Warning: Graphic content, readers’ discretion advised. This story contains a recollection of crime and can be triggering to some readers discretion advised.
police say a young connecticut man was stabbed to death in manhattan high -rise whose body then was driven to new jersey and buried in a shallow grave.
how did a night ….
on the town end in murder ?
and a handsome hockey player
buried in a shallow grave
who killed joseph (joey) comunale
the savage murder of a good kid who was stabbed at a night out partying with aquaintances and reportedly thrown out of a window .
has shocked new york city to its core.
the killing has left his father stunned.
a mystery man who was with joey in his final hours have new information
about the fateful night in manhattan.
joey may have been stabbed as many as 15 times .
his dead body driven to a remote area 50 miles away near the jersey shore
where it was lit on fire and buried in a shallow grave.
joe’s close friends from college sharing their shock.
” we were brothers,joe’s the type of kid that loocked out cor everyone. it’s just hard to see someone so good go so early”
it was saturday night , joe left his home in stamford connecticut headed to manhattan neighborhood of chelsea.
he went to Gilden lily night club. popular with the rich and famous. cops say joey met a few girls at the club
and some point that night he also met two rich club kids . james rackover and lawrence dilione.
rackover is the so called adopted son of jeffrey rackover , known as the jeweler to the stars.
jeffrey’s reputation is to an imeccable jeweler now sells it to jennifer lopez to kardashians, donald trump and he has a great clientel.
privat investigator bo dietl and former NYPD homicide detective bo dietl has been friends with the jeweler for 30 years and speaking to crime watch daily on his behalf.
” jeffrey said to me,this is the son i always whished i have . love him like he was my biological son”
crime watch dealy has learned that rackover whose real name is james budon has a long rap sheet alleged crimes including armed robbery .
he met jeffrey when he packed up from forida and moved to manhattan .
cops say that at about 4 am joey , rackover and dilione left the club with three women . the party continued at rackover’s posh fourth floor apartmet on east 59th street .
joe was reportedly spotted on surveillance video entering the buildig after daybreak sunday.
it was the last time he was seen alive.
that morning rackover asked the building doorman about the surveillance cameras
the cameras were focused on on the front of the building not the back or side where the body was allegedly dropped.
the one thing the surveillance reportedly do show , a male from rackover’s apartment wheeling out a couple of suitcases and loading them into mercedes owned by the jeweler.
the NYPD says rackover and dilione are the prime suspects.
what they aren’t clear about , is the motive.was it a fight,did joey reject a sexual advance?
” i don’t know, that i don’t know -again that’s all hypothetic in my mind and anything about this homosexual stuff i have real no knowledge if that , my own real feeling ,something went crazy there and something so crazy where a person stabbed 15 times .it’s very horrific”
detectives conducted an extensive search of rackover’s apartment.
they say luminol revealed bllod stains all over the gory crime scene which had been exhaustively cleaned. they recovered about 32 pieces of evidence at the 59th street location, blood on clothing substantial also bleach appears to be bleach on that clothing as well in order to cover up.
cops believe the pair drove the body into new jersey
cops say they buried joey behind a flower store .
that grave site is than a mile from where dilione grew up along with his good friend and roommate max Gemma.
throughyjr investigation that max Gemma was at rackover’s apartment at some point that night.
sources tell the young men used to play in this wooded area behind they weren’t the night joey died .now the big question- what does max Gemma know ,if anything?
After cops arrested dilione and rackover they were brought into the 13th precinct in gramery park
Dillion reportedly told the cops where they could find the body.
now in jail , rackover is denying his involvement.
headline in the new york daily news ” a killer? who me?!”
in a jailhouse interview rackover tells the newspaper DAILY NEWS : this is complete ****i’ve never seen this kid. i don’t know who he is .”
Rackover says he never left his apartment that night,instead staying home to watch a UFC match
max Gemma reportedly has retained an attorney and isn’t talking. but no one suggesting he had any involvement whatsoever in the crime and is only a potential witness .
a witness to what we’re not sure.
dilione and rackover where both arrested on second -degree murder but not yet charged because cops don’t know who may have wielded the knife .they are charged with concealment of a human corps and tampering with physical evidence.
each held in jail on three million dollars bond.
bo dietl says “ther’s no way his friend jeffrey rackover is going to bail out his so -called adopted son” he dosen’t want to have anything to do with james anymore.and he says ,”this is finished because certainly there’s a bail there, if he puts the bail he’s scared to be around them.”
The murder of joey comunale sent shock waves through new york city.
he was stabbed 15 times, throwing out a window,his partially burned body dumped in the woods
joey’s grief -stricken father pat
joey was a strapping 27 year old ,good-looking ,popular
a star hokey player at Hofstra university .
pat says with that competitive streak ,joey had no trouble making friends.
joey didn’t return home to stamford that night.
his dad couldn’t get a hold of him all day sunday, he was worried sick. he text him and usually when he text him he’ll get right back to his father. but he didn’t tect him and his father called him and thought something wasn’t right.pat start calling his friends.
and that’s when one of joeys friends said to pat while they were in the city and they got home but joey wanted to stay, he met some people .so right of the bat joeys father said ” this is not good , this is sunday afternoon he’s nowhere to be found”
pat , joey”s father knew something was wrond and wound up going to the standford police departement.
joe was reportedly spotted on surveillance video entering the building after daybreak on sunday morning. pat says detective showed him the video .
from the video it’s 5:30 in the morning.they walk out to the street,the girls getting an Uber. and you see joey and this other guy walk back into the building . then the porter was bringing garbage out to the street. joey’s father pat said to the cops that they got to check those bags because he told the cops he just knew . that he didn’t leave on his own.
the police believer the body was thrown out of the window but the surveillance cameras weren’t trained on that part of the building. so what may have happened inside james rankover’s fourth floor apartment.
how did cops put rackov and dilione in our sight ?
this guys live on social media and the clues that night were all over the internet.social media played a big role in identifying potential suspects
when joe went missing and pat started calling his friends.his friends started calling
they promoted at the club they were at .
everybody post pictures and friends saw pictures of the girls joey was with and the promoters said they knew one of the girls and gave the number.
rankover and dilione aren’t out of jail anytime soon with a bail of three million each .
joey’s friends vowed to be inthe courtroom when the men faced trial.
” every single day we will be there,there is no justice for this no matter what happens to those scumbags”
and now pat and his wife have to do the unthinkable…..
bury their son , the victim of one of the most horrific murderes in recent history.