After finding no immediate evidence of human remains in the basement of 127 Prince Street, the FBI and NYPD finished their search for material related to the 1979 disappearance of six-year-old Etan Patz. The NYPD said that "no obvious human remains" were found, but the NY Post reports, "Some of the material will be sent to FBI labs in Quantico, Va., while other debris will be preserved at the Fresh Kills landfill on Staten Island." This comes as the niece of a local handyman who had a workshop in the basement apparently corroborated that he did rape her when she was a child.
Othniel Miller
The renewed search was sparked by the FBI's talks with now-elderly former handyman Othniel Miller. Miller's ex-wife allegedly told the FBI that he raped a young niece and then the FBI spoke to Miller. From the NY Times:
Agents have repeatedly interviewed Mr. Miller, who is 75 and has had several strokes. They also tracked down his ex-wife, Phyllis, who a second person familiar with the case said told agents that her former husband had raped a 10-year old girl. “Given that recent information, he skyrocketed to the top of the list,” the first law enforcement official said about how agents came to focus on Mr. Miller.
During one interview, agents watched Mr. Miller as he grew aroused while he looked through a book of images of children, two law enforcement officials said. At another point during questioning, when agents asked Mr. Miller about the possibility of Etan’s being buried in the basement, he asked back, “What if the body was moved?”
The News now reports, "The FBI searched in vain for the niece but early this week found her, and she corroborated the ex-wife’s allegation, the sources said."
Etan Patz went missing on May 25, 1979, when he was walking by himself (for the first time) from his home at 113 Prince Street to his school bus stop on West Broadway when he disappeared. His body was never found, complicating efforts to charge the man who many believed was the prime suspect, Jose Ramos, a "drifter" who dated one of Etan's babysitters and who was arrested while allegedly trying to sexually assault some young blond boys.
The NYPD informed Etan's parents, Stan and Julie Patz, that nothing had been found. Stan Patz said, "It’s not over till it’s over." While the couple had Etan declared legally dead in 2001, they have never moved from their Prince Street loft or changed their phone number, in hopes Etan would return one day.
