New York Magazine: What Happened to Etan Patz

[Adelante]

Thirty years ago, the 6-year-old boy disappeared from a Soho street. His father is now convinced he knows who killed Etan. But will the Patzes ever get a chance to learn the whole truth?

By Lisa R. Cohen Published May 3, 2009

It will be 30 years this Memorial Day weekend since reporters swarmed the Soho loft of Stan and Julie Patz, along with hundreds of policemen, as the grim-faced parents spelled their son’s name over and over again: “E-T-A-N … ay-tahn.”

The Patzes’ story was already front-page fodder. That Friday, May 25, 1979, 6-year-old Etan, wearing his favorite Eastern Air Lines Future Flight Captain hat, had vanished somewhere in the two short blocks between his Prince Street home and the West Broadway school-bus stop. It was the first time his parents had let him walk the route alone, a decision they’d agonized over. (Other kids are allowed, Etan had said. Why not me?) His school never alerted the Patzes to Etan’s absence, and it wasn’t until 3:30 p.m., when he hadn’t returned, that Julie called their neighbors, wondering if he might be with a friend. Twenty minutes later she called the police.

http://nymag.com/news/features/56441/