Etan Patz suspect getting out of prison

PHILADELPHIA -- The man who was long the prime suspect in the landmark Etan Patz missing child case is to be released Tuesday from a Pennsylvania prison where he spent 20 years for molesting other children.

Six-year-old Etan disappeared in SoHo on his way to school on May 25, 1979. He was never found.

The man, Jose Ramos, was declared responsible for Etan's death in a civil case in 2004, but the Manhattan district attorney's office has said there wasn't enough evidence to charge him criminally. He has denied any involvement in the boy's disappearance.

Ramos, incarcerated at the state prison at Dallas in northeastern Pennsylvania, is set to be freed Wednesday, prison spokesman Michael Goyne said Tuesday.

-- AP