A man was arrested Wednesday after confessing to killing and dismembering a missing 8-year-old boy in what the mayor called a \"stunning shock\" to New York City.
Levi Aron, 35, admitted to killing the boy, Leiby Kletzky, after being arrested early Wednesday following a search of his home, police chief Ray Kelly said.
The boy had just left a day camp and his mother was waiting for him a few blocks away when he went missing on Monday. Their local Hassidic Jewish community in Brooklyn helped in the desperate search for the child to no avail.
"This was a horrendous crime," Kelly told a news conference, outlining the grim details at length.
"At 2:40 am this morning, detectives apprehended Levi Aron at his residence at 466 East 2nd Street in Brooklyn, where he made statements implicating himself in the death of 8-year-old Leiby Kletzky, and where remains believed to be those of the missing boy were found by detectives in a refrigerator in the suspect\'s third floor attic apartment, and in a dumpster," Kelly said.
Aron wrapped some of the remains in black plastic bags and stashed them in a suitcase he tossed in the dumpster, Kelly added.
Leiby had gone missing after leaving the Yeshiba Boyan School on Monday; authorities\' investigation found that he had been on the street with a man between 5:30 pm and 5:40 pm on Monday.
When police questioned Aron as to the boy\'s location, he showed them to the kitchen where there were blood stains on the freezer handle.
"Inside the refrigerator was a cutting board with three carving knives, with blood on them. Some of the remains were in the freezer, and others in the dumpster, two and a half miles away," Kelly added.
Kelly said there was no immediate suspected motive.
And "there is no indication at this time that the victim was known to the suspect previously," he added.
New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg said that "as a father, I cannot begin to imagine the horrible heartbreak that Leiby Kletzky\'s family is going through, and in speaking with their rabbi today, I conveyed my deepest condolences.
"This killing was a stunning shock to our entire city," he said.
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