Disappearance that shook New York City: Patrick Alford missing 15 years

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.

Patrick’s case had a profound impact on the city, not unlike the May 25, 1979 disappearance of Etan, said then-New York Police Commissioner Ray Kelly. Etan’s case helped launch a national missing children’s movement, which led to the creation of the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC). Today, NCMEC is releasing a new age progression of what Patrick, who would be 22 now, may look like today, and police are offering a $13,000 reward in the case.

This NCMEC age progression shows what Patrick may look like at 22. (Credit: NCMEC) 

“It was a massive hunt, a massive investigation,” lead Detective Ezequiel Burgos, with the New York Police Department’s Missing Person Unit, said of Patrick’s case. “We’ve been working on this for 15 years, so you can imagine the work we’ve done.”

When there were finally developments in Etan’s case in 2017 after three decades – Etan’s abductor was convicted after confessing to kidnapping and killing him – the police commissioner said he hoped the news would invigorate Patrick’s case. 

The two cases were not connected: Etan vanished as he walked to his school bus a few blocks away from his home in SoHo for the very first time. But the two high-profile cases stood out, Kelly said at the time, because they were two young children who just suddenly vanished in the city and to this day have never been found. 

On that day 15 years ago, Patrick, who was in foster care with his younger sister, was taking the trash to the chute with his foster mother when, she told police, she became distracted by a phone call. In an instant, Patrick was gone.

Patrick with his mother, Jennifer Rodriguez. (Family photos courtesy Jennifer Rodriguez)

Patrick and his sister hadn’t been in foster care for long, placed there after Christmas in 2009. Their mother, Jennifer Rodriguez, said in an interview with NCMEC that she herself called social services to ask for help. She said that mentally she was in a bad place and experimented with drugs that made her paranoid. She knew she needed help, but when she called to ask for drug treatment, her children were taken from her and put into foster care. She deeply regrets making that call. 

“That was the worst thing I could have ever done,” said Rodriguez, who was living in Staten Island with her two children when it happened and now lives in another state and has three children. “I wasn’t in the right mental state, so I turned to the people I thought could help, and it backfired on me. I live with that guilt.”

Rodriguez said the foster mother told police that Patrick had tried to run away before. Patrick is bi-racial – Black and Hispanic – but does not speak Spanish. The foster mother spoke Spanish but not English, so Patrick’s mother said she wasn’t even able to communicate with her young children.

Rodriguez and Patrick’s father, who lived apart and were not married, sued New York City and the foster care system in federal court. The city agreed to set aside $6 million in a trust fund to help Patrick if he’s found. Rodriguez said it was never about the money, which has not been touched. Rather, they wanted to hold the foster care system accountable. 

Rodriguez said she has since earned an associate degree in criminal justice, mostly to understand what could have happened to her son. She said, in her opinion, police focused on her family as suspects for too long to the detriment of the investigation. She believes Patrick did try to return home to Staten Island and that someone took him. In her studies, she learned about child sex trafficking and that children who run from foster care are sometimes sold for sex. She prays that was not his fate.

Still reeling from his disappearance, tragedy struck again.

Two years after he vanished, Patrick’s father was shot in the head and leg in a robbery. After years of therapy, he was finally able to walk a little but was run over in his wheelchair on a snowy road, according to Rodriguez. He’s still alive but struggling, she said.

Patrick loved video games, Spider-Man and his mom. 

When her son went missing, Roriguez had her son’s name tattooed over her heart. She and her eldest child, who she called “P,” were very close and had never been apart, she said. He was funny and caring, loved video games and Spider-Man and used his allowance to buy her chocolates for Valentine’s Day. 

Rodriguez said she’s working hard to remain healthy for her children – and the day Patrick comes home. 

“I wasn’t doing well for a long time,” Rodriguez said. “Then I finally thought, ‘Why do I keep punishing myself for something I didn’t do?’ I’m still trying to figure out why, with all the resources they used, no one has come forward. I just pray that Patrick’s alive. That’s what keeps me going.”

If anyone has any information about Patrick, please call New York City police at 1-800-577-8477 or NCMEC at 1-800-THE-LOST (1-800-843-5678).