Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. announced Wednesday he was rehiring Joan Illuzzi as special counsel. Illuzzi, a former senior prosecutor in the office, lost her election bid to be Staten Island’s district attorney in November.

Illuzzi led the prosecution team in the four-month trial of Pedro Hernandez, accused in the 1979 murder of six-year-old Etan Patz. The trial ended in a hung jury in May. Illuzzi resigned shortly thereafter.