Debunking the Confession in the Etan Patz Disappearance and Investigating Another Suspect

The 1979 disappearance in New York of six-year-old Etan Patz – the first missing youngster featured on a milk carton - turned out to be a landmark case that created a whole new movement and forever altered law enforcement’s approach to solving abduction/kidnapping cases.

Former FBI profiler Jim Clemente reexamines this case, which was reopened in 2010 and led to a confession in 2012 by Pedro Hernandez, who was charged and indicted on charges of second-degree murder and first-degree kidnapping. The discussion focuses on new questions being raised about Hernandez’s credibility and mental stability, as well as fresh evidence that has come to light relating to a new suspect, Jose Ramos.

Several doubts about Hernandez and his confession are outlined, including the fact that he would have only been 18 years old at the time of Patz’s disappearance, he was diagnosed with schizophrenia, has a low IQ, made a generic confession with no concrete details and has no apparent motive.

“What the police are apparently believing at this point is that he just decided, that he had an urge at that moment, to lure Etan into the basement – offering him a can of soda – and then immediately chokes him,” Clemente said. “He doesn’t kill him, but puts him in a plastic bag, Etan is then gasping for breath, he shoves him in a box and carries it out and puts it in a pile of garbage.”

Clemente points out the generic nature of the details and said certain elements of the story have also been changed. Hernandez had also told a couple of people in the past 30 years that he had killed a boy, but the stories about how he did it and what the boy looked like were dramatically different from each other, as well as what he told police investigators.

He also brings up the fact that since Hernandez suffers from schizophrenia, he is also paranoid about many things. “They’re always feeling there’s something wrong, there’s something haunting them and there’s something coming after them,” Clemente said, adding that in high-profile cases many “nutcases” are attracted and come forward to claim responsibility.

“People make false confessions, and this seems to be a classic example. I am just overwhelmed at how ridiculous the NYPD is acting in this case.”

Clemente also discusses problems with police procedures relating to Hernandez, including the fact that officers apparently did not read him his Miranda rights as required. “This is the kind of thing that causes people to distrust the police,” he said. “They interrogate him for 7-8 hours, and then when he’s ‘ready to confess,’ they videotape it.”

The discussion also turns to the latest suspect in the case, Jose Ramos – a convicted pedophile serving prison time – who was being pursued in a child molestation case back in 1982 in New York, but due to police procedure failures got away and the evidence against him was destroyed.

Ramos - who was the boyfriend of Patz’s nanny at the time the boy went missing - has a long history of abducted and molesting boys, and has now emerged as a prime suspect in the case. But New York authorities are still not stopping their pursuit of Hernandez.

“(Ramos) remains in jail, uncharged with the abduction and murder of Etan Patz,” Clemente said. In January, they are supposed to start the trial against Hernandez - and they are going to admit what I think is a totally ridiculous confession, and they are going to try and convict him of this crime.”

Watch the full episode for more from Clemente on false confessions, as well as his thoughts on one police theory that Patz may still alive and living in Europe.