The chief suspect in the 1979 disappearance of Etan Patz denied under oath that he killed the boy, the Patz family’s lawyer said yesterday.
Nevertheless, imprisoned child molester José Ramos did provide “helpful information” about the 6-year-old’s disappearance when he was deposed Monday in the family’s wrongful-death suit against him, lawyer Brian O’Dwyer said.
“He gave us useful information, but I can’t be more specific than that,” O’Dwyer said. “We left more convinced than ever we have the right person.”
O’Dwyer said he intends to follow up on the information he received from Ramos with other people, and then ask the Manhattan DA’s office to revisit the case.
Etan, the first missing child to appear on a milk carton, vanished on a two-block walk to his school bus in SoHo in 1979.
Ramos, currently serving 20 years in prison for molesting a Pennsylvania boy, has admitted seeing Etan on the day he disappeared, but investigators have never had enough evidence to charge him in the case.
The Patz family has long believed Ramos is responsible for the boy’s death.
Etan’s father, Stanley, sends Ramos notes every year on Etan’s birthday and the anniversary of his disappearance asking, “What did you do to my little boy?”