Etan Patz Jury Continues Deliberations In Retrial

NEW YORK, NY — Nearly 40 years after 6-year-old Etan Patz disappeared while walking to his school bus in SoHo, a jury is deliberating whether authorities have identified the man responsible for his death.

Etan's story has long been famous in New York City and nationwide: In 1979, on the first day his parents allowed him to walk to the bus stop by himself, he disappeared along the way. He never showed up to the bus stop or to school. His body was never found, although investigators continued searching for decades.

More than 30 years later, Pedro Hernandez was arrested in 2012 and charged with Etan's killing. This is the second time that Hernandez is on trial in connection with Etan's disappearance. In Hernandez's first trial, jurors were unable to reach a consensus. A lone holdout juror was unconvinced of his guilt, causing the judge to declare a mistrial in May 2015. Now, after a second trial in the State Supreme Court in Manhattan that has spanned nearly three months, jurors retreated on Wednesday to begin deliberating the charges.

Absent physical evidence from a crime scene, prosecutors point to Hernandez's previous confessions to killing the boy. Throughout his life, he's confessed to his former wife, members of a church group and to investigators, according to prosecutors, although Hernandez's defense team says the versions of the story have varied in his different tellings. His lawyers say the 56-year-old has a personality disorder which made it difficult for him to distinguish reality from delusions. His defense team has also suggested that a different man is responsible for Etan's death.

"His words are not reliable," one of Hernandez's lawyers said during the trial. "His words are not supported by other evidence. He is not guilty."

Prosecutors allege that Hernandez sexually abused Etan before killing him. In the state's version of the story, Hernandez, a former bodega worked, used the promise of a free soda to lure Etan into his shop before he attacked the boy in the basement of the building.

This post will be updated as new information about the jury deliberations is released.

Image via Rich Mitchell on Flickr