Arrest made in 1979 disappearance of Etan Patz

Pedro Hernandez, 51, has confessed to strangling the boy who went missing more than three decades ago. NBC's Ron Allen reports.

By Jonathan Dienst and Shimon Prokupecz, NBCNewYork.com

Updated at 7:53 p.m. ET: A former bodega stock clerk has been arrested for allegedly luring 6-year-old Etan Patz off a New York City street with the promise of a soda before strangling him in a development that police say solves a case that has mystified New York City for decades.

Etan (pronounced ay-tahn) vanished on his way to a school bus stop 33 years ago Friday. The case drew international attention and changed the way parents felt about letting their young children go off alone.

Police announced Thursday that Pedro Hernandez had told them he lured Etan into a bodega where he worked, near the boy's house, and attacked the child, choking him to death in the basement.

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Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said police focused on Hernandez, who now lives in Maple?Shade, N.J., after the Missing Persons Squad received a tip from someone who remembered Hernandez speaking of having killed a child. Others close to Hernandez also recalled those claims, a source told NBC 4 New York.

For more on this case, visit NBCNewYork.com

Based on those interviews, police went to question Hernandez.

Kelly said Hernandez, who worked at the bodega for about a month, had not given a reason for attacking Etan and said there was "no reason at this time" to suspect the boy was sexually abused. He said it was "unlikely" that Etan's remains would ever be found and that Hernandez told them he put the boy's body in the trash.

Kelly did not answer whether Hernandez had a lawyer.

Mayor Bloomberg said Thursday that the disappearance of Etan "broke the hearts of millions" across the nation, especially parents, and expressed sympathy again for the boy's family.

"I certainly hope that we are one step closer to bringing them some measure of relief," he said.

A suspect is in custody after making statements to NYPD detectives implicating himself in the disappearance and death of Etan Patz, a 6-year-old boy who vanished 33 years ago from his Manhattan neighborhood. WNBC-TV's Jonathan Dienst reports.

Neighbors near Hernandez' house in Maple Shade, N.J., said he lived with a woman and a daughter who attends college.

"I can't believe something like that," said Dan Wollick, 71, who rents the other apartment in home. "This guy, he doesn't seem that way."

Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance had pledged to reopen the decades-old cold case when he took office in 2010. The exhaustive search for Etan was renewed several weeks ago when police dug up the basement of a handyman's workshop near where Etan disappeared. A new layer of concrete had been laid over the foundation of the basement shortly after the boy vanished.

That search yielded no new evidence.

A lawyer for the handyman, Othniel Miller, said his client is "relieved by these developments, as he was not involved in any way with Etan Patz's disappearance."

Police end search for Etan Patz remains
Investigators collect hair, paper in search for Patz

NYPD via AP, file

This undated image provided Friday, May 28, 2010 by Stanley K. Patz shows a flyer distributed by the New York Police Department of Patz's son Etan, who vanished in New York on May 25, 1979.

One other man had remained a longtime possible suspect: Jose Ramos, a drifter and onetime boyfriend of Etan's baby sitter. In the early 1980s, he was arrested on theft charges, and had photos of other young, blond boys in his backpack. But there was no hard evidence linking Ramos to the crime.

He is in prison in Pennsylvania on a separate case.

The boy's parents, Stan and Julie Patz, were reluctant to move or even change their phone number in case their son tried to reach out. They still live in the same apartment, down the street from the building that was examined in April. They have endured decades of false leads, and a lack of hard evidence.???? ?

Police said the family had been notified of the arrest.?

Stan Patz had his son declared legally dead in 2001 so he could sue Ramos, who has never been criminally charged with the boy's death and denies harming the boy. A civil judge in 2004 found Ramos to be responsible for the child's death.

Jonathan Dienst is chief investigative correspondent for WNBC. Shimon Prokupecz is a WNBC investigative producer.

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