Leiby Kletzky only known victim of New York murder suspect Levi Aron, police say
(CBS/WCBS/AP) NEW YORK - Police say they haven't established any links between New York murder suspect Levi Aron, accused of killing and dismembering 8-year-old Hasidic boy Leiby Kletzky, and unsolved crimes in other states.
According to CBS station WCBS, police are using Aron's DNA to investigate whether he may be connected to any other cases of child abuse or murder.
Forensic DNA expert Lawrence Kobilinsky said it's obvious to him what cops are up to, reports WCBS.
"It's rather unusual for a stellar citizen to jump to the point of murdering a child and dismembering the body," Kobilinsky said. "I think the police feel that there may be other victims."
So far investigators haven't found anything more serious in Levi's criminal history than a speeding ticket and an arrest for public urination, reports Fox News.
The 35-year-old pleaded not guilty to charges of murder and kidnapping. Prosecutors say 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.
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.
Officials said the killing stands out because there's no clear motive. Aron has written a confession which ended with "I'm sorry for the hurt that I caused," Police Commissioner Ray Kelly told WCBS.
"It defies all logic and I think that's what's been so terribly disturbing about this case," Kelly said. "There's absolutely no reason. There's nothing more innocent than an 8-year-old child and to be killed in this manner is just heart breaking."