Woodbridge Opens Pedestrian Bridge For Murdered Toddler

WOODBRIDGE, NJ — The story of Amir Beeks is as tragic as it needs to be told.

The 3-year-old toddler was murdered in 2003, after he was lured out of the Inman branch of the Woodbridge public library by a 10-year-old boy. The older boy molested him and then killed him, leaving him to die on the banks of a shallow creek, locally called "The Pumpkin Patch Brook." The creek lies in between the library and Charles Shaughnessy Park, a popular playground in the Colonia section of Woodbridge.

The horrific murder stunned Woodbridge Twp. and all of Central Jersey when it happened. Last Tuesday, March 26, marked the sixteenth anniversary of the toddler's death. And to commemorate Amir's death, Woodbridge Twp. opened a pedestrian bridge over the creek, so children walking back and forth between the library and the playground could avoid busy Inman Avenue and its traffic.

The town also wants people to remember Amir and learn about his story.

Amir had been adopted by Rosalyn Singleton, a woman who still lives locally in Carteret. His birth mother was a heroin addict. On that tragic day, March 26, 2003, the toddler was taken to the library by his older sister, Krystal, then 17, and a 19-year-old cousin, according to MyCentralJersey. He listened to a story being read while the two teens were nearby working on a computer.

The librarian asked Amir to select a new book and Amir walked away to find the book. That was when he stopped at a computer terminal where 10-year-old Aaron Kean was on the Internet.

Kean had actually been dismissed early that day from a tutoring session at the library because he was misbehaving.

According to MyCentralJersey, Kean admitted at his sentencing that he did not know the toddler, but the little boy asked to use his scooter. That was when he lured him out of the library through a side door, took him to the creek and sexually molested him. Kean's home is near the Pumpkin Patch creek. Kean then beat him to death with a baseball bat.

According to past news articles, Kean had a long history of disciplinary problems. Neighbors who lived near him described him as a loner and a troublemaker. They also said he had hit other children with his bat before, with one child requiring stitches. They also reported hearing arguing and yelling coming from his home, where the boy was being raised by his single father. His mother had died several years earlier, from cancer. Both his mother and father were blind, according to news reports at the time.

Police were reportedly routinely called to the home for welfare checks when shouting was heard coming from inside the house. Other neighbors reported that Kean threw rocks at other children, and cursed at them.

Amir's teen siblings found him about half an hour after he disappeared. He was lying facedown in a culvert that drains into Pumpkin Patch creek.

He was taken to JFK Medical Center in critical condition and on life support. He died the next day.

A 18-year-old pumping gas at the Getty gas station told the New York Times at the time that he saw Kean walking that day with the little boy following behind him.

''The little kid was following him up the street,'' Greg Fedorchak. ''We thought everything was like fine. Then 10 minutes later, the mother came in looking for him.''

Singleton and her extended family return to that creek every March 26 to remember Amir, said John Hagerty, a Woodbridge Twp. spokesman. When Woodbridge Township heard that, they decided to use federal funds to build a pedestrian bridge over the creek. It is now called Amir's Bridge.

"The Township just felt it was the right thing to do, especially when we heard Amir's mother returns there every year," said Hagerty. "We want to commemorate who this child was, because he never got to grow up. This bridge will also keep kids from walking along busy Inman Avenue to get in between the library and the playground, which they were doing before."

Amir's family lights candles by the creek every year at the site where his body was found. They also go to his grave in Hillside every October, on the boy's birthday, and throw a party at his grave, according to MyCentralJersey. Amir would have turned 20 this year.

Kean pleaded guilty to killing Amir and was sentenced to 18 years in juvenile detention, MyCentralJersey reported. In 2016, Singleton received a letter from the Middlesex County Prosecutor saying that Kean, then 24, would be released on parole.

She told the newspaper she hasn't heard from him since and doesn't want to.

All photos provided to Patch by Woodbridge Twp.