman Othniel Miller, 75, of Brooklyn, N.Y., who was seen with Patz the night before he disappeared. Miller, whose workshop was on the route the boy would have taken to his bus stop, has denied any wrongdoing.
Although Kelly said the dig provided no link to Hernandez, the search hurtled the case back into the news, and a tipster then pointed police to Hernandez. Kelly said the person wasn't a relative, but knew that Hernandez had said he had done a bad thing, he said.
Investigators had long focused their attention on Jose Ramos, a drifter and onetime boyfriend of Etan's baby sitter. In the early 1980s, he was arrested on theft charges, and had photos of other young, blond boys in his backpack. But there was no hard evidence linking Ramos to the crime.
Ramos, now 68, reportedly admitted trying to molest Etan on the day of his disappearance, but denied abducting him or killing him. Ramos has never been charged criminally in the Patz case and is currently serving a 20-year prison term in Pennsylvania for abusing an 8-year-old boy there. Ramos is scheduled to be released from prison in November.
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lisette- Join date : 2009-05-29
Re: Pedro Hernandez On Trial For 2nd Degree Murder & 1st Degree Kidnapping Of Etan Patz~ Former Murder Suspect Jose Ramos Released From Prison After Serving 27 yrs~
I don't remember hearing about several people falsely confessing to this...Probably have, but I don't remember...Do you know who they were, Nite? Just curious...If several people have falsely confessed to Etan's murder why then is this man the ONE they place under arrest. Just because he sounded creditable?
lisette- Join date : 2009-05-29
Re: Pedro Hernandez On Trial For 2nd Degree Murder & 1st Degree Kidnapping Of Etan Patz~ Former Murder Suspect Jose Ramos Released From Prison After Serving 27 yrs~
lisette wrote:Nite wrote:I don't remember hearing about several people falsely confessing to this...Probably have, but I don't remember...Do you know who they were, Nite? Just curious...If several people have falsely confessed to Etan's murder why then is this man the ONE they place under arrest. Just because he sounded creditable?
Sorry I should have used the word OTHERS instead of SEVERAL. Others have been considered persons of interest. This article posted up thread describes one man's false confessions.
In 1991, jailhouse informants claimed that Jose Antonio Ramos, a convicted child sexual abuser imprisoned in Pennsylvania, admitted to his murder. Ramos had been a friend of Etan's one-time babysitter. He promised that no body would be found, saying "It's too horrible. No one would ever represent me". In a special feature on missing children, the New York Post reported on October 23, 1999 that Ramos was the prime suspect in Etan's disappearance.
In 2001, after waiting 22 years, Etan's parents obtained a court order declaring the boy dead.
His parents, Stanley and Julie Patz, pursued a civil case against Ramos, who was found liable for Patz's wrongful death in May 2004. They were awarded a sum of $2 million, which they have never collected, as Ramos is serving a prison term for molesting boys in the State Correctional Institute, Dallas, PA. His scheduled release date is November 11, 2012. Without evidence, a body, or a crime scene, some New York investigators do not believe they will ever be able to convict Ramos for Patz's death. Investigators still have neither of those things after Pedro Hernandez's arrest, and are relying only on his confession.[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]
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Re: Pedro Hernandez On Trial For 2nd Degree Murder & 1st Degree Kidnapping Of Etan Patz~ Former Murder Suspect Jose Ramos Released From Prison After Serving 27 yrs~
lisette- Join date : 2009-05-29
Re: Pedro Hernandez On Trial For 2nd Degree Murder & 1st Degree Kidnapping Of Etan Patz~ Former Murder Suspect Jose Ramos Released From Prison After Serving 27 yrs~
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By Jonathan Dienst and Shimon Prokupecz, NBCNewYork.com
A former bodega stock clerk arrested for allegedly luring 6-year-old Etan Patz off a SoHo street three decades ago and strangling him in a basement has been placed on suicide watch, NBCNewYork.com has learned.
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Pedro Hernandez, 51, was taken to Bellevue Friday, a source familiar with the case said. He had been set to be arraigned after police announced his arrest in the 1979 missing child case that has mystified New York City for decades.
A hospital bedside arraignment was expected sometime Friday.
Hernandez is in isolation and receiving a medical evaluation at the hospital. Another source told NBC 4 New York that this evaluation is precautionary and that such extra steps in a case like this are often routine.
Relatives have said Hernandez has a history of some mental issues. His court-appointed lawyer, Harvey Fishbein, declined to comment Friday, saying he hadn't met with his client yet.
Patz vanished on his way to a school bus stop 33 years ago Friday. The case drew international attention and changed the way parents felt about letting their young children go off alone.
Police said Hernandez had admitted to luring Patz into a bodega where he worked, near the boy's house, and choking him to death in the basement.
Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said 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.
"In the years following Etan's disappearance, Hernandez had told a family member, and others, that he had 'done a bad thing' and killed a child in New York," Kelly said.
Based on that information, police went to question Hernandez.
Kelly said Hernandez, who worked at the bodega for about a month, confessed to police after he was picked up Wednesday night. Some of the interviews were conducted at the scene of the crime, Kelly said.
Kelly said the suspect had not given a reason for attacking Patz and said there was "no reason at this time" to suspect the boy was sexually abused. He said it was "unlikely" Patz's remains would ever be found and that Hernandez told them he put the boy's body in the trash.
Hernandez's lawyer on Friday asked reporters to be respectful of some of Hernandez's relatives assembled at the courthouse, including his wife, daughter and another man, who huddled together on a wooden bench, turning away interview requests for more than an hour.
"It's a tough day. The family is upset. Please give them some space,'' Fishbein said.
His sister, Maria, who did not want her last name used, told NBC 4 New York on Thursday that her heart ached over the news of her brother's arrest and said she couldn't believe it. She said Hernandez had three children of his own and came from a family of 12 that emigrated from Puerto Rico in 1973.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg said Thursday that the disappearance of Patz "broke the hearts of millions" across the nation, especially parents, and expressed sympathy again for the boy's family.
"I certainly hope that we are one step closer to bringing them some measure of relief," he said.
Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance had pledged to reopen the decades-old cold case when he took office in 2010.
The exhaustive search for Patz was renewed several weeks ago when police dug up the basement of a handyman's workshop near where Patz disappeared. A new layer of concrete had been laid over the foundation of the basement shortly after the boy vanished.
That search yielded no new evidence.
A lawyer for the handyman, Othniel Miller, said his client is "relieved by these developments, as he was not involved in any way with Etan Patz's disappearance."
One other man had remained a longtime possible suspect: Jose Ramos, a drifter and onetime boyfriend of Patz's baby sitter. But there was no hard evidence linking Ramos to the crime.
He is in prison in Pennsylvania on a separate case.
The boy's parents, Stan and Julie Patz, were reluctant to move or even change their phone number in case their son tried to reach out. They still live in the same apartment, down the street from the building that was examined in April. They have endured decades of false leads, and a lack of hard evidence.
Police said the family had been notified of the arrest.
Stan Patz had his son declared legally dead in 2001 so he could sue Ramos, who has never been criminally charged with the boy's death and denies harming the boy. A civil judge in 2004 found Ramos to be responsible for the child's death.
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Re: Pedro Hernandez On Trial For 2nd Degree Murder & 1st Degree Kidnapping Of Etan Patz~ Former Murder Suspect Jose Ramos Released From Prison After Serving 27 yrs~
Published May 25, 2012
A New Jersey man was charged Friday with murdering 6-year-old Etan Patz -- 33 years to the day after the New York City boy disappeared while walking to a school bus stop.
Pedro Hernandez, who authorities say confessed to choking Patz in 1979, had been taken to Bellevue Hospital in Manhattan and placed on suicide watch, sources close to the matter confirmed to Fox News. Hernandez was Friday evening on a second-degree murder charge by video conference from the hospital.
Court-appointed lawyer Harvey Fishbein told the judge Hernandez is bipolar and schizophrenic. He didn't enter a plea, and a judge ordered a psychological examination...
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EXCLUSIVE
Pedro Hernandez provided detectives with “intimate details” about the murder of Etan Patz that only the killer could have known, sources told The Post.
NYPD detectives believe these key clues, kept secret for 33 years, are proof that the former SoHo bodega stockboy charged in the infamous abduction knew too much to not be involved.
Sources said investigators were stunned to learn that Hernandez had this inside information, which cops never disclosed to the public despite intense public scrutiny and three decades of frustration in trying to unravel what happened to the 6-year-old in 1979.
The specifics have remained secret and are known by fewer than a dozen current law-enforcement officials, including Police Commissioner Ray Kelly and Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance, the sources said.
They said the closely held details likely relate to Patz’s body — scars, birth marks, moles or other identifying characteristics — items he wore or had when he disappeared or knowledge the killer gleaned about Patz’s family before the killing.
Hernandez, who confessed to strangling the boy in the basement of the bodega where he worked at Prince Street and West Broadway in SoHo, was considered unreliable by some NYPD investigators because of his mental instability.
“They thought there were medical issues and he might be one of those publicity seekers,” one source said.
“But pretty seasoned detectives are confident this is the guy based on information he had. And the circle of people who know is very narrow. They’re not even telling other people in the unit.”
Investigators have refused to divulge the clues publicly — just in case Hernandez is exonerated or was only involved peripherally and the information is needed to check out other suspects.
Police typically compile details about murders and the victims that are not revealed to the public, and that was true in the Patz investigation, said former FBI agent Ken Ruffo, who worked on the case from 1982 to 1987.
“His parents shared with us confidential information that would only have been known by Etan or his sister,” he said.
“I’m hoping [Hernandez] did say something. If he’s got specific details, then you’ve got something to hang your hat on and feel better about.”
Meanwhile, Kelly was said to be furious with the way the investigation into Hernandez was initially handled.
“He’s upset and wants to know: Had this guy ever been interviewed?” said one source. “Kelly is pissed. The heat is on.”
It’s unclear how much information the police had on Hernandez, 51, whose family members say he twice tried to confess but was dismissed by police as being crazy.
A former cop who worked on the case said Hernandez’s name never came up.
“I went through the whole file and I don’t remember seeing his name,” said the ex-detective. “Now, maybe his name was on a piece of paper somewhere, but I didn’t see any mention of it in the case file.”
Said another source: “Sometimes back then detectives wouldn’t file reports. It’s possible someone talked to him and never recorded it.”
Former NYPD Police Commissioner Robert McGuire — who said he had the top detectives in the city on the case — defended the performance of his investigators to The Post.
“I don’t second-guess good detectives, and we put good homicide detectives on this case,” he said. “[But] I have no way of knowing if anyone overlooked the guy.”
Hernandez remained locked up at Bellevue Hospital yesterday after threatening to kill himself.
He was allowed visitors but no friends or relatives showed up to see him.
“Right now the family is going through so much,” said his sister, Maria Hernandez.
“My brother committed a crime. How do you think we feel? I haven’t slept for three days.
“This is hurting my whole family.”
Additional reporting by Philip Messing and Erin Calabrese
samgoodwin- Join date : 2011-02-10
Pastor: Wife of suspect in Etan Patz case 'absolutely shell-shocked'
Yet it was something else entirely on her mind when she and her daughter came weeping into their Moorestown, New Jersey, church Thursday, according to their pastor.
"I knew it was something bad," Marantha Christian Fellowship church Senior Pastor George Bowen told CNN on Sunday.
Hernandez told Bowen that police came to her door the previous day, saying their visit had "something to do with the Etan Patz case."
Relative: Man now suspected in Etan Patz death was reported to police decades ago
Searching for Etan Patz
Who is the Etan Patz suspect? 33 years of mystery in Etan Patz case Front Lines: Etan Patz suspect arrested Questions remain about Patz suspect
The 6-year-old boy's sudden disappearance a block from his Manhattan home on May 25, 1979, spawned a national movement to raise awareness of missing children, including the then-novel approach of putting an image of the child's face on milk cartons.
Her husband, Pedro Hernandez, ended up leaving the family home with police -- and, with his subsequent arrest, he hasn't returned.
"She seemed absolutely shell-shocked," Bowen recalled Sunday of his conversation three days earlier with Rosemary Hernandez. "She was crying. She had an expression on her face like, 'How could this ever happen?'"
That same day, police Commissioner Ray Kelly told reporters that Pedro Hernandez had admitted -- as a then-19-year-old clerk in a Manhattan bodega -- to luring Etan to the store with the promise of a soda, choking him and placing his body in the trash about a block and a half away.
The Manhattan district attorney's office charged Pedro Hernandez with second-degree murder, finding his confession credible even given that authorities concede there is no physical evidence linking him and that Patz's body has never been found.
Defense lawyer Harvey Fishbein claims his client -- who is on suicide watch at New York's Bellevue Hospital, according to a law enforcement source -- has a "long psychiatric history" including schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and hallucinations.
Hernandez has not entered a plea due to a pending psychiatric evaluation.
Rosemary Hernandez is Pedro Hernandez's second wife.
Bowen, the New Jersey pastor, said he got the impression Pedro Hernandez never mentioned anything about the Patz case or about killing anyone to his wife, while ceding he never posed the question directly to Rosemary Hernandez.
What he did know for certain was that the Hernandez family attended the church regularly.
Neighbors say suspect in Patz killing lived a quiet life with his family
The couple faithfully sat in the second row during services, the pastor said.
Rosemary Hernandez and her daughter were active in church ministries. But Pedro Hernandez, who Kelly has said had been collecting disability payments since a 1993 accident prevented him from working, was more in the background.
"He's very quiet, very shy," Bowen said, describing him as "socially awkward."
The pastor said that his interactions with the husband typically consisted of brief greetings and little else. Once, the couple came to him for counseling -- for an issue he say was not related to their marriage or a crime -- and Rosemary Hernandez "did all the talking," Bowen said.
For this Sunday's services, Rosemary Hernandez and her daughter were not in their regular spot in the second row.
But they were on Bowen's mind, as was Pedro Hernandez's alleged victim and the boy's family.
"Please pray for the Patz family, pray for Rosemary and (her daughter)," the pastor told his congregation. "Please pray for Pedro."
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raine1953- Administration
- Join date : 2010-01-21
Re: Pedro Hernandez On Trial For 2nd Degree Murder & 1st Degree Kidnapping Of Etan Patz~ Former Murder Suspect Jose Ramos Released From Prison After Serving 27 yrs~
DAZED FAMILY: Rosemary Hernandez (right) leaves court in Manhattan yesterday with daughter Becky following the arraignment of husband Pedro Hernandez — 33 years to the day that, he says, he murdered 6-year-old Etan Patz in a SoHo bodega.
As their world came crashing down around them, Pedro Hernandez’s weeping wife and daughter fled to the one place they knew they could find peace — their church.
“They came in, and they were in tears, very distressed,” Pastor George Bowen, of the Maranatha Christian Fellowship, told The Post of his emotional meeting Thursday with the two women.
“They wanted me to have the news early that [Pedro] had been taken into custody.”
Rosemary Hernandez appeared confused and stunned that her husband was picked up a day earlier by NYPD detectives for the murder of 6-year-old Etan Patz, one of New York’s most famous child-abduction victims, Bowen said.
“It was as if they had been run over by a Mack truck and were just devastated,” Bowen said of Rosemary Hernandez and her daughter, Becky, who’s in her 20s.
“Every aspect of Rosemary’s body language and demeanor indicated: ‘I’m shocked. How was I married to this guy for all these years?’ ”
Pedro Hernandez was never involved in the church’s activities, but his wife and daughter served as greeters, “people with big smiles on their faces who’d say, ‘It’s great to have you here. Here’s some information about the church,’ ” Bowen said.
But Thursday — the day after Pedro Hernandez’s arrest and as he was detailing his alleged heinous crime to cops — Hernandez’s wife cried as she explained that she had to end her and her daughter’s treasured church involvement, he said.
“Rosemary said, ‘I can’t be a greeter anymore and want to just relinquish those responsibilities,’ ” the pastor said.
“They were just crying.’’
The family had been attending the conservative Evangelical church in Moorestown, NJ, nearly every Sunday for about six to seven years, Bowen said.
He said over the last year Rosemary, who had worked for insurance companies, had opened up about being unemployed and about the family’s financial difficulties — but never mentioned marital problems.
On Thursday morning, when Rosemary and Becky arrived at the church, they “could barely talk,” he said.
“New York City police had come down about the unsolved disappearance and presumed murder some 30 years ago,’’ he said. “I said I would pray for them.’’
Hernandez, a former SoHo bodega stock boy, confessed to NYPD cops that he murdered Etan the first time he met the child, in 1979, because he “just felt the urge to kill.”
Bowen said Pedro Hernandez and his family regularly sat in the second row of the church.
“Pedro didn’t talk at all . . . I don’t think anyone knew him. He was an enigma,” the pastor said.
“My view is [that his family] had absolutely no idea. Pedro is a very quiet, private man, and it seems to me that that carried into every arena of his life.”
Bowen said he would have had no trouble turning Pedro in had he known .
“I can tell you this: He never confessed to me. We don’t have the clergy confidentiality, like the Catholic Church,” Bowen said.
“If he had confessed to me, I would have been the first one to take him to the police station. We believe in justice as well as mercy.”
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Nama- Administration
- Join date : 2009-05-28
Etan Patz Killer’s Wife Is “Done”With Him
Rosemary Hernandez is said to be “devastated” and “shell shocked” by the murder charges against Pedro for the murder of Patz in 1979 reports the New York Post.
Emeterio Hernandez, Pedro’s brother, says Rosemary “cares about him” but knew nothing of what happened 33 years ago. Their marriage “has been over since she found this out’’when police took him from their Maple Shade home last week for questioning in the case.
Pedro, 51, and Emeterio, 60, are two of 12 siblings, and Emeterio’s wife, Gloria, is sisters with Pedro’s second, current wife, Rosemary. “They met at our wedding,” Emeterio said.
Emeterio says he will step up and become a “father figure” for Pedro’s college age daugher Becky.
“She wants to be a teacher, I’ll help her with school. I’ll walk her down the aisle,” he said.
Emeterio said he hasn’t spoken to his brother in years but knew he had mental problems. But “if he is guilty, he should be held responsible,” he said.
Meanwhile, details about the murder are leaking out. The Post reports that Pedro put Etan’s body in the bodga’s basement walk-in refrigerator before putting it out with the garbage.
Detectives are examining blueprints of the bodega’s building to confirm that Hernandez’s descriptions of the basement space where the walk-in was located matches architectural drawings from that time to make sure he’s telling the truth.They also are reviewing Sanitation Department records to try to confirm other details of his confession and to determine whether it would make sense to search for Etan’s remains in a landfill.Pedro’s sister Milagros Hernandez, 45, of Camden, told the New York Daily News that he told a church group years ago that he killed a boy but offered no details at the time. The family, she says, did nothing with the confession. Milagros also offered an apology to the family of Etan Patz. “We are deeply sorry to the family if our brother had anything to do with this, and we are praying for them — that somehow they can find peace,” she said.
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- Join date : 2009-05-28
Re: Pedro Hernandez On Trial For 2nd Degree Murder & 1st Degree Kidnapping Of Etan Patz~ Former Murder Suspect Jose Ramos Released From Prison After Serving 27 yrs~
Ari Patz, younger brother of Etan, and their father, Stan in 1985.
Etan's mother, Julie Patz.
Nama- Administration
- Join date : 2009-05-28
Etan Patz Suspect Reportedly Kept Boy's Body in Store Freezer
Hernandez was arrested Thursday after telling authorities that he'd lured the child to his death with the promise of soda.
He reportedly said that he'd strangled Etan and then stuffed the boy's body into a plastic garbage bag, carried it to another location and then dumped it in the trash.
Citing his confession to police, the New York Post reported today that Hernandez said he'd kept the boy's body in the refrigerator until he could dispose of the corpse.
Law enforcement sources said the police department is attempting to confirm the details provided by Hernandez and whether to search for remains, the Post said.
Also, The New York Times reported this weekend that Hernandez had confessed during a prayer meeting in the early 1980s to killing a boy.
The former leader of the prayer group, which was held in a Roman Catholic church in Camden, N.J., told the Times that Hernandez said in front of the meeting's attendees that he had strangled a boy, the paper reported Sunday.
"He confessed to the group," said Tomas Rivera, who often led the meetings at St. Anthony of Padua and was present during the admission. Rivera told the Times he did not tell the police at the time "because he did not confess to me."
Rivera, who said he'd been questioned by New York police last week, said Hernandez had also said he left the body in a trash bin.
The prayer-circle confession was confirmed to the Times by Hernandez's sister, Norma Hernandez, who said that although she'd never talked to Pedro Hernandez about the case, his comments to the prayer group were known to the family. She did not say whether her brother had revealed the identity of the boy.
In a Facebook post on its page, St. Anthony of Padua responded to The Times story:
"At the time the confession in the prayer group would have taken place, the friars had not yet even arrived in Camden. But some members of the prayer group back then are still active in the parish. Please keep the Patz family and the Hernandez family in your prayers," the message said.
Hernandez, now 51, was a clerk at a corner store in the New York City neighborhood where Etan disappeared 33 years ago. Etan had been allowed for the first time to walk to the school bus stop alone May 25, 1979.
Hernandez had worked at the store for nearly a month. He left after Etan's disappearance, according to officials. Etan's body has not been found.
Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said Hernandez had told relatives and friends as early as 1981 that he'd "done a bad thing and killed a child in New York."
Hernandez was formally charged with second-degree murder. He remains at a New York City hospital because authorities fear he might attempt kill himself. His lawyer said no plea had been entered pending a psychiatric evaluation.
The search for Etan has been one of the largest, longest-lasting and most heartwrenching hunts for a missing child in the country's recent history. His photo was among the first of a missing child to appear on a milk carton.
New York City police hailed Hernandez's arrest, saying that it closed a case that had haunted the city for three decades.
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So he confessed to a group at a prayer meeting in the early 1980's and not one of these supposed God fearing people went to LE? Really? And the former leader of the prayer group was told by Hernandez that he put the child in the trash? And the sister was aware of this? OMG, how can these supposed God fearing people live with themselves???? That's one church I would be ashamed to be affiliated with!!!!!
raine1953- Administration
- Join date : 2010-01-21
Re: Pedro Hernandez On Trial For 2nd Degree Murder & 1st Degree Kidnapping Of Etan Patz~ Former Murder Suspect Jose Ramos Released From Prison After Serving 27 yrs~
I guess no matter how horrific the crime is, if you don't hear the confession with your own ears then you should just take it as hearsay and you're off the hook, YEARS LATER, for not reporting it. He isn't going to have a problem sleeping.....he has it all worked out in his wacked out head!Rivera told the Times he did not tell the police at the time "because he did not confess to me."
Nama- Administration
- Join date : 2009-05-28
Re: Pedro Hernandez On Trial For 2nd Degree Murder & 1st Degree Kidnapping Of Etan Patz~ Former Murder Suspect Jose Ramos Released From Prison After Serving 27 yrs~
samgoodwin- Join date : 2011-02-10
Re: Pedro Hernandez On Trial For 2nd Degree Murder & 1st Degree Kidnapping Of Etan Patz~ Former Murder Suspect Jose Ramos Released From Prison After Serving 27 yrs~
“I talked to the family. I told the family what happened,” recalled Tomas Rivera, one of about 50 people in a circle of worshipers who heard the confession in the early 1980s.
Relatives should have told cops, he said, adding: “If they didn’t do it, that’s not my responsibility.”
But Hernandez’s sister, Norma Hernandez, now claims she told police in Camden, N.J., 25 years ago that her brother had admitted killing a little boy.
“I reported it. Nobody did anything,” the 54-year-old woman told the Star-Ledger of Newark Monday. She said she had no information other than the statements her brother had made.
Camden Police Chief Scott Thomson told the paper he was not aware of the sister’s contact with his department during the 1980s. He added that it was too early to say whether an investigation would be launched to attempt to corroborate Norma Hernandez’s claim.
Recalling the confession, Rivera, 76, said a group of worshipers had gathered in Salem County in southern New Jersey, and Hernandez, speaking in Spanish, admitted to strangling a little boy.
“He was supposed to turn himself in,” Rivera insisted, expressing not an ounce of remorse for his silence. “The family was in charge of that.”
Rivera said Hernandez’s prayer-meeting confession took place at a farmhouse — not at St. Anthony of Padua Catholic church in Camden, N.J., as widely reported.
He said he didn’t come forward sooner with the information because Hernandez didn’t confess to him one-on-one.
After he confessed, Hernandez came to only one other prayer meeting. He played the accordion for the group.
Rivera told detectives about Hernandez’s confession for the first time when they interviewed him last week.
“What’s happened was the truth because he’s in jail now. They locked him up with the information we gave,” Rivera said.
Still, inconsistencies that have emerged in Hernandez’s new confession to police have some investigators doubting that he’s the killer.
The shocking disclosure by the 51-year-old has people familiar with the case scratching their heads over how the boy’s body was missed during the extensive search after he went missing.
Hernandez told police that he coaxed the boy into the basement of the bodega where he stocked shelves, at 448 West Broadway in SoHo, and strangled him. He said he hid the body in a bag until he could dump it in an alley a couple blocks away.
But John Saracco, 56 — whose father, Charles, owned the property at the time — said investigators scoured the building’s basement, and every other building in the area, after the boy disappeared.
“They searched all the buildings around there,” he said. “That building was definitely one of the ones that was searched. If (the body) was there they would have found it.”
Law enforcement sources say that even if Hernandez had disposed of the body immediately, it is likely that a common grid search of the area — typical in a missing person case — would have revealed the body in the alley.
Hernandez quit his bodega gig shortly after the boy disappeared on May 25, 1979.
The suspect’s mental health will be a major factor in the case. His lawyer Harvey Fishbein said during his arraignment that his client had a “long psychiatric history” and had suffered from both visual and auditory hallucinations.
A source close to the case confirmed that Hernandez had been taking olanzpine for schizophrenia.
“It’s pretty strong stuff,” the source said.
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They are considering digging through landfills, would there even be anything at all left after 33 years?
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samgoodwin- Join date : 2011-02-10
Etan Patz case: New York prosecutor expects more questions despite charges
Pedro Hernandez, a 51-year-old New Jersey resident, confessed to police last week in a dramatic turn of events that may finally bring an end to the unsolved case of Patz's 1979 disappearance.
Hernandez said he lured Patz, who was walking to a school bus stop unaccompanied for the first time, into the basement of a grocery store where Hernandez worked, strangling the child and then putting his body in a bag.
But despite the lurid tell-all and resulting charges, Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance appeared to strike a cautious note after Hernandez's indictment hearing.
"This is the beginning of the legal process, not the end. There is much investigative and other work ahead, and it will be conducted in a measured and careful manner," Vance said in a statement late Friday.
That caution was likely caused in part by a series of high-profile prosecution failures by the DA's office. These include the collapse of sexual assault charges against French politician Dominique Strauss-Kahn and the aquittal of two police officers accused of raping a drunken woman, both of which dented the reputation of Vance's office.
But it also could reflect a wariness that Hernandez's confession is all that police currently have to go on. Investigators are certainly unlikely to find a body. Hernandez claims he dumped Etan's corpse with some trash and that it had disappeared when he returned for it several days later.
Hernandez, whose defence lawyers say suffers from schizophrenia, is currently in Bellevue Hospital after making statements about suicide.
His arraignment hearing, where he was formally charged, was conducted via video link from the hospital into the court room.
Hernandez was apparently tracked down by police after a family member contacted authorities in the wake of a recent, high-profile excavation of a Soho basement where police were searching for new evidence.
They did not find any, but the publicity surrounding the search caused the relative to contact the police and describe their suspicions that Hernandez might be involved in the Patz case.
In an interview with the New York Post tabloid published on Saturday, Hernandez's sister, Lucy Suarez, said that his family knew about his claims and that he had tried to confess to police in 1979 but been dismissed as not involved.
"Every time the Patz anniversary came up, and we saw it on TV, we would always get haunted by it," Suarez told the newspaper. "I would say, 'Why doesn't he turn himself in? And my sister said, 'He did, but the police let him go because they said he was too crazy'," she added.
However, though police interviewed several people who worked at the grocery store where Hernandez was a stock boy, no evidence has yet emerged that Hernandez was ever spoken to by police.
Before Hernandez's confession, attention in the case was firmly focused elsewhere. In 2001, the boy's father, Stan Patz, successfully petitioned to have his son declared legally dead in order to sue Jose Ramos, a convicted child molester who had for many years been the prime suspect.
Ramos's girlfriend had babysat Etan. Currently in a Pennsylvania prison, Ramos is set to be released later this year.
Stan Patz sends the convict copies of the original missing posters used in the case twice every year – marking the anniversaries of the day Etan went missing and the boy's birthday.
A judge found Ramos responsible for Etan's death in a 2004 ruling. Ramos, who is in jail in Pennsylvania for child sex abuse, has always denied killing the boy. Earlier this year detectives focused on a 75-year-old former handyman who gave Etan a dollar for chores a day before the boy's disappearance.
But the New York resident, who used to own the basement that was dug up by police in April, has also maintained his innocence. Etan's case became a national cause célèbre after he vanished and his face was one of the first to appear on milk cartons in an effort to solicit help from the public.
The date of his disappearance was later declared National Missing Children's Day by President Ronald Reagan and the publicity surrounding the case seemed to usher in a new era of parental fears over the safety of their children.
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raine1953- Administration
- Join date : 2010-01-21
Re: Pedro Hernandez On Trial For 2nd Degree Murder & 1st Degree Kidnapping Of Etan Patz~ Former Murder Suspect Jose Ramos Released From Prison After Serving 27 yrs~
lisette- Join date : 2009-05-29
Re: Pedro Hernandez On Trial For 2nd Degree Murder & 1st Degree Kidnapping Of Etan Patz~ Former Murder Suspect Jose Ramos Released From Prison After Serving 27 yrs~
samgoodwin- Join date : 2011-02-10
Re: Pedro Hernandez On Trial For 2nd Degree Murder & 1st Degree Kidnapping Of Etan Patz~ Former Murder Suspect Jose Ramos Released From Prison After Serving 27 yrs~
Guest- Guest
Re: Pedro Hernandez On Trial For 2nd Degree Murder & 1st Degree Kidnapping Of Etan Patz~ Former Murder Suspect Jose Ramos Released From Prison After Serving 27 yrs~
An interesting video that shows the bodega and possibly Hernandez's brother-in-law Juan from the early days.
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"When the news broke on Thursday, I went looking for a video I'd seen during the search of the basement last month. It's of William Butler, the detective who retraced Etan's steps daily and later committed suicide. Butler goes into a bodega and asks the man behind the counter if anyone was talking about the Patz case. I was checking if the man's name was Pedro. It wasn't. It's Juan.
According to this article, Hernandez was working at the bodega with sister Luz's husband, Juan Santana at the time Etan disappeared."
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"Other sources said that Juan owned the bodega.
Hernandez contacted his sister Luz last month to discuss the search of Miller's basement. He has had very little contact with Luz in years and he wasn't calling to make chit-chat, she said."
_______________________________
Ok - some clarification. The un-named bodega is in a building once owned by C. Saracco. He owned the entire building {not sure now many stories or businesses are in the building} from 1950 - 2005. He does not remember Pedro. I do not believe C. Saracco owned the business inside the bodega.
Juan ran the bodega for 17 years. Juan's now 22 year old son is a nephew of Pedro.
Detective Butler responded to the home of Etan the very day he went missing {or that night}. Detective Butler walked the route Etan walked - and went into the bodega for years. He was one of 2 full time LE dedicated to the Etan case. Detective Butler talked with Juan when he went into the bodega. (shown in above video)
The very day Etan went missing - the Father of Etan found undeveloped photos of Etan taken in March- rushed out to have them developed. The bodega is one of the places the Father of Etan went to show Etan's photo - asking if anyone had seen him that day. Whoever was shown the photos said no.
Here is a post from a person who lived in soho and knew Juan when he worked the bodega - and saw him years later - before the arrest of Pedro.
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Quote:
"I ran into Juan, the guy who used to work at the bodega on West Broadway at Prince, when I was getting pizza the other day at Ben’s. He said he remembered me, remembered my face as a little girl. He pretty much looks exactly the same as he did over thirty years ago. I thought Juan owned the bodega, but he said he just worked there (for 17 years!). He still lives on West Broadway (for 41 years!) and works as a super in a few buildings in the neighborhood. And he still doesn’t speak English all too well. I told him I missed his bodega.
The bodega didn’t have a name, and it really didn’t need one. Although there were a few bodegas in the area, everyone knew that you meant THAT bodega if you said you were going to stop in to “the bodega” to buy a few things.
I really do miss that bodega. It was pre M&O, pre-Korean deli on Thompson Street. It was the only show in town. I used to catch the P.S.3 school bus there every morning, and in the afternoons there were card games on milk crates on the sidewalk. I once bought a box of instant oatmeal there. I brought it home, “cooked” it up, and noticed hundreds of little bugs crawling around my bowl. I think I might have already taken a bite or two. After that, I wrote my first and only ever consumer complaint letter to Quaker Oats. I think I was about nine or ten years old. A few weeks later, I received letter of apology and a coupon for a free box of oatmeal, which I promptly redeemed—guess where?
I recently asked around to see what other folks remembered about the bodega. The sinful steak sandwiches, the weed they sold behind the counter, and the barbecues. They used to roast a whole pig in the parking lot next door. Juan said he quite enjoyed those barbecues and that he would still do them if he could find a good lot. He also told me that once a woman called the cops to complain about the pig (how ironic). An officer showed up and asked when the pig would be done. He returned at the designated hour with a loaf of bread and Juan made him two sandwiches.
So if any of yous want to relive the old days and happen to have a whole pig handy, let me know, and I’ll get ol’Juan on the horn. FYI, this BBQ will be strictly BYOB (bring your own bread)!"
So Juan did not own the bodega - Juan is Pedro's confirmed family and worked there 17 years. So that is how Pedro ended up working there. Other family members worked there as well. Possibly his family rented the bodega and therefore it was their family business. Juan looked pretty young in 79 - possibly an older family member was the official business owner.
_________
Interesting old memories, IMO.
Last edited by samgoodwin on Wed May 30, 2012 12:04 am; edited 1 time in total (Reason for editing : edited to fix links)
samgoodwin- Join date : 2011-02-10
ter of Etan Patz Murder Suspect Says Police Ignored Her Pleas
Norma Hernandez says she told police in Camden, N.J., in the early 1980s that her brother had admitted to members of his church that he killed a boy in New York City in 1979.
"I went down to the police station and told them that my brother had killed and strangled a little boy," Norma Hernandez told ABC News.
She says she implored police to investigate but, "They never got back to me...I thought I'd at least hear back from a detective but nothing."
If convicted, Norma Hernandez said, her brother should spend the rest of his life in jail.
"As a sister you want to have compassion, but as a human being I think anyone is capable of anything," she said.
Pedro Hernandez, 51, is a New Jersey resident, moving there after living in New York City in the 1970s where for a time as a teenager he worked as a bodega stock clerk. Last week he was charged with second degree murder in the 6-year-old's death following a sworn confession that he lured Patz into the bodega basement with the promise of a soda and proceeded to kill him 33 years ago.
Camden cops denied Norma Hernandez's claim that she asked that her brother be investigated some two decades ago.
"This is the first we are learning of Ms. Hernandez's comments," Camden Police Chief John Scott Thomson told ABC News. "Since this is an on-going homicide investigation, anything we do will be closely coordinated through the direction of the Camden County Prosecutor, Manhattan D.A., and the NYPD."
Hernandez was arrested last Thursday after a friend or family member recently contacted police and repeated his decades old church confession. Police said that person came forwards after the PAtz case again made headlines, when authorities reopened the investigation last month by excavating a basement apartment steps from where Patz went missing
Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said Hernandez had told relatives and friends as early as 1981 that he'd "done a bad thing and killed a child in New York."
Hernandez was arraigned last Friday from a New York City hospital, where he taken following his arrest and fears he might commit suicide.
His defense lawyer contends he is mentally ill and suffers from hallucinations. He did not enter a plea.
The search for Etan has been one of the largest, longest-lasting and most heart-wrenching hunts for a missing child in the country's recent history. His photo was among the first of a missing child to appear on a milk carton.
Stan Patz, Etan's father, reportedly spent Memorial Day on a bike ride through lower Manhattan, where he silently rode past 448 West Broadway, the address where Pedro Hernandez allegedly killed his son.
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raine1953- Administration
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Re: Pedro Hernandez On Trial For 2nd Degree Murder & 1st Degree Kidnapping Of Etan Patz~ Former Murder Suspect Jose Ramos Released From Prison After Serving 27 yrs~
Praying For Faith- Join date : 2010-08-22
Re: Pedro Hernandez On Trial For 2nd Degree Murder & 1st Degree Kidnapping Of Etan Patz~ Former Murder Suspect Jose Ramos Released From Prison After Serving 27 yrs~
NEW YORK – New York City police detectives on Wednesday were searching the New Jersey home of the man charged with murdering a 6-year-old boy who went missing in 1979, looking for shreds of evidence in a case that has bewildered authorities for three decades.
Armed with a search warrant, more than a dozen officers and a NYPD Crime Scene Unit van arrived at the Maple Shade, N.J., home of Pedro Hernandez on Wednesday afternoon. According to police, Hernandez confessed last month to killing Etan Patz, after authorities received a tip that he was involved in the boy's disappearance.
Chief NYPD spokesman Paul Browne said only that the search was part of an ongoing investigation.
Hernandez lived at the home with his wife and daughter.
Etan went missing on his way to school on May 25, 1979, the first time he was allowed to walk to the bus stop alone. Hernandez was working as a stock clerk at a convenience store near where Etan was last seen. Hernandez has said he lured the boy to the basement with the promise of a soda, suffocated the boy, then put the body in a bag, put the bag in a box, and walked it down the street where he left it in an alcove with other trash, according to authorities.
But there has been no evidence to back up the claim. No body was found. The convenience store has long been renovated into an eyeglasses shop. Sanitation records that could show where trash was dumped do not go back farther than 1989. City garbage is dumped at the Fresh Kills landfill on Staten Island, but private trash collectors also pick up refuse on the city and dump it at several locations in New Jersey and Brooklyn. No digging has been ordered yet.
Prosecutors don't necessarily need physical evidence to corroborate his story: It could be just as simple as the fact that he worked at the store at the time of the boy's disappearance. Still, investigators were working diligently, interviewing Hernandez's family and friends, including a church leader who claimed Hernandez once confessed to him.
Hernandez's attorney said his client was bipolar and schizophrenic and had visual and auditory hallucinations. He has not entered a plea in the case.
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lisette- Join date : 2009-05-29
Initial Suspect In Etan Patz Case Breaks Silence On Pedro Hernandez Arrest [EXCLUSIVE]
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- Join date : 2010-01-21
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» Elizabeth Marriott missing/Seth Mazzaglia found GUILTY of first-degree murder.Kathryn McDonough pleaded guilty to hindering prosecution/serving 1-½ -3 years in prison. Mazzlgia gets LWOP!!
» Geralyn Graham Trial, charged with killing Rilya Wilson who is still missing since 2000. Update: 1/25/12: MISTRIAL declared on Murder charge..convicted of abuse & kidnapping/Graham sentenced to 55 yrs in prison!
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