Etan Patz

Authorities began sifting through dirt in a New York City basement Saturday as part of a ongoing search for the remains of Etan Patz, the 6-year-old boy who vanished in 1979. The basement's concrete floor was removed Saturday morning and the area was broken into quadrants, NYPD spokesman Paul Browne said in a telephone interview with the Times. Authorities dug 1 1/2 feet to 2 feet into the dirt floor, Browne said. The first quadrant had been sifted through and the second was underway at 5 p.m. Eastern time.

NEW YORK -- More than 33 years after 6-year-old Etan Patz vanished while walking to his school bus stop in Manhattan, a man pleaded not guilty to kidnapping and killing the boy, whose remains never were found and whose disappearance put a spotlight on the plight of missing and abducted children.   The attorney for 51-year-old Pedro Hernandez, Harvey Fishbein, says the prosecution's case is based on a false confession made by a man with a history of mental illness and that Hernandez never should have been charged in the haunting case.

It's no coincidence that National Missing Children Day is observed May 25. The date marks the disappearance of Etan Patz, the young boy who vanished 33 years ago and is now the subject of an intense search by the FBI and local authorities in New York. FBI agents this week dug up the basement of a home in Manhattan's SoHo district in search of his remains. Etan, with his flowing hair and soulful eyes, captured the public's imagination, and his disappearance in 1979 changed the way the nation handles cases of missing children.

A man who was a teenage store clerk when 6-year-old Etan Patz vanished 33 years ago was indicted on murder charges Wednesday, six months after his confession stunned Etan's parents and some investigators who had blamed a convicted pedophile for the boy's disappearance. The indictment was announced by Harvey Fishbein, the attorney for Pedro Hernandez, 51, of Maple Shade, N.J.  Fishbein said Hernandez was charged with second-degree murder for allegedly strangling Etan after luring him from the sidewalk into the basement of the bodega where he worked in Manhattan's SoHo neighborhood.  Prosecutors did not immediately announce the charges.

NEW YORK -- The man accused of killing 6-year-old Etan Patz 33 years ago Friday has suffered from hallucinations, bipolar disorder and schizophrenia, his attorney said in the first court hearing since the man confessed to the killing. Pedro Hernandez, 51, sat silently, wearing an orange jumpsuit, his hands in cuffs behind his back. He did not appear in the Manhattan courtroom but appeared Friday night from New York's Bellevue Hospital via a video linkup to the courtroom. His lawyer, Harvey Fishbein, said Hernandez has "a long psychiatric history," and he asked the judge to approve a mental health examination for the defendant.

NEW YORK -- Prosecutors filed second-degree murder charges Friday against a 51-year-old New Jersey man who has confessed to killing Etan Patz, a 6-year-old boy who vanished from his Manhattan neighborhood 33 years ago. The confessed killer, Pedro Hernandez, was expected to be arraigned Friday night in a Manhattan courtroom. His confession Thursday appeared to finally solve the mystery of Etan's disappearance, which galvanized a national effort to improve methods of tracing missing and abducted children.

This post has been corrected. See note at the bottom for details. NEW YORK -- The search for the remains of Etan Patz, the 6-year-old boy whose disappearance from a Manhattan street 33 years ago put the plight of missing and abducted children under a national spotlight, ended Monday with the mystery of Etan's fate still unresolved. "There was no obvious sign of human remains found at this location," New York Police Department spokesman Paul Browne said as FBI agents and police began dismantling the metal barricades blocking people from a stretch of Prince Street in SoHo, where Etan was last seen on May 25, 1979, as he headed for his school bus stop.

NEW YORK -- New York police on Thursday said they had arrested a New Jersey man in the case of Etan Patz, a 6-year-old boy whose disappearance 33 years ago launched a nationwide effort to improve methods of finding missing children and ushered in a more cautious style of parenting. New York Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said Pedro Hernandez, 51, had confessed to choking Etan after luring him into the corner grocery store where he worked at the time with promises of a soda on May 25, 1979.

There's something haunting about the images of Etan Patz -- all, of course, taken before he vanished in 1979 while walking to school. That's because the images were no mere family snapshots. Etan's father, Stanley, was a professional photographer. So each shot of Etan was a perfect composition combining an artist's keen awareness of lighting and framing -- and a father's loving eye. There is no better example than this image of Etan chomping on a piece of fruit, smiling widely for the camera, a ribbon of juice down the front of his shirt.

NEW YORK -- A New Jersey man was being questioned by New York police Thursday after claiming to have killed Etan Patz, a 6-year-old boy who vanished 33 years ago on his way to school, but some investigators were skeptical that his confession would close one of the country's most gripping missing-child cases. The man in custody was identified by a law enforcement official as Pedro Julio Hernandez of Maple Shade, N.J. Hernandez, 51, said he worked at a grocery store near the home of Etan, who was walking to his school bus stop on May 25, 1979, when he disappeared.

Even as he was leaving prison in an unrelated case, the man suspected of killing Etan Patz more than 30 years ago was in trouble again. The Associated Press reported that Pennsylvania police arrested Jose Antonio Ramos on a Megan's Law violation as soon as he was released Wednesday from state prison, where he had served a 20-year-plus term for child molestation. Many have long suspected him of kidnapping and killing 6-year-old Patz while the boy was walking from his Manhattan home to a bus stop, though Ramos was never charged in connection with the missing child's death.

When my colleague Meghan Daum wrote about overprotective parents in her May 31 column, she pegged it to the brouhaha over the Time magazine cover of a mother breast-feeding her nearly 4-year-old son, and to the disappearance in 1979 of 6-year-old Etan Patz. And Daum's conclusion ? What happened to Etan Patz, in other words, is incredibly rare. Sure, it could be presented to the public as part of a nefarious and growing trend, as the latest reason that society is going to hell.

Since the release of the May 21 issue of Time magazine - the one with an attractive if rather indignant-looking young motherbreast-feeding a nearly 4-year-old child on the cover - much of the country has been abuzz with both admiration and condemnation of the child-rearing philosophy called "attachment parenting. " Known for its hyper-protectiveness, not to mention its plain-old hype, attachment parenting concerns itself with issues like the benefits of home schooling, the value of "co-sleeping" and whether disposable diapers and store-bought baby food are instruments of neglect.

The possibility that police might finally have captured the man responsible for Etan Patz's disappearance is giving new hope to other parents seeking answers about their own missing children.  "The primary sentiment we are feeling today is that we find this positive and inspiring," said Ernie Allen, president and chief executive of the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children. "What I think it does is send a message to searching families across the country that you don't close these cases just because you don't find a child or achieve resolution.

NEW YORK -- Prosecutors filed second-degree murder charges Friday against a 51-year-old New Jersey man who has confessed to killing Etan Patz, a 6-year-old boy who vanished from his Manhattan neighborhood 33 years ago. The confessed killer, Pedro Hernandez, was expected to be arraigned Friday night in a Manhattan courtroom. His confession Thursday appeared to finally solve the mystery of Etan's disappearance, which galvanized a national effort to improve methods of tracing missing and abducted children.

There's something haunting about the images of Etan Patz -- all, of course, taken before he vanished in 1979 while walking to school. That's because the images were no mere family snapshots. Etan's father, Stanley, was a professional photographer. So each shot of Etan was a perfect composition combining an artist's keen awareness of lighting and framing -- and a father's loving eye. There is no better example than this image of Etan chomping on a piece of fruit, smiling widely for the camera, a ribbon of juice down the front of his shirt.

NEW YORK -- FBI agents searching for the remains of Etan Patz, the poster child for missing children who vanished 33 years ago on his way to school, have spoken to a New York man who apparently knew the boy, and have dug up most of the basement where the man once worked. The renewed search for Etan, missing since May 25, 1979, kicked into high gear Thursday when searchers converged on a stretch of Prince Street in Manhattan's SoHo district, along the same block where Etan lived and where his parents still live.

New York police on Thursday had someone in custody in connection with one of the city's and country's most gripping missing-child cases: that of Etan Patz , a 6-year-old boy who vanished off a Manhattan street in 1979 on his way to school. Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly released a brief statement early Thursday saying: "An individual now in custody has made statements to NYPD detectives implicating himself in the disappearance and death of Etan Patz 33 years ago. We expect to provide further details later today.

NEW YORK -- The man accused of killing 6-year-old Etan Patz 33 years ago Friday has suffered from hallucinations, bipolar disorder and schizophrenia, his attorney said in the first court hearing since the man confessed to the killing. Pedro Hernandez, 51, sat silently, wearing an orange jumpsuit, his hands in cuffs behind his back. He did not appear in the Manhattan courtroom but appeared Friday night from New York's Bellevue Hospital via a video linkup to the courtroom. His lawyer, Harvey Fishbein, said Hernandez has "a long psychiatric history," and he asked the judge to approve a mental health examination for the defendant.