The man imprisoned for kidnapping and murdering a six-year-old boy in New York City nearly 45 years ago has had his conviction overturned. 

64-year-old Pedro Hernandez has been serving 25 years to life in prison after being convicted in 2017 of killing Etan Patz in 1979. 

Patz vanished on the first day he was allowed to walk to the school bus stop by himself on May 25, 1979. He was one of the first missing children to be pictured on milk cartons in a case that drew national attention. 

President Ronald Reagan later declared May 25, 1983, the first National Missing Children’s Day in memory of Patz.

The case garnered national attention, with Patz’s photo being one of the first to be circulated on milk cartons throughout the country. His parents spent decades in the same home and with the same phone number, in hopes of their son eventually returning to them. 

The child’s family worked to help establish a national missing-children hotline and pioneered a new way for law enforcement agencies throughout the country to distribute information regarding such cases. 

“They waited and persevered for 35 years for justice for Etan, which today, sadly, may have been lost,” former Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. told The Associated Press after hearing about the reversal.

The court ordered Hernandez’s release unless he receives a new trial within “a reasonable time period.” 

The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment. 

“This case highlights a broader issue in the legal system,” Alpert said. “Confessions are not always reliable. Mental illness, coercion or desperation can all lead someone to admit guilt falsely. Without physical evidence to support a confession, courts must proceed with extreme caution. Understanding the psychology behind a confession is essential before treating it as fact.”