NEW YORK — Gone are the quiet streets and the loading docks, replaced with hordes of shoppers ducking into stores selling scented body butter, premium denim and high-end furniture. But one thing remains unchanged on the narrow stretch of Prince Street in SoHo: the haunting memory of Etan Patz, a 6-year-old boy who left for school one morning in 1979 and never came back.
It is one of this city's — and the nation's — most chilling unsolved mysteries, a case many had forgotten or never knew about until Thursday, when police and FBI agents began searching the basement of a building on the same block as the little boy's apartment.
Officials would not say exactly what led them to bring what one FBI agent called an "arsenal of equipment," including a jackhammer, to the basement. "There have been a variety of elements … a variety of information and sources of information" that came together, said Special Agent Tim Flannelly of the FBI's New York office.
Neighbors said they had seen at least one search dog brought to the building earlier in the week, and law enforcement officials confirmed that a dog had detected something in the basement. It was not clear whether the space had been scoured 33 years ago, after Etan's disappearance on his way to a school bus stop prompted a shift in the country's response to missing children.
The wide-eyed, shaggy-haired little boy became the first to appear on the side of a milk carton, part of the nationwide campaign to highlight the plight of missing and abducted children that evolved from Etan's case and from his parents' drive to keep it active.
"The disappearance of Etan Patz marked the birthplace of a movement," said Ernie Allen, president of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.
Authorities have reason to think the new search could lead to the discovery of the boy's remains at that location, though they remain wary after past leads in the case failed to pan out, according to two sources familiar with the probe.
"I hope they find something," said resident Sean Sweeney, who says he's lived in the neighborhood since 1976.
SoHo, a lower Manhattan neighborhood now known for its boutique shops, art galleries and loft apartments, at the time was considered a grittier locale, where abandoned storefronts dotted the city streets.
Sweeney said he remembers the initial investigation into Etan's disappearance when police first knocked on his door in search of clues.
"That's odd, isn't it," he said, referring to the fact that 33 years later, police are again in his neighborhood searching for the boy.
On the day of his disappearance, Etan's mother, Julie Patz, learned after her son failed to return home from school that he hadn't been in classes that day. She called the school, then called the homes of all his friends. When she found no one who had seen her son, she called police and filed a missing person 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.
The boy's disappearance was thought to raise awareness of child abductions and led to new ways to search for missing children.
President Ronald Reagan named May 25, the day Etan went missing, National Missing Children's Day.
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