The Manhattan district attorney's office said Tuesday it will once again try Pedro Hernandez in the 1979 kidnapping and murder of 6-year-old Etan Patz, a case that has haunted New York City for decades, NBC News reports. Hernandez, now 64, was convicted in 2017 after confessing to luring Etan into a SoHo bodega basement, but his conviction was overturned in July by a federal appeals court, which ruled that the trial judge gave improper instructions to the jury. Hernandez remains in custody, and a new trial is expected to begin by June.
The case began when Etan disappeared on his way to the school bus in 1979—his first day walking to the bus stop two blocks from his house alone—sparking a nationwide movement to put photos of missing children on milk cartons; Etan's face was the first one featured, ABC 7 reports. His body was never found, and he was declared dead in 2001. Decades later, police tracked down Hernandez in New Jersey after a tip from the man's brother-in-law. Hernandez, who had worked at a store near the bus stop when Etan vanished, confessed, telling police he strangled the boy and left his body in the trash.
The defense argued that Hernandez, who is mentally ill and has a low IQ, confessed only after hours of police interrogation. His first trial ended in a hung jury. Hernandez's lawyers called the DA's decision to retry the case "deeply disappointing," but said they would mount an "even stronger defense." Etan's disappearance also led to the establishment of National Missing Children's Day, honored annually on May 25, and the national hotline for missing children, USA Today reports.
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