Investigators Looking at Whether Brooklyn Butcher Is Serial Killer

So much about the tragic end of 8-year-old Leiby Kletzky remains unanswered despite claims that admitted killer Levi Aron kidnapped and then killed Kletzky when he panicked over the reaction of the local community to the disappearance.

The boy was apparently lost and but for a wrong two, their paths may not have crossed. The two were together for several hours before Kletzky was killed.

According to the obtained statement, Aron told police he wanted a ride to a bookstore but then lost interest.

"So I asked if he wanted to go for the ride -- (a) wedding in Monsey -- since I didn't think I was going to stay for the whole thing since my back was hurting. He said OK," Aron told police.

They returned to Aron's home around 11:20 p.m. Monday night and watched television before going to sleep in separate rooms, Aron told police. Police said Aron, who is divorced, lives alone in an attic in a building shared with his father and uncle.

Aron told police he planned to return Kletzky to his home Tuesday.

Apparently unaware that a search was already in progress for the boy, Aron left his home Tuesday to find photos of the missing boy on fliers distributed in the neighborhood.

"When I saw the flyers I panicked and was afraid," he told police. "I was still in panic ... and afraid to bring him home. That is when I went for a towel to smother him in the side room. He fought back a little bit."

Now with the body of a dead boy in his home, he told police he panicked again "because I didn't know what to do with the body." He detailed to police how he dismembered the body.

A day-and-a-half search led police to Aron's home after midnight Wednesday morning after seeing him on a surveillance video with the child. They asked: Where is the boy?

The man nodded toward the kitchen, authorities said, where blood stained the freezer door. Inside was the stuff of horror films -- severed feet, wrapped in plastic. In the refrigerator, a cutting board and three bloody carving knives. A plastic garbage bag with bloody towels was nearby.

Aron's actions aren't one of a panicked individual who murdered someone in an act of desperation. Instead, it seems fully calculated and methodical. Parts of Kletzky were found in Aron's fridge, which was empty besides the remains and bloody instruments used in the dismemberment. The rest of the body was found in luggage discarded in a trash bin outside an auto parts store two miles from Aron's home.

It's little wonder then, that investigators are looking at whether Aron is a serial killer and are reexamining cold cases in New York and in Tennessee where Aron lived for several years. Aron's actions and behavior gave people the willies, but he had but one police citation for public urination.

The break in the Kletzky case came when video showed the boy getting into a car outside a dentist's office. Police tracked down the doctor to his New Jersey home, and that led to a tip on Aron.

Kletzky was buried yesterday as thousands of people from the tight-knit Jewish community came to pay their respects. He would have been nine next week.