Etan Patz’s father ‘truly relieved’ after N.J. killer’s conviction

The father of Etan Patz said he is “truly relieved” after a New Jersey man was convicted Tuesday in the death of his 6-year-old son, who disappeared 38 years ago in New York City.

“It’s about time,” said Stan Patz shortly after a jury delivered its verdict.

An attorney for defendant Pedro Hernandez of Maple Shade said an appeal is planned.

Another jury deadlocked in 2015.

This time, jurors deliberated over nine days before finding the 56-year-old guilty of murder during a kidnapping in a case that shaped both parenting and law enforcement in the United States.

Hernandez was a convenience store clerk in Etan’s neighborhood when the first-grader disappeared in May 1979. Hernandez confessed, but his lawyers said his admissions were the false imaginings of a mentally ill man.