NYC boy spent hours with suspect before murder

Levi Aron, right, the suspect accused killing and dismembering 8-year-old Brooklyn boy Leiby Kletzy, is led into the 67th Precinct by police July 14, 2011, in the Brooklyn borough of New York. / AP Photo

NEW YORK - A Brooklyn man reportedly told police that he spent more than 12 hours with a young Orthodox Jewish boy -- including taking him to a wedding just outside New York City -- before smothering and dismembering him in a panic.

Pictures: Leiby Kletzky

Levi Aron, 35, detailed the time he spent with Leiby Kletzky, 8, and allegedly confessed to killing the boy in a 450-word statement obtained by WNBC-TV, NBC News reports.

"I understand this may be wrong and I'm sorry for the hurt that I have caused," Aron told police, according to NBC News.

Kletzky was walking home alone from day camp for the first time Monday and disappeared while on his way to meet his mother on a street corner seven blocks away. Authorities said he had evidently gotten lost after missing a turn, and had reached out to Aron, a stranger, for help.

Slain NYC boy was lost, sought help from suspect

According to the obtained statement, Aron told police he wanted a ride to a bookstore but then lost interest.

"So I asked if he wanted to go for the ride -- (a) wedding in Monsey -- since I didn't think I was going to stay for the whole thing since my back was hurting. He said OK," Aron told police.

They returned to Aron's home around 11:20 p.m. Monday night and watched television before going to sleep in separate rooms, Aron told police. Police said Aron, who is divorced, lives alone in an attic in a building shared with his father and uncle.

Aron told police he planned to return Kletzky to his home Tuesday.

Apparently unaware that a search was already in progress for the boy, Aron left his home Tuesday to find photos of the missing boy on fliers distributed in the neighborhood.

"When I saw the flyers I panicked and was afraid," he told police. "I was still in panic ... and afraid to bring him home. That is when I went for a towel to smother him in the side room. He fought back a little bit."

Now with the body of a dead boy in his home, he told police he panicked again "because I didn't know what to do with the body." He detailed to police how he dismembered the body.

A day-and-a-half search led police to Aron's home after midnight Wednesday morning after seeing him on a surveillance video with the child. They asked: Where is the boy?

The man nodded toward the kitchen, authorities said, where blood stained the freezer door. Inside was the stuff of horror films -- severed feet, wrapped in plastic. In the refrigerator, a cutting board and three bloody carving knives. A plastic garbage bag with bloody towels was nearby.

"It is every parent's worst nightmare," Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said Wednesday, following the Aron's arrest on a charge of second-degree murder.

The gruesome killing shocked the tight-knit Hasidic community in Borough Park, in part because it is one of the safest sections of the city and because Aron is himself an Orthodox Jew, although not Hasidic. The Hasidim are ultra-Orthodox Jews.

"This is a no-crime area," said state Assemblyman Dov Hikind, whose district includes the area. "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."

While the medical examiner's office said it was still investigating how the boy was killed, the body was released so that the boy could be buried Wednesday evening according to Jewish custom.

Thousands gathered around a Borough Park synagogue for the funeral service. Speakers broadcast over a loudspeaker, chanting and speaking in Yiddish and Hebrew. They stressed the community's resilience and unity after what one called an unnatural death

Pictures: Leiby Kletzky

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

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. 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, shortly before 3 a.m. Wednesday.

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 said there was no evidence the boy was sexually assaulted. Police were looking into whether Aron had a history of mental illness.

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.

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[pws54]

This guy is a monster. Wait and see what happens to him in prison. I can't believe the parents would allow an 8 year old to walk 7 blocks by himself in New York or any other big city. The neighborhood may be safe but that doesn't mean everyone driving through it is. I don't mean to bash the parents in their time of grief but I really have to question the sanity of that decision.

[LibbyGarden]

I once found a child in New York in a blizzard. Luckily, she knew her phone number and was able to call from my place for her mother and an Uncle to come and pick her up. While we waited for them to show up, which seemed like an interminably long time, I had her hand me her very shabby coat so that I could sew some buttons on it from a tin full of buttons I kept. Were that to happen now with the Amber alert in place, I would just take the child to the nearest police station. I don't understand why this man didn't do the same, and find the "panic" story is just a lot of bs.

[LibbyGarden]

I once found a child in New York in a blizzard. Luckily, she knew her phone number and was able to call from my place for her mother and an Uncle to come and pick her up. While we waited for them to show up, which seemed like an interminably long time, I had her hand me her very shabby coat so that I could sew some buttons on it from a tin full of buttons I kept. Were that to happen now with the Amber alert in place, I would just take the child to the nearest police station. I don't understand why this man didn't do the same, and find the "panic" story is just a lot of bs.

[NotAnother1]

All of us Americans need to wake up and realize that there are evil predators everywhere in our country viciously killing our children, our teenagers and our young women. I seriously believe when one is caught "red handed" no question what so ever that they did indeed commit the crime, THERE SHOULD BE NO TRIAL. Perhaps presenting all evidence to a judge and have the judge impose the punishment IMMEDIATELY because it is ridiculous to "presume innocence" with body parts, blood and all the rest of the evidence RIGHT THERE in his home. Our judicial system needs to be UPDATED just like everything else to handle all these horrendous crimes. Each individual CHOOSES whether to commit a crime or NOT commit a crime. When guilty, they should be punished severely and quickly within a month. Sadly, another innocent little boy is robbed of his life here on earth and WE are left with the person who CHOSE to KILL him. He should NOT be allowed to inhale another breath of our precious oxygen.

[lorspics]

My heart is sad and I pray for the parents and family. Being a parent of an autistic reaffirms my fears of ever letting him try to lead a normal life! How can I when the world around him is NOT normal.

[linfinster]

He heard voices??! HUMPH BS -it was just his conscience and then he acted with his evil heart and murdered that poor little boy! FRY HIS A$$!

[pamcop]

My son was born in 1986. I read articles about paperboys being kidnapped which scared me so bad I didn't let my son out of my sight. My family made fun of me. I felt guilty for being so paranoid. In hindsight I feel I did the right thing.

[Dgunner]

There is no such thing as a no crime area. This is the United States. The mind set that there is a no crime area is ridiculos and wreckless in presumption.

[smc341]

I read on another site that the boy may have been on the autism spectrum. Perhaps he had Asperger's syndrome, or another autistic spectrum disorder where he was high functioning. Although these children/adults are high functioning they tend to be naive. Also, I read the little boy did not have a t.v. in his home. So perhaps he was so curious about his kidnapper's t.v. he lost all track of time (he also could have been tied up by Aron). I have a son with Asperger's and he will spend many hours in front of a televison or computer if not interrupted. They can lose all track of time and have to be reminded that it's time to eat, etc.

I don't know if this boy had this disorder but it could explain some things to people who aren't aware and are questioning why the boy went willingly with his abductor and didn't attempt to escape.

They can be very naive and trusting.

R.I.P. little angel.

[Overruled1]

Last I heard, the laws may have changed for reporting a missing person, but from what I remember, it has to be 24 hours to report a missing child

[StoneyRae]

Who cares about the law the law is always screwed up they should have called immediately to report him but his death is not their fault this monster needs the death penalty