( CNN ) When Etan Patz went missing in New York City at age 6 , hardly anyone in America could help but see his face at their breakfast table . His photo 's appearance on milk cartons after his May 1979 disappearance marked an era of heightened awareness of crimes against children . On Friday , more than 35 years after frenzied media coverage of his case horrified parents everywhere , a New York jury will again deliberate over a possible verdict against the man charged in his killing , Pedro Hernandez . He confessed to police three years ago . Etan Patz 's parents have waited that long for justice , but some have questioned whether that is at all possible in Hernandez 's case . His lawyer has said that he is mentally challenged , severely mentally ill and unable to discern whether he committed the crime or not . Hernandez told police in a taped statement that he lured Patz into a basement as the boy was on his way to a bus stop in Lower Manhattan . He said he killed the boy and threw his body away in a plastic bag . Neither the child nor his remains have ever been recovered . But Hernandez has been repeatedly diagnosed with schizophrenia and has an `` IQ in the borderline-to-mild mental retardation range , '' his attorney Harvey Fishbein has said . Police interrogated Hernandez for 7½ hours before he confessed . `` I think anyone who sees these confessions will understand that when the police were finished , Mr. Hernandez believed he had killed Etan Patz . But that does n't mean he actually did , and that 's the whole point of this case , '' Fishbein has said . But in November , a New York judge ruled that Hernandez 's confession and his waiving of his Miranda rights were legal , making the confession admissible in court . Another man 's name has also hung over the Patz case for years -- Jose Antonio Ramos , a convicted child molester acquainted with Etan 's babysitter . Etan 's parents , Stan and Julia Patz , sued Ramos in 2001 . The boy was officially declared dead as part of that lawsuit . A judge found Ramos responsible for the boy 's death and ordered him to pay the family $ 2 million -- money the Patz family has never received . Though Ramos was at the center of investigations for years , he has never been charged . He served a 20-year prison sentence in Pennsylvania for molesting another boy and was set to be released in 2012 . He was reportedly immediately rearrested upon exiting jail in 2012 on failure to register as a sex offender . Since their young son 's disappearance , the Patzes have worked to keep the case alive and to create awareness of missing children in the United States . In the early 1980s , Etan 's photo appeared on milk cartons across the country , and news media focused in on the search for him and other missing children . `` It awakened America , '' said Ernie Allen , president and chief executive officer of the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children . `` It was the beginning of a missing children 's movement . '' The actual number of children who were kidnapped and killed did not change -- it 's always been a relatively small number -- but awareness of the cases skyrocketed , experts said . But the news industry was expanding to cable television , and sweet images of children appeared along with destroyed parents begging for their safe return . The fear rising across the nation sparked awareness and prompted change from politicians and police . In 1984 , Congress passed the Missing Children 's Assistance Act , which led to the creation of the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children . Former President Ronald Reagan opened the center in a White House ceremony in 1984 . It soon began operating a 24-hour toll-free hot line on which callers could report information about missing boys and girls . Joe Sterling and CNN 's Lorenzo Ferrigno contributed to this report .
The young woman 's name appeared on milk cartons all across the United states . Patz 's disappearance marked a time of heightened awareness of crimes against children . pat Hernandez confessed three months ago to the child killing in .