by Joe Sexton, ProPublica, and Nate Schweber, Sep. 18, 2014, 6:33 p.m. For more about the disappearance of 6-year-old Etan Patz, a case that frustrated and mystified police for decades, read the story ProPublica produced with WNYC in 2013. Earlier this week, prosecutors played a confession given by the man they have charged with the 1979 murder of Etan Patz.