How a six-year-old's disappearance changed parenting

A street in SoHo that Etan Patz crossed to reach his school bus stop before his disappearance 46 years ago. His disappearance not only shocked New York City; it was later credited as the event that forever altered parenting. Photo: SHURAN HUANG/The New York Times

It was 1979, and Nils Johnson-Shelton had a lot in common with a classmate named Etan Patz.

Both were six-year-old boys with bowl cuts, the sons of artists living in lofts in SoHo. They rode the same bus to the same elementary school, where they both attended first grade.