Pedro Hernandez, 51, (right) implicated himself in the 1979 disappearance...

Pedro Hernandez, 51, (right) implicated himself in the 1979 disappearance and death of Etan Patz (left) and was taken into custody, the NYPD said. Credit: AP ; Inside Edition

A New Jersey man accused of luring 6-year-old Etan Patz into a New York City convenience store in 1979 and killing him has been charged with second-degree murder.

Pedro Hernandez was arrested Thursday after telling police he strangled Etan in 1979, when he was an 18-year-old stock boy at a convenience store where Etan waited for his school bus.

The 51-year-old Hernandez, of Maple Shade, N.J., was to be arraigned by video camera from his room at Bellevue Hospital, where he was in a secure wing. He had made comments about wanting to kill himself.

Etan disappeared on May 25, 1979, on his two-block walk to his bus stop in Manhattan in a case that made New York parents afraid to let their children out of their sight and sparked a movement to publicize and find missing and abducted youngsters.

U.S. cuts child vaccines ... Malverne hit-and-run crash ... Kids celebrate Three Kings Day Credit: Newsday

Suozzi visits ICE 'hold rooms' ... U.S. cuts child vaccines ... Coram apartment fire ... Out East: Custer Institute and Observatory

U.S. cuts child vaccines ... Malverne hit-and-run crash ... Kids celebrate Three Kings Day Credit: Newsday

Suozzi visits ICE 'hold rooms' ... U.S. cuts child vaccines ... Coram apartment fire ... Out East: Custer Institute and Observatory

SUBSCRIBE

Unlimited Digital AccessOnly 25¢for 6 months

ACT NOWSALE ENDS SOON | CANCEL ANYTIME