Levi Aron Indicted for the Murder of Leiby Kletzky
The suspected killer of Leiby Kletzky has been indicted Wednesday on charges of murder, Brooklyn District Attorney Charles J. Hynes has confirmed.
Levi Aron, the self-confessed killer of 8-year-old Kletzky, who is currently undergoing a psychiatric evaluation, had previously pleaded not guilty to the murder charge.
Details are continuing to emerge in the murder that has shocked the nation, and reports on Wednesday confirmed that Kletzky was fed a cocktail of prescription drugs before being smothered to death and being brutally dismembered.
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The New York City medical examiner found several traces of drugs in the boy’s body, including cyclobenzaprine, a muscle relaxant, quetiapine, an antipsychotic drug, Vicodin, and Tylenol, ruling the death a homicide, according to ABC.
The findings corresponded to the statements made by the boy’s accused killer, Levi Aron, who told police that he smothered Kletzky with a towel before he chopped up his body parts.
Kletzky, who was part of the Orthodox Jewish community in Brooklyn, was reported missing on July 11 by his parents. The boy had begged his mother to give him permission to walk home alone, to which his mother agreed on the condition that she would meet him halfway.
However, when the 8-year-old took a wrong turn and got lost, he asked Aron, also a member of the Orthodox community, for help.
Aron then took Kletzky with him to a wedding that night in Spring Valley, N.Y., spending several hours there, Aron claims. Other wedding guests confirmed Aron was there, but didn't see the boy.
"Detectives now have reason to believe beyond Aron's confession that Leiby was at the wedding, but not necessarily inside the venue," police confirmed Wednesday.
Prosecutors have said that a gas station attendant along the route saw the boy go to the bathroom.
However, following the wedding the pair arrived back so late that Aron decided to take Kletzky to his home to sleep. He left the boy at his home Tuesday while he went to work, Aron has confessed to police. Colleagues at Aron’s work, a supply store, said he showed up as usual that day, but seemed troubled.
Police reports indicate that Aron left work just before 5 p.m. Tuesday. He went home and made Kletzky a tuna-fish sandwich. But upon hearing about neighborhood searches for the boy, Aron panicked and smothered the boy with a towel and dismembered his body, which occurred on July 13, according to the medical examiner.
"When I saw the fliers, I panicked and was afraid," Aron said, according to police.
Kletzky’s body parts were found by police in Aron’s freezer as well as in a dumpster nearby. Detectives found the boy's severed feet, wrapped in plastic, in Aron's freezer.
A cutting board and a number of bloody carving knives were also found in the refrigerator. Other parts of the young boy's body were discovered in bags inside a red suitcase in a dumpster. Kletzky’s legs had been cut from his torso.
Aron’s attorney, Pierre Bazile, refused to comment on the medical examiner’s findings Wednesday.
Investigators have said Kletzky may have been tied up; marks on the boy's remains have been highlighted and may have been caused by restraints. There is also evidence to suggest that he may have tried to fight back in the moments before he was killed.
Brooklyn District Attorney Hynes has reported that investigations are continuing into whether Aron was suspected of kidnapping or having inappropriate contact with any other children in his past.
