Philip P. Looby, 49, wears scrubs as he is led into district court in Lower Saucon Township for a preliminary arraignment on a charge of criminal homicide Monday afternoon. He is accused of killing his mother, Mary Anne E. Looby, 70, inside her home at 1997 West Point Drive in Lower Saucon Township.
The man accused of killing his mother in her Lower Saucon Township home allegedly told officers who responded to the scene “you are not going to like what you find” when he answered the door of 1997 West Point Drive Monday morning.
Police revealed that Tuesday in a Crimewatch post about the homicide–the first in the township in many years–for which Philip Patrick Looby, 49, of the 1000 block of E. Fourth Street, Bethlehem, is charged.
Looby is accused of killing his mother, Mary Anne E. Looby, 70, sometime before officers responded to assist Bethlehem police with a welfare check at her home around 9:25 a.m. Monday.
Township police were dispatched for the welfare check after the Bethlehem City Communications Center received information that Philip Looby had allegedly killed his mother, according to information contained in court papers.
In their criminal complaint filed in district court Monday, police said that after arriving for the welfare check they knocked on the front door and “as they waited for a response they observed Philip Looby walking down the stairs of the residence from the second floor,” talking on a cell phone as he did so.
When Looby answered the door “the officers observed blood on his hands,” according to the complaint, and Looby allegedly told them they weren’t going to like what they found when they informed him that they were going to check on his mother.
Mary Anne Looby’s body was subsequently found on the home’s first floor and Northampton County Coroner Zachary Lysek was called to the scene, where he declared her deceased and determined the manner of her death to be homicide.
Lysek “observed numerous sharp force and blunt force injuries to (her body), some of which appeared to be defensive wounds,” the criminal complaint says.
The booking photo for Philip P. Looby, 49, of Bethlehem, who is accused of killing his mother inside her home on West Point Drive in Lower Saucon Township.
Lysek also reportedly observed blood and “bloody foot impressions” on the floor of the home as well as “a broken and bloody candle base in the vicinity of the (victim),” according to the complaint.
Philip Looby allegedly had what appeared to be blood on his hands and body, and after police took him into custody at the scene he “made the unsolicited statement that his mother came after him with an Exacto knife and he defended himself,” the complaint states.
At Monday’s news conference about the killing, Lysek said Mary Anne Looby was “ambulatory” in spite of pre-existing medical conditions.
Law enforcement officials Monday said additional information about Looby’s time and manner of death could be determined by conducting a forensic autopsy, which was scheduled to be conducted Tuesday.
Following his arrest Monday, Philip Looby was taken to township police headquarters about a mile from the crime scene before being arraigned on a single count of criminal homicide before District Judge Alan Mege at District Court 03-2-04 a short distance away.
Looby was then incarcerated at Northampton County Prison without bail, where he remains.
Court records do not yet list a defense attorney for Looby.
A preliminary hearing for Looby is scheduled for 9 a.m. Feb. 15 before Judge Mege.
Police said Tuesday that the investigation into this case is ongoing, with township police receiving assistance from the Northampton County District Attorney’s Office, Pennsylvania State Police and the Northampton County Coroner’s Office.
