My daily trip from my home to work takes me through SoHo, where my business is located. The morning is generally a relatively quiet time in this upscale neighborhood, so I was caught by surprise on Thursday, April 19, as I approached the corner of Wooster and Prince and witnessed the largest media presence I have ever seen in the area. Every local and national network was settled in with antenna-equipped vans. In addition to police, there were numerous FBI agents brandishing jackets, making the gravity of the situation abundantly clear.
Asking a photographer on the scene what this hubbub was all about, I was informed that the search for Etan Patz had been renewed in the basement of 127B Prince Street in SoHo, a short distance from the apartment where the Patz family lived and still lives today.
The case of Etan Patz is not only heart wrenching for the family but also has been a huge story both locally and nationally, the most well-known case of a missing child in the history of New York City, perhaps the entire country. The case gained additional notoriety as the first time a missing child’s photo was printed on a milk carton. The day of Etan’s disappearance, May 25, was designated National Missing Children’s Day by President Ronald Reagan in 1983.
On May 25, 1979, Etan Patz, who was 6 years old at the time, left his home on Prince Street in SoHo to catch a school bus two blocks away. His parents, Stan and Julie Patz, had given him permission to make the walk alone for the first time. Unfortunately, they never saw him again. The basement area being searched at 127B Prince Street had been used as a workshop by a carpenter, Othniel Miller. Etan and other boys had frequented the shop at the time of Etan’s disappearance. Etan was declared legally dead in 2001. The case was reopened in 2010 by the New York District Attorney’s office.
Jose Ramos was the prime suspect in Etan’s disappearance. A convicted child molester, Ramos is still serving time in prison (scheduled release date November 2012). A friend of Etan’s babysitter, Ramos admitted to being with Patz the day of the disappearance but denied abducting or killing him. However, in 2004, the family won a civil suit against Ramos, yet he still remains unprosecuted for the crime.
I lived in New York City at the time of Etan’s disappearance and recall the flyers posted everywhere, asking for his whereabouts. The family as well as the public was hoping for closure in this case. The original search was extensive, employing nearly 100 police officers. Nothing was found then. There was hope that new technologies in forensics would perhaps find traces that would be identifiable. However, the recent search has found nothing as well. A mystery unsolved, and for those of us who remember that time in 1979, Etan Patz will forever be the Milk Carton Child…
Thanks, Bri. This case is, once again, heart rending. I cannot imagine what parents who have lost children must go through the rest of their lives.
I live in the West village on West 4 Street and a couple of doors Wesrtt was a stained glass lamp shop kind of like a commune where Jose Ramos and a lot of other homeless peole hung out and could get a free meal and sleep in kind of filthy conditions. I used to leave my son Jean-Loup who you know there while I wnt to my various classes and attended NYU. Other moms left their kids there as well and there was always someone playing go out on the street. One of the guys who hung out there was Jose Ramos the person who supposedly killed Etan Patz. the day that he disappeared, a young guy who I had met in the playground of Washington Square Park took my son and our new puppy to the park while I went to Brentanos to buy some kids books when I came back the puppy had been stolen and I was frantic. I went hom and made up some fllyers and went to the copy shop to make copies and then went out and posted them and called for Peka the puppy and franticly looked for her in the village While I was looking I saw the van parked on the side of the park with the cops looking for Etan Patz. What a bad day that was for missing loved ones. I sometimes thought after that that Ramos had stolen our puppy to lure Etan into the taxi that a driver said he saw him in years later.
CONTINUED
A woman who had given Jose Ramos acting lessons said he couldn’t possibly have done it but who knows I think he confessed to someone in jail later on. In the 60s and 70s we let the kids run around in the street basicly unsupervised. My son had a key around his neck In the 40s I walked to kindergarten by myself and crossed bit streets there was no childhood in those days and we were just little people. Jose Ramos could have kidnapped any of the children in the lampshop. I’m sure that Julie Patz was driving herself nuts for these past 33 years that she let Etan walk the half a block to the bus taht day. I was driving myself nuts that I left my son and my puppy alone with a young guy we met and who I didn’t know that well and who turned out to be a child molester Everything suddenly changed that day for the worse I have no idea why.
Janet,
WOW – you were closer to this thing than anyone I have ever met.
Brian
CONTINUED After that I walked around with a baseball bat for a long time and once in a really nice neighborhood a door man came out and told me I didn’t need to use that in his neighborhood. when we got a new puppy a few months later, I kept him on a long leash and I would take the bat out when we walked him in the park.
About a year later I came home from my job at Bloomingdales restaurant to find the cops in my hall. My son was upstairs and called to me that I shouldn’t worry he was alright. It seems that my son had found out from the cops who stole my puppy because he went to the cops first and said he found a missing dog. He id dnot give it to the cops but took it and sold it or something probably to the lab at NYU for experiments since they were buying dogs at the time that had been stolen from the park. this guy in my building was a homeless guy who had broken into the building and a psycho on the 5th floor had beaten the shit out of him and then called the police He had been trying to break into their apartment. I never saw him but my son told me all about it IT SEEMS KARMA HAD COME HOME TO ROOST.
I know that Stanley and Julie Patz are still grieving and I hope they can get some peace although maybe not. Up until then it had never dawned on any of us that someone whould steal a child or a puppy and kill them. what a fucked up world this had become that day Everything changed for the worse and it never changed back.
PS Brian to change the subject I come from So Norwalk Connecticut and I see that you come from Connecticut as well. I lived right next door to a family named Dube who had a small diner called DUBE’S DINER Thy live on Madison Street and the kids names were Armand and Inez. Are you related to them? I have stories to tell if you were or even if you weren’t Would you like to hear them here It’s not my blog but you might like some stories from another new yorker. If you would just leave a message here. I dropped by your store but you weren’t there. I have been living near Washington Square Park for over 43 years and have a lot of stories to tell to augment your stories Ok TOODLES JANET W
Janet – Dube is a pretty common surname in New England. I do not know of any relatives in So Norwalk and no one in the family ever had a small business. It would be cool to visit such a place and flash my ID 🙂
Hi Brian I doubt that the place is still there but if you would like to know about them I will tell you all and you could go to So Norwalk and photograph the place where it was Sono as it is now called is pretty trendy. Were the Dubes from Quebec? there were a lot of French Canadians and I grew up listening to Quebequois music which is a lot like the Irish sean nos that I sing If you would like more info email me at janovison@aol.com I don’t want to take up anymore of your blog space Hope to see you in the hood one of these daze Janet W Ps don’t believe whatever you have heard about me I’m a well meaning older mommy type but with some hippy values that are no longer applicable