On May 25th, 1979, in New York, Manhattan, it was the last day of school for Etan Patz (9 years old) and his mother was getting him and his siblings ready for school. This day started off as any other normal day for the Patz family, but when Etan had a different plan when he woke up. He asked his mother if he could walk to the bus stop today, he had already been wanting independence and he thought the best way was walking himself to the bus stop. Julie (his mom), was quite hesitant at first, but then finally agreed to let Etan walk to his bus stop, since it was only 2 blocks down from the house. So, he went on his way to the bus stop carrying his little tote bag, put on his favorite hat (Eastern Airlines), and had a one dollar bill since he was planning on buying a soda. Only did his mother not know that was going to be the last time she would ever see her son again.

Julie waited for Etan to come back from school, but when she saw all the other kids start showing up except her son, she started panicking. She called the police and the investigators started a search really quickly for Etan. Police would go door-to-door asking people if they had seen Etan or if they knew anything about where he might be. Years went by and still nobody had any answers, until in 2012 when a man named, Jose Lopez, from New Jersey, reached out. He told police that he thinks that his brother-in-law, Pedro Hernandez, was the reason for Etan’s disappearance. Back on May 25th, 1979, Pedro was only 18 at the time, he told police that he had “lured Etan into the bodega’s basement.” He was working at the bodega at the time and Etan had come in to get his soda, well when he told police he stated because there was soda in the basement. In reality though, after he got Etan to go in the basement he had attacked him. He started to choke him and then he put him in a plastic bag inside of a box while he was still alive. Finally on February 14th, 2017, Pedro Hernandez was found guilty of the murder and kidnapping on Etan Patz.

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/30/nyregion/what-happened-to-etan-patz.html