Metro

Cops waited two weeks before asking to search Etan Patz ‘killer’s’ home, as chilling clues uncovered

A search of the home of Etan Patz’s accused killer turned up a pair of boys’ white Fruit of the Loom briefs, a yellow Matchbox-style car etched with the word “Stryker” and a pair of blue children’s-size shorts, sources said yesterday.

The items were found secreted in an attic room of the Maple Shade, NJ, house of Pedro Hernandez, who used the space as his bedroom, sources said.

Hernandez, 51, confessed May 24 to killing Etan, who went missing on his way to a SoHo bus stop in 1979.

Meanwhile yesterday, records showed the NYPD waited two weeks to even ask permission to search Hernandez’s home, first applying for a warrant June 6.

The request was greenlighted almost immediately by a New Jersey judge, and the items were found within hours, sources said.

Neither the NYPD nor Manhattan DA Cy Vance Jr. would say why it took so long to seek a warrant.

“After that confession, they could have applied for a search warrant that same day,” noted Robert Gottlieb, who represents Hernandez’s wife, Rosemary.

“The timing of the search warrant is something I’m sure Mr. Hernandez’s lawyer will raise at some point.”

Hernandez’s defense lawyer, Harvey Fishbein, said it would be “inappropriate to comment at this time.”

Additional reporting by Laura Italiano and Jeane MacIntosh