This undated file image provided Friday, May 28, 2010 by Stanley K. Patz shows a flyer distributed by the New York Police Department of Patz’s son Etan who vanished in New York on May 25, 1979. New York City police commissioner Raymond Kelly said today that a person who’s in custody has implicated himself in the disappearance and death of Etan Patz, (AP Photo/Courtesy NYPD/file)COLLEEN LONG and JENNIFER PELTZ
NEW YORK (AP) – A man has implicated himself in the death of 6-year-old Etan Patz, whose disappearance 33 years ago on his way to school helped launch a missing children’s movement that put kids’ faces on milk cartons, police said Thursday.
Investigators were still going over details of the man’s story. The development came just before the Friday anniversary of the boy’s disappearance, when detectives traditionally receive a landslide of hoaxes and false leads related to the case.
The man was picked up late Wednesday in Camden, N.J., according to a law enforcement official, and was being questioned Thursday by the Manhattan district attorney’s office, which is heading the probe by the FBI and police. The law enforcement official said the man has been tied to the case in the past.
“An individual now in custody has made statements to NYPD detectives implicating himself in the disappearance and death of Etan Patz 33 years ago,” Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said in a statement. Kelly said he expected to release additional details later Thursday.