Man charged with 2nd-degree murder in Etan Patz case

[maddezmom]

Source: USA Today

On the 33rd anniversary of 6-year-old Etan Patz disappearance from a New York City neighborhood, prosecutors on Friday charged a former convenience store clerk with 2nd-degree murder.

Etan vanished in the two blocks between his Manhattan home and his school bus stop on May 25, 1979, prompting an intense, months long search and launching a national movement to find missing children. Etan's photograph was among the first to appear on milk cartons.

Pedro Hernandez told police he promised a soda to lure the boy into the small grocery where he worked. Hernandez, then 18, led Etan to the basement where he choked him to death, Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said. Hernandez, now 51 and living in Maple Shade, N.J., told police he put the child's body in a plastic bag with some trash. Police have not found the body.

Kelly said they don't know why Hernandez allegedly killed the child. Authorities say they have a detailed, signed confession from Hernandez and corroborating accounts from relatives and friends who heard Hernandez admit that he'd "done something bad" to a child in New York City.


Read more: http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/story/2012-05-25/etan-patz/55210168/1

[alphafemale]

1. Seems like they're charging low.

Because he was 18 at the time?

[former9thward]

4. They are charging low because they have no hard evidence.

They only have his confession which can be retracted at any time. The other 'witnesses' heard nothing specific.

[Maraya1969]

2. So they are not saying anything about other crimes this guy

may have committed through the years. How many times does one person kill like that and then stop?

I'm actually asking a serious question if anyone knows the answer. It sounds like they are treating him as if he was not a serial killer. I suppose it could have been a one time thing.

I just don't understand the whole mind set.

[ProudToBeBlueInRhody]

3. Depends why he killed him

If he was going to molest the boy and he tried to escape or threaten to tell.....the murder was necessity rather than compulsion.

If a child molester can find a victim they can control it's easier for them......but certainly once you've killed once it becomes easier.

As far as serial killers, it's possible for one to murder to fulfill a curiosity or compulsion, and once they do it they have either been satisfied or are totally disgusted by themselves and don't do it again.

I don't know about this case, I thought they had a totally different guy just a few months ago. The fact it sounds like they will never find a body seems like it will make it harder to prove.

[bluestateguy]

5. I don't know. This could still fall apart.

There was that guy who confessed to the JeanBenet Ramsey murder and then he admitted he made it all up. I could see the same thing playing out again.

[LibDemAlways]

6. The man's lawyer told the court he is delusional and

has a long history of mental illness. Charging him at this point on the basis of a confession that happened in the wake of recent publicity about the case seems premature to say the least.

[Chemisse]

7. With the publicity his confession evoked

It would be tough to NOT charge this man in the face of public outcry.

They're damned either way, it seems.

[LibDemAlways]

8. If they feel they have a case, by all means they should

charge him. However, given all the circumstances they should be careful to avoid another Jon Benet type debacle when a disturbed man was taken into custody after falsely confessing to the crime.

[JackRiddler]

10. Evoked? Kelly staged a mammoth publicity event.

Public outcry? Please. This is entirely the cops who are staging the events. Their choice how to play it. People aren't quite that stupid yet; they can see the cops want to call this famous case solved, and win some points for themselves at a time when they feel beleaguered by justified criticisms.

No one "evoked" Kelly into leading the televised charge before he even knew the answers to most of the predictable questions he was asked. This is a big-PR event for the NYPD and the sensationalist media, not an "evocation."

[Suji to Seoul]

9. if etan patz was a police officer, there would have been an arrest in three days

but since it's just a child, 33 years later. . .

and added to that, where was the funeral paid for by the State honoring the child's life? a police officer gets that all the time. Hell, our soldiers killed in the in of duty don't even get that.

[JackRiddler]

11. Maybe, but who says it would have been the murderer?

You're not right on this. The Etan Patz disappearance was a very big deal in New York and the cops absolutely wanted to close the case.

As they are trying to do now, on the basis of a confession that is prima facie dubious. They made a big deal in recent weeks about searching someone else's basement, and found nothing.

Then a dying, mentally ill man steps forward with an unsolicited confession and it's hey ho! Case closed!

Vote Commissioner Kelly for Mayor in 2013!

(He dumped the body in a box - or plastic bag - on the street? And then it was gone?)