Etan Patz -- Missing 5/25/79

DA Reopens Case of First Missing Child on Milk Carton

May 27, 2010

A new push is on to find out what happened to Etan Patz, who disappeared at age 6 more than three decades ago and became the first missing child to have his face featured on a milk carton.

On May 25, 1979, Etan vanished on his way to school in downtown Manhattan, sparking a national effort to find his abductors and changing the way missing child cases are investigated.

Manhattan district attorney Cyrus R. Vance agreed to reopen the case this week, making good on a campaign promise to try to bring suspect Jose Antonio Ramos justice. Ramos is suspected of abducting and murdering the child. Former district attorney Robert Morgenthau has said for years that the case lacked enough evidence to pursue. The body was never found.


Etan Patz was 6 when he disappeared on May 25, 1979.

Etan was declared legally dead in 2001, but his parents never gave up on pursuing the case.

"I'm very pleased to hear that he's publicly stating that he's willing to reopen the case and do some investigation -- this is a big change from the previous administration under Mr. Morgenthau," Etan's father, Stan Patz, told The Wall Street Journal.

Stan Patz, a professional photographer, used photos of his son to help in the search. In the months and even years after Etan's disappearance, images of the smiling, blond boy were everywhere, from "missing" posters in the Patzes' SoHo neighborhood to the sides of milk cartons in homes across the country. That tactic has worked in subsequent child-abduction cases but failed to bring Etan home.

But Etan's parents and investigators who have worked on the case think they know who killed him. Ramos, a convicted child molester, has long been the main suspect in the case. His girlfriend sometimes baby-sat for the Patz family.

"I'm quite pleased that the DA's office sees fit to reopen the investigation, and hopefully they'll also see fit to indict and convict Jose Antonio Ramos for the abduction and murder of Etan Patz," federal prosecutor Stuart GraBois told ABC.

A 2004 civil trial found Ramos guilty of Etan's abduction and murder, and a State Supreme Court judge ordered him to pay the Patz family $2 million. The family never received a penny, according to The Wall Street Journal.

In the 1980s, Ramos even made a partial confession to GraBois.

"How many times did you have sex with Etan Patz?" GraBois once asked Ramos point blank. GraBois said Ramos seemed ready to confess. "I'll tell you everything," he reportedly said at the time. But since then, Ramos has denied any role in Etan's abduction and murder. He is serving time in prison for molesting an 8-year-old in Pennsylvania.

Ramos is up for parole in 2012, but Stan Patz, who is 68 now, hopes reopening Etan's case will keep Ramos behind bars. "We're hoping to get a bunch of New Yorkers up in arms saying, 'Hang the bastard!' Patz told the New York Daily News this month. "Get the pitchforks out."

May 25, the date Etan disappeared, is now designated National Missing Children's Day. According to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, 800,000 children go missing every year in the United States.

http://www.aolnews.com/nation/article/da-reopens-case-of-first-missing-child-on-milk-carton/19493769

In case you are interested, this is the story of the first missing child pictured on a milk carton...

The Disappearance of Etan Patz

By Anthony Bruno

Future Flight Captain

The morning of May 25, 1979, was hectic at the New York City home of Stanley and Julie Patz. They lived in a converted loft in Manhattan's Soho district, pioneers in a section of the city that would later become the place-to-be for New York trendsetters. Soho had been Manhattan's manufacturing zone, characterized by block after block of 19th century, iron-fronted factories standing shoulder to shoulder. On overcast days it was easy to imagine the gloomy sweatshop conditions of old New York, but in the 1970s, a fair number of these buildings were dark and empty, and the streets were desolate and forbidding at night. Still, people were making their homes in the neighborhood, breathing new life into it. Artists were first drawn to the area, attracted to the large, open spaces and cheap rents. Stanley Patz, a photographer, and his wife Julie lived in a loft on Prince Street with their three children: Shira, then age 8; Etan, 6; and Ari, 2.


Etan Patz Missing Poster

Julie ran a day-care center out of her home. On the morning of May 25, as was her routine, Julie got her own children ready for the day as she prepared for the 14 preschoolers she cared for. As Julie dished out breakfast for her family, little Etan started agitating to walk himself to the bus stop again. He'd been asking if he could for some time now. A six-week school bus strike had just ended; the buses were scheduled to resume service that day. During the strike, the Patzes had hired a woman to walk Etan to school, but now that the buses were back, Etan pleaded with his parents to let him walk the two blocks to the bus stop by himself. Etan was a good boy, and it was a close-knit neighborhood where the residents watched out for the children, so the Patzes gave in and told him he could walk to the bus stop like a big boy.Etan was elated. He was dressed all in blue that day—blue pants, blue corduroy jacket, and blue sneakers with distinctive fluorescent stripes along the sides. He carried a blue cloth bag with an elephant pattern on the fabric. And as usual he was wearing his black "Future Flight Captain" pilot's cap, which covered his straight, light-brown hair. He pulled it down low over his brow, shading his blue eyes. He wore his prized cap all the time, even to bed. He'd bought it at an outdoor flea market for 10 cents.

http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/serial_killers/predators/etan_patz/

NYPD Resumes Search for Etan Patz, Missing Since 1979

Police and the FBI began digging up a Manhattan basement Thursday for the remains of 6-year-old Etan Patz,



Read more:
http://www.opposingviews.com/i/society/crime/nypd-resumes-search-etan-patz-missing-1979