Police have arrested 2 suspects in the murder of a Connecticut man who was stabbed 15 times and buried in a shallow grave.
James Rackover, 25, of Manhattan, and his accomplice Lawrence Dilione, 28, of Jersey City, N.J., were arrested Thursday in connection with the savage murder of Joseph Comunale, 26.
Police say Comunale partied with Rackover, Dilione and others at the suspect’s apartment on Saturday night. Police believe drugs and hormones were used at the party.
At some point Rackover or Dilione stabbed Comunale 15 times inside Rackover’s blood-spattered apartment on E. 59th Street.
“We believe something apparently went south in the apartment after partying all night,” a police source told the NY Post.
A source told the Post the attack occurred after Comunale, who is heterosexual, refused the advances of another man at the party.
Rackover was already in police custody when he was charged with Comunale’s murder. Police took him into custody Wednesday for driving without a license or insurance.
Rackover retained an attorney and refused to cooperate with police.
His accomplice, Dilione, turned himself in on Wednesday and confessed to the crime. Dilione led investigators to Comunale’s shallow grave behind a florist’s shop in Oceanport, NJ.
The suspects attempted to burn the body after dousing the victim with gasoline. Comunale suffered multiple internal injuries and his pelvis was fractured, leading police to speculate the two men threw his body out of a 3rd story window.
Communale was last seen with Rackover on surveillance video near his posh Manhattan apartment on Saturday. He had been reported missing by his father.
The NY Post reports cops found blood inside the apartment and on clothing worn by Rackover and Dilione.
The expensive rent for Rackover’s 1-bedroom Manhattan apartment and the Mercedes Benz were paid for by celebrity jeweler-to-the-stars Jeffrey Rackover, pictured below left with James Rackover.
The jeweler’s well-heeled clientele includes Oprah Winfrey, Denzel Washington and President-elect Donald Trump, whom Jeffrey helped pick out a diamond ring for incoming First Lady Melania Trump.
Rackover, who was born James Beaudoin, took the older man’s last name after the 2 men met at a gym 3 years ago.
A friend tells The Post the jeweler and Rackover had a father-son relationship.
“They go out and have dinner, and the kid says, ‘You know what? My father left me. I never had a father,'” said Bo Dietl, a private investigator and close friend of the elder Rackover.
“Jeffrey starts talking about he never had a son, he always wanted a son. You know the old expression: No good deed goes unpunished,” said Dietl. “This is the perfect frigging example.”
