New York (AFP) – A retrial of the man charged in the death of Etan Patz — a six-year-old New York boy whose disappearance in 1979 deeply shook the nation — will take place in September, the judge in the case ruled.
Judge Maxwell Wiley ordered a second trial Tuesday against 55-year-old Pedro Hernandez, who admitted the murder but later retracted his confession.
Wiley also presided over the first trial, which was declared a mistrial after the jury failed to reach a decision following 18 days of deliberation.
Etan Patz vanished after leaving his downtown Manhattan home on May 25, 1979, while walking alone to his school bus stop for the first time.
His parents discovered he was missing after he did not return home after school. His body was never found.
Police arrested Hernandez in 2012 after he confessed to the murder. In detailed videotaped confessions, Hernandez told interrogators that he strangled the boy to death and threw the body in a dumpster.
Hernandez’s lawyers say the suspect suffers from mental illness. He later recanted his story, pleading not guilty.
When the first trial began, legal experts anticipated difficulty proving guilt because prosecutors had no fingerprints or DNA proof.
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