NY police question suspect in murdered hasid case

Businessman Menachem Stark was kidnapped in January and his body was later found in a Long Island dumpster

New York Police are questioning a suspect in connection with the murder of Brooklyn real estate developer Menachem Stark.

The suspect was taken into custody but no arrest has been made yet, the Forward reported Wednesday, citing a New York Police Department spokesman.

Stark’s body was found January 3 in suburban Long Island some 16 miles from his office in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, from where he was kidnapped the previous evening. He reportedly was suffocated before his body was placed in a dumpster outside a Great Neck gas station and burned, according to police.

After his murder, much of the media attention focused on Stark’s questionable business practices and his reputation as a slumlord. However, he was widely lauded as a generous philanthropist in the Hasidic community. The New York Post tabloid enraged many Orthodox Jews when it published a photo of Stark on its front page, with the headline, “Who Didn’t Want Him Dead?”

In the years before his murder, Stark withdrew nearly $3.6 million from his business to pay personal debts, and was deeply in debt at the time of his disappearance, according to the New York Daily News.