The dismembered body of an 8-year old Orthodox Jewish NYC boy, missing for two days, was found today in a refrigerator and in a suitcase in New York City’s borough of Brooklyn. The boy, who would have turned nine next week, reportedly had asked his parents if he could walk home from school for the first time. The Brooklyn neighborhood the family lives in was described as being a “no crime area” by local state assemblyman Dov Hikind, who has been highly-involved in supporting the community since the boy’s disappearance.
Reports say Aron, who turned 35 today, may have had some brain damage from childhood, and lived for a while in Memphis, working as a butcher.
“Police detectives searched his neighborhood and used helicopters to find the boy, who was part of the Hasidic Jewish community. They recovered video from Monday that showed him alive,” the New York Times reported today.
“Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly “said that the boy was lost and apparently trying to find his way when he encountered Mr. Aron; investigators said that after a conversation, the boy entered Mr. Aron’s vehicle, a 1990 Honda Accord.
“Mr. Aron told investigators that he had panicked and killed the boy once he realized the extent to which the Hasidic community and the police had mobilized to find the child, Mr. Kelly said. The commissioner said that the police had no evidence that the child had been sexually abused, but that detectives were still investigating.”
The local Brooklyn community is very tightly-knit.
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Assemblyman Hikind, “who put up a $5,000 reward on Monday for information leading to the return of the child, said he had offered rewards in previous cases, but none that had elicited such a response. Eight or nine individuals from the community donated thousands of dollars each, and he eventually capped the reward at just over $100,000.
“If that doesn’t get the job done, $200,000 won’t either,†he said.
“He said people returned from vacation from the Catskills and came over from Kew Gardens to volunteer. Buses arrived from the ultra-orthodox community of Monsey with people volunteering to patrol the neighborhood.
“On Tuesday night, a group of 20 Pakistanis offered to join the search.”
The funeral is scheduled for tonight. A Facebook page that had been created, titled, “Help Find Leiby Kletzky – Missing from Borough Park, Brooklyn, New York,” now includes the statement, “Leiby Kletzky was found deceased on July 13, 2011.” It has 1845 fans.
“As a father, I cannot begin to imagine the horrible heartbreak that Leiby Kletzky’s family is going through, and in speaking with their Rabbi today, I conveyed my deepest condolences,” Mayor Bloomberg said in a statement. “This killing was a stunning shock to our entire city, and I ask all New Yorkers, including the thousands of individuals who volunteered to search for little Leiby, to keep the Kletzky family in their thoughts and prayers. May they be comforted among the mourners of Zion and Jerusalem.â€
Lisa Belkin, who writes the Times’ Motherlode blog, writes, “I should write something aboutpoor Leiby Kletzky… But I have nothing to say. There is nothing to say. We could make this a conversation about how old is old enough to walk familiar streets alone, but the reality is that 8 should be old enough, and strangers shouldn’t brutally murder children. The reality also is that sometimes the world is an evil and incomprehensible place.”
“My heart breaks for Leiby’s family, and for every parent who has watched as his or her worst nightmare comes true.”