Etan Patz’s Killer On Suicide Watch

Pedro Hernandez, the man arrested and accused of killing Etan Patz in 1979, was held overnight Thursday under a suicide watch and transferred to Bellevue Hospital Center early Friday morning, an official briefed on the matter said.

Mr. Hernandez, 51, was taken into custody on Wednesday and held Thursday night under close monitoring, the official said.

It was unclear where Mr. Hernandez was held until he was moved to the hospital, and the official could not say whether he was transferred for any formal evaluation. Mr. Hernandez has been accused of second-degree murder by the police but has yet to be charged by prosecutors.

He told investigators that on the day Etan, 6, disappeared on his way to a school bus stop in SoHo, he lured the boy to the basement of the bodega where he worked with the promise of a soda, Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly said Thursday night. Once inside, Mr. Hernandez said he choked Etan, stuffed his body in a bag and took the bag about a block and a half away, where dumped it in the open amid other trash.