New York (CNN) -- A member of Pedro Hernandez's family walked into a Camden, New Jersey, police station in the 1980s and reported that Hernandez told relatives and others that he had killed a boy in New York and threw the body near a Dumpster -- but there's no indication anything came out of that report, the family member told CNN. 

"You feel like they didn't believe you. I felt empty and a little bit mad," the relative said. "I was expecting something else." 

Now, 33 years after Etan Patz disappeared, Pedro Hernandez stands accused of choking to death the 6-year-old youngster after luring him to the basement of a corner grocery store in New York City, and of throwing away his body inside a trash bag. 

The family member, who CNN has agreed to not identify, said there was no receipt of paperwork to document the information provided -- nor was the relative ever contacted again about the report. 

"Police asked whether I was mad" at Hernandez or had an ulterior motive, the source added. 

Hernandez allegedly confided the information to a New Jersey church prayer group that included some members of his family and his then-spiritual adviser, the source told CNN. 

Tomas Rivera, a leader of the prayer group, declined comment Monday on Hernandez or the prayer group, citing authorities who told him not to talk to the media. 

Pastor: Wife of suspect in Etan Patz case 'absolutely shell-shocked' 

At 19, shortly after Patz's disappearance on May 25, 1979, Hernandez left his job as a stock clerk and returned to his mother's home in North Camden, New Jersey. The attempt to tell police that Hernandez might have killed a child happened a few years after that. 
How was he murdered?
choking to death