The FBI and NYPD are continuing their excavation of the basement at 127 Prince Street in SoHo, to continue their investigation related to the 1979 disappearance of six-year-old Etan Patz. A police cadaver dog did pick up the "scent of human remains deep in the walls of the building," according to 1010 WINS. NYPD spokesman Paul Browne said, We’re looking for any evidence of human remains, clothing or any personal effects... This location figured in the original investigation. The decision was made to come back, apply probably the best forensic expertise in the country between the FBI and NYPD." And now the focus of the investigation appears to be on a handyman who worked for Etan's family.
Etan's May 25th, 1979 disappearance occurred on his walk to the school bus—for the first time on his own—from his parents' loft at 113 Prince Street to the stop on West Broadway just two blocks away. The disappearance rocked the city and then the country, as Stanley and Julie Patz's unrelenting efforts to find their son galvanized the neighborhood and helped spur a nationwide movement to find missing children (Etan's photograph was the first on a milk carton). 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. Ramos, currently imprisoned for molesting boys in Pennsylvania (he's up for parole this year), was found responsible for Etan's death in 2004 in a civil lawsuit, but maintained he never killed the child.
Othniel Miller
, the new search focuses "on a basement area that had been used as a workshop by a carpenter and handyman from Etan’s building. Investigators are working on the theory that the handyman, Othniel Miller, killed the boy and buried him there. In recent days, according to a law enforcement official, Mr. Miller was interviewed by agents with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and when the possibility was raised that the boy had been buried in the basement, he blurted out, 'What if the body was moved?'"
Apparently Etan would do little chores for Miller, and Miller, who worked at 127 Prince Street, had given the boy a dollar the day before he disappeared. The Daily Beast reports, "At the time of his disappearance, Etan's mother told police that her 6-year-old son had been holding the dollar in his hand as he set off for school that morning. She had suggested he put it in his pocket, but he told her that he planned to stop and buy a soda before boarding his school bus at a stop two blocks from their SoHo home... For reasons that are not entirely clear, the initial probe never focused on Miller. One detective suggests that the original investigators thought that Miller’s giving the dollar to Patz was “just a nice thing to do.”
Miller has cooperated with FBI investigators, and his daughter told WCBS 2, "The FBI has been here to investigate the case. He cooperated with them. Went to the site and he doesn’t have anything to do with it." The Post, though, refers to Miller as a "creepy local handyman" and reports:
The potential breakthrough came after probers interviewed Etan’s mother, Julie, who told them they should talk to Miller again.
After questioning him, the feds put “scent pads” — which absorb and retain odors — in the basement and then brought the pads to an FBI cadaver dog. The dog “got a hit,” which means the pooch got the scent of human remains from the pads, sources said.
The feds then brought the dog to the basement and got another hit, the sources said.
“They let this dog loose and it sniffed around and went in the boiler room,” said Stephen Kuzma, 78, the building manager at 127 Prince. “For a couple of weeks now, I’ve had FBI agents checking in and I took them to the basement.”Agents went back to Miller, who blurted out, “What if the body was moved?” after being told of the dog’s discovery.
Miller originally fell under suspicion because he worked out of a nearby building that housed the city’s first gay-erotic art gallery.
At the time of Etan's disappearance, Miller, who had two kids, a 9-year-old daughter and a 16-year-old son, was believed to have a credible alibi. Even though the basement floor was newly poured at 127 Prince, cops apparently "talked about using jackhammers before deciding it wasn’t worth the cost." A book about the case says that Miller told them "You want to break it up, you go right ahead. But someone’s going to have to pay for it." The Daily News points out, "Sources said Jose Ramos, the jailed child molester long considered the prime suspect in the Patz case, worked as a handyman for Miller. Ramos, through his job, likely had access to Miller’s basement workshop at 127B Prince St. — right on the path of Patz’s last trip, the source said."
The Daily Beast describes MIller as a 75-year-old stroke victim who now lives in Brooklyn, adding, "Cadaver dogs have been known to give “false positives,” but one study found them to be accurate more than 90 percent of the time. The dogs possess 220 million olfactory receptors, as opposed to a human’s five million. The dogs have been known to sense bodies buried years before beneath as much as six feet of concrete."
NYPD spokesman Browne explained what's happening with the excavation, "There will be a systematic removal of things like drywall and eventually the digging up of the basement, digging up the concrete and getting to the dirt underneath, and a careful screening of that material." The space, which is 16' by 62', is being worked on around the clock. Digging has started on the north wall, but nothing has been found; FBI spokesman Tim Flannelly said, "Obviously, we’re hopeful that we’ll find evidence in the disappearance of Etan Patz. There is obviously probable cause that exists for us to be here."
Browne, who was at the scene speaking to reporters, also said, "This will be going on for several days. It could go on for up to five.... Time doesn’t matter to us and NYPD in investigations like this. He was 6 when he disappeared and we’re not going to quit. We are hoping we can provide some sense of closure to the investigation and to the family, but in the event that we don’t, I think people need to know that we’re committed to these investigations and we’re not going to give up."
Etan Patz was legally declared dead in 2001.
