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Etan Patz: NYPD looking for evidence to corroborate confession
Photo credit: Cops, FBI agents talk at the site where they dig clues to Etan Patz's case on April 21, 2012. /Getty
Investigators are scrambling to find any piece of evidence that will corroborate a New Jersey man's confession that he killed Etan Patz 33 years ago.
The NYPD has been searching landfills for the 5-year-old's body and is looking for anyone who might have worked or associated with Pedro Hernandez, according to published reports.
Although Hernandez, 51, provided the police with a signed confession in which he admitted killing the boy in the Soho basement of a bodega he worked at and placing his body in the trash, Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said Friday they there is no evidence to back up his claim.
The location of Hernandez's bodega, which is now an eyeglasses store, is close to the Patz residence.
The Department of Sanitation declined to comment about the specifics about investigation but have said they keep records of where their trucks take their garbage.
"They are non-computerized and are archived, "sanitation department spokesman Vito Turso said. "We await [the NYPD ]call and will cooperate fully with their investigation."
Hernandez, who is allegedly bipolar and schizophrenic and is under suicide watch at Bellevue Hospital, reportedly told others in the past that he killed Patz, but the NYPD is still searching and questioning anyone who may have heard those earlier confessions, a police spokesman said Monday.
The FBI and Manhattan district attorney's office, who charged Hernandez with second-degree murder Friday, have been skeptical about his confession, according to reports, but also declined to comment about the investigation Monday.
Patz was walking to a bus stop from his SoHo home alone on May 25, 1979, but never returned home. The DA reopened the cold case two years ago and in April the investigation was in the spotlight again after a search dog found something suspicious near the boy's home.
But after weeks of digging, nothing was found at the site.
(with Reuters)
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