Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Breaking News

Few Strong Leads in Menachem Stark Murder Probe

Police admit they have no suspects and few strong leads in the investigation into the shocking kidnap and murder of Brooklyn real estate developer Menachem Stark.

Police Commissioner William Bratton said police are hoping than information about the van used to snatch Stark from his office in Williamsburg last Thursday night may jumpstart the tangled probe.

“We’re seeing if we can get a shot of the license plate that allows us start building our case from there,” Bratton told reporters during a briefing in Manhattan, Newsday reported.

So far, there are “no significant leads,” he said.

Investigators have confirmed that Stark had a tangled financial history, including debts to several creditors. But it’s not clear why any of them would have wanted to murder him.

Some reports have cast suspicion on his longtime business partner Israel (Sam) Perlmuttter, but he strongly denied those claims through his lawyer.

Stark, 38, a father of seven, was leaving his real-estate office in the Williamsburg section when he was bundled into a van Thursday night around 11:30 pm. His charred body was found the next day in a Long Island dumpster.

Sources said the cause of death was “compression asphyxiation” leading some investigators to speculate that attackers killed Stark while sitting on him or trying to subdue him in the van.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.