The murder trial for the man accused of killing a 6-year-old boy more than 35 years ago began on Friday.
The Associated Press reported that opening statements began in the case against Pedro Hernandez, 53, of New Jersey, who confessed to killing Etan Patz in Manhattan back in 1979.
The child vanished while walking to a school bus stop just a few blocks away from his parents’ home. He never boarded the bus or made it to school.
For decades the case remained a mystery until Hernandez was arrested as a suspect in 2012.
As previously noted, Hernandez, who at the time worked near Patz’s bus stop, told investigators that he lured the youngster to the basement of a store and strangled him to death.
"I was nervous; my legs were jumping," Hernandez said in a videotaped confession. "I wanted to let go, but I just couldn't let go. I felt like something just took over me. I don't know what to say. Something just took over me and I was just choking him."
However, Hernandez later retracted his story.
His defense lawyers said that their client is mentally ill with an IQ of 70 and cannot depict fact from fiction.
After Patz's disappearance, he became the first child ever to have his image on a milk carton and May 25, the day he left home and headed to that bus stop, is National Missing Children’s Day.
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