Trial date put off in NYC 1979 missing-boy case
Feb 19, 2014, 10:14 PM
NEW YORK (AP) – A New York murder trial for a suspect in one of the country’s most prominent missing-child cases is being postponed for months as psychiatric exams and other preparations continue.
Pedro Hernandez had been tentatively set to go on trial in April in the case surrounding Etan Patz (AY’-tahn payts). But a judge said Wednesday he now anticipates the trial starting in September.
Six-year-old Etan disappeared while walking to his school bus stop in 1979. He was one of the first missing children to appear on a milk carton. The anniversary of his disappearance became National Missing Children’s Day.
Hernandez was arrested in 2012 after police got a tip. The 53-year-old Maple Shade, N.J., resident gave authorities a confession, but his defense argues it was false and prompted by mental illness.
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