Report: Mother of Commack Grad Allegedly Tried to Hide Murder

The mother of Commack graduate Gabriel Philby-Zetsche is not only being accused of murdering her son, but allegedly went to lengths in effort to cover it up, according to local police. 

Times Union reports that Lucy Rafa, landlord of the apartment 52-year-old Tracy Zetsche and her late son shared, said the former Commack mother refused to let her show the apartment to new potential tenants on July 26 - the day an autopsy revealed Philby-Zetsche was murdered. 

Philby-Zetsche, 22, a 2009 Commack High School graduate, His mother has been arrested and charged with second-degree murder.

Authorities said  they believe Zetsche allegedly murdered her son in the bedroom, stabbing him in the head and chest with three different knives, before striking his skull with a hammer more than 20 times, according to Times Union.  

Albany County Sherif Craig Apple said investigators found three knives and a hammer believed to be the murder weapon in a trash not far from the scene, as well as bloody towels and bedsheets.

"She tried to clean up, she opened the windows, pointed fans out to air the place out," Apple said of Tracey Zetzsche to Times Union. "She was trying to conceal evidence. She knew what she was doing. She just didn't know her next move when it came to the body."

As news of his Philby-Zetsche's death has reached Long Island, friends and former classmates to express their shock, say goodbye and 

Read more on Times Union about the what investigators found and the landlord witnessed leading up to and after Zetsche-Philby's murder.