Leiby Kletzky's Body Dismembered and Dumped, Frightens Jewish Community in Brooklyn
It was eight-year-old Leiby Kletzky's first time to walk home alone from day camp, when he was kidnapped and killed, with his body dismembered and put into a refrigerator.
Levi Aron, 35, is awaiting charges after his confession of kidnapping and murdering Kletzky, a Brooklyn boy who went missing after leaving day camp on Monday.
According to Police, Aron is divorced and lives alone in the attic of a building shared with his father and uncle.
It is not clear how long the boy had been dead, said Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly. A part of the boy's dismembered body was found in Aron's refrigerator, and the rest of the body parts were found wrapped in a black plastic garbage bag, inside a red suitcase that had been tossed into a nearby dumpster. It was after a massive search for Leiby Kletzky that police came to the Kensington, Brooklyn, apartment of Levi Aron, where he reportedly implicated himself in the murder of the Hasidic boy, and allegedly gestured toward the kitchen when asked about the whereabouts of the boy.
On the first day Kletzky received permission to walk home alone from day camp, the boy lost his way to meet his parents at an agreed-upon meeting place in their Borough Park neighborhood.
It was totally random for Aron to grab Kletzky, said Kelly. Aron had no criminal record, while he is testified as a strange guy.
A co-worker told a local Brooklyn news outlet that Aron showed up to work on Tuesday and appeared completely normal.
I can't believe this, he said. He was a strange guy, but he was here yesterday and he was fine after killing this little boy.
To the Hasidim neighborhood where ultra-Orthodox Jews reside, the suspect being Jewish was a shocking news. Aron's family was Orthodox but not Hasidic, and he lives about a dozen blocks away from the Kletzky family, said ABC News.
Aron, who turned 35 this week, was shirtless when police arrived at his apartment in the early hours of Wednesday morning. They found blood on the refrigerator door handle, and three bloodied knives next to a cutting board.
Aron told investigators that he killed Kletzky in a state of panic upon seeing the intense search led by the community and the police upon notification the boy was missing. So far, there is no evidence released that the child was sexually abused but further investigations are still underway. Police were looking into whether Aron had a record of mental illness.
Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly believes that Aron may not have intended to kill the boy, but there is still no explanation for why Aron took the boy in the first place. Surveillance video shows Leiby asking Aron for directions after he got lost on his way to meet his parents -- the first time they agreed to let him walk home alone.
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