Etan Patz trial in New York hears opening statements

The mother of Etan Patz, a boy whose disappearance from a New York City street in 1979 ignited a national movement to find missing children, will tell jurors at his accused killer's trial about the "nightmare that never ended," a prosecutor said.

In opening statements in the kidnapping and murder trial of Pedro Hernandez, assistant district attorney Joan Illuzzi-Orbon said the former deli worker, who confessed to the crime, had upended a family's life and sent it spiralling into unthinkable tragedy.

“You will hear from Julie Patz . . . about her quite ordinary life, a regular American tale, interrupted by a nightmare that never ended,” Ms Illuzzi-Orbon told jurors seated before Judge Maxwell Wiley in state supreme court in Manhattan.

Patz was six-years-old when he vanished while walking alone to a schoolbus stop for the first time in the Soho neighborhood in Manhattan on May 25th, 1979. His body was never found, but he was declared legally dead in 2001.

Mr Hernandez (54) confessed to the crime in 2012, but his defence attorney has said the confession was coerced and that Mr Hernandez is mentally ill.

Patz's disappearance prompted then president Ronald Reagan to sign into law the Missing Children's Assistance Act, and Patz was one of the first missing children to have their picture appear on a milk carton.

In 2012, investigators received a tip from Mr Hernandez’s brother-in-law, who told police that Mr Hernandez allegedly confessed to the crime to a church prayer group in the 1980s.

Mr Hernandez, in a videotaped confession to police, said he lured Patz to the basement of the deli where he worked near the child’s home, strangled him and dumped him in an alley.

Mr Hernandez has recanted, and his defence attorney has argued he has a history of mental illness, including hallucinations.

The defence fought to have the confession ruled inadmissible, arguing Mr Hernandez did not understand his rights, but the judge has ruled that it was legally obtained.

Mr Hernandez was 18-years-old when Patz disappeared. He later moved to southern New Jersey, where he was living with his wife and daughter at the time of his arrest.

Reuters