Etan Patz Alleged Killer Confessed Decades Ago, No One Reported Murder Claim to Cops

Pedro Hernandez, the man who has confessed to killing six-year-old New York City boy Etan Patz in 1979 and sparking off a thirty-three year search for the person or persons responsible for his very high-profile disappearance, reportedly publicly claimed responsibility for the boy’s murder years ago- but the claim is said to have gone unreported.

Hernandez is now 51 years old, but was an 18-year-old stock clerk working and living in the area in which Patz disappeared in Manhattan three decades ago. The investigation is complicated by the fact that while Hernandez’s location at the time of the alleged murder seems to match up with the timeline, the suspect’s lawyer also reports that he suffers from mental illness as well as hallucinations.

But while Hernandez has presented an account of the murder to authorities as well as an account of the fate of Etan Patz’s remains (which he says he dumped in the trash on Prince Street), his confession is not the first time he claimed to have strangled a young boy and disposed of his body.

According to Hernandez’s sister, 45 year old Milagros Hernandez, Pedro made the same claim “decades ago” during a prayer group at St. Anthony of Padua Catholic church in Camden, New Jersey. And those involved in the group admit that while Pedro Hernandez said that he’d strangled a young boy, no one investigated the claim or reported the disturbing admission to authorities.

Milagros Hernandez disclosed the earlier confession Sunday, and said:

“We are deeply sorry to the family if our brother had anything to do with this, and we are praying for them — that somehow they can find peace.”

Despite concern over Hernandez’s reliability due to his illness and an absence of physical evidence, he was charged with second-degree murder in the Etan Patz disappearance last week.