This disappearance was first blamed on a NAMBLA member.
His face was everywhere.
Etan Patz, who disappeared in 1979 at the age of 6, gazed at American households across their breakfast tables every morning, his grinning photo prominently featured on milk cartons as police in Manhattan pursued thousands of tips in their futile efforts to find him.
It would take more than three decades before a man, Pedro Hernandez, was arrested and eventually convicted in Etan’s killing.
But on Monday, Mr. Hernandez’s conviction was overturned by a federal appeals court, reopening a case that had finally appeared resolved. A three-judge panel found that the trial judge had improperly instructed the jurors, who had asked about the several confessions that Mr. Hernandez had made, including one that he offered without being read his Miranda rights.