Pedro Hernandez jailed for 1979 murder of six-year-old Etan Patz
A man has been sentenced to at least 25 years behind bars for kidnapping and murdering a six-year-old boy in New York – almost four decades after the infamous crime.
Etan Patz was walking to his school bus stop alone for the first time when he was abducted by Pedro Hernandez in May 1979.
The clerk, who was 18 at the time, lured Etan into the basement of the convenience store where he worked by promising him a soda.
He then choked him and put his body out with the rubbish.
Etan’s parents discovered their son was missing when he failed to come home from school at the end of the day. His body was never found.
As part of a nationwide search for clues, Etan became the first missing child to be pictured on milk cartons.
After Hernandez was sentenced, Etan’s father Stan Patz told him: “After all these years, we finally know what dark secret you had locked in your heart.
“I will never forgive you. The god you pray to will never forgive you. You are the monster in your nightmares.”
Hernandez, who is now 56, became a suspect in 2012 after police received a tip that he had made remarks years earlier about killing a child in Manhattan.
He confessed to police, but his lawyers maintain it was false as he has a mental illness which makes him confuse reality with imagination.
Hernandez avoided eye contact with Etan’s parents in the courtroom as the judge handed down the sentence.
He will not be eligible for parole until he has served at least 25 years.
The murderer’s defence team expressed their deep sympathy to Etan’s family, but said they were planning to appeal the conviction.
“He’s an innocent man and he had nothing to do with the disappearance of Etan Patz,” they added.
Etan’s disappearance contributed to an era of fear among American families – making parents more reluctant to allow their children to roam outside unsupervised.
It also transformed policing practices, and his parents’ campaigning led to the launch of a national hotline for missing children.
The anniversary of his abduction has been commemorated as National Missing Children’s Day in the US since 1983.
