Thanks for joining in. The more attention this gets, the more new ideas we can introduce.
There was no "message" or signature left behind. The killer's M/O was kill this kid and get the hell out of there. Perhaps his signature is killing Jewish people.
This was both an organized and disorganized murder. Organized because minimal evidence was left at the crime scene and outside. Disorganized because the murder itself was a bloody mess. Interesting contrast. Sounds like someone who thought it through well then went crazy during the actual killing.
Interesting notes on the meticulousness. The killers entrance and escape does seem meticulous. How can someone that careful not to leave evidence, possibly "wing it" and find the backdoor unlocked, walk up to a random floor and start checking random rooms.
Being from the school does not have to be the answer. Perhaps he planned this out a previous night? Perhaps while the kids were out of school? I also believe moving the body was due to double checking nothing was left behind. Sign of somebody who DOES NOT want to get caught. Somebody calculating and not out of his mind. Well-balanced and perhaps intelligent.
Lots of possibilities. Maybe a Jew who hates his own people? Maybe a non-Jew who hates Jews. Maybe someone who specifically hates Chaim.
Here's the thing that rules out the "get back at his father" theories for me. That would mean this was a professional murder. A "hit". Those are THE most organized murders. They would kill Chaim as quickly and quietly as possible. There would not be blood all over the room and a dozen stab wounds. I think it's pretty obvious that the location, force, and quantity of the wounds show that this was someone who had a VERY strong emotional reaction while killing Chaim. One that hitmen just don't have.
Plus a hitman would not be too fond of killing a kid, much less make a total mess. Unless the guy who had a problem with the father did this directly.
Lots of ideas. I was both answering your post and thinking out loud. I still think the elderly murders are worth pursuing. But we are learning a lot about our killer.
It's that mix that just doesn't do it for me, to be honest. To me it rules out this being a dispassionate, emotionless crime for the perp - such as a more 'classic' hitman style. It also rules out it being a spur of the moment thing driven by pure anger. IMO it leaves three scenarios: some kind of personal revenge, a hitman of sorts (I'll explain in more detail below), or someone who had a deep-rooted hatred of Jewish people and instead of lashing out in typical hate crime style, was more meticulous about it.
The first is one I can't quite imagine since it sounds like everyone liked Chaim and those who didn't love him don't seem to have hated him enough, especially not among adults, unless he saw or knew something he shouldn't.
The 'hitman of sorts' is basically different from the typical hitman as you point out. The reason why I'm saying this is, what if whoever did it made the scene look messy on purpose? What if they had a message to Chaim's father or someone and they knew that person would know what it mean? Going so over-the-top could mean they were trying to divert attention from the real motives as the person it was intended for would have understood, maybe just masking it in general, or just as a way to create additional pain for the recipient of the 'message'.
The third option is what I've said before, someone whose hatred was closer to them than it is for your average anti-semite, someone who had a personal problem or psychiatric delusions regarding Jewish people for reasons that weren't necessarily political. The killer here sounds like a lot of serial killers, who are very careful and meticulous with their approach but from the way the crime scenes look you can tell there was also an element of hatred and taking it out on the victim. Someone like this would be the type to keep an eye on the school.
The lack of signature or message is interesting to me, I feel like if this was done for political reasons such as a 'get out' warning that warning would be there without leaving any room for doubt.
I don't understand what you mean when you say it could have been planned while the kids were out, could you elaborate? I feel like an outsider would probably not know by heart the set up of the rooms, which IMO could explain the peeking around the other rooms.
Thank you for taking the time to reply to me! I really like the points you bring up.
I see now why they were thinking perhaps someone with a hatred of Jewish people.
The elderly people who were murdered was also Jewish. I would not be too surprised if it was known around the neighborhood they were Jewish. Then we have a murder at the school...
But, the murderer might have concealed his dislike of Jewish people so that no one knew.
Also, with the Halloween night on Friday this meant the Sabbath would begin at sundown, so the murderer would guess the students were inside the dorm observing the Sabbath.
It sounds like Chaim studied for a while, then sometime after 1 a.m., he put the Talmud aside and went to sleep.
BBM. Do you have a source for this? I'm not snarking by the way, I'm genuinely curious to try to investigate more about what happened.
