A North Carolina mother believed to have fatally shot her husband and herself in a horror murder-suicide was distraught by the loss of her only two children in nightmarish circumstances. 

Tracey Willetts, 58, was found dead next to her husband Stephen, 65, in their home in Wilmington, North Carolina, on Thursday morning – just a day after their 40th wedding anniversary.

Police said evidence suggested Tracey shot her husband in their garage before turning the gun on herself, with investigators saying they are still searching for a motive. 

However, former family friend Tori Racca told the Daily Mail that Tracey had been left bereft by the deaths of her two sons, Zack and Colby, who passed within a year of each other in 2013 and 2014, respectively. 

Zack died aged 23 by suicide, soon after he returned from deployment to Japan and Afghanistan with the National Guard. Colby died months later aged 21, following a battle with Duchenne muscular dystrophy. 

Racca said the Willetts family tragically knew that Colby ‘was going to die’ for years before he passed, but it was Zack’s death that left his parents reeling and searching for answers. 

‘He knew his brother was going to die, so they thought, why would he do that to them?’ Racca said. 

‘[Tracey] was devastated.’

Tracey Willetts, 58, was found dead next to her husband Stephen, 65, in their home in Wilmington, North Carolina, in a suspected murder-suicide 

A family friend told the Daily Mail that the 2013 suicide of the couple’s son Zack Willett (pictured), a National Guard soldier who had been deployed to Japan and Afghanistan, devastated the family 

Just a year after Zack died, his brother Colby passed away aged 21 following a battle with Duchenne muscular dystrophy

The deaths of Tracey and Stephen Willetts were discovered by police when a smartwatch one of them was wearing detected a fall and called 911. 

Officers gained entry through a garage door and found the couple, who were both pronounced dead at the scene. 

Racca said she first saw the news of the deaths in their community without knowing who the victims were, and said she ‘never would have thought’ it was the loving couple she once knew. 

She said she had grown apart from the couple in recent years, but was once very close with Tracey as her son was Zack’s best friend – who she described as ‘like another son’ to her. 

Recalling Tracey as a ‘great person’ and loving mother back when her sons were alive, she said she is stunned that the woman she once knew could allegedly be a killer. 

‘She was not some crazy lunatic,’ she insisted. ‘She was just a mom with a really sad story.’ 

Racca said Zack’s suicide in 2013 upended the family, and left Tracey searching for answers as she ‘didn’t believe’ her son could take his own life. 

The loss of the couple’s son Zach soon after he returned home from deployment left the family ‘devastated,’ a family friend said, and had them questioning: ‘He knew his brother was going to die… so why would he do that to them?’

The couple were remembered by their loved ones and former friends as loving parents, but the loss of their two sons Zach and Colby upended their lives 

Neighbors described Stephen as a friendly man who would always engage in a conversation, while a friend of Tracey’s said she always wanted to do the right thing for people in her community

Deputies were called to the scene of their Wilmington home after one of their smartwatches detected a fall and the alarm wasn’t turned off

She said Tracey could not come to terms with his passing and told people that she ‘believed something else happened.’ 

According to the family friend, Tracey would tell people a suicide note apparently left by Zack ‘didn’t match his handwriting,’ and said he ordered a pizza beforehand that convinced her he was not planning on ending his life.

‘[The suicide note] was also very vague and didn’t explain anything, and it didn’t say “I love you” or anything like that,’ Racca explained.

‘He knew his brother was going to die, so why would he do that to them?’ 

Racca also recalled the callous way that North Carolina authorities handled the suicide.

She told of how cops dumped Zack’s blood-soaked mattress to the street and left his family to ‘clean up the mess.’

‘He had his feet hanging off the side of the bed… they made her clean it up. It really affected them,’ she said. 

In another tragedy, Racca said her ex-boyfriend, who was ‘like a second son’ to them after their son’s deaths, also committed suicide in 2022.

‘I tried to call around [after the murder-suicide] but there was nobody left close to them… they’re all dead.’

Following Tracey and Stephen Willetts’s deaths, Tracey’s second cousin Fuller Royal said on social media that he also believed the loss of their sons deeply affected the couple.

‘I can’t begin to imagine how much that hurt and what they went through,’ Royal wrote. ‘I pray they are reunited with their boys and that everyone is whole, safe and at peace.’ 

A former close friend of the family said the Willett home was known as the ‘hangout spot’ for their friend group, and they had no inclination that the family would be involved in such a tragedy. (Pictured: Zack in high school as a standout football player)

Royal also used his post to remember the family, describing Stephen as a ‘lifelong friend’ who ‘helped a lot of people’ during his work as an EMT.

Others remembered Stephen for his friendly personality, with neighbor Wyatt Heartline saying ‘he was always down to have a conversation.’

‘I’m a runner and he’d often ask me how my progress is going or walking our dogs and just a brief “hello,”‘ he recounted to WECT. ‘He was consistent and one of the friendliest people I’ve met around here.

‘The neighborhood is thoroughly shocked,’ the neighbor added.

Another neighbor, Andy Johnson, said he would regularly see Stephen walking his dog.

‘He’s retired Army,’ he said of the former EMT. ‘I was in the Army myself, so we spent a lot of time talking in the afternoons and stuff as he came by.’

Meanwhile, a friend of Tracey’s told WWAY that she was someone who always wanted to do the right thing for people in her community.

The couple was also well-known in the Wrightsville Beach paddleboarding community, with Jared Covington, the owner of Wrightsville SUP, saying he had known them for more than a decade.

‘We became like family, just sharing a love for being outside on the water, paddleboarding,’ Covington said.

He remembered the couple as being energetic, outgoing and devoted to one another.