Details Emerge Of Boy's Horrifying Death

MYFOXNY.COM - Sources tell Fox 5 News that suspected killer Levi Aron told investigators that he suffocated Leiby Kletzky, 8, of Borough Park before dismembering him.

Aron, 35, pleaded not guilty at his arraignment on Thursday. Aron faces charges of first-degree murder and felony kidnapping resulting in a death.

Complete Leiby Kletzky Murder Coverage

Scratches on Aron's arm when he was arrested Wednesday indicate Kletzky may have put up a fight as he was being killed, said Police Commissioner Ray Kelly.  Aron-- showing no remorse-- confessed to smothering the boy with a towel while he was sitting on a couch, added Kelly.

He is expected to undergo a psychiatric evaluation at Bellevue Hospital.

The boy's remains were discovered inside a freezer in the third-floor attic of the suspect's home in Kensington and in a dumpster in Greenwood Heights Wednesday. Feet, a bloody cutting board and three carving knives were found inside the freezer. The rest of the body was in the dumpster.

Police are investigating reports that Aron may have taken Kletzky to a wedding he attended in upstate New York Monday evening after the boy was abducted.

"I've heard that he took the child to a wedding in Monsey, New York. How that is possible and nobody said anything, we need to find that out. This is absolutely bizarre," N.Y. Assemblyman Dov Hikind told Good Day New York.

Aron-- an Orthodox Jew-- prayed with members of his community on Tuesday, the day after the abduction, according to Hikind.

A massive crowd turned out for Kletzky's funeral Wednesday night.

Speaking during a news conference Wednesday, NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly identified the man under arrest as maintenance supply clerk Levi Aron, 35. He was taken into custody inside his home in Kensington just before 3 a.m.

Aron implicated himself in the boy's death. "He panicked. That's why he killed the boy," said Kelly who refused to elaborate at the time.

On Monday, Leiby Kletzky was to leave the Boyan Day Camp at 44th Street and 12th Avenue and walk to 13th Avenue and 50th Street to meet his mother. Along the way, Kletzky became lost. He continued down 44th Street to 18th Avenue and stopped to ask Aron for directions, said Kelly.

"There is no indication that they boy knew Aron. It was happenstance and a terrible fate for this boy. This was a horrendous crime. We are extremely grateful for the support we received from the community. We extend are deepest condolences to the Kletzky family," added Kelly.

Early Wednesday morning, police responded to a tip of a car seen in surveillance video outside a home at Avenue C and East 2nd Street in Kensington.

The Shomrim volunteer civilian patrol spotted the vehicle, took down the license plate number and alerted the NYPD, said Kelly.

The surveillance camera footage released Tuesday by the NYPD showed the boy walking up 13th Avenue Monday at about 5:30 p.m. He appears to talk to a man who was driving the gold colored sedan. The video does not show him getting into the car but he was not seen again. The man is believed to be Levi Aaron.

Investigators tracked the man in the video after speaking with a dentist in the neighborhood who said he remembered someone coming in to pay a bill for a patient. Police used the man's records from the dental office to find him at the house in Kensington where the gruesome discovery was made, added police.

The remains found in the dumpster at 20th Street and 4th Avenue in Greenwood Heights were wrapped in a black, plastic garbage bag and placed inside a red suitcase, according to police.

The suitcase was removed from the dumpster just before 7 a.m. Wednesday.

"The boy was brutally murdered. Dumped. What kind of world are we living in," N.Y. State. Assem. Dov Hikind told Good Day New York.

Sources tell Fox News that Aron had recently worked in Memphis, Tennessee, as a security guard since November 2006. He also had an order of protection filed against him in Shelby County in 2006.

The suspect may be a member of the tight-knit Jewish community in the Borough Park- area, according to N.Y. State Assmeb. Hikind who spoke with Good Day New York.

An autopsy was underway Wednesday.

As many as 2,000 people had taken to the streets Monday in search of the boy and the crowds returned on Tuesday to continue the hunt.  Buses loaded with volunteers came from New Jersey to aid in the search.

A community funded reward ballooned  to $125,000 in the case.

People in the community described the boy as obedient and unlikely to talk to strangers.