NJ Man Detained in Etan Patz Case
The NYPD has detained a man in connection with the case of missing New York City child Etan Patz, according to Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly.
Patz was six years old when he disappeared in lower Manhattan in May of 1979.
On Thursday morning the police commissioner said that a New Jersey man has admitted his possible role in the disappearance of the young child.
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"An individual now in custody has made statements to NYPD detectives implicating himself in the disappearance and death of Etan Patz 33 years ago," Kelly said in a statement. "We expect to provide further details later today."
The suspect, Pedro Hernandez, was picked up by police in Camden, N.J. on Wednesday, according to the New York Daily News.
Hernandez had been previously on investigators' radar in the case and had lived and worked in the Soho neighborhood where Patz went missing in 1979.
The search for the missing child was renewed this past April when law enforcement dug up a Soho basement that was the former workplace of 75-year-old handyman Othniel Miller. Miller had befriended Patz days before his disappearance, but no evidence was discovered in the new search.
Another man, Jose Ramos has been the main suspect in the case.
Ramos was dating the child's babysitter at the time of his disappearance and he told police that he had taken a young boy who looked like Patz home on the day of he disappeared, but said he had let the child go.
Ramos is currently serving a prison sentence in Pennsylvania for molesting two boys.
Although some sources have expressed skepticism that the man currently being held is connected to the case, many hope that the NYPD has finally solved the crime.
"Everyone is looking for closure. Hopefully, he can tell us where his body is and the family can get some peace," Roz Radd a man who has lived in the Soho neighborhood where Patz went missing told the New York Daily News.
