A heartbreaking mystery that tortured a Manhattan couple and stymied police for more than three decades was finally solved after a New Jersey man confessed to strangling 6-year-old Etan Patz. click below to read the rest of the story.
Pedro Hernandez was charged with second-degree murder a day before the 33rd anniversary of little Etan’s disappearance — a crime that shocked New York and gave rise to the missing child movement.
“We have probable cause to make this arrest,†Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said. “We believe that this is the individual who is responsible.â€
“We have a confession, a written confession, a signed confession,†Kelly insisted. “He spoke for three and a half hours. We have videotaped statements.â€
Under questioning, Hernandez spun a sickening tale for investigators, describing how he lured the innocent little boy into his clutches with a cold soda, how he led him down into a basement, how he strangled him. Then he stuffed him in a bag.
He gave no explanation for why he killed the boy. And the cruel and callous way that Hernandez got rid of the boy’s body shocked investigators.
“It was taken a distance from the bodega, to another location in the neighborhood and left in the trash,†Kelly said. “About a block, block and a half away.â€
