The disappearance of 7-year-old Patrick Alford while in foster care in Brooklyn – 15 years ago today – was one of the highest-profile missing child cases in New York City since the abduction of Etan Patz.
When Patrick simply vanished while taking the trash out with his foster mother, his disappearance touched off a massive investigation, with detectives conducting 14,000 interviews, searching 9,000 apartments and investigating hundreds, if not thousands, of tips.
Patrick’s case is still being actively investigated, and detectives will be handing out flyers today in the Spring Creek Towers community where Patrick was last seen, a sprawling collection of 46 high-rise brick apartment buildings on 153 acres. When he vanished on Jan. 22, 2010, Patrick and his younger sister had been briefly living there with their foster mother.
