What Kept The Etan Patz Jury From Guilty Verdict?

Etan Patz disappeared on his way to school in the Soho neighborhood in New York, in 1979. He was only six years old. He has never been found, and there have not been many viable leads or suspects over the years. In 2010, a basement was dug up in search of remains, but none were found. There have been age progressed pictures, and another suspect, Jose Ramos, the significant other of a babysitter sometimes used by Etan's family, was successfully sued in civil court by the Patz's in a wrongful death suit. There was never enough evidence to charge him in criminal court.

In 2012, an emotionally unstable man named Pedro Hernandez told law enforcement that he had killed a child. Members of his church supported that story, stating that he had repeated his account of having killed a child since the early 1980's. As for the remains, Hernandez claimed he had put the body in the trash. He was finally arrested, and his case went to trial. Aside from a haphazard confession, seven hours of which were not recorded, there was no evidence. Hernandez did not even get the name of the child he allegedly killed, and because there were no remains, against which to compare dental records or DNA for a positive identification, jurors would have had to make not only the leap that Hernandez actually did the deed, but that the victim was truly Etan Patz. Suppose Hernandez actually killed someone, but it wasn't Etan? Would Etan get justice? Or would a killer still be free to commit another murder?

The trial ended in a hung jury, and the judge finally declared a mistrial. There was one juror who did not agree that guilt should be determined in an American court with no evidence. It is a bit disturbing that only one juror would hold out, resisting the social pressure to convict without evidence, but thankfully, at least one person was willing to demand that the judicial system work the way it was designed to work. Coercion of a mentally ill suspect for hours on end by police is not likely to result in reliable information. And why would seven hours of such a conversation not have been recorded, so as to be available to a jury, later on? Could the seven hours possibly have been erased in order to preserve the ability of involved police officers to lie their asses off and get the wrong man convicted, thereby closing the case? With so many open and loose ends here, that seems like a distinct possibility. The only other supporting "evidence" the prosecution had were a few disorganized statements from Hernandez's former churchmates, claiming that he had "said he killed someone." Great. If he had really made such statements; and he actually may have; why in bloody hell didn't these church people go to the police back in the eighties, when Hernandez told them these things? Not that the statements are evidence, mind you. In the real world, third hand information is called "hearsay".

Hernandez is still in jail, waiting for the mumbo jumbo experts who engineered this mockery of a resolution to a missing persons case to decide when and if they want to retry the case. He is scheduled for a status hearing on June 10, 2015. Hopefully, if the case is tried again, there will at least be evidence and compelling testimony which will lead to the location of Etan Patz, and allow his family closure. 

May 25 Is National Missing Childrens' Day

In 1983, President Ronald Reagan declared May 25 National Missing Childrens' Day, to remind everyone that Etan Patz, who disappeared en route from his home to the school bus in New York, had not been found after disappearing in 1979. There are many unresolved missing persons cases involving children, and before Etan Patz's case, no one wanted to give these cases much publicity or notice. It was all too easy to pretend these things never happen, and that most American neighborhoods are "safe". Even today, it is often a formidable task to convince our media to air stories about missing children or keep their pictures in circulation until they are found.

The husband of a Kansas congresswoman even stated, after a child was abandoned by a teacher, four miles away from school, in Frankfort Kansas during a school activity, that it was a "good thing" that the child was left in a rural area, and not in her native Washington DC. His reasoning was that "those things don't happen in the country". The child's mother informed him that in Washington DC, there are cameras, eyewitnesses who care more about missing children than the pensions of dumbass teachers who "lose" them, and cell phone signals. In Northeast Kansas, a missing child cannot depend on those things. Also, the child's mother asked the husband of her representative if he had heard of more bodies being dumped in plain sight in urban areas post mortem, or "in the country", where evidence is harder to find?

Pedro Hernandez, Norma Hernandez, And The Etan Patz Case

As many of us have known since May 25, 1979, six year old Etan Patz disappeared on his way to school in New York on that morning. As everyone involved in the case has known, there have been no clues, and Etan has never been found. But, very recently, after some digging was done in a nearby basement in an attempt to find evidence connected to Etan Patz, someone who claims to know all about the whole matter appeared from seemingly nowhere....ok, New Jersey......to tell us all what happened to Etan. A man named Pedro Hernandez says he killed Etan. Ok; if this is true, perhaps Etan's family can get some closure and hopefully, find peace. There is; however, one more person who claims to have known these facts for the past thirty-three years......Pedro's sister, Norma Hernandez.

The press, along with Norma, herself, seem to want to spin this as if Norma had gone to the police the minute she heard Etan Patz was missing, and heard that her brother was involved, and begged and pleaded with them to listen to her. She claims that she spoke up, over the years, and that her "testimony" was ignored. Yet, police in both New Jersey, where Pedro Hernandez quietly moved after not going to police with his story, and investigators in New York, insist that they have not heard the testimony from Norma Hernandez. She also claims that when she communicated her tip, she was asked by police if she was "angry" with her brother, and if that was why she was giving them the infomation. Here's the problem with that: some of the best tips given to law enforcement are from angry people. Seriously....never commit a crime and leave a witness, accessory, or an accessory after the fact angry with you; they can send you up the river later on in life. Every police officer worth his salt knows this. It is unlikely that Norma's information was discounted because of any friction between her and her brother. Also, while technology in 1979 was limited in terms of finding evidence and linking it to a suspect via DNA, thirty-three years have elasped. Norma Hernandez could easily have reiterated her testimony over the years, especially as she noticed differences in the way law enforcement treats missing child cases. She has had every day of every year in a thirty-three year span to do this. She could also have gone to the FBI, not only at the beginning of this nightmare, but at any time since May 25, 1979.

Norma Hernandez also sat on the information she knew, concerning the Etan Patz case, in 2004, when Jose Ramos, who had never been charged with that crime was sued in civil court for wrongful death. If police could not take a statement from her, Ramos's attorney would certainly have enjoyed introducing her information. She could have cleared this whole matter up in 2004. She didn't.

Stan and Julie Patz have not been quiet about their desire to know what happened to their son over the years. Could Norma Hernandez not see this? Why didn't she write them a letter, or contact the National Center For Missing And Exploited Children? There are many people who could have listened to her story, taken her statement, and investigated. Why did Norma wait until police in New York and the FBI started looking at other possible suspects and digging up basements in the SoHo neighborhood, where she and her brother used to work and where Etan went missing? She obviously knew Etan would not be found in the basement that was being excavated. Was she worried that another basement or hidden spot might yield clues that would bring law enforcement and the Patz's closer to the truth? Was she scared that if her brother's DNA was found on anything having to do with Etan, that he would testify that she was the person who knew about this, along with him? It is abundantly clear that we have not heard the whole story here. Could Norma Hernandez be more than just a reluctant accessory after the fact, as she would have us believe? It's just a question.

Missing Children Still Need To Be More Important

I came across this video on Facebook this morning. It seems that someone has finally given law enforcement a believable account and confession about what happened to Etan Patz on May 25, 1979. In the years since little Etan disappeared, technology has made missing children and adults easier to find, and law enforcement has been given different protocals to follow. Picture recognition, such as those ancient "milk carton" photos, now replaced with pictures in the entrances of Walmart stores, have helped bring home at least ten percent of missing children. But nothing replaces watchful parents and guardians, safe schools and other institutions that deal with children, and an observant public. This is a short video, but very infomative......there is even a clip of an artist working on an age progressed image of Kyron Horman. I hope the artist takes into account all the different ways Kyron might look with longer hair. I hope everyone will watch this video.

National Missing Childrens' Day

It is May 25, the day Ronald Reagan designated as National Missing Childrens' Day, for Etan Patz, who disappeared on his way to the bus stop on May 25 of 1979, on his way to school. He was six years old. To mark the day, I decided to post this, once again. If it makes just one parent, teacher, or guardian think at a critical time, saving just one child from an horrible fate, it will have been worth my while to post it again.

Anyone who's listening, I will tell you a story. It's a true story, and it happened in October of 2009. Thankfully, it had a happy ending.

My oldest daughter used to be quite the avid cross country buff when she was thirteen years old. She was good at it, too. But one day, while she was at practice, and I was at home, just assuming that all was well, her coach drove past my house, stopping to talk to my eight year old son. Mr. Coach wanted to know if Mr. Eight Year Old had seen his older sister. Mr. Eight Year Old had not. No one had seen my daughter in over two hours. She was lost. Why was she lost? Because her coach had dropped her off by the side of a highway, four miles south of the town we live in, by herself, and just left her. It was part of cross country practice. No supervision. If she had been stung by a bee, had tripped and hurt herself, or had some other medical emergency, no one would have been there to help her. (at this juncture, you should know that I offered to volunteer to help with cross country, but since I do not attend a Christian church, my offer was rejected. The school staff thought it better to take chances with a child's safety in the way I just described) When my daughter realized that she did not know her way back, she started to wander of a side road, hoping it would bring her to a house, or another person. This area has a lot of commercial farms, and there were no houses or places my daughter could go to for help.

Back to my eight year old son.......Twenty minutes went by. While he did not realize the signifigance of his conversation with Mr. Cross County Coach, (also Mr. Guidance Counselor) he did realize that no one knew where his sister was, and it was getting later and later, and no one was looking for her. So he told me about it. I looked all over town, called all her friends, searched the school (why was the school left unlocked after everyone had gone home?) and finally started home to call the police, when a couple of senior boys drove up with my crying daughter in their car. It was still within a few minutes of when I found out she was missing, but this cross country coach had known all afternoon, and had not called the police, or spoken to me. Why? I guess whatever he cared about, it WASN'T my daughter. Well.........I actually DO care about my daughter. Nowhere else have I met a teacher that did NOT care, at least a little, about the children he teaches, but I think that is what the problem is with Mr. Cross Country Coach/ Guidance Counselor.

Suppose it was not young men from her school who found her, but a dangerous person? I have been told time and time again by the people who live in this small Kansas town that "those things don't happen here", and "there ARE no dangerous people here", but there was a sex offender whose address was with half a mile from where my daughter was abandoned. The police were quick to point that out, but the principal only argued his harmlessness as a sex offender with them and the school board is not worried about the incident.

My children no longer participate in cross country at their school. It isn't safe.