8-year-old Brooklyn boy is killed and dismembered

[Nagishkaw 510]

NEW YORK (AP) — An 8-year-old Brooklyn boy who got lost while walking home alone from day camp in his Orthodox Jewish neighborhood was killed and dismembered by a stranger he had asked for directions, and his remains were found stuffed in a trash bin and the man's refrigerator, police said Wednesday.

The gruesome killing of Leiby Kletzky shocked the tight-knit Hasidic community in Borough Park, in part because it is one of the safest sections of the city and because the man under arrest is himself an Orthodox Jew.

A day-and-a-half search for the Hasidic boy ended with the discovery of his severed feet inside a bloody freezer at the home of a man who had been spotted with the child on a surveillance video, a law enforcement official told The Associated Press. The rest of the remains were in the trash in another neighborhood.

"It is every parent's worst nightmare," Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly.

The 35-year-old suspect, Levi Aron, implicated himself in the killing, Kelly said.

Police said there was no evidence the boy was sexually assaulted, but they would not otherwise shed any light on a motive except to say Aron told them he "panicked" when he saw photos of the missing boy on fliers that were distributed in the neighborhood. Police were looking into whether Aron had a history of mental illness.

Aron was arrested on a charge of second-degree murder. It was not clear whether he had an attorney. The medical examiner's office said it was still investigating how the boy was killed.

Meanwhile, hundreds lined the streets around a Borough Park synagogue for the boy's funeral service, with speakers broadcasting over a loudspeaker and intermittently breaking down in sobs. They spoke and chanted in Yiddish, stressing the community's resilience and unity after what one called an unnatural death.

"There's no greater pain than this," one said, as translated by a mourner.

Among the women, who listened separately from men, some said their children attended the same day camp. It was open today and counselors were on hand to help the children deal with the news.

"This is not human," said Moses Klein, 73, a retired caterer who lives near the corner where the boy was last seen.

The Hasidim are ultra-Orthodox Jews who live in somewhat insular neighborhoods. The streets are policed by a group of volunteers known as the Shomrim patrol. Many of the mothers who gathered outside the Kletzky family home Wednesday said the streets are normally safe enough for a child to walk home alone.

Adel Erps, like other neighbors, expressed shock the suspect was Jewish. "He's a sick person obviously, but it hurts so much more," she said.

Aron's family was Orthodox but not Hasidic, and he lives about a dozen blocks away from the Kletzky family. When detectives arrived at his attic apartment around 2:40 a.m., they asked him where the boy was, and he nodded toward the kitchen, Kelly said.

Detectives saw blood on the freezer door and opened it to discover the feet inside, wrapped in plastic bags, according to the law enforcement official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation is still going on. A cutting board and three bloody carving knives were in the refrigerator, and a plastic garbage bag with bloody towels was found nearby.

Aron told police where to find the rest of the body; it was in pieces, wrapped in plastic bags, inside a red suitcase that had been tossed into a trash bin in another Brooklyn neighborhood, Kelly said.

Police and volunteers had been looking since late Monday afternoon for Leiby, who disappeared while on his way to meet his mother on a street corner seven blocks from his day camp. This was the first time he was allowed to walk the route alone; his parents had taken him on a practice run on Friday.

The break in the case came when investigators watched a grainy video that showed the boy, wearing his backpack, getting into a car with a man outside a dentist's office. Police said the boy had evidently missed a turn and gotten lost.

Detectives tracked the dentist down at his home in New Jersey, and he remembered someone coming to pay a bill. Police identified Aron using records from the office, and 40 minutes later he was arrested.

Police said Aron, who is divorced, lives alone in the attic, in a building shared with his father and uncle. When they arrived, the door was ajar. It's not clear how long the boy had been dead, Kelly said.

Kelly said it was "totally random" that Aron grabbed the boy, and aside from a summons for urinating in public, he had no criminal record. A neighbor told authorities her son had said Aron had once tried to lure him into his car, but nothing happened and she didn't think much of it until the news of the killing, police said.

He lived most of his life in New York and worked as a clerk at a hardware supply store around the corner from his home, authorities said. Co-workers said Aron was at work on Tuesday.

"He seemed a little troubled," said employee Chamin Kramer, who added Aron usually came and went quietly.

Aron moved briefly to Memphis, Tenn., for his now-ex-wife after meeting her on a Jewish dating website, said the woman, Deborah Aron, who still lives in the area. She said he never showed signs of violence toward her two children from a previous relationship.

"It's utter disbelief," she said from the toy-littered backyard of her home in the Memphis suburb of Germantown. "This ain't the Levi I know."

Deborah Aron said the couple was married for exactly a year and divorced in 2007. She described Levi Aron as a shy person — until he got to know someone — and said he enjoyed music, karaoke and "American Idol." She said he attended Orthodox Jewish services in Memphis.

He was "more of a mother's boy than a father's boy," who lived at home until he met her, she said.

She said she filed an order of protection against him at the time of their divorce on the recommendation of her new boyfriend. "At the time he was so hysterical about getting a divorce. He didn't want a divorce," she said of Levi.

She said Levi injured his head when he was hit by a car while riding his bike at the age of 9 and suffered problems stemming from that accident.

She said the crime Levi is accused of is "totally out of character." However, she also said she would not help him find a lawyer or help him in any way.

Leiby was last seen wearing dark pants and a short-sleeved shirt and yarmulke with the traditional long locks of hair by his ears worn by Hasidic men.

Hasidic Jews abide by strict religious rules that require men to wear plain, dark clothing that includes a long coat and a fedora-type hat. Men often have long beards. Most of the 165,000 members in the New York City the area live in Brooklyn and belong to three sects. Hasidism traces its roots to 18th-century Eastern Europe.

"This is a no-crime area," said state Assemblyman Dov Hikind, whose district includes the neighborhood. He said the boy was the only son of the Kletzky family. The parents have four daughters, and the husband works as a driver for a private car service.

"Everybody is absolutely horrified," he said. "Everyone is in total shock, beyond belief, beyond comprehension ... to suddenly disappear and then the details ... and the fact someone in the extended community ... it's awful."

The medical examiner's office released the body so that the boy could be buried promptly Wednesday evening according to Jewish custom.

http://news.yahoo.com/8-old-brooklyn-boy-killed-dismembered-191831616.html

[IR5FORMUMSIE 850]

This is getting out of hand, every week more and more kids are getting murdered. Maybe the end is nearer than we imagined.

[Golden Gate 530]

So so sad!

[TBoneTX 43,043]

And the child's parents must be drenching themselves in guilt, wondering how their "dry run" on the boy's walk home might have failed.

[Nizzy 1]

I had been contemplating my over-prtoective upbringing and how I might be doing the same with my son...but this story feeds into my paranoia. This absolutely tears me apart that someone could be that sick. My heart goes out to the family. It's so sad that this was his first time walking home after a trial run and something like that happens. Truly heart-breaking.

[Golden Gate 530]

Maybe when you grow up in Brooklyn, you are so used to it that you feel it is safe, but I never felt like my children were safe, either in Alameda, California or where we are at now. You just never know where some sicko is hanging out. My children can only walk a couple of houses away, by themselves, or else they need to be in groups to go down the street. It's too bad, because you want to give them a little independence, but the uncertainty is always there.

[IR5FORMUMSIE 850]

I had been contemplating my over-prtoective upbringing and how I might be doing the same with my son...but this story feeds into my paranoia. This absolutely tears me apart that someone could be that sick. My heart goes out to the family. It's so sad that this was his first time walking home after a trial run and something like that happens. Truly heart-breaking.

Every single time I hear a story like this, I keep worrying about whether or not having kids would drive me crazy. Kids can't be kids these days.

[IR5FORMUMSIE 850]

Maybe when you grow up in Brooklyn, you are so used to it that you feel it is safe, but I never felt like my children were safe, either in Alameda, California or where we are at now. You just never know where some sicko is hanging out. My children can only walk a couple of houses away, by themselves, or else they need to be in groups to go down the street. It's too bad, because you want to give them a little independence, but the uncertainty is always there.

I totally understand that. I rarely walked home alone but looking back now, there were enough opportunities for some maniac to attack me.

[mrsfrisbey 6]

this is so sad bless the little kid's soul.

[Nizzy 1]

IR5FORMUMSIE: I wish I could give you some reassurance but I am as paranoid as they come when it comes to parenting. Like I said, I have been trying to change but this story just threw that out of the window.

[Nagishkaw 510]

NYC man held in boy's slaying says he hears voices

NEW YORK (AP) — A man accused of kidnapping, killing and dismembering an 8-year-old boy who asked him for directions was ordered Thursday to undergo a psychological evaluation after his lawyer told a judge that his client might be mentally ill.

"He has indicated to me that he hears voices and has had some hallucinations," said the attorney, Pierre Bazile.

Levi Aron, 35, pleaded not guilty to charges of murder and kidnapping as prosecutors said he lured Leiby Kletzky to his home Monday after the little boy got lost while walking home from an Orthodox Jewish day camp.

Video cameras captured the fateful encounter between the two on a Brooklyn street, while Leiby's mother waited anxiously just a few blocks away. Detectives later found the boy's severed feet, wrapped in plastic, in the man's freezer, as well as a cutting board and three bloody carving knives.

At his arraignment Thursday afternoon, Aron appeared disheveled, confused and pale. He was held without bail, placed on suicide watch and protective custody after his lawyers said they feared he could do harm to himself.

Police and prosecutors said Aron, a clerk at a hardware supply store, has confessed to suffocating the boy with a bath towel, but they continued to work on verifying his horrific and bizarre explanation for the boy's death.

At the Kletzky household, his family also looked for answers, too.

"Why?" asked Shmuel Eckstein, a close family friend, as the boy's parents and five sisters sat and prayed. "We don't have that ... What we know is that through Leiby's death, God is sending us a huge signal — that we're doing something terribly wrong. And we're looking for what it is."

He added that the family was not looking for retribution.

"We're not into revenge," he said.

At a news conference, Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said Aron told investigators that after taking Leiby off the street Monday, he brought the boy to a wedding in the suburbs and spent several hours there.

Other wedding guests confirmed Aron was there but didn't see the boy, the commissioner added.

By the time the pair returned to the city, it was so late that Aron decided to take Leiby to his home to sleep and left him there Tuesday while he went to work, according to the police version of the confession. Kelly said the hardware supply store confirmed that Aron showed up as usual that day.

Aron told police he killed Leiby when he got home after being spooked by a massive search for the boy in Borough Park section of Brooklyn, home to one of the world's largest communities of Orthodox Jews outside of Israel.

Thousands of volunteers from the Hasidic community had assembled Monday evening to comb the streets, and the entire neighborhood was in a frenzy Tuesday over the lost child. Aron is Orthodox but not Hasidic. The Hasidim are ultra-Orthodox Jews.

"When I saw the fliers, I panicked and was afraid," Aron said, according to police.

Investigators have said Leiby may have been tied up and tried to fight off his captor before he was killed.

Kelly said Aron had scratches on his arms, wrists and elsewhere — a sign "there was some kind of struggle." There also were marks on the boy's remains that could have been caused by restraints, the commissioner added.

A preliminary medical examination indicates Leiby was "smothered or suffocated," but it remained unclear when that happened, Kelly said. The medical examiner's office said further study was required.

The commissioner also confirmed reports that Aron had given a written confession in Leiby's gruesome slaying that ended with, "I'm sorry for the hurt that I caused."

Beyond that, "he hasn't expressed any remorse," Kelly said.

In his confession, Aron recounted how he dismembered the boy, put some of the body parts in a freezer and took a shower, police said. He then put some remains in a suitcase and drove around with it for 20 minutes before putting the suitcase in a trash bin.

Aron has denied molesting the boy, but Kelly said police still consider that a possibility.

Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes said investigators were looking at whether Aron might have had any improper contact with children in the past. Detectives were also examining three computers seized from his home, and searched the backyard.

Officials said the killing stands out because there's no clear motive.

"It defies all logic and I think that's what's been so terribly disturbing about this case," Commissioner Kelly said. "There's absolutely no reason. There's nothing more innocent than an 8-year-old child and to be killed in this matter is just heart breaking."

Zahava Farbman, a social worker with the nonprofit Chai Lifeline, said Leiby's five sisters "do not know the details of how he was murdered — just that a man killed him, but not how. It's too much, too soon."

"They're devastated," Farbman said. "They'll eventually be told exactly what happened, but not now."

The father, Nachman, works for a messenger company. The mother, Esti, is a homemaker.

http://news.yahoo.com/nyc-man-held-boys-slaying-says-hears-voices-185403579.html

Edited July 15, 2011 by Nagishkaw

[IR5FORMUMSIE 850]

IR5FORMUMSIE: I wish I could give you some reassurance but I am as paranoid as they come when it comes to parenting. Like I said, I have been trying to change but this story just threw that out of the window.

These stories always bother me. One never gets over the loss of a child but the circumstances are just incomprehensible.

NYC man held in boy's slaying says he hears voices

NEW YORK (AP) — A man accused of kidnapping, killing and dismembering an 8-year-old boy who asked him for directions was ordered Thursday to undergo a psychological evaluation after his lawyer told a judge that his client might be mentally ill.

"He has indicated to me that he hears voices and has had some hallucinations," said the attorney, Pierre Bazile.

Levi Aron, 35, pleaded not guilty to charges of murder and kidnapping as prosecutors said he lured Leiby Kletzky to his home Monday after the little boy got lost while walking home from an Orthodox Jewish day camp.

Video cameras captured the fateful encounter between the two on a Brooklyn street, while Leiby's mother waited anxiously just a few blocks away. Detectives later found the boy's severed feet, wrapped in plastic, in the man's freezer, as well as a cutting board and three bloody carving knives.

At his arraignment Thursday afternoon, Aron appeared disheveled, confused and pale. He was held without bail, placed on suicide watch and protective custody after his lawyers said they feared he could do harm to himself.

Police and prosecutors said Aron, a clerk at a hardware supply store, has confessed to suffocating the boy with a bath towel, but they continued to work on verifying his horrific and bizarre explanation for the boy's death.

At the Kletzky household, his family also looked for answers, too.

"Why?" asked Shmuel Eckstein, a close family friend, as the boy's parents and five sisters sat and prayed. "We don't have that ... What we know is that through Leiby's death, God is sending us a huge signal — that we're doing something terribly wrong. And we're looking for what it is."

He added that the family was not looking for retribution.

"We're not into revenge," he said.

At a news conference, Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said Aron told investigators that after taking Leiby off the street Monday, he brought the boy to a wedding in the suburbs and spent several hours there.

Other wedding guests confirmed Aron was there but didn't see the boy, the commissioner added.

By the time the pair returned to the city, it was so late that Aron decided to take Leiby to his home to sleep and left him there Tuesday while he went to work, according to the police version of the confession. Kelly said the hardware supply store confirmed that Aron showed up as usual that day.

Aron told police he killed Leiby when he got home after being spooked by a massive search for the boy in Borough Park section of Brooklyn, home to one of the world's largest communities of Orthodox Jews outside of Israel.

Thousands of volunteers from the Hasidic community had assembled Monday evening to comb the streets, and the entire neighborhood was in a frenzy Tuesday over the lost child. Aron is Orthodox but not Hasidic. The Hasidim are ultra-Orthodox Jews.

"When I saw the fliers, I panicked and was afraid," Aron said, according to police.

Investigators have said Leiby may have been tied up and tried to fight off his captor before he was killed.

Kelly said Aron had scratches on his arms, wrists and elsewhere — a sign "there was some kind of struggle." There also were marks on the boy's remains that could have been caused by restraints, the commissioner added.

A preliminary medical examination indicates Leiby was "smothered or suffocated," but it remained unclear when that happened, Kelly said. The medical examiner's office said further study was required.

The commissioner also confirmed reports that Aron had given a written confession in Leiby's gruesome slaying that ended with, "I'm sorry for the hurt that I caused."

Beyond that, "he hasn't expressed any remorse," Kelly said.

In his confession, Aron recounted how he dismembered the boy, put some of the body parts in a freezer and took a shower, police said. He then put some remains in a suitcase and drove around with it for 20 minutes before putting the suitcase in a trash bin.

Aron has denied molesting the boy, but Kelly said police still consider that a possibility.

Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes said investigators were looking at whether Aron might have had any improper contact with children in the past. Detectives were also examining three computers seized from his home, and searched the backyard.

Officials said the killing stands out because there's no clear motive.

"It defies all logic and I think that's what's been so terribly disturbing about this case," Commissioner Kelly said. "There's absolutely no reason. There's nothing more innocent than an 8-year-old child and to be killed in this matter is just heart breaking."

Zahava Farbman, a social worker with the nonprofit Chai Lifeline, said Leiby's five sisters "do not know the details of how he was murdered — just that a man killed him, but not how. It's too much, too soon."

"They're devastated," Farbman said. "They'll eventually be told exactly what happened, but not now."

The father, Nachman, works for a messenger company. The mother, Esti, is a homemaker.

http://news.yahoo.co...-185403579.html

[Nagishkaw 510]

Autopsy: NYC boy was given drugs, then smothered

NEW YORK (AP) — The medical examiner says an 8-year-old New York City boy who was abducted off a street in a Jewish neighborhood in Brooklyn, killed and dismembered last week was given a combination of drugs before he was smothered.

Police say Leiby Kletzky got lost leaving day camp and asked the suspect for help before he was killed last week.

Levi Aron has pleaded not guilty to charges of murder and kidnapping.

The cause of death was intoxication from a muscle relaxant, an anti-psychotic drug and two pain medications, followed by smothering.

Police say video cameras captured their fateful encounter while Leiby's mother waited anxiously just a few blocks away. Detectives later found the boy's severed feet, wrapped in plastic, in Aron's freezer, as well as a cutting board and three bloody carving knives.

http://news.yahoo.com/autopsy-nyc-boy-given-drugs-then-smothered-170425781.html

[IR5FORMUMSIE 850]

Autopsy: NYC boy was given drugs, then smothered

NEW YORK (AP) — The medical examiner says an 8-year-old New York City boy who was abducted off a street in a Jewish neighborhood in Brooklyn, killed and dismembered last week was given a combination of drugs before he was smothered.

Police say Leiby Kletzky got lost leaving day camp and asked the suspect for help before he was killed last week.

Levi Aron has pleaded not guilty to charges of murder and kidnapping.

The cause of death was intoxication from a muscle relaxant, an anti-psychotic drug and two pain medications, followed by smothering.

Police say video cameras captured their fateful encounter while Leiby's mother waited anxiously just a few blocks away. Detectives later found the boy's severed feet, wrapped in plastic, in Aron's freezer, as well as a cutting board and three bloody carving knives.

http://news.yahoo.co...-170425781.html

There isn't an emoticon to express how I feel right now, it just keeps getting worse.

[Ban Hammer 12,835]

There isn't an emoticon to express how I feel right now, it just keeps getting worse.

maybe this?