For parents of Etan Patz, 33 years of false hopes - New York Daily News

The anniversary of 6-year old Etan Patz's disappearance from SoHo has fallen on the Friday of Memorial Day weekend before.

On that first Friday May 25, back in 1979, it was a cool, misty day. By early evening, more than 10 hours after Etan was last seen, hundreds of police officers were out in full force when the rain started. By the time bloodhounds were finally brought in Saturday morning, authorities were resigned to the fact the trail had probably gone cold, washed away down the neighborhood's gutters.

Now, we are being told that if the dogs had followed the trail, it would have led to a bag containing Etan's broken body, sitting mere blocks from the Patz loft.

PHOTOS: A TIMELINE OF THE ETAN PATZ CASE

In a stunning turn of events, 51-year-old Pedro Hernandez was charged last week with strangling the boy, first luring him into the corner bodega near the bus stop where Etan was headed. Hernandez has told police he went back to find the body a couple of days later, but it was gone.

This is the first time anyone has ever been charged in the 33-year case of what is often called "the most famous missing child since the Lindbergh baby." That is a huge milestone.

But it isn't — by far — the first wild upswing in the decades-long case. For 33 years, law enforcement or psychics or strangers mostly, have been telling Etan's parents, Stan and Julie Patz, that they either knew who had taken their son, or where Etan was, or even that they were Etan.

Etan's parents never changed their phone number, in hopes he might call. He never did, but plenty of strangers left messages around the clock. They reported seeing Etan in places as far-flung as New England and New Mexico. Sometimes multiple reports from across the country came in on the same day.

HISTORY: ETAN PATZ CASE CHANGED THE WAY POLICE HANDLED MISSING KIDS CASES

Sometimes, in instances of unfathomable cruelty, the voice at the other end of the line would claim to be Etan — usually an adult voice, often drunk. At other times, the voice was clearly mentally unstable, and in the early years, Julie Patz would take it upon herself to track down mental services for a troubled or lonely caller.

In 1986, acting on a tip, authorities in the Seattle area fingerprinted, footprinted and questioned a boy and then grilled his parents. The boy looked remarkably like Etan and the family had recently moved to the neighborhood from upstate New York. Only seven years into the case, Stan Patz's response was terse: "We have been through a lot of them like this."