"We're all in shock - no one could have imagined this would happen," said Sara Shulevitz Vorhand, a criminal defense attorney who co-heads the Congregation Heichal Moshe synagogue on West 91st Street, where Alishayiv worked as a custodian. "We're desperately trying to get the body back so we could properly say goodbye to him," she said, noting that Jewish law calls for immediate burial.