Police and federal agents were expected Friday to continue searching in a Lower Manhattan basement for clues in the more than 30-year disappearance of six-year-old Etan Patz, the boy who became the face of missing children in America.

Etan Patz disappeared May 25, 1979, a block from his home in the city's SoHo neighborhood. It was the first time he walked to the bus stop by himself.

Authorities said both new and old information led them to a carpenter and part-time handyman who met Etan the day before he disappeared and gave the boy a dollar.

It was interest in the carpenter that prompted authorities to bring a cadaver dog to a SoHo basement, where Etan apparently encountered the 42-year-old carpenter, according to a source with knowledge of the investigation. The dogs picked up the scent of human remains, the source said.