The tragic and horrible discovery of the body of 9-year-old Leiby Kletzky late last night has ended the massive search for the boy, who had not returned home from camp on Monday afternoon.
Police found parts of the boy's body in the refrigerator of the suspect, a 38-year-old man who lives in a third-floor attic apartment on E. 2nd Street near Avenue C. They tracked him down after studying surveillance tapes that showed the suspect's car, and seeing video of the boy outside of a dentist's office, that the suspect had visited that day to pay a bill.
Other parts of the body were discovered in a suitcase in a dumpster outside of Park Slope Auto Center at 651 Fourth Ave.
Assemblyman Dov Hikind, who helped with the search, spoke with NY1:
"It's something that I, like every school parent would think today, how could something like this happen? How is it possible that someone could take a nine-year-old, a little boy, an innocent little boy, and do what he did to this little child?" Hikind said on a phone interview with NY1. "People are out here in the streets where the family is. I met with the family many times yesterday and just tried to give them strength and hope that things will turn out well. Oh my god, oh my god."
According to the Daily News, the suspect, who they don't think knew the boy previously, was taken into custody at 2:40am at his apartment, after he made statements implicating himself in Leiby's death.
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