Murder of Leiby Kletzky

On July 11, 2011, Leiby Kletzky, an eight-year-old Hasidic Jewish boy from Borough Park, Brooklyn, disappeared while walking home alone for the first time from his day camp at Yeshiva Boyan Tiferes Mordechai Shlomo. He missed a turn and walked in the wrong direction, ultimately encountering Levi Aron, then 35, near a dentist's office on 18th Avenue. Surveillance video showed Kletzky speaking with Aron and appearing to get into his car.

Kletzky's mother reported him missing to the Brooklyn South Shomrim volunteer patrol at 6:14 p.m., and the New York City Police Department later declared a Level 1 search. Up to 5,000 Orthodox Jewish volunteers, coordinated by Shomrim organizations across Brooklyn, conducted a block-by-block search overnight and into the next day. A community member reviewing store surveillance footage traced Kletzky's route and identified the man he was seen with. Police identified Aron's car, and volunteers spotted the vehicle in Kensington, leading police to Aron's apartment around 2 a.m. on July 13. There, officers found blood-soaked knives and towels, and the boy's severed feet in the freezer. Aron directed police to the rest of the remains, which were in a suitcase in a dumpster in Greenwood Heights.

Aron gave police a 450-word handwritten confession, stating that Kletzky had accepted a ride and that he later took the boy to a wedding in Monsey, New York, before smothering and dismembering him after seeing missing-child posters. Surveillance footage from the wedding hall and a nearby gas station corroborated parts of his account. Investigators found no evidence of sexual abuse.

An autopsy released July 20, 2011, found Kletzky had ingested a lethal combination of a muscle relaxant, an antipsychotic, and two analgesics, and had then been smothered; a fifth drug was later identified in his system. The medical examiner ruled the death a homicide, and a Brooklyn grand jury indicted Aron the same day on eight counts including first-degree murder and kidnapping.

Aron's defense pursued an insanity defense, citing psychiatric evaluations that diagnosed adjustment disorder and schizoid personality disorder, and reported that Aron heard voices. Courts found him competent to stand trial. One of Aron's attorneys, Howard Greenberg, drew public criticism in December 2011 for remarks referencing "inbreeding" in the Hasidic community.

On August 9, 2012, Aron pleaded guilty to one count of second-degree murder and one count of second-degree kidnapping as part of a plea agreement. On August 29, 2012, Justice Neil Firetog sentenced him to 25 years to life on the murder charge and 15 years to life on the kidnapping charge, running consecutively for a total of 40 years to life. Kletzky's father also filed civil lawsuits against Aron and Aron's father. Aron died in state prison custody on December 3, 2025, at age 49.

The case prompted proposed legislation, including tax credits for surveillance cameras and a "Safe Haven" program for businesses to assist lost children, and led to the installation of security cameras in Borough Park and Midwood neighborhoods.