6 December 2011
From the search coordinators he learned the basics: The boy, an 8-year-old named Leiby, was short and slight, with dark peyos, or side curls. He had disappeared on his way home from day camp at Yeshiva Boyan, a large neighborhood Jewish school. It was Leiby’s first time making the trip alone, but that his parents had allowed him to do so was not unusual. In Borough Park, crime rates are low, residents are trusting, families are large (Leiby was one of six kids), and children earn their independence at a very young age, the better to help their overworked mothers watch their even younger siblings. Moreover, Leiby’s intended route was simple and short: one block southeast from the yeshiva, on 44th Street, before turning right, onto Thirteenth Avenue, where he would meet his mother. His parents had practiced with him.
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A Monster Among the 'Frum' • Opuss № I