The confession of a man arrested last year in the 1979 disappearance of 6-year-old Etan Patz in New York City was false, claims his attorney who on Wednesday asked a judge for a dismissal.
According to Harvey Fishbein, attorney for
Pedro Hernandez, no evidence or witnesses have been found to corroborate any of the few facts Hernandez claimed in his confession, The Associated Press reported.
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In his argument that there was not enough proof to support the case, Fishbein suggested the statement was made under duress, adding that his client's confession was made after almost seven hours of police questioning.
The Manhattan District Attorney's Office, which has said there was sufficient evidence to sustain the charges, declined to comment. A judge is not expected to rule until next month.
Etan Patz vanished May 25, 1979, on the first day his parents allowed him to walk to his school bus stop alone.
Hernandez was arrested after police got a tip that he had told people years before that he had killed a child in New York City.
Hernandez told authorities he had seen the boy at the bus stop, lured him to a corner store where he worked with the promise of a soda, and choked him in the basement.
Hernandez said he tossed the boy's book bag behind a freezer in the basement, put the boy's limp body in a box, and left it with some trash about a block away.
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