By Bill King, Eyewitness NewsBROOKLYN (WABC) -- The man accused of killing and dismembering 8-year-old Leiby Kletzky will be in court Thursday, as the boy's family and the Orthodox Jewish community continue to mourn his death. The boy, from Borough Park, Brooklyn, was buried in accordance with Orthodox Jewish tradition Wednesday night.
His alleged killer, Levi Aron, is expected to be arraigned later in the day. Sources say Aron has confessed to killing the boy, who was lost and asked him for directions.
Aron, who turned 35 on Wednesday, is charged with first-degree murder. And even though police say Leiby Kletzky was apparently chosen at random, they are now looking into the possibility that he may not have been Aron's only victim.CLICK HERE TO SEE THE STORY IN PICTURES
During the night, Aron was brought back to the 67th Precinct after DNA testing. Police are now trying to link him to other missing persons cases. They say that throughout his questioning, he has been cold, showing no emotion.
Sources also tell Eyewitness News that Aron has confessed in a handwritten letter to strangling Kletzky before chopping up his body.
"Our condolences to the family of the victim," Aron's attorney, Pierre Bazile said. "And at this time, we're going to let the judicial process take its course."
Kletzky was reportedly tied with rope on a couch in Aron's attic apartment on East 2nd Street in the Kensington section of Brooklyn. Police in HazMat suits carried evidence from the house, including a section of a refrigerator.
When officers first reached the apartment, they say the front door was cracked open and that Aron was standing shirtless near a garbage bag filled with bloody towels.
"When detectives asked where the boy was, Aron nodded toward the kitchen, where detectives observed blood on the freezer handle of the refrigerator," NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly said Wednesday. "Inside the refrigerator was a cutting board, with three carving knives with blood on them. Some of the remains were in the freezer."
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Aron reportedly had Kletzky's feet in Zip-Lock bags in the freezer. The rest of the body was found in a suitcase, pulled from a dumpster in Greenwood Heights.
Aron has told police he killed the boy in a panic over the massive community search that followed his disappearance.
Aron has no major criminal record. He received one criminal summons, for urinating in public last year. He was employed as a clerk at a maintenance supply company in Brooklyn. Except for his time in Memphis, he was employed there approximately 12 years.
Aron's ex-wife, Debbie Aron, who lives in Memphis, says she can't believe he would pick up a lost boy and kill him.
"I'm just now finding out information," she said. "I've been in total shock. I had spoken to him not long ago, and everything seemed to be just fine."
Investigators are continuing to piece together the details of the story, including Aron's claim that he took Kletzky to a wedding Monday night in Monsey. No one at that wedding, however, reported seeing either Aron or the boy.
The tight-knit Orthodox Jewish community joined Kletzky's family and friends Wednesday night for the boy's funeral in Borough Park, and it was an outpouring of grief.
Thousands turned out, as the service brought out a community that is still in shock.
VIEW PHOTOS OF THE FUNERAL HERE
Just days before he would have celebrated his ninth birthday, Kletzky was instead mourned at a funeral that lasted late into the night.
His traditional wooden casket was carried through a sea of thousands of mourners. Many spent two days searching for the boy after he was stolen off of the street and still cannot believe the horrendous outcome.
The rabbi of the Shul where Leiby worshipped with his family cried from his very first word in Yiddish, quoting scripture as he tried to comfort those in attendance. Afterward, family members returned to the family's apartment, where Leiby lived with his parents and four sisters, to grieve in private.
"I hope not for these parents, but there's always a feeling of guilt," mourner Nechama Buff said. "'What could I have done differently?'"
The community that was home to both the victim and the alleged killer has pulled together even tighter in its grief. But among the mourners were people from many walks of life, overcome by the sorrow of an apparently random crime that could have happened to anyone's child.
"I was so touched by what happened here today," mourner Dianna Findlay said. "For that child, for that mother and that family."
At the day camp Leiby was walking home from when he got lost, his fellow students returned Wednesday, holding hands with their parents. Inside, grief counselors tried to help the children cope.
"Such a thing shouldn't happen anymore," grief counselor Joel Landau said. "We have to pray that this is the last time we hear a thing like this."
Leiby's father spoke at the funeral and thanked God for the few short years that he was able to spend with his only son.
For more information on The New York Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, please visit: NYSPCC.org
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