New York prosecutors have officially announced that they will retry Pedro Hernandez, the man previously convicted for the kidnapping and murder of 6-year-old Etan Patz, whose tragic disappearance in 1979 shocked the entire United States.
The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office confirmed on November 25 that sufficient admissible evidence still exists to move forward with Hernandez’s prosecution on the same charges. Hernandez, now 64, was originally sentenced in 2017 to a minimum of 25 years in prison for the abduction and killing of the young boy.
Earlier this year, a federal appeals court overturned Hernandez’s conviction, stating that a mishandled jury note during the trial may have influenced the verdict unfairly. Following this ruling, the district attorney was given until December 1 to decide whether to retry the case. Prosecutors have now declared they are fully prepared to proceed.
According to court documents, Hernandez’s retrial must begin no later than June 1, 2026. If the deadline is not met, he could be released from custody.
Defense attorneys Harvey Fishbein and Alice Fontier maintain that Hernandez is innocent and have stated they will present a stronger defense in the upcoming trial.
Etan Patz’s disappearance became one of America’s most well-known missing child cases, leading to the creation of National Missing Children’s Day and the introduction of missing children images on milk cartons. Although his body was never recovered, Etan was declared legally dead in 2001, and his case remains a symbol of the nationwide effort to protect missing children.
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