AP photo A photograph of Etan Patz hangs on an angel figurine, as part of a makeshift memorial in the SoHo neighborhood of New York, May 28, 2012 in this file photo.

Forty years ago Tuesday, on June 23, 1986, Pennsylvania State Police filed criminal charges in Warren County against Jose Antonio Ramos, a man who would later become nationally known because of his connection to the disappearance of 6-year-old Etan Patz.

The anniversary comes just one day after the United States Supreme Court reinstated the murder conviction of Pedro Hernandez, the man ultimately convicted in the Etan Patz case.

Trooper Daniel Portzer filed a criminal complaint against Ramos on June 23, 1986, charging him with involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, statutory rape, and indecent assault involving a minor. Ramos was arrested the same day, arraigned, and committed to the Warren County Prison after being unable to post bail.

At the time of his arrest, Ramos was associated with the Rainbow Family, sometimes known as the Rainbow People, a loosely organized movement whose members gather in national forests and public lands throughout the United States. Ramos traveled extensively and attended Rainbow Gatherings during the 1970s and 1980s.

The timing is notable because the 1986 National Rainbow Gathering was held in Pennsylvania’s Allegheny National Forest, bringing thousands of participants to the region that summer.

Ramos’ arrest occurred shortly before the National Rainbow Gathering was held in the Allegheny National Forest that summer. The 1986 National Rainbow Gathering was held in the Allegheny National Forest near Long Hollow and Cobham, Pennsylvania. The annual event traditionally centers on July 4, with participants arriving before and remaining after the official July 1-7 gathering period.

For many years, investigators considered Ramos a significant suspect in the disappearance of Patz, who vanished on May 25, 1979, while walking to a school bus stop in New York City.

The case became one of the most famous missing-child investigations in American history and helped change the way missing children cases were publicized and investigated.

Although Ramos was questioned extensively and remained a focus of the investigation for decades, he was never criminally charged in connection with Patz’s disappearance.

The mystery remained unresolved until 2012, when Pedro Hernandez confessed to killing Patz. Hernandez was convicted in 2017 of kidnapping and murder and sentenced to 25 years to life in prison.

On Monday, the United States Supreme Court voted 6-3 to reinstate Hernandez’s conviction after a lower federal court had overturned it. The ruling means Hernandez’s conviction will stand.

The coincidence of the dates creates an unusual historical connection. Forty years after Ramos was arrested in Warren County on June 23, 1986, the nation’s highest court issued a ruling involving the same missing-child case that made his name known across the country.

It remains a little-known piece of Warren County history that a man associated with the Rainbow Family, arrested here on June 23, 1986, would later become one of the most widely discussed suspects in one of the most famous missing-child investigations in American history.

The fact that the National Rainbow Gathering was being held in the Allegheny National Forest that same summer adds another local connection to a case that would capture national attention for decades.

This article was put together with the assistance of AI.

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