When police dug up a Manhattan basement last month in a fruitless search for the remains of Etan Patz, a 6-year-old boy who disappeared in 1979, Lucy Suarez saw the news on TV and wished that the family of the missing child would finally get some peace.

"My sister and I prayed about it. We prayed and we said, 'Let justice be done,'" Suarez said. "Never did we think it was going to be done with our family."

On Friday, her older brother was charged with Etan's murder.

Police said Pedro Hernandez, a 51-year-old, churchgoing father described by some friends as quiet and timid, had given an emotional confession earlier in the week to luring the little boy away from his school bus stop with a promise of a soft drink, and then strangling him in the basement of a convenience store where he had been working as a stock clerk.

The admission surprised investigators, who had been confounded by the disappearance for three decades and never considered Hernandez a suspect until this month.