A former jailhouse informant testified Thursday that someone other than the man on trial for killing 6-year-old Etan Patz admitted decades ago to kidnapping and molesting him . Jeffrey Rothschild , now 67 , took the stand for the defense representing Pedro Hernandez , who confessed to police that he killed the boy . His attorneys say the confession was a delusion and their client is mentally ill. Etan vanished on his way to school in Manhattan 's SoHo neighborhood in 1979 . His disappearance helped galvanize the modern-day missing children 's movement , with his picture one of the first to appear on a milk carton . His body was never found . Testimony : Jeffrey Rothschild , now 67 , took the stand for the defense representing Pedro Hernandez ( pictured ) , who confessed to police that he killed the boy . His attorneys say the confession was a delusion and their client is mentally ill. Never found : Etan Patz vanished on his way to school in 1979 . His disappearance helped galvanize the modern-day missing children 's movement , with his picture one of the first to appear on a milk carton . Hernandez was a teenage stock clerk at the convenience store where Etan was headed the morning of May 25 , 1979 . In hours of a videotaped confession , Hernandez calmly recounts choking the boy , putting his body in a bag and putting the bag in a box , then walking it down the street . Prosecutors point to admissions he made over decades where he told a prayer circle , his ex-wife and a friend that he 'd killed a child in New York . Hernandez 's lawyers , however , suggest that another longtime suspect , convicted pedophile Jose Ramos , is the real killer . Argument : Hernandez 's lawyers have suggested that another longtime suspect , convicted pedophile Jose Ramos ( pictured ) , is the real killer . Rothschild said Ramos admitted molesting the boy while the men were roommates in prison . Ramos was never charged in Etan 's disappearance , but he was considered the prime suspect for decades . Rothschild said Ramos recounted in horrifying detail how he molested Etan and many other boys . ' I 've never been the same since that day , ' Rothschild said . ' I thought my life was just a total wreck and a complete and total mess , but there are other people deeper or darker than me . ' Ramos never admitted killing Etan . Rothschild met Ramos when they were both at a prison in Otisville , and Rothschild agreed to help prosecutors by trying to get a confession . Rothschild , a self-proclaimed con man , had been in and out of prison for various scams when he crossed paths with Ramos . He said Ramos told him he 'loved ' Etan and 'honored him every day . ' When Rothschild asked if the boy was dead , Ramos spat : 'Of course he 's dead . But there is no proof . ' Ramos told then-Assistant U.S. Attorney Stuart GraBois that he picked up Etan at Washington Square Park and took him back to his apartment to molest him . But the boy refused , and he put him on the subway . Rothschild recounted how Ramos told him he lied about saying he picked up the boy in the park and drew him a map of the neighborhood that included ' X ' marks where he actually grabbed the boy . Prosecutor Joan Illuzzi-Orbon sought to show that Rothschild was a career con man who would do anything to get what he wanted , even make up stories for law enforcement . He denied that . Ramos could have known Etan because his girlfriend , Susan Harrington , had been hired to walk Etan and other neighborhood kids home from school during a bus strike . Ramos spent more than 20 years in prison for molesting two boys in separate incidents in Pennsylvania and remains jailed on a Megan 's Law violation .
Jeffrey Rothschild , now 67 , took the stand for the defense representing Pedro Hernandez , who confessed to police that he killed the boy . Hernandez 's attorneys say the confession was a delusion and that their client is mentally ill. Hernandez 's lawyers , however , suggest that another longtime suspect , convicted pedophile Jose Ramos , is the real killer . Rothschild said Ramos admitted molesting the boy while the men were roommates in prison . Etan vanished on his way to school in Manhattan in 1979 . His disappearance helped galvanize the modern-day missing children 's movement , with his picture one of the first to appear on a milk carton .