Expired

My piece for this weeks IF.


- Alittle something about this one...


NEW YORK (CNN) -- His was one of the first photos of a missing child to appear on a milk carton. Almost 30 years later, Etan Patz is still missing.
Etan Patz, who disappeared in 1979, was the first missing child featured in the milk carton campaigns of the 1980s.

Etan Patz, who disappeared in 1979, was the first missing child featured in the milk carton campaigns of the 1980s.

Etan was 6 when he disappeared on May 25, 1979, the Friday before Memorial Day. He was on his way to school in what is now the upscale Soho neighborhood of New York.

It was the first time he'd walked to the bus stop by himself. It was just a few blocks away. Etan, like any 6-year-old, argued that all of his friends walked to the bus stop alone, and his parents relented.

His mother, Julie Patz, learned that Etan hadn't been in classes when he failed to return home. She called the school at 3:30 p.m., then called the homes of all his friends. When no one had seen Etan, she called police and filed a missing person's report.

By evening more than 100 police officers and searchers had gathered with bloodhounds. The search continued for weeks, but no clues to Etan's whereabouts were found. Video Watch an update on the case »

The boy's disappearance was one of the key events that inspired the missing children's movement, which raised awareness of child abductions and led to new ways to search for missing children. Etan's case was the first of the milk carton campaigns of the mid-1980s.