NEW YORK (AP) – Jurors are scheduled to hear closing arguments in the case against a 54-year-old New Jersey man accused of killing 6-year-old Etan Patz on May 25, 1979 as the boy headed to school.
Pedro Hernandez confessed to the crime in 2012 in a case that has confounded law enforcement for decades. Etan’s body was never found, nor any trace of clothing or his belongings.
Hernandez was a teenage stock clerk in the neighborhood at the time Etan disappeared but had never been considered a suspect. His name appears in law enforcement paperwork only one time during their lengthy probe. The Maple Shade, New Jersey, man made the stunning admissions after police received a tip from a relative that he may have been involved in the case.
“I grabbed him by the neck, and started choking him,” he said. “I was nervous, my legs were jumping. I wanted to let go but I just couldn’t let go. I felt like something just took over me.”
The trial began in late January, and jurors have heard from dozens of witnesses. Members of a prayer circle testified that Hernandez made tearful admissions during a retreat in the summer of 1979 that matched some of what he told authorities on video 33 years later: He gave a child a soda, took him to the store basement and choked him. One said Hernandez also admitted abusing the boy. Hernandez denied molesting Etan to police.