33 years after six-year-old Etan Patz disapearance, police say a man has confessed the he killed the boy in New York CIty. INSIDE EDITION has the story.
Etan Patz is the little boy whose disappearance gripped the nation.
Now, 33 years later there's a major break in the case. A man has reportedly just confessed that he killed the six-year-old boy.
The suspect has been identified as Pedro Hernandez. He now lives in New Jersey, but at the time Patz went missing, Hernandez was 18. He's now married and has one daughter, who goes to college.
Hernandez worked at a convenience store that was owned by his family in the SoHo section of New York City, and little Patz walked by it everyday. It's being reported that he lured the little boy inside with candy.
The details of the man's alleged confession are gruesome and sickening. Hernandez reportedly told police he, "strangled" Patz, then cut up the body and "put him in plastic bags."
The six-year-old boy vanished exactly 33 years ago Friday, walking to the school bus stop.
Patz became the first missing child ever to be featured on a milk carton. The cold case was reopened in April, when cops dug up a basement in an apartment building up the block from Patz's home.
Cops said one of Hernandez's family members was watching the search on TV with the rest of America. That relative called police and told them 30 years ago, Pedro Hernandez confessed that he had killed a child in the same neighborhood, although he never mentioned Etan Patz by name.
New York City Mayor, Michael Bloomberg, said his thoughts were with the Patz family.
Bloomberg said at a presser, "As a father, I can't imagine what they have gone through, and I certainly hope that we are one step closer to bringing them some measure of relief."
Around the country people are taking to the internet and Twitter to express their hope that finally, after all these years, there will be justice for the Patz family.
