On the morning little Etan Patz disappeared from a SoHo street in 1979, neighbor turned against neighbor. And childhood ended.
The murder of little Etan has cut a deep rift among the people of SoHo. Old-timers and young parents, strangers and acquaintances, will not forgive the boy’s parents for allowing their baby out of their sight long enough to walk to his school-bus stop, alone.
Along Prince Street now, judgmental folks talk of little else. There was Lily Barrontini and her sister, Vilma Basson, who have lived in the neighborhood for more than five decades — moving in before the place was even called “SoHo.’’
“His mom should not let the boy to go to school by himself,” Vilma said in English still accented with her native Italy.
They joined a chorus who stopped to leave flowers, teddy bears, candles on the sidewalk in front of the ex-bodega where monster Pedro Hernandez says he strangled little Etan, tossing his body in the trash.
Lily crossed herself.
“I saw the mother. Every day I see her,’’ she said, her eyes virtually burning the mom’s flesh with condemnation.
“He was 6!’’
SOHO PALS SAW THE DEVIL IN ETAN ‘KILLER’
HERNANDEZ WAS ‘TOO CRAZY’ FOR COPS WHEN HE CONFESSED YEARS AGO
Julie and Stan Patz returned yesterday afternoon to their SoHo apartment, after traveling to Massachusetts to see their daughter graduate from college. People on the street attempted to hug them.
Others avoided the Patzes like germs.
A father dragged his little boy by the hand as he navigated the SoHo sidewalks, looking alarmed when a stranger approached.
“My child will never walk to school alone. Period!’’ he barked before running off.
Beatrice Talavera can date the moment her life changed forever to the day Etan vanished. She was a carefree girl of 12, whose biggest fear was getting a “C’’ in class. But with Etan gone, playgrounds fell silent and sidewalks grew grim. One could imagine men with bad intent lurking at every corner.
“I was in middle school. From that point forward, my mom had to walk me to school,’’ said Talavera, 42. She now manages the Robert Marc Eyewear store that has a notorious address — it sits next door to the apartment building where Pedro Hernandez, the man charged with killing Etan, lived so many years ago.
After Etan, “my mother raised me so sheltered,’’ she said. “She even took me by the hand all the way through high school.’’
All across SoHo and all over the city, we’re living in a post-Etan world.
“I’m very worried about letting my kids go anywhere alone,’’ said Talavera. “To this day, I have to know where they’re going. They have to text me when they’re leaving and when they get home. Otherwise, I can’t sleep.” Her children are 19 and 20.
One wonders what kind of generation of cowardly kids we are raising today. They’re fingerprinted in case of kidnapping and taught to dial 911 before they can crawl.
It is not fair to blame this on the Patzes. Not while the demon Hernandez is in custody.
Not while the monster lives, while Etan’s body is not found.
In SoHo, the wounds may never heal.