Crime & Safety

Nearby: Police Offer $25K Reward for Lead in 1986 Long Beach Yeshiva Student Murder

Written by Joseph Kellard

Nassau County Police Department is offering a $25,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of a suspect wanted for murdering a Long Beach yeshiva high school student more than a quarter century ago, detectives announced at a press conference at NCPD headquarters in Mineola on Tuesday. 

Chief of Detectives John Capece and Detective Lt. John Azzata said they reopened the case on Chaim Weiss, a 15-year-old Staten Island rabbinical student at Mestiva of Long Beach, who was stabbed to death at the Orthodox high school in 1986. The homicide case remains unsolved.

Detectives said Crime Stoppers has increased the reward from $5,000 to $25,000, noting that the case was reopened as part of series of unsolved cases that the department routinely revisits. 

“Any information or suspicion, regardless of perceived significance, can be extremely important in helping us solve this case,” Capece said, soliciting in particular for any students or staff members who attended and worked at the school at the time. “The police department is not asking anyone to accuse someone but to only come forward with any information pertaining to this case.” 

Anton Weiss, Chaim’s father, attended the press conference with his wife and other relatives, and asked the press and public to respect his family’s privacy after he called for their help in finding his son’s murderer.

“With your help in doing the right thing, in helping the police department and help God, I hope the police will be able to conclude the investigation,” Weiss said. 

Chaim was found dead in his third-floor dormitory room at the high school, then located at 63 E. Beech St., early in the morning on Nov. 1, 1986, after someone repeatedly stabbed him in his bed. Initially, the murder was considered a possible act of anti-Semitic-inspired violence after Orthodox Jewish boys who attended the yeshiva were harassed, but a police investigation revealed Weiss’s murderer may have known about Jewish religious traditions, based on a window that was found open in the boy’s dorm room and a lighted candle left on his desk. 

On Tuesday, Azzata confirmed that a window was found open in the boy’s dorm room, which in the Jewish religion represents “the soul leaving the room,” he said. But he was quick to emphasize that he wasn’t going to “box himself in” by assuming the suspect is someone knowledgeable with Jewish religious beliefs. 

“There were other instances that it may have been someone who knew of the belief and may have been someone like me that learned of those beliefs by reading about them,” he said. 

Azzata declined to reveal if there was any new evidence in the case that led police to revisit it. He said that the department systematically goes through cold cases and Anton Weiss recently came forward to explain to police the situation with his son’s murder and detectives wanted to get more information about it. 

“We feel after this time period maybe someone who has information, that because of their [religious] belief maybe they didn’t fully tell us everything at the time,” Azzata said. “Maybe we could get more information and new leads going in new directions.” 

Asked if DNA evidence available in the case, including a strand of hair reportedly found in the boy’s bed, Azzata confirmed forensic evidence is part of the ongoing investigation but he declined to reveal what it was. 

Last Wednesday the police announced that the case was reopened and since then they have received tips from the public following media reports about the cold case. 

Nassau County Executive Ed Mangano, who attended the press conference, said that all Crime Stoppers rewards are funded through private donations. Anyone with information about the murder of Chaim Weiss is encouraged to call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-244-TIPS. All calls will remain anonymous. 

“There is somebody out there that knows a secret,” Azzata said. “I’m looking for that person to give me that secret.” 


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