Bucks County prosecutors have charged two 20-year-old men with the murders of four young men who went missing last week under suspicious circumstances.
As CrimeOnline previously reported, Cosmo DiNardo confessed to the quadruple homicide on Thursday and indicated there was another person involved. Later Thursday, police arrested a second person of interest.
In a statement on its website, the Bucks County District Attorney’s office announced that Sean Kratz, believed to be a relative of DiNardo, has also been charged in connection with the murders of Dean Finocchiaro, 19, of Middletown Township; Thomas Meo, 21, of Plumstead Township; and Mark Sturgis, 22, of Pennsburg, Montgomery County. It appears that DiNardo was alone when he killed Jimi Patrick, 19.
According to an affidavit, DiNardo confessed to shooting all four of the men but said that Kratz fired the first shot at Finocchiaro before DiNardo took the gun and fired a second shot. Kratz has reportedly denied this. Both men confessed to burying the bodies on the Soledad Township property owned by DiNardo’s family. The suspects first put three of the bodies in a metal tank, which DiNardo reportedly referred to as a “pig roaster,” according to court documents obtained by the Morning Call. The suspects then used a backhoe to dig a 12-foot grave, burying the tank there.
Patrick’s body was found in a six-foot grave elsewhere on the property.
Dinardo told police that he met all four of the victims to sell them large quantities of marijuana. Patrick was the first to be killed, on July 5, after agreeing to purchase $8,000 worth of marijuana. DiNardo reportedly picked Patrick up at home and drove him to the Soledad Township property, where he discovered that Patrick only had $800. DiNardo then offered to sell him a gun for that price, and brought him to to another area of the property. There, he shot and killed Patrick with a .22-caliber rifle.
A motive for the murders is not yet clear.
The Bucks County District Attorney’s office believes DiNardo acted alone in murdering Patrick, but Kratz is charged in the murders of the other three men.
Kratz and DiNardo were together on July 7 when they picked up Dean Finocchiaro and brought him to the farm property to sell him a quarter pound of marijuana for $700. The two suspects reportedly planned to rob Finocchiaro. When the three men arrived to the property, DiNardo claims Kratz shot Finocchiaro in the head, and that DiNardo shot him again while he was on the ground.
The same day, DiNardo reportedly drove to meet Thomas Meo and Mark Sturgis in Peddler’s Village, and the two men got into DiNardo’s truck to go to the DiNardo family property to conduct a marijuana transaction. Kratz was there waiting for them, and DiNardo said he first shot Meo as he exited the truck. Sturgis tried to run away, but DiNardo shot him several times as he tried to escape.
DiNardo told police he then ran over Meo’s body with a backhoe, before he and Kratz put the bodies in the metal tank with Finocchiaro.
In a press conference Friday afternoon, Bucks County District Attorney Matthew Weintraub said there was still some key information pertaining to the investigation that he could not yet share with the media. He said he was satisfied that the two suspects responsible for the murders were in custody but that investigators remained open to the possibility that others may have been involved.
Weintraub said he did not believe the bodies were burned as was reported on Thursday. He said it appeared that the suspects may have tried to burn them but were not successful.
Feature photo: Bucks County Sheriff’s Office (DiNardo/Kratz)
