The search for a missing 8-year-old Brooklyn boy ended early on Wednesday when investigators discovered what they believed to be his dismembered remains in a third-floor attic refrigerator of a Brooklyn man and in a trash bin on a street, the police said. The man, who made incriminating statements, was being questioned and was expected to be charged, the police said.
The grim discovery capped two days of intense searching for the boy, Leiby Kletzky, who had disappeared while on what was supposed to be a short walk between a Borough Park school and a meeting place with his parents on Monday. Police detectives searched around his neighborhood and used helicopters to find the boy, who was part of the Hasidic Jewish community. They recovered video that clearly showed the boy alive.
In the end, the inquiry led to 466 East Second Street, in Kensington, Brooklyn, the home of the suspect, Levi Aron, 35, who was taken into custody at 2:40 a.m., said Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly.
Mr. Kelly said that the boy was lost and apparently was trying to find his way when he encountered Mr. Aron; investigators said that after a conversation, the boy entered Mr. Aron’s vehicle, a 1990 Honda Accord.
The suspect had told investigators that he panicked and killed the boy once he realized the extent to which the Hasidic community and the police had mobilized to find the child, Mr. Kelly said. The commissioner said that the police had no evidence that the child had been sexually abused, but that detectives were still investigating.
“He panicked, and that is why he killed the boy,” Mr. Kelly said.
Deputy Commissioner Paul J. Browne, the Police Department’s chief spokesman, said, “There is no indication at this time that the victim was known to the suspect previously.”
Mr. Browne said charges were pending.
Mr. Browne said that remains believed to be those of the missing boy were located by detectives in a refrigerator in the man’s attic apartment. Other remains of the boy were found in Greenwood Heights, “in a Dumpster at 20th Street between Fourth and Fifth Avenues, wrapped in black plastic garbage bags inside of a suitcase,” Mr. Browne said.