New York (Indiana’s NewsCenter) -The man who says he killed 6-year-old Etan Patz, more than three decades ago, will appear in a New York court later Friday.
After decades of inconclusive leads and squashed hopes, the confession of a New Jersey man may finally bring one of the country's most baffling missing person cases to an end.
Patz convinced his mom to let him walk to the bus alone for the first time 33 years ago Friday.
A few steps from that bus stop and a block and a half from Patz’s home, police say 51-year-old Pedro Hernandez lured the boy into the corner store where he worked with the promise of a soda.
“He then led him in the basement of the bodega, choked him there, and disposed of the body by putting it into a plastic bag and throwing it in the trash,” said Ray Kelly NYPD commissioner.
Police said Hernandez confessed in a tearful three and a half hour interview. However, they didn't say what his motive was. He would've been 19 years old on the day Patz disappeared.
Police reopened the case last month and still haven't found any physical evidence, but they say the new activity prompted a friend or relative of Hernandez to report what they knew.
Overnight the suspect's brother-in-law said in the past, the family heard stories
Jose Lopez said, “There was a comment, years ago, that he did something.”
However, there could be holes in the story Hernandez told after the police arrested him in New Jersey.
“There could be some challenges,” Dan Abrams ABC legal analyst said. “The key will be the testimony of relatives and any collaborating evidence.”
Until then, the parents of the boy whose disappearance brought missing children to the nation's front pages will keep waiting for word that his case is finally closed.
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Pedro Hernandez was taken to a hospital early Friday morning on the east side of Manhattan, where he's been placed under a suicide watch. Court officials say it is still possible he will be arraigned later Friday.
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