category 2 hurricane. we're going to have the latest track of the storm for you. and for the first time in history, a commercial spacecraft linking up with the international space station. let your geek flag fly, folks. we are going to take you live to outer space in just a moment. hi, everybody. welcome to "early start." i'm ashleigh banfield. look who's here! >> good morning. >> nice to have you here. >> i'm alina cho. zoraida has the day off today. it is 5:00 a.m. in the east. on this friday before memorial, we've got lots of news. >> we do, so let's get right to it. this is a big story. for the first time in 33 years -- in fact, the anniversary today -- new york police may finally have their man in the murder of etan patz 33 years ago. he is 51-year-old pedro hernandez. he is under arrest and is expected to be charged with second-degree murder. he was 19 at the time that 16-year-old the etan patz disappeared while walking on his bus stop in 1969. hernandez was working in a grocy store and living in the neighborhood that patz and his family were living in. new york's police commissioner says hernandez detailed the crime in a confession. >> hernandez described to the detectives how he lured young etan from the school bus stop at west broadway and prince street with the promise of a soda. he then led him into the basement of the bodega, choked him there and disposed of the body by putting it into a plastic bag and placing it into the trash. >> just last month, police thought that they had a break in this cold case, but it turned out to be another dead end. the renewed attention produced a tip that led police to hernandez. he's due to make his first court appearance in just a few hours. and again, this is 33 years to the day that etan patz vanished. cnn's susan candiotti is live in lower manhattan. you've been working this story for some time now. what makes police think they really do have their man this time? >> reporter: you know, ashleigh, it's hard to pinpoint that precisely, but at the press conference, the police commissioner said it's because of the detailed statements that he made to police that took 3 1/2 hours. and because of everything that they told him. naturally, we asked time and again throughout the day yesterday -- i talked to my sources -- but do you have more than only his statements to go on? is there any physical evidence? hard to get a precise answer. i was told that there is other evidence, but it remains unclear as to whether that goes beyond what family members have said about what he told them, whether they have been able to obtain any physical evidence that he is connected to this crime. >> he seemed like an all right guy. he had a wife and there was a young daughter. and they were, you know, they said hello and everything. they were always smiling. and well, this guy, like they say, confessed to it, 33 years he's been living in his own personal hell. >> susan, you know, it's remarkable, but this is a phenomenon that happens. people confess to crimes all the time that they don't commit, and they have had confessions in this case as well from other people. why did they think they confession and these details are any different than any of the other confessions they've had in the last 33 years? >> reporter: well, they haven't given us much detail on that, as a matter of fact. all of them saying that he talked to them a long time, that he went to the crime scene with them, the crime scene where he says etan patz was killed. remember, he was only 19 years old at the time, working as a stock clerk in that store. and when they talked with him and they also learned from other people that he had told them that years ago, that he had done something very bad, in his words, that he had killed a boy in new york, but he was never specific about mentioning a name. so ashashleigh, it wasn't until about a month ago, after police were searching that other basement in the area and it turned up nothing, they got a phone call from a tipster, and that tipster said i have spoken to this man, i have information, relatives know something, you should go and speak with them. and that led police to talk to others who discovered that he had made comments about this over the years but never mentioning etan by name. so, that's when they found him, interviewed him. he went back to the area a couple of days ago and showed them the store location that used to be a convenience store at the time, but now they sell fashion eyeglasses there in soho. and he took them to the basement, said this is where it happened. of course, will they ever recover a body? police say highly unlikely. >> and you know, the difference in forensic collections back in 1979 to today. this is going to be one heck of a difficult case, if it ever ends up at trial. talk to me a little bit about today. we're expecting a court appearance today of mr. hernandez? >> reporter: that's right. the police have charged him with probable cause, but still, it's the prosecutors, the manhattan district attorney's office, which reopened the case back in 2010, that will be the official charging agency. and we expect that to happen some time this day. and when that does, then he will make his very first court appearance, and it's possible at that time that police might reveal more information, or prosecutors, rather, about this case. you know, what's interesting here as well is that police say they don't have any motive at this time. why did this man allegedly single out this little boy? what's the connection? and they also added that at this time, there seems to be no evidence that little etan was sexually abused. >> well, let's just hope that the police kept one little detail that only the killer would know and that they could get some final resolution in this case. susan candiotti, great work. thanks so much. >> reporter: you bet. 20 years in prison for a texas man who tried to sneak out of the united states and give al qaeda restricted military documents. the court also ordered barry walter buholt to pay a $10,000 fine. prosecutors say he wanted to join al qaeda and tried to provide the organization with money and two restricted as access army manuals related to u.s. drones and gps equipment. he was arrested two years ago after using a fake i.d. to enter a houston port and board a ship headed to the middle east. later this morning, jurors in the john edwards trial will begin deliberating for a sixth day. yesterday they made some interesting requests, 20 different exhibits involving payments made to edwards' 2008 presidential campaign by a wealthy benefactor. they're trying to determine whether those payments were, in fact, illegal campaign contributions used to cover up the candidate's extramarital affair. there are new details on the georgia grad student fighting to survive a rare flesh-eating bacterial infection after falling off a homemade zip line. doctors say 24-year-old aimee copeland could be out of intensive care in just about three to four weeks. aimee's father said she's now able to sit up in a chair for a couple of hours, but she's still in critical condition. aimee's on full-time kidney dialysis and relies on oxygen because her lungs are still not fully functioning. you'll remember she lost both of her hands, her leg and her other foot. new trouble for the trainer of that horse that won the first two legs of the coveted triple crown. california state racing board suspended trainer doug o'neill for 45 days. the reason? high levels of carbon dioxide in one of his horses' blood. and also under suspicion for a milk shake, suspicion he gave one of the horses an illegal performance-enhancing substance that's force-fed to a horse, but he was cleared of that. his suspension's not going to take effect until july 1st, which means that he is going to be at the belmont when his horse, i'll have another, makes a run for the first triple crown in more than three decades. hurricane bud now a powerful pacific storm lurking just off the mexican coast. want to take a look now at bud from space. you can just how big it is there. a hurricane and tropical storm warning is in effect right now. and now there's word of another storm gathering strength off the coast of florida. our rob marciano live for us this morning with a look at all that. hey, so, where is that storm headed, rob? >> headed towards mexico, manet nia, the west coast of mexico. yesterday at this time, we thought it was going to weaken somewhat and maybe not reach the coastline. well, in the last 24 hours, a category 3 strength with winds of 115 miles an hour. it's little weaker right now. we've seen the eye dissipate just little bit, so we expect continued weakening, but it's so close to land right now that hurricane warnings have been issued and watches continue to be posted, and we do expect, national hurricane center is forecasting to to make landfall now as a hurricane and just kind of linger along the coastline. by the way, this is the first time since we've kept records that a category 3 storm in the eastern pacific has developed this early. category 2 now, expected to decrease to a 1 and make landfall some time tonight and then dissipate as it hugs the coastline, gets a little drier air and runs into the mountains. so heavier, heavier rains, some mud slides with this in the hills and also, obviously, some high surf and some winds there. this system just north of cuba now has the potential to develop into our next tropical system, and this will impact the u.s. potentially, and at the very least in the form of heavy rains and big surf, and we'll watch this potentially develop into a depression or a storm here in the next 24 hours. back up to you. >> boy, if this is any guide, might be a busy hurricane season, right? >> well, to have two tropical storms before june 1st, that's only happened a couple of times, but this is not an indication of how busy this hurricane season will be, even though we're off to a pretty good start. >> all right, rob, thank you. ten minutes past 5:00 on the east coast. we are just a few hours away now from something we have never seen before. >> cue the music. >> do you love it? in the decades of space exploration by man. so, what is it, and how are astronauts preparing to pull this baby off? we are back after this. 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as a police chief, i have an opportunity to affect what happens in a major city. if you want to make a difference, you have to have the right education. university of phoenix opened the door. my name is james craig, i am committed to making a difference, and i am a phoenix. visit phoenix.edu to find the program that's right for you. enroll now. 15 minutes after the hour. welcome back. right now a private space capsule is moving into position to make history. it's called the dragon capsule. it's now less than a mile away from linking up with the international space station. >> there it is! >> and you are looking live at it. you see it's a big, wide world out there, because that little clicking dot is the capsule. >> that's it! >> that's right. >> that little, tiny dot. >> nasa is giving it the all clear after a successful practice fly-by yesterday. these are complicated things, right? so it takes a while. >> this is the view from the space station. >> that's right. >> looking out at the arriving dragon on its way. >> apparently, what, a mile away? john zarrella is live with this story. hey, john, good morning. >> good morning. >> so, when's it going to dock? >> about 6:59 central time, so just before 8:00 a.m. eastern time. and remember, ladies, this isn't a space shuttle. it's really tiny. you could fit this inside the space shuttle's cargo bay. and one thing that we have to make sure everybody understands, this is what they call a birthing. it's not going to dock to the space station like the shuttle did, backing in and connecting right up. they actually have to reach out with the space station's robotic arm, and they will grab it with the robotic arm and then very slowly pull it in and birth it, as they call it, to the international space station. now, don pettitte, the astronaut aboard along with and andres keepers, they will perform that delicate maneuver. if you just touch it the wrong way and don't grapple it properly, you could hit it and spin it out of control. so, it is not easy to pull this kind of maneuver off. so, bottom line, the next couple of hours are going to be pretty interesting as this approaches ever closer to the station. and you know, they're not going empty-handed. this is a practice mission, but it's filled with all kinds of cargo. they're bringing up almost 200 meals for the astronauts. they're bringing up a computer, some batteries, so a variety of different things going up on this flight. >> isn't it also carrying, john, the ashes of the canadian actor who played scotty on "star trek"? i mean, how did that happen? >> no, it's not in this vehicle. it's not on the dragon. it was on the falcon 9 second-stage rocket that was the booster that put dragon up to where it is now, so -- >> ah, got it, got it. >> in that booster segment, there were the remains of 320 people, amongst them a portion of his ashes actually did fly with all those other folks and is now orbiting the earth. >> wow. well, we'll be watching that closely and i know you will, too. john zarrella, thank you very much. >> absolutely. >> coming up at 6:45 eastern time, nasa astronaut dan tani, who's logged over 131 days in space will talk to ashleigh to talk little bit more about how important this mission is -- >> and all the stuff he has to unload. >> that's right, 674 pounds of food. >> also bringing up clothes and lots of stuff. so we look forward to that next hour. >> kind of a cool job. if you're on the space station, you know this thing's coming. they've done it a million times before, but never from an aircraft that's a private enterprise. >> especially with nasa effectively cutting back and eliminating the shuttle missions, at least for now, it looks like this is where it's going, right? >> so it's dan and his friends who have to realize, i hope you're really good at what you do, because eventually, we're going to be on those things. >> we need that food. >> exactly. it is 17 minutes after 5:00 on the east coast. time for your "early reads." we like to update you on what's going on around the world and around the country. "l.a. times" has a shocking story about a former football star's exoneration for rape. brian banks was just 16 years old when he was convicted of raping a high school classmate. her name, wanetta gibson. this happened in 2002. he spent five years in prison. see him? look at that reaction. his budding football career was extinguished. he was awarded a $1.5 million judgment from the school district. last year, gibson sent banks a facebook friend request. he responded by asking her to meet with him. their meeting was secretly recorded. and guess what? the victim, the so-called victim admitted that she lied. so, guess what? he's out and cleared, but that doesn't clear the five years that the guy spent -- >> well, i'll bet this never happened to you in school. listen to this story, pretty shocking stuff. a preschool teacher in houston is actually accused of scaring her kids -- >> what? >> that's right, by locking them in what's called the monster closet. >> oh, come on! >> it looks scary to a little kid, a monster closet, right? our affiliate in houston, khou, says the closet is a janitor's closet. the kids were locked inside five minutes at a time as a form of punishment. one mom says her son was thrown in the closet for laughing in class and he was so scared that he vomited! >> oh, no! >> i know. the teacher has been suspended. >> at the very least, i would hope. there is no excuse for that kind of punishment. that is not a time-out. that is torture for a little kid. >> for a 4-year-old kid. >> 19 minutes now past 5:00. if you want an expanded look at all of our top stories, we have it for you. aim to please. go to cnn.com/earlystart. it's on our blog, everything you want there. this is the news homeowners are hoping for. christine romans says the housing market is taking a major turn. going to tell us why after the break. 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