A mass grave has been found.
By Emily Blackwood — Written on Jul 13, 2017
What started out a case of four missing men, has now officially turned into a homicide.
Pennsylvania police confirmed that human remains were identified as one of the missing men, 19-year-old Dean Finocchiaro. The remains were found in a mass grave on a sprawling farm in suburban Philadelphia owned by the DiNardo family. Police arrested the family's son, 20-year-old Cosmo DiNardo, on charges he tried to sell the car of one of the missing men.
Jimi Tar Patrick, 19, of Newtown Township, has been missing since Wednesday, while Finocchiaro, Mark Sturgis, 22, of Pennsburg, and Tom Meo, 21, of Plumstead, all disappeared Friday.
Though DiNardo hasn't officially been charged with homicide, and it's unclear how many other bodies were found in the grave, but police said they plan on pursuing those charges as more information comes to light.
"I feel that we bought ourselves a little bit of time in charging Mr. DiNardo with the stolen car case today and getting that 5 million dollar bail," Bucks County District Attorney Matthew Weintraub said at a press conference. "It is my hope that he does not post that but that is his prerogative of course if he can post it, but we’re going to start looking seriously at the homicide charges and in fact we already have pursued that option."
Here are the top five most important details we've found about this case:
1. It's unclear how all the men know each other — and if they know DiNardo.
Meo and Sturgis are friends, according to Sturgis' father, and were last seen together Friday. He also said that Finocchiaro is a mutual friend of the two.
Police have said that they think all four men may know each other, but haven't confirmed that.
Patrick went to the same all-boys Catholic High School, Holy Ghost Preparatory School, as DiNardo, and was a year behind him. He was the first of the men to vanish, and he and DiNardo were Facebook friends. They were also a part of a public Facebook group for buying and selling sneakers.
A friend of DiNardo’s told Heavy.com that the person of interest is a friend of Finocchiaro’s, but that hasn't been confirmed by police.
2. The grave is big, and we don't know everything that is in it.
Police are currently digging in a 12-foot-deep grave that was uncovered by cadaver dogs on a 90-acre farm in Solebury Township. So far, one one of the men's humans remains have been identified, and police said they unearthed a "number of bodies," but didn't say how many.
The only other piece of evidence that's been released so far from the farm was Meo's 1996 Nissan Maxima, which DiNardo was arrested for trying to sell for $500 the day after Meo went missing. Keys and "life-saving medication" were found in the vehicle.
3. People who know DiNardo said he's talked about killing people before.
People have be reported saying that DiNardo had talked about killing people in the past. They said he also used to sell weed and guns.
“I can tell you on multiple different occasions, on multiple different accounts, from multiple different people, including myself — Cosmo has spoken about weird things like killing people and having people killed," said Eric Beitz, 20. "Everybody you talk to about this guy, you hear he’s mentally unstable.”
Beitz also said that DiNardo once bragged about killing someone over a debt. Another of DiNardo’s friends told Heavy.com that he would regularly “threaten to shoot people” as well as harass girls online.
On his social media accounts, he had posted photos of bullets along with photos of him hunting and deep-sea fishing.
4. DiNardo has been to a mental health facility.
DiNardo was first arrested on an unrelated gun charge, which was reported as a violation of mental health laws. He had a Savage Arms 20 gauge shotgun and ammunition, a gun that he was forbidden to own under Pennsylvania law because he had once been committed to a mental health hospital.
Neighbors of DiNardo described him as "pretty nutty," and a "scary kid." Friends of DiNardos also reported that about six months before his arrest, he injured his head during a quad biking accident and was stranded in the woods for a day and a half. Apparently, it resulted in frontal lobe damage, and he began using a synthetic marijuana drug afterwards.
The same friend told Heavy.com that DiNardo had an IQ of around 158, and said he is "extremely smart and deceptive and knows his way around forensic data.”
5. Finocchiaro has a record.
Finocchiaro, who may have been a friend of DiNardo's, has been arrested multiple times. He reportedly has two pending criminal cases in Bucks County Court and is facing charges of possession of drug paraphernalia, simple assault, conspiracy, and harassment, stemming from arrests earlier this year.