"To his credit, District Attorney Cy Vance reopened (the investigation) in hopes not only of bringing justice, but also offering some closure to Etan's parents," the mayor told reporters Thursday. "And as a father, I just can not imagine what they've gone through."
Etan went missing on May 25, 1979, a block from his home in the Manhattan neighborhood of SoHo. It was the first time that he had walked to his school bus stop by himself.
His mother, Julie, learned after her son failed to return home that he hadn't been in classes that day. After calling the school and Etan's friends, she then called police.
The boy was officially declared dead in 2001 as part of a lawsuit filed by his family against a drifter, Jose Antonio Ramos, a convicted child molester acquainted with Etan's babysitter.
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 considered a key focus of the investigation for years, he has never been charged in the case. He is serving a 20-year prison sentence in Pennsylvania for molesting another boy and is set to be released this year.
A source has previously said investigators wanted to expand the pool of possible suspects beyond Ramos.
Parents Stan and Julie Patz still live in their SoHo home and have not commented on the new developments. Police said Thursday that Stan Patz was a little surprised and overwhelmed by Thursday's developments.
Cohen, author of "After Etan: The Missing Child Case That Held America Captive," told CNN earlier that "the family's been living through this for 33 years. They've had many moments like this. They've learned how to deal with it."
Thursday evening, Cohen told CNN's "Piers Morgan Night" she had not heard of Hernandez before the arrest. The Patz family, she said, won't be making any quick judgments on this case.
Just weeks after Etan disappeared, an attacker abducted the first of more than 20 children to be kidnapped and killed in Atlanta. A suspect in that case was arrested two years later.
In 1984, Congress passed the Missing Children's Assistance Act, which led to the creation of the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children.
President Ronald Reagan named May 25, the day Etan went missing, as National Missing Children's Day.
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