The ex-wife of Levi Aron said today she is stunned by his arrest for the grisly murder of an 8-year-old boy — calling him a good husband who was great with children.
“I am in shock. I am not believing this,” Debbie Kivel, 34, told The Post after hearing the news. “He loved children. He loved kids. My kids are now 13 and 10, but when we were married they were younger – and he loved them.”
MISSING 8-YEAR-OLD BROOKLYN BOY FOUND DEAD
Kivel, who lived with Aron in Tennessee, said she spoke with her ex just a few days ago.
“I just talked to him — he seemed like normal Levi,” she said. “Everything sounded fine and normal. This is totally out of character.”
Kivel says she met Aron on sawyouatsinai.com, a Jewish matchmaking site, and they were married in March 2006.
Nothing he did gave even the slightest hint he could be capable of such a heinous crime, she said.
“He worked real hard to keep us in the apartment,” she said of his job as a security guard. “Everyone loved Levi, he never had a problem with anyone.”
They split a year later due to “a clash of character,” she said, but the Jewish divorce did not go through until 2008.
“It was more like brother/sister,” she said, of the relationship.
But her father, Michael Kivel, said he had earlier misgivings about his former son-in-law.
“He was creepy person,” he said, not wishing to elaborate. “I gather he went to the Hebrew School, but wasn’t smart enough and dropped out.”
jeremy.olshan@nypost.com