The Unrelen Search for Etan Pa tz By SELWYN RAAB Every day Detectite _William Butler re- traces the route _that 6-year-old Etan Patz should have taken on that Friday morn- ing two months ago when he disappeared. Startingat 7:30 A.M., Detective Butler, a husky man who stands 6 feet, 2 inches tall, walks slowly back and forth for two hours on Prince Street: past a health-food store, restaurant, several art galleries and a bakery. He is searching desper- ately for a witness or a clue that might have been overlooked by the police in their investigation of the boy *s disappear- ance on pray 25 in the SoHo section of lower Manhattan. _"Yes, it sa long shot," Detective But- ler said, "but by now I feel like he's my own son, and you csn't give up. The possible kidnapping of Etan, a blond-haired boy who is 3 foot, 4 inches tall and weighs 50 potutds, has led to the most extensive and longest search for a missing child in New York in decades, ac- IU the Missing Persons Squad. Etan, a pupil inthe first grade, was last seen walking from his home at 113_Prince Street, near Greene Street, to a school- bus stop -less than two blocks away at West Broadway. It was the first time his parents had let him go to the bus unes- ported. Detective Butler, who has -siitchildren of his own, was assigned to the investiga- tion the first day the boy was reported missing. He has interviewed more than 200 people, talked with who maintain that they have had visions oi the youngster. wandered through scores of vacant buildings and climbed a water tower in rmponse to a report that a yotutg boy was seen on a roof Hundreds of Tips Received "There could be someone out there we missed, someone who just came back to the city," he said, in explaining his daily talks with' pedestrians on Prince Street. "Dr someone who saw something and didn't think-it was important but that can fit it in with something we now know." One person the 49-year-old detective hopes to find is a man wlio was seen walk- ing two dogs on Prince Street about A.M., the same time Etan vanished. "The dog-walker might have seen noth- ing,.but we'd still like to find him," said the detective, who has been on the force for24 years. _In first two weeks of the inquiry, when there were hundreds of reports or tips every day to the police about the- boy*s possible whereabouts, more than Wil detectives and other officers were as- signed full-time or part-time to the case. The volume of tips has dropped to sir: or Serra. .de_r.__end nav-_Ls Dt trturis'Iii I: - 1: *mint diffsf- -ra -si-fiE-r: - N- i' -_rs I ii I I 11 oct-:tn-J-reef . i E111 Hi] *uh lin- I il-1-gl: - I ilrn .fn H-qu *qu ilu- ifo-Ir l1'iL'*l tectivw works full-time on the investiga- tion. Longtime detectives - in .the Missing Persons Squad say they cannot recall a similar case where a child as young as Etan has been missing for so long. There have been no ransom calls to the boy's PHFEIH-S. who have been instrumental in distributing 300,000 "Lost Boy" poster; nf their son with his photgograph and a de- scription. .lulie Patz, who has two other children - a daughter, Shira, who is 9 years old, 31141 ii SUD.. Ari. 2 - said Detective Butler had "become like a second father" to her and her husband, Stanley, a photogra.. pher. We've reached the point where it is hard to shut out negative thoughts," she said. "Thank God, Bill and the other de- tectives have kept' our faith alive_*But l_ think the case has even taken' a roll nn Bill'shealth." Detective Thomas J. Finan, who is in charge of the four-detective team in the squad, has collected more than 1,000 re- ports, and he reviews many of them every day looking for scraps of informa- tion that could create a meaningful clue. On the cover of his thick "Missing Person File No. 8367" is a photograph of Elan witha headline, "Still Missing." "we"re following up 'every lead, every tip, whether it's anonymous or not," said Detective Finan in his 11th-floor office at Police Headquarters. "This is the toughest of crimes' to solve." said Lieut. Earl J. Campaazi, commander of the squad. "There are vir- tually no clues. Whoever took Etan prob- ably did it in a matter of seconds. But- we"ve got to keep looking for Etan and we =f;i ri:-ii S- . TXTTII --.- . II-I-if.-- -.-. IPIIHI 1 F-. I. . al;. -I it ll'iljd, I. Ig`- .1 PI MJ 2,1* hit.-I, ri: I-L- ic" IPL I. . The New York Times John Sotornayor Stanley and ulle Patz standing next to a poster of their missing son, Eton, outside their loft in SoHo Eta12PatC 886. fl LZIS 31*2 By ANNA QUYNDLEN The first few weeks we were just the corner of Prince and Wooster, one On a misty morning a year a this numb." block shy of his destination. The lice month, a small boy carrying a bo?lk bag "But we thought that any minute it know this because a mailman sag) him with elephants printed on it left for would be over," his wife continued, and there. school and disappeared. she passed her hand across her face But he never arrived at the next cor- It was the same day that John again because her eyes were beginning ner. They know this, too, because a Spenkelink died in a Florida electric to fill. woman whose daughter caught the chair and that the worst air disaster in "We're sitting here with as many same bus was waiting to meet Etan, United States history t00k place in Chi- qUeSti0I'lS HOW as we had the iiI'St day,." who had left his lunch in a lunchetmette cago, but in a small way, the disap- Mr. Patzsaid,his mouth tight. on that comer the day before. In the pearance of Etan Patz became big said his wife. narrow strip of gray city Street in be- news. tween, SOrr1eOIle Came alen and In SoHo, where he lived and Van- All on Hist way?) School I changed forever the lives ofalitge b0y, ished, the streets were soon full of post- question; It seams" B3 nc" his family and S0rne police officers. ers with his picture and me particulars is a For Julie and Stanley Patz and men- of his last known whereabouts. His "Patz Said Savage]? other children, Shira, 10, and Ari, 3, impish face, all bangs and baby teeth, WEIL we dim tz . it has meant many things. It has meant seemed to be everywhere. The mystery is this: On his WHY i? 3 taking telephone calls from people who But a year is a l0ng time fer a little Schmibbus Stop at the northwest Comer talk of having visions and speaking t0 bOy t0 be missing. The leads that Once of Prince Street and West Broadway On God alJOLlt Etan and Wha generally call - the morning of Wednesday, May 25, seemed so promising to the police have . had 1, Continued on Pa B4 HOW grown cold. The 6-yeapgld boy pic. Emu Vams - He ad gone as ar as 8 tured on the posters is now 7. And the handbills plastered on every boutique and loft building have been covered up with advertisements for avant-garde theater and cabaret acts. For the people who love him and those who are looking for him, his face is still everywhere, in their minds. But Etan has been gone a year, and no one knows where to find him. 'It's Getting Harder' "lt's not getting easier, it's getting harder,"' said his mother, Julie Patz, her hand over her eyes, her feet up on a couch next to her husband, Stanley. "The cold realization that we may never get him back sinks in a little far- ther every day,"' said Mr. Patz, a photographer who works out of the loft where his family lives. "You can al- ways come to grips with a set of cir- cumstances -- I mean the finality of death." "Any resolution," interrupted his wife. "But we're always talking about abstracts and possibilities. "This is a wound that will never heal, never close up, without a resolution of one kind of another," Mr. Patz said. "We're over the shock. Published: |\/lay 2, 1980 Copyright (C) The New York Times I Et A 311 3 3111S Baffling Police Continued From Page B1 say "Still Missing" to emphasize how long it has been. Mrs. Patz is not sure in the early morning hours. The Patzes wheiher she rake some oi her . have kept their telepnene . number neighbors up on their offer to hang new listed because such people might turn Ones- ?mt?ka?ws?meth1ag' . . . The posters are gone altogether from It has meant getnng man nam S"nn' windows of some of the stores where fer eerrespenaente addressed nnlY in Etan's face once jockeyed with the dis- oi [ne inst SeHn? New plays for attention, although residents Yeni- n_ nas meant Strength of the area wave at Detective Butler and hope in ihe story of Steve Stayner, ood ask how his work is progressing ine Califerfna bay was when he takes his daily walk around his family seven years after he was kid- ihe area. "aPPea? and ?f ther Sanity b-Y "At one point it was almost like civic lobbying for a national clearinghouse pride Mr_ Patz ssid liwhen i os_ for information on lost children. oered wesi Broadway, 'ohe iody oome It nes meant when are nin" out of a store and asked for one, as manY Smell take an great though she wanted to get into step. Now Weight? $h??ld An be te siefeg people have done spring cleaning and In me tap bank? wnlen was Etan s? they've taken them down. Iguess some Sneala me bearaam the me ters of them don't like the association with shared be turned into a room for gust something ohoieosomy one? lt has meant Ari 's asking when Etan ?San*e?ne Knew? is coming home, and it has meant On a block of galleries and small Shira's being told by friends at school shops, one owner, who did not want her that they wish it had happened to them name used for fear of sounding callous, so they could go on television and have said she did not think that was the rea- their pictures in the paper. It has son why the poster campaign had meant constantly entertaining report- slacked off. "Most of the people I've . ers and television camera crews, con- talked to," she said, "just figure that i vinced that publicity may lead to some afterallthis time, he's dead." tip, some clue. This is something that neither the A Moiier of Fomiiy Survival Patz family nor the detectives assigned to the case will accept. em Mm Pam wne ne lenger warks "l have no evidence that he is not still because she devotes nearly all her time olive seid Detective Boiier who is to letters and calls about the search, oreoerihg io moii oh 'i-Sioh io said there had never been any question every eiemehiory school ih the of whether the event would destroy her me eso i om ooeroiihs oh the fa'nnY- nlgn} aner nap" that he is alive. Somewhere, out there, it started raining, I thought, 'We have Added Mr_ Patzl sitting heheoih te ean we have te Sleep ana we have te drawing of a pink-faced monster with kefp SMB- rea hands with ??l2;te? in wobbly We nad il enalee nf that nr ]aY*ng printing at the top. "We have two alter- dawn ana aylng ana samennies the $ee' natives - either he's alive or he's dead. end enelee has Seemed ie{nPnnE? We have chosen the better of the two. (Eames back; he is Being He is here, in this house. He's alive to he family. and vg; re evms to here, Every single pei-t of this house held that family tegeinen . . Here he stopped because he could For Detective William Butler and the hor Speak without oryihe ??He*s here three other detectives from the Missing whoi ooh i you he iihoiiy seid to the disappearance, the case has ing by hows- Etanas mother edded doi_ meant many things as well. "It gets to ativ- you," said Detective Butler, a big man with a deep voice who has six children of his own. "You take it home with you at night." The detectives have questioned the Patzes, people they might have offend- ed, known sex offenders, unknown passers-by, hundreds of people who might have seen or known anything. The Frustrating Leads i There are days of phone calls, some 5 like the ones the Patz family has got- i ten, others from well-meaning people i who have found that, basically, all small blond boys look the same and the i one they saw in a shopping mall was HG1 the one who disappeared in SoHo. There was the arrest of a child por- nographer in Etan's neighborhood and the hours the detectives spent perusing films and photographs for "our little boy," as they call him. They did not find him there. There have been some cheering times, like the day last week when a Maryland couple shipped 25,000 new leaflets up to New York because they were concerned. 'There have been dis- appointments, too, phone calls "when you went out and said, 'Boom, this is it.' the detective said, "and then noth- lng." And there are the hundreds of them, who are very sure of them- selves. Some say a woman took Etan, some say a man, some say he is alive, some that he is dead. There is bound to be one who will turn out to be right, al- though Detective Butler doubts it will be the one who said that Etan, at age 6, had intentionally left home to construct a geodesic dome. "You know kids that age," the detec- tive said. "If he was going to run away, he'd say 'Mommy, will you cross me, l'm going to run away.' No, a woman who lost a child, some person who al- ways wanted a child -- that's what l'm hoping for. After a year, it's time - it's time for that person to realize how much pain they've cost this family." After a year, the disappearance of Etan Patz has como to mean different things to different people in SoHo, too. There are fewer posters now, and they Published: May 2, 1980 Copyright (C) The New York Times