NEW YORK – New York City’s medical examiner is still trying to determine the cause of death of the brother of a man now imprisoned for kidnapping and killing an 8-year-old Brooklyn boy nearly six years ago.
A spokeswoman for the medical examiner’s office released a statement Sunday saying the cause and manner of Tzvi Aron’s death are pending further studies.
Police on Friday discovered the body of Aron, bound, wrapped in a blanket and stuffed in a basement closet, a law enforcement official said.
The 29-year-old bakery worker was last seen on Tuesday.
The official said Aron had recently been threatened but it wasn’t clear why. The official wasn’t authorized to speak publicly about an ongoing investigation and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.
Tzvi’s brother, Levi Aron, pleaded guilty in 2011 in the kidnapping and killing of Leiby Kletzky.
He is currently serving 40 years to life in prison. Detectives found the boy’s severed feet, wrapped in plastic, in a freezer at Aron’s home.
A cutting board and three bloody carving knives were found in the refrigerator.
The rest of the boy’s body was discovered in bags inside a suitcase in a trash bin about a mile from the home.
In the years since, the family remained at the home, which is divided into apartments. Tzvi lived in the basement apartment; Levi had lived on the top floor.
Another brother also lives there.
The family has received dozens of death threats since the boy’s killing. On Friday, police once again cordoned off the home as a crime scene.
