Etan Patz: suspect in custody in connection with 'milk carton boy' disappearance

A suspect is in custody in connection with the disappearance of six-year-old Etan Patz more than 30 years ago, New York police have said, in what appears to be a major breakthrough in one of America's most famous missing child cases.

Etan Patz who vanished on May 25, 1979, and has never been found

Police say that the suspect has implicated himself in the case. Further details are expected to be released later today.

The man is said to be known to investigators, according to NBC New York, and he worked and lived in the boy's neighbourhood when he disappeared in 1979.

Ray Kelly, the NYPD police commissioner, said the man "has made statements to NYPD detectives implicating himself in the disappearance and death of Etan Patz 33 years ago."

The breakthrough comes only a month after the FBI began a new search in connection with the case, one of America's most famous missing child episodes. The new search involved the excavation of a basement near his family's home.

Etan was the first missing child to appear on the side of a milk carton. He vanished after leaving his family's apartment in Manhattan to catch a school bus. It was the first time his parents had let him go off to school alone.

May 25, the day he disappeared, was declared 'National Missing Child Day' by Ronald Reagan. The boy was formally declared dead in 2001.