Abducted Man Found Murdered

Update January 4, 2014

NY Daily News

The Brooklyn landlord who was kidnapped near his office late Thursday was found in a dumpster at a Long Island gas station, authorities said Saturday.

The body of Menacham Stark was found in the trash container at the Getty gas station in Great Neck just before 4 p.m. Friday, according to Nassau County cops.

Stark, 39, was hustled into a white minivan after struggling with two thugs who approached him as he left his South Side Associates office on Rutledge St. near the Williamsburg Bridge late Thursday.

Surveillance video of the abduction appeared to show the creeps binding him with duct tape before throwing him in their Dodge Caravan and speeding off.

The next morning, Fernando Cerff, owner of the Cutter Mill Rd. gas station, arrived to work early to shovel out and get his fleet of plows on the road.

“There was smoke coming from the dumpster,” Cerff said. “Not a lot. I thought someone threw a cigarette in there and it didn’t go out.”

A few employees shoveling out the pumps threw snow into the dumpster to extinguish whatever was smoldering.
“We didn’t think anything of it at the time,” Cerff told the Daily News.

When Cerff returned in the afternoon he approached the dumpster to throw out some trash from his truck.

“There was a smell — it was horrible,” he said.
“I got a really bad feeling about it. I knew something was wrong by the smell. It was just too strong. So I called the cops.”

Investigators discovered the body in the dumpster next to the trash beneath the snow and closed the station immediately.

“They told us it was a person and I couldn’t believe it — who would do something like that?” Cerff said. “It’s just crazy. You never know what’s going to happen.”

The police hauled off the entire dumpster.
Cerff never saw the body, but cops told him it had been wrapped in fabric and set on fire.

Baruch Dayan Haemes.

By Jordan Kutzik, Forward.com

Police and Jewish security patrols were frantically hunting for Hasidic milliionaire real estate developer Menachem Stark and relatives vowed to pay a $100,000 reward for his return after he was reportedly kidnapped outside his Brooklyn office.

With sunset approaching quickly, efforts to find Stark continued on a frigid Friday afternoon, the day after he was snatched just steps from a police precinct house.

Stark, a prominent member of the Williamsburg Satmar Hasidic community, was seen bundled into an unmarked van outside his office about 11:30 p.m. Thursday, DNAInfo reported.

The kidnappers were waiting outside Stark’s office, ambushed him, then drove off in a white van, reports said. The search was hampered by the blizzard that hammered the city overnight.

“We have to move quickly,” Yoely Stark, Menachem Stark’s brother told Voz Is Neias. “Shabbos is coming and time is very important.”

The brother invoked the memory of Leiby Kletzky, the Brooklyn boy who was snatched off the street and killed in 2011.

“Remember Leiby Kletzky? They only got him through the security cameras and we need people to come forward now to help,” Yoely Stark told the web site. “The fastest way possible to get information is through the cameras which give the most accurate information.”

Police sources told the Daily News that Stark was carrying $4,000 in cash at the time of the alleged kidnapping.

A relative denied reports Menachem Stark was carrying a large amount of cash. He told DNAInfo that the family was offering a $100,000 reward for information about the crime.

Menachem Stark’s wife, Bashie, called the Shomrim when he did not return home before midnight, according to the New York Post.

The Shomrim security patrol apparently waited till 2:30 a.m. Friday to notify the NYPD of the incident. Delays in reporting crimes to the police has long been a source of friction between the groups.

Menachem Stark, a real estate developer, was reportedly sued in 2011 over a $29 million loan that financed a 74-unit residential rental building at 100 South 4th Street in trendy south Williamsburg, the Real Deal reported

Yitzy Stark acknowledged that his brother was involved in several large real estate deals, but said the family knows of no bad blood that could have sparked the kidnapping.

“There are a lot of big deals and big money,” Yitzy Stark told Vos Iz Neias. “Right now he is involved in four or five separate developments here in Brooklyn …. There are so many leads that it is hard to know where to start searching.”

“Every landlord has good records and bad records,” added Yitzy Stark.

Stark reportedly has strong ties on both sides of the bitter factional split within the Satmar community, which has dueling rebbes.

Notice from the NYPD:

Last night on January 2, 2014 at approximately 2335 hours, Menachem Stark pictured above, (DOB: 7/15/1974) was apparently kidnapped by two males in front of 331 Rutledge Street while walking towards his vehicle. This location is the office of the victim. Upon review of video within the immediate vicinity it was captured that the two males struggling with the victim and placing him inside of a White Dodge Caravan. With any information please contact community affairs at 718-735-0527