Mother of boy who disappeared in 1979 testifies at NYC trial

Julie Patz, left, mother of Etan Patz, arrives at court in New York with Assistant District Attorney Joan Illuzzi-Orbon, to testify in the retrial of Pedro Hernandez, Friday, Oct. 21, 2016. After a jury deadlock last year, Hernandez is back on trial for kidnapping and killing 6-year-old Etan Patz in 1979. (AP Photo/Richard Drew) (The Associated Press)

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From left, Joan Brooks, C.J. Holm, Jennifer O'Connor, and Cynthia Cueto, jurors in the previous trial of Pedro Hernandez, talk to the media before court, Friday, Oct. 21, 2016. After a jury deadlock last year, Hernandez is back on trial for kidnapping and killing 6-year-old Etan Patz in 1979. (AP Photo/Richard Drew) (The Associated Press)

NEW YORK – The mother of Etan Patz (AY'-tahn payts) has testified about the "total horror and panic" she felt when the 6-year-old disappeared in 1979.

Julie Patz testified Friday at the New York City trial of Pedro Hernandez.

When she found out her son had never made it to school, her legs started giving out and she had trouble breathing.

Prosecutors say Hernandez hid a brutal secret for more than three decades.

Hernandez's lawyers say the Maple Shade, New Jersey, man is mentally ill and imagined he killed the first-grader, whose body was never found.

Hernandez's first trial ended in a jury deadlock.

Etan was among the first missing children featured on a milk carton. The May 25 anniversary of his disappearance became National Missing Children's Day.