The man convicted of kidnapping and murdering 8-year-old Yehuda “Leiby” Kletzky, a Chassidic Jewish boy, in Brooklyn in 2011 has died, New York State prison officials said, according to New York’s pix11 television station.
Levi Aron, 49, was serving a 40-years-to-life sentence at Wende Correctional Facility near Buffalo for the killing.
According to the Department of Corrections, Aron had been hospitalized and his death was expected. Aron had previously been hospitalized in August for a medical condition.
Aron’s cause of death was not immediately released. No autopsy was requested.
Aron pleaded guilty to abducting Kletzky, who had become lost walking home from summer camp. It was the first time Kletzky’s parents had allowed him to walk home from camp after he had begged them to let him do so. They had reviewed the route ahead of time but young Kletzky missed a turn on the way home.
He then encountered Aron, who was also a member of the community. After a conversation, Kletzky entered the suspect’s vehicle, a 1990 Honda Accord, according to reports at the time.
At his home, Aron drugged and dismembered Kletzsky.
After two days of searching, which involved an intense effort by the local community, police found Kletsky’s remains in a refrigerator in the attic of Aron’s home at 466 East Second Street, in Kensington, Brooklyn.
Other remains of the boy were found in a dumpster at Greenwood Heights, Brooklyn “wrapped in black plastic garbage bags inside of a suitcase,” the New York Police Department’s chief spokesman said.
“Aron told investigators that he had panicked and killed the boy once he realized the extent to which the Chassidic community and the police had mobilized to find the child,” The New York Times reported on July 13, 2011.
The community was shocked and dismayed to discover the killer was one of their own.
“It’s an unbelievable, an unbelievable feeling,” said one woman in a CBS News report at the time. “I feel like I lost one of my kids. The closeness that everybody feels to this family, to the people. How could this happen? How could this happen here? How could this happen in Borough Park?”
“This turned out to be very ugly,” said resident Josh Berman. “Unfortunately, one of our own. It’s very sad.”
“It’s very difficult to even think about,” said resident Abraham Yakob.
