A renewed investigation into the 1979 disappearance of a New York City boy has recalled the era when printed images of missing children appeared on milk cartons. Investigators began searching a basement in Manhattan on Thursday for Etan Patz's remains. They plan to dig up a concrete basement and expect the work to take about five days. FBI and NYPD law enforcement officials search a SoHo basement at the corner of Wooster and Prince streets for the possible remains of missing child Etan Patz on Thursday, April 19, 2012 in New York. Patz vanished in 1979 after leaving his family's SoHo home for a short walk to his school bus stop. (AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews) Close Etan's disappearance on May 25, 1979, drew national attention to child safety. It also ushered in a generation of parents who became afraid to send their kids out alone and helped fuel a movement to publicize missing children's cases. While Patz's face was among the first to appear on thousands of milk cartons across the country, the practice began with local dairies in the Midwest.