Disappearance of Etan Patz

Etan Kalil Patz (/ˈeɪtɑːn ˈpeɪts/; born October 9, 1972; declared legally dead in 2001) was an American boy who was six years old when he disappeared in the SoHo neighborhood of Lower Manhattan, New York City, on May 25, 1979.

His disappearance helped create the missing children movement, including new legislation and new methods for tracking down missing children, such as the milk-carton campaigns of the mid-1980s. He was the first missing child to be pictured on milk cartons.

In 2010 the case was reopened by the New York County District Attorney's office.

In April 2012, the FBI excavated a basement near the Patz residence, but this discovered no new evidence.

A confessed suspect, Pedro Hernandez, was charged and indicted later that year on charges of second-degree murder and first-degree kidnapping. In 2014, the case went through a series of hearings to determine if Hernandez’s statements before receiving the Miranda warning were legally admissible at trial. His trial began in January 2015 and ended in a mistrial in May.