NEW YORK -- The jury in the Etan Patz murder case has sent a note to the judge saying it cannot agree unanimously on a verdict early Wednesday afternoon, reports CBS New York.

However, the judge instructed the jury to keep deliberating until they reach a verdict.

Jurors entered their 11th day of deliberations Wednesday in the murder trial of Pedro Hernandez, who confessed to luring Etan into the basement of a New York City bodega in 1979 and strangling him.

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The child's body was never found.

Lawyers for Hernandez say he made up the story due to mental illness and claim the real killer is convicted child molester Jose Ramos.

The jury has taken its time to consider the defense case that Ramos is more likely to have snatched and killed Etan than is Hernandez.

Prosecutors have dismissed the Ramos theory, calling him a despicable pedophile but saying the evidence against him was never enough.

The jury asked to see dozens of exhibits and to have hours of trial transcripts read back to them.

The jury on Monday listened to more testimony from two defense witnesses - former federal prosecutor Stuart GraBois and former FBI agent Mary Galligan - who both investigated Ramos.

The defense has pointed repeatedly to Ramos as the real suspect. Ramos denied involvement. However, GraBois and Galligan testified that Ramos told investigators he was "90 percent" sure a boy he took from a park was Etan, and Hernandez's former prison cellmate testified that Ramos admitted molesting the boy.

Ramos never took the witness stand in this trial.