An appellate court decision overturning the conviction of Pedro Hernandez once again puts the shocking disappearance of a little boy in the spotlight.

The 1979 disappearance of Etan Patz was one of the nation’s most notorious missing child cases. The six-year-old Manhattan resident was among the first children whose disappearance and likeness were publicized on milk cartons across the country.

"Time is not the prosecution's friend," said Michael J. Brown, a Long Island defense attorney who represents alleged Gilgo Beach serial killer Rex A. Heuermann.

"48 Hours" goes inside the painstaking investigation through the eyes of those who have spent more than three decades trying to find the 6-year-old boy and to bring closure to his heartbroken parents

A federal appeals court said on Monday that Pedro Hernandez, the man convicted of killing six-year-old Etan Patz in 1979, should either be retried or released. Hernandez, 64, has been in a New York state prison since 2017,