Two Men Charged After Bodies of Four Missing Men Found

  

 

The bodies of four young Pennsylvania men who went missing last week have been found.  Hours after finding a fourth body buried in a farm here, authorities charged two men with multiple counts of homicide in what authorities said were marijuana deals that turned murderous.  Cosmo Dinardo and his cousin Sean Kratz, both 20, were denied bail in preliminary arraignments.  Bucks County District Attorney Matthew Weintraub announced that the bodies of the young men who went missing last week had been found buried on a farm owned by Dinardo’s parents in Solebury Township.

The victims were identified as 19-year-old Dean Finocchiaro, Mark Sturgis, 22, Tom Meo, 21, who disappeared together and Jimi Tar Patrick, 19.  The defense attorney for Cosmo NiNardo, 20, said his client admitted to killing the four in three separate shootings, and told authorities the location of the bodies.  DiNardo is ready to plead guilty to four counts of first-degree murder in order to take the death penalty off the table.

Jimi Patrick was the first to go missing and days later- the three other men disappeared.  Investigators had focused their search on a property a few miles from the Delaware River, a farm owned by the parents of Cosmo Dinardo, the man who has been identified as a “person of interest” in the case.

Dinardo was initially charged with trying to sell Meo’s car, a 1996 Nissan Maxima and was being held in jail on $5 million cash bail after being deemed a flight risk.  Dinardo confessed his involvement in the disappearances, implicated Kratz, and gave information about the location of the fourth victim, police say.  Dinardo has a history of unspecified mental illness, and he was previously involuntarily committed to a mental health institution after firing a shotgun, authorities said.

In the arrest affidavit Dinardo told police that on July 5 he agreed to sell four pounds of marijuana for $8,000 to Jimi Patrick.  Dinardo picked Patrick up at his home and drove him to the farm but Patrick only had $800, the affidavit states. Dinardo then offered to sell Patrick a shotgun for that amount.  Dinardo took Patrick to a remote part of the property and gave him a shotgun. Dinardo then shot and killed Patrick with a .22 caliber rifle and buried his body six feet deep using a backhoe.

Two days later, Dinardo said he and Kratz, decided to rob Dean Finocchiaro during a drug deal. Dinardo told police he gave Kratz his mother’s Smith and Wesson .357 handgun for the robbery.  They met at Finocchiaro’s home and went to the farm.  Dinardo told police, Kratz shot Finocchiaro near a barn and the put his remains in a metal tank.   Kratz’s account of the killing describes Dinardo as the shooter.

Dinardo had a deal in place that same night to sell marijuana to Thomas Meo.  Dinardo met Meo and his friend Mark Sturgis and the two followed him to his farm where Kratz was waiting.  Dinardo and Kratz described Dinardo shooting Meo in the back and shooting at Sturgis as he tried to flee. According to the police affidavit, Dinardo said after he ran out of ammunition, he drove a backhoe over Meo’s body. Afterwards, they put the bodies in the metal tank, poured gasoline inside and set it on fire.  They returned the next day to bury the tank 12 feet deep using a backhoe.