Digging for Missing Boy

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/feedarticle/10203916

TOM HAYS

Associated Press= NEW YORK (AP) — Police and the FBI are searching a New York City basement for the remains of a 6-year-old boy whose 1979 disappearance on his way to school helped launch a missing children's movement.

The missing child is Etan Patz (AY'-tahn PAYTS), who vanished in 1979 after leaving his family's Manhattan home for a short walk to his school bus stop.

The building being searched is about a block from where the family lived. FBI agents and police say they plan to dig up the basement's floor for any signs of what happened to the child.

A law enforcement official told The Associated Press that investigators made the decision to dig after an FBI dog detected the scent of human remains at the building.

Saw this yesterday evening and I am very , very bouyed by it.

http://www.digtriad.com/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=225796

New York-- A break in a case that dates back 33 years and became history for how missing children were featured.

New York City police and the FBI spent Thursday searching the vacant basement of a lower Manhattan building for the possible remains of a 6-year-old boy who disappeared 33 years ago and was the first missing child to appear on milk cartons, USA TODAY's Kevin Johnson reports.

Etan Patz vanished May 25, 1979, during the two-block walk from his home at 113 Prince Street in SoHo to catch a bus to school. It was his first time walking alone.

His disappearance created a national media frenzy and launched a campaign to publicize missing children, including putting their faces on milk cartons.

NYPD spokesman Paul Browne said investigators began searching the 13-foot-by-62-foot vacant basement unit at 127B Prince St., about a block from Ethan's home, at 8:30 a.m. ET today, the New York Daily News reports. Investigators will break through the concrete floor, sift the dirt below and tear down walls to expose the brick foundation. The hunt could take five days.

"We are looking for human remains, clothing or other personal effects of Etan Patz,'' Browne said.

"Information that was known at the time is being re-examined. It does involve a suspect," he said, according to the Daily News.

A search warrant was obtained after an FBI cadaver-sniffing dog picked up the scent of human remains in the basement about two weeks ago, sources told the Daily News.

Etan parents, Stanley and Julie Patz, were notified. They were not responding to media inquiries today.

The basement unit housed a carpentry business when Ethan disappeared. Sources told the Daily News the link was Othnie I. Miller, a handyman who gave Etan $1 for helping him the night before he vanished.

Miller was interviewed by police but never named as a suspect, with the NYPD opting not to dig up his basement after the Patzes said he was a family friend, one source said.

Investigators are reexamining a key issue: whether Miller performed a sudden renovation of his basement shop shortly after Patz disappeared.

Authorities were drawn to the location, first identified in the initial search for the boy, after a cadaver dog recently seized on a scent there, said an investigator who was briefed on the search.

An imprisoned pedophile, Jose A. Ramos, has been the prime suspect for many years. Jailhouse informers told police he had once admitted having killed Etan, but there has been no physical evidence to charge him.

Etan was declared legally dead in 2001. His parents sued Ramos, and in 2004 a New York court held him responsible for the boy's death and awarded $2 million. Two years ago, New York District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. announced that his office would take "a fresh look" at the cold case.

Last July, a New York Times reporter spoke with Ethan's father, a photographer who still works in SoHo, after the dismembered remains of a missing Brooklyn boy were found.

Etan's disappearance focused attention on the plague of missing children as no other case had before. His became the face of a movement. It was the first one to appear on a milk carton. In 1983, President Ronald Reagan declared May 25 National Missing Children's Day. Without question, Mr. Patz said, "the family problem achieved iconic status."

But that status can in no way ease the ache. "It is no consolation that Etan going missing has raised everyone's consciousness about the tragedy of missing children," Mr. Patz said, "because it's a problem that happens every year to hundreds, thousands, of kids."

"What I've found in my long journey through this story," he said, "is that children are vulnerable." ...

"I'm no expert on missing children, and I don't want to be the spokesman for missing children's families," Mr. Patz said. "I don't know what to tell parents of other children who are missing. But I feel terrible for this family, obviously. This is just a horrible thing to happen to anybody."

"It never goes away," he said. And compared with Leiby's murder, "our story is even more open-ended because we think we know what happened, but not exactly."

Gosh, Mr Patz's comments are so heartfelt and honest. May he find peace soon.

Dogs are really comming to the forefront more and more in these cases are they not. Go doggies

mossman wrote:Gosh, Mr Patz's comments are so heartfelt and honest. May he find peace soon.

Dogs are really comming to the forefront more and more in these cases are they not. Go doggies

Yes indeed - they seem to have taken umbrage at Gerald's scathing and disdainful remarks and have now pulled their socks up.

And believe me the NYPD don't go spending thousands on digging up a whole basement and tearing down walls on the say so of Unreliiiiiiiiiiiiable dogs.

Looking forward to knowing what the other side are thinking about this.

steve1295 wrote:Looking forward to knowing what the other side are thinking about this.

Ask the dogs, Steve!

I hope his parents are able to lay him to rest at last.
Well done those doggies

steve1295 wrote:Looking forward to knowing what the other side are thinking about this.

Probably that it must be a mistake 'cos the odour disappears after 30 days.

Let's pray that Mr Grime and his amazing dogs can bring some closure to this poor family. Especially as the suspected killer, Ramos, is due to be released this year.