New York community rallies to find missing 8-year-old boy Leiby Kletzky

One July afternoon in 2011, 8-year-old Yehudah "Leiby" Kletzky, a cock-eyed kid from Brooklyn's Boro Park neighborhood, set off on foot from summer camp to get home. His disappearance and the nature of his death surprised his family, friends, community, countrymen - in fact people from all around the world. Much too soon, Leiby was served up a heart-wrenching reminder that the worst can happen to innocent children — costing his family the one thing it feared most.

The Disappearance

The Kletzkys are part of the Boyaner Hasidic community and Leiby was their third of six children. Leiby, 8 at the time, asked his parents on July 11, 2011 if he could walk home from his camp at Yeshiva Boyan Tiferes Mordechai Shlomo instead of taking the school bus as usual. His parents felt comfortable with him going after running the route with him earlier in the day. His mother, Esti Kletzky, had been waiting for him in a set location but Leiby never came. He had taken a wrong turn back to his home and, unbeknownst to his family, was walking in the opposite direction.

The Search

When the Kletzkys realized their son was missing, they called police who quickly placed a call for help to search for the boy. The community came together, handing out fliers, searching local areas and taking to the streets to search for Leiby. Officers launched an extensive investigation, combing through security footage from store and traffic cameras nearby.

After hours went by, a breakthrough in the case came with a local dentist's office who captured the suspect on surveillance footagedEsc6898. Thanks to the police, they found where he went and discovered that his car had somehow connected him to the missing boy's license plate. This investigation led police to Aron apartment in Kensington and found something horrifying.

Discovery of Leiby’s Remains

The police seized bloody knives and towels when entering Levi Aron's apartment at about 2 a. m. on July 13. After his admission, they found Leiby’s mutilated remains in a suitcase in a dumpster nearby. The community was rattled by the viciousness of this crime, and the world lost one of its young lives.

The Confession

In a truly spine-chilling line to police, an Orthodox Jewish man—Levi Aron, 35—acknowledged committing the crime. According to him, he had given Leiby a lift after the boy requested help in directions. It was at that point when Aron explained how he had kidnapped Leiby and driven around with him before taking the boy to a wedding in Monsey. The following day, looking at posters of the missing child covering New York City, Aron said he "freaked out" and suffocated Leiby with a towel before cutting him up. Aron's confession caused no evidence of sexual abuse, and Aron clearly was a stranger to the boy.

The Funeral and Aftermath

Thousands of mourners went to Boro Park on July 13, 2011 for Leiby funeral outside a Brooklyn synagogue. Leaving behind the high streets of a shattered community mourning the loss of youth snuffed out. It drew an estimated crowd of 8,000-10,000 people with many from the greater tri-state area.

It was the brutal nature of the crime and the heart-wrenching sorrow that engulfed the Kletzky family that resonated with people around the world. It also posed a serious question over how safe children were in their local neighbourhood, and what dangers they risked that they could never have suspected.

Getting to Know the Suspect: Levi Aron

The man behind this so evil little alimentorial, Levi Aron, was an Orthodox Jew and a child of Brooklyn. He was a twice-married father whose dad worked at B&H Photo, the famous Hasidic-owned megastore in Brooklyn. He had a troubled private life and went through two divorces Before the crime, he was living in an attic apartment in Kensington, Brooklyn and did not appear to have any previous connection to the Kletzky family.