Debbie Egan-Chin/New York Daily News
Rabbi David Neiderman, right, calls on the public to find justice for Menachem Stark. Alongside him are, from left, Zalmen Kaufman, Stark’s brother-in-law Abraham Buxbaum and Councilman Steve Levin.
The business partner of a Brooklyn landlord whose scorched body was found in a dumpster is being eyed as a possible suspect in the grisly killing, sources said Monday.
Investigators digging for clues in the slaying of Menachem Stark are focusing on the activities of his business partner, Israel Perlmutter.
Eli Wohl/VIN News
Police say that a vehicle appeared to be waiting for Menachem Stark, pictured, before he was kidnapped late Thursday night.
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Perlmutter is being treated as a possible suspect because police are convinced he has been lying to them about Stark and trying to use a Russian businessman as a scapegoat, a police source said.
Debbie Egan-Chin/New York Daily News
Rabbi David Neiderman begs the public for help: ‘Let’s not dig in and try to pick up dirt on a wonderful person. Let us focus where our efforts should be.’
Another police official said no one has been ruled out.
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Alex
The family of Menachem Stark declined to speak with the media.
The stunning twist in the case came as detectives said they believed Stark was squashed to death, and a reward for information leading to the killers was hiked to $ 25,000.
“It might be that they sat on him to get him under control and that they wound up killing him that way,” a police source said of Stark, a 39-year-old father of eight.
Debbie Egan-Chin/New York Daily News
Menachem Stark’s brother-in-law Abraham Buxbaum, left, was too overcome with grief to speak Monday.
The victim fought his kidnappers after they grabbed him Thursday night outside his Rutledge St. office.
Debbie Egan-Chin/New York Daily News
A man and a child on Monday leave the home of Menachem Stark, who was found murdered Saturday after being kidnapped Thursday in a snowstorm.
Perlmutter, 42, could not be reached for comment Monday. Two men sitting in a Ford SUV outside his South Williamsburg, Brooklyn, house and wearing Secret Service-type ear pieces approached a Daily News reporter who rang the doorbell.
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Debbie Egan-Chin/New York Daily News
Rabbi David Neiderman, center, joins Brooklyn Borough president Eric Adams, right, on Sunday following outrage over the New York Post’s coverage of Menachem Stark’s murder.
“This is private property,” one of them said. “You need to leave.”
Stark and Perlmutter were partners in several real estate ventures, including a 74-unit apartment building in South Williamsburg on which they took out a $ 29 million mortgage in 2007.
Debbie Egan-Chin/New York Daily News
Abraham Buxbaum, left, Menachem Stark’s brother-in-law, attends Monday’s press conference in Brooklyn.
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The real estate market crashed soon after, and the S. Fourth St. property went into bankruptcy in 2009, according to public records. The partners were sued for defaulting on tens of millions of dollars in loans, and cops are now probing those deals.
Ken Murray/NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Real estate linked to Brooklyn murder victim Menachen Star.
The pair and another man were also hit with a $ 4 million judgment involving another Williamsburg property in 2010, records show.
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Debbie Egan-Chin/New York Daily News
Moses Strulowitz, left, brother-in-law of Menachem Stark, on Monday offered a $ 25,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of the killers who kidnapped, smothered and burned Stark and left his body in a Dumpster.
Leo Fox, the business lawyer Perlmutter and Stark shared, declined to discuss the case that is roiling the tight-knit Satmar Jewish community.
Stark’s family refused to comment on Perlmutter’s possible link to the murder.
Debbie Egan-Chin/New York Daily News
Appearing at a Monday press conference outside Menachem Stark’s home are, from right, Rabbi David Neiderman, City Councilman Steve Levin (Brooklyn) and Abraham Buxbaum, the murder victim’s brother-in-law.
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Asked if an arrest was imminent, a police source told The News that detectives “don’t have anything yet that would lead them to say it’s this person, not that person.”
Debbie Egan-Chin/New York Daily News
Abraham Buxbaum, left, brother-in-law of Menachem Stark, talks about a $ 25,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of Stark’s murderers.
Earlier Monday, members of Stark’s family announced they were raising the reward money to $ 25,000 and a prominent Brooklyn rabbi appealed to the public for help in finding the killer.
With Caitlin Nolan
http://newyork.greatlocalnews.info/?p=20264
via Great Local News: New York http://newyork.greatlocalnews.info
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