The Manhattan district attorney's search to solve what he described as “one of the city's most painful and unresolved cases” in the 1979 disappearance of 6-year-old Etan Patz ended Friday without a clear conclusion.

After 18 days of deliberations, a jury said for the third time that it could not agree on whether Pedro Hernandez, a married father of three with no prior arrests, was telling the truth when he confessed to police that he murdered the boy.

Acting Supreme Court Justice Maxwell Wiley declared a mistrial after jurors said they were hopelessly deadlocked. They had reached an impasse previously on April 29 and May 5.