Hasidic boy's slaying shocks Brooklyn neighborhood
The remains of Leiby Kletzy, 8, are found in a trash bin and in the freezer of a fellow Orthodox Jew, Levi Aron
New York — 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 killing of Leiby Kletzy shocked the tightknit 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 an Orthodox Jew.
A day-and-a-half search for the boy ended with the discovery of his severed feet inside the freezer at the home of a man who was seen with the child on a surveillance video, a law enforcement official said. The rest of the remains were in the trash in another neighborhood.
"It is every parent's worst nightmare," Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said.
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. They would not 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.
No immediate charges were filed. It was not clear whether he had a lawyer. The medical examiner's office was working to determine how the boy was killed.
The Hasidim are ultra-Orthodox Jews who live in somewhat insular neighborhoods. Their streets are policed by groups of volunteers known as Shomrim patrols. Many of the mothers who gathered outside the Kletzy family home Wednesday said the streets were 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 lives about a dozen blocks away from the Kletzy family. When detectives arrived at his attic apartment about 2:40 a.m., they asked him where the boy was, and he nodded toward the kitchen, Kelly said.
Aron told police where to find the rest of the body, and it was discovered wrapped in a plastic bag 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 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 Friday.
The break in the case came when investigators watched a grainy video that showed the boy getting into a car with a man outside a dentist's office. Police said the boy had evidently missed a turn and gotten lost.
http://www.latimes.com/ne...20110714,0,4274884.story
Sorry if posted but I didn't find it in the search. This has been all over the news here since last night. It's so horrific.
