Police believe Leibby Kletzky, who would have turned 9 this month and was not used to walking home alone, had gotten lost and asked the suspect, Levi Aron, for help.
Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said Aron told detectives that after he picked the boy up in his car and took him to his apartment, he later “panicked” after hearing about the missing person reports, which is why he killed him.
Some of the boy’s remains were found in Aron’s refrigerator, Kelly said.
“This was a horrendous crime,” Kelly said at a briefing on the case.
Charges were pending, and information about an attorney for Aron, who turned 35 on Wednesday, was not immediately available.
Police got a tip about Aron based on surveillance video released late Tuesday night, and tracked him at his home in Kensington.
When detectives arrived at Aron’s apartment, the door was open, Kelly said. They entered and asked where the boy was, and Aron nodded toward the kitchen, where police found carving knives covered with blood, along with human remains, in the refrigerator.
He then reportedly directed police to an area about two and a half miles away, near 20th Street and Fourth Avenue, where the rest of the boy’s remains were found in a Dumpster.
Aron lives in the third floor of his parents’ house on Avenue C. His parents live on the ground floor and another tenant lives on the second floor of the building.
Police said Aron had moved back to Brooklyn after living in Memphis, Tenn. for several years. Investigators will be contacting authorities in Tennessee to piece together the details of his life, Kelly said.
Before establishing the suspect’s identity, detectives observed him on video entering a dentist’s office on 18th Avenue in Brooklyn at about 5:30 p.m. Monday, not long after the boy had been reported missing, Kelly said.
Detectives located one of the dentists who worked in the office late Tuesday night and established that the suspect had been in the dentist’s office to pay a bill. With the help of a receptionist and another dentist associated with the practice, detectives found the suspect’s name and address and went to his apartment.
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26 Responses
What a valid reason for this brutal murder….. He panicked!
Why did he take him to his apartment? I’m trying to figure out whether there was evil intent there from the beginning or not
He didnt explain why he brought the kid to his own home??
Also, I’m assuming it took at least a couple of hours before he would’ve heard about it. What kind of sick stuff was he doing all that time?
so hard to read the details. boruch dayan haemes.
uh duh there was evil intent!! y on earth would somebody take a child to theyre apartment if not to do something sinister to them!
He was likely a pedophile. Obviously. And I don’t believe for a half a second that he killed him because he panicked. It was too well planned out. Body parts in the fridge? Dumpsters miles away? He said that because he gets a lesser sentence because he can claim it was not pre-meditated.
Explain to me why the kid went with him and davka today begged to be allowed to walk alone? Something seems premeditated about this. Im not sure we will ever know the truth as we are dealing with a psycho and he can say what he wants and there’s no way to know if he is lying or not.
Shlomo HaMelech said: There’s a time to be silent and a time to speak. Guess which we should all be doing now?!
to #7. Calm down. There’s no “davka” today. These people go out looking for kids who seem lost, and a kid walking alone for the first time is very prone to get picked up. It’s probably only because the parents were so vigilant that the news was reported so fast, leaving the killer with insufficient time to complete whatever he was planning to do.
We must learn vigilance from this. Parents should establish a password with their children. Children should be instructed that they are only to enter a car, apartment, store, building, etc. with an adult that knows the password. I am not referring to a close neighbor or a person close to the family, but to a stranger or a lesser known individual. Children’s names should not be written on the outside of a backpack. If a stranger calls a child be name it validates the child’s thinking that this person is known to the family. This is our reality, this is the world we live in.
does anyone know when and where the levaya is?
I am itching to see how the Hamodia will spin this story
It is sometimes difficult for us to grasp how elevated a neshama may be, even in such a young child. Suppose he somehow met this very broken and very lonely man – and took him to heart – and promised the man he’d make sure to come tomorrow to his apartment and have tea with him? And that he will surely arrange some excuse and even if his parents punish him, he will do anyway? We don’t know if this person molested the child, and we don’t have the tiniest reason to think the boy expected it. The manhunt probably caused the person, who I am told has mental health issues, to panic. Please also consider that in the USA it is very easy to be condamned for pedophily (which, by the way, means that many good people stay away from any unaccompanied children and don’t dare offering help) and that both the social stigma and the prison terms are not that very far away from those inflicted for murder; in fact, it’s worse to face a trial for child molestation, because circumstancial evidence is more often used. If really this wierd man had invited the boy to his home and done him no harm and the child had come home three hours later, how many of us would we believe this version? Or would we scream that it can’t be possible?
We can only mourn that such a holy neshama was taken from us, he was going to become something very great. And cry that no one took care of that other person, because as I wrote already, a few decades ago we were expected to look after people with problems, be them bad middot or psychiatric issues, and made sure they felt safe but also that they would never be in a position to harm anyone. We are all responsible for each others.
It was reported at 4:50 that THREE people were arrested in connection with this murder. Why is there no new info on them?
“Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said Aron told detectives that after he picked the boy up in his car and took him to his apartment, he later “panicked” after hearing about the missing person reports, which is why he killed him.”
why was Aron taking Leiby to “his” – meaning Aron’s – apartment? And when he heard the missing persons report, why didn’t he just go to the police? Why did he decide instead to MURDER and dismember an 8-year-old kid who had gotten lost and asked him for directions?
WHAT A FREAK. What a terrible chillul Hash-m.
I wonder what the goyim are thinking. Obviously, Aron is the exception, not the rule, in the Jewish community – and there were countless kind people who gave many hours of their time yesterday to search for the boy.
#7-I think you are right. The coincidence is astounding and begs for more investigation. BDE!
Ywn Moderators: Can you post levayah info ASAP? Thanks!
baruch dayin haemes – the family should know we all are very sorry for their loss…..
I have no information at this time but considering the circumstances I am assuming that it might take Misaskim a while to get the body from the authorities so a levaya cannot be held yet. Again, these are my assumptions, I have no actual facts.
As always, YWN will post all appropriate info as it becomes available.
#16
Hatzolah reported that the Levaya of Hayeled Lieby Keletzky (may Hashem avenge his blood) Will Be 7:00PM on 56st Bet. 16 & 17 In Front Of Harav Eisenberg Bhm”d.
“very broken and very lonely man”
#13 what do u base this assumption on? please do not equate being single with being lonely.
Boruch Dayan haemes…-
It was beautiful to see klal yisroel all working together as a klal at this terrible point in time. Thanks to all the hatzola, shomrim, misaskim and volunteers etc!
We should all take a chizuk from this terrible story and only hear simchas!
#20 I do not know personally nor his family. People told me that he had suffered a lot and he is lonely, they also told me he has always been a decent man and they are shocked; and that the slander going around, that he had a history of doing a certain sort of bad things, is false. By the way that person is not single, but divorced and has no children. They also told me they believe he is the kind of person that could not take a manhunt and all that. I can not swear by this info, nor verify any further, but this is the info I received.
Of course having suffered is no reason for doing something like that, yet, we all have to consider if we can improve the way we treat our fellow jews, especially those who may be vulnerable or have weaknesses of all sorts, be them mental health issues or flawed middot. Any step in that direction may well avoid a tragedy.
#21 so very true. May it be always so, and may we hear only good news.
zone613:
Why does it take such a tragedy to unite people and realize that we are all Jews? Yesterday, Satmar searched with Lubavitch, Belzer searched with Reform, Chassidishe searched with Conservative, etc. Nobody cared where anyone davened. They were working together with a common goal. By tonight things will be back to “normal” with one group bashing another. If anything came out of this sensless incident, it was the beauty of unity amongst Jews. It should B’H’ always be this way.
Enough is enough. It is about time we come out and say no more protecting these child molesters. Poor Leiby is a korban. May be this should be a wake up call for all of us especially those Rabbonim that protect them.I know of at least 3 or 4 cases where these people (animals) were protected by the Rabbonim. This seems to go accross all types of frumkite. This has happened in the YU community, where the molesters were protected and the victims were paid hush money. In the Yesivish community, Where the Rabbonim in a Yeshiva Ketana in the Heights said “impossible not our principals or rebbeim”. Maybe it has come time to eliminate all the so called “potching yeshivas”. Maybe these rabbonim should be arrested. In a few weeks we will lein Parshs Ki Tsetze where we continouosly read “uvearta harah mikirbecha” there is no inyan of loshan horah in these cases. These people should be sent to jail, castrated, and more. We are worried about their reputations how about all the victims out there. All the victims that have not been phisically killed but mentaly hurt by these monsters. This is a wakeup call and if the rabbonim don’t act then we the greater community should.
jakeg613: why are you writing about child molestation (a terrible problem) in this article. I don’t know if you heard otherwise (please correct me if I am wrong) but according to the mainstream news sources (NYT), the medical examiner found no such evidence. It is already beyond words without adding to it.
YWN staff, please post photos or video of the levaya for those of us who are not in the area.
jaked613 is right, but we parents are also at fault by not giving our children the awareness of what must not happen, no matter who, when or where. In a well known jewish school for the mentally ill, I’ve seen educators teach the children from a book with only pictures where is the limit, when do you say no, when do you run away, when do you yell. I’ve looked through the book, which is jewish, and could not understand why the mentally ill are “priviliged” to get that viataly important information, and our Boruch Hashem healthy children not.