(AP)
Etan Patz (Stanley Patz)
NYPD detectives found an old toy and worn clothing that are “age appropriate” for Etan Patz hidden in the New Jersey home of the boy’s confessed killer, law-enforcement sources told The Post yesterday.
Investigators planned to test the items for DNA — and hope they will serve as key evidence in the murder case against 51-year-old former SoHo bodega stockboy Pedro Hernandez, the sources said.
Cops were stunned by the discovery Wednesday as they executed a search warrant at Hernandez’s home in Maple Shade, near Camden.
“When they were found, the air was sucked right out of the room, [it was] a very emotional moment,” a source said.
The clothes and unidentified toy appear to be from the late 1970s. The clothes were worn and “not clean,” the source said. “Imagine what your drawers would look like 33 years later.”
HERNANDEZ’S NEPHEW HAD NO CLUE ABOUT UNCLE’S HATE
The sources wouldn’t describe the clothing, but the blond, blue-eyed boy was wearing blue pants, a blue jacket and a black Eastern Air Lines pilot’s cap when he disappeared on May 25, 1979.
It was unclear whether cops have shown the new evidence to Etan’s parents, Stanley and Julia Patz, to see whether the couple could identify the items.
The sources noted that Hernandez also has a son, and that the items would be tested to see if they belonged to him.
“They have to send it to a lab or analyze it,” a second source said.
Etan was 6 years old and walking alone for the first time from his Prince Street home to a West Broadway bus stop when he went missing.
Hernandez, 51, told cops he lured the boy into the bodega with a soda and killed him in the basement. He said he dumped the body in an alley nearby.
As first reported by The Post, Hernandez in his confession provided “intimate details” of the crime that were never released to the public.
He was arrested on May 24 and remains under psychiatric evaluation at Bellevue Hospital.
Although he fully confessed to the murder, he has a history of mental illness, and Manhattan DA Cyrus Vance Jr.’s office wants more evidence to beef up the case, sources said.
NYPD detectives who searched the home also seized the computer of Hernandez’s 23-year-old daughter, Becky, sources said.
Investigators will check whether he used it to write a confession or anything else about Etan, the sources said.
Hernandez family lawyer Robert Gottlieb insisted neither Becky nor Hernandez’s wife, Rosemary, had anything to do with the crime.
Hernandez’s court-appointed defense lawyer, Harvey Fishbein, has said his client suffers from hallucinations, raising questions about his confession.
Rosemary Hernandez believes her husband’s story is a fabrication.
Etan’s disappearance has been one of New York City’s most disturbing mysteries for 33 years.
Detectives had long believed he was killed by a neighborhood pedophile, José Ramos, who in 2004 was found liable in a civil case.
Since Hernandez’s arrest, Police Commissioner Ray Kelly has repeatedly said cops are convinced he’s the real killer.
But Vance has refused to express confidence in the case.
Additional reporting by Larry Celona and Bob Fredericks