Pedro Hernandez Guilty Of Murder Of The Boy Etan Patz In 1979

2024 Author: Steven Freeman | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 08:15

After nine days of deliberation, a New York City jury found Pedro Hernández guilty of the kidnapping and murder of Etan Patz, 6, in 1979.

The 56-year-old man, who at the time of the crime was working in a store, was accused of holding the boy for several days and then strangling him to death.

Etan's case stole the country's attention 38 years ago, as he became the first child to appear in a milk box after his disappearance in the SoHo sector, when he was heading to school for the first time without the company of his parents.

In 2012, Hernández confessed to the crime, claiming that he held the boy after offering him a soda at the store where he worked, a place where he also revealed having strangled the boy. After murdering him, he put his body in a garbage bag and then left it in a dumpster. The remains of the little boy were never found.

Despite the fact that Hernández's name did not appear in the initial investigations of the case, the man confessed to several of his relatives that he had murdered a child in 1981.

As People magazine reveals in a report, Hernández's sister-in-law reportedly took the information to the police in 2004 and again in 2012, just before her confession to the crime, which gave authorities precise details of what had happened.

Hernández's defense said that this had nothing to do with Etan's disappearance, since his statements could not be certain, since he was diagnosed with psychopathic disorder, so he presented symptoms of schizophrenia and also suffered from hallucinations.

Hernández's defense team also asserted that the real killer was José Ramos, a former convict for harassment of minors and who had a romantic relationship with the woman in charge of caring for little Etan. Ramos never faced charges and always denied any link to the boy's death.