>Three months after Pedro Hernandez was arrested for the ’79 murder of 6-year-old Etan Patz, Lisa Cohen, whose After Etan is out with a new chapter, discusses how Etan’s parents are doing.
DO THEY BELIEVE HERNANDEZ WAS THE KILLER?
Stan—who twice yearly sends a note asking convicted pedophile Jose Ramos, the former lead suspect, “What did you do to my little boy?”—won’t say. Reports Cohen: “He told me, ‘I’m not talking about it.'”
HOW DID THEY HEAR ABOUT THE BREAK IN THE CASE?
In Boston for their daughter-in-law’s graduation from Harvard, “Stan got the heads-up,” Cohen says. “I think it was hard; they had been celebrating. In 33 years they’ve had to become adept at compartmentalizing.”
HOW HAVE THEY LIVED WITH THEIR LOSS?
“They’ve raised their other kids [Ari, 36, and Shira, 42]. Stan says, ‘Most of the time this is background noise. Life takes the foreground.’ They’ve been able to see the good in the world, despite what happened to them.”