Brooklyn Boy Found Dead, Family Sitting Shiva For Him

The Kletzky family is sitting shiva for their eight-year-old son in Borough Park, Brooklyn. Typically, Orthodox and non-Orthodox Jews sitting shiva recall the lives of the deceased. For the Kletzky family, whose small boy died at the hands of a cold-blooded Orthodox Jewish man who reportedly hears voices, this is not the case.

The Kletzky family has seen a steady influx of visitors. Leiby's father Nachman received visitors in the dining room while his mother Itta and his four sisters received visitors in a bedroom. And a question arises: What does one say in this type of unprecedented tragedy?

The only tenuous condolence in this bizarre tragedy is that the Sabbath, the day of peace, will come tomorrow and the shiva will be interrupted.

Neighbors put up a sign outside of the Kletzky apartment building that said,Please be sensitive to the family. DO NOT share rumors, stories and information you have heard - at all!!

Killer Levi Aron was formally charged in a New York court yesterday after he killed Leiby, a lost Brooklyn boy walking home from day camp. Levi Aron pleaded not guilty to charges of first-degree murder and kidnapping and is being held without bail. Police said that Aron drove Leiby Kletzky to a Rockland County catering hall and that the boy waited in the car. Aron dismembered the child later.

The 35-year-old maintenance supply worker implicated himself in the murder and told police where the child was when they arrived at his home, in his refrigerator and a plastic bag inside of a red suitcase in a trash bin.

Levi Aron also told police that he suffocated the boy with a towel and that Leiby fought back a little bit until eventually he stopped breathing. Police said that Mr. Aron had scratches on his wrists and arms, suggesting that the little boy had struggled to save his own young life.

The defense said that Aron hears voices and that he may not understand the charges against him.

READ: Brooklyn Boy Found Dead: Killer Levi Aron's Backyard Dug up by Police