The Disturbing Case of Cosmo DiNardo

[Music] hey you and welcome my name is mike and in this here video we're going to pennsylvania which i think might be the first time we've gone there one of these old videos is it i think so can we cross that off the list this is the story of the memorably named cosmo dinardo who does who does sound like a marvel super villain the year 2017 the place books county eastern pennsylvania one strange week in july so if you're up for it let's get into it you and i sure may as [Music] well [Music] bucks county in eastern pennsylvania has a population of over 600 000 people it's filled with parks golf courses to the east you're smack dab between philadelphia and trenton to the west you're in some beautiful scenic and historic areas but we're not going to those we're going to a hot sunny july in 2017 when over the space of three days four young men mysteriously vanished the first to vanish was 19 year old jimmy patrick on the 5th of july it was a wednesday he left his home that he lived in with his grandparents in newtown township at 6 00 pm he told his granny he was popping out to get some grub wouldn't be long however by 2 am there was no sign of him his granny texted asking where he was 22 times she texted to which she got no reply and he never showed up for work the next morning the next day when jimmy's grandparents called the police they got a half-assed reply a brief report was filed they got a you know he'll he'll turn up eventually don't worry about it kind of answer then 19 year old dean finnocaro vanished the following friday dean was a troubled kid had a few run-ins with the law he both bought and sold drugs and his family were concerned about how he was turning out he also struggled with depression and had checked into a mental health facility but by july 2017 he he seemed to be getting his stuff together that day the 7th of july dean told his family he was heading out to meet a friend and he was last seen at about 6 30 p.m in middletown township his phone was off when his family tried to get in contact they contacted the friends they knew of and no dice and a missing person's report was filed for him too that same day the 7th of july at about 6 p.m 22 year old mark sturgis from bensalem told his dad he was going to meet up with his longtime bro 21 year old thomas mayo thomas and mark right they both worked together at a construction company owned by mark stadt but they were last seen that friday they never showed up for work on the saturday other than mark and thomas being best friends the four boys didn't know each other and it was very startling that four young men around the same age would vanish within a few days of each other three of them on the same day when mark and thomas were no show on saturday mark's dad began to worry after he couldn't get in touch with him via mobile phone as it went straight to voicemail he called thomas's parents hoping maybe he was with them or they knew something they were in the same boat they knew jack [ __ ] and were equally worried a police report was filed and the search began the very next day sunday mark's car was found at an outdoor shopping center about 30 minutes from where he lived and wouldn't thomas's car be found that same day how they found thomas's car was true one of the other missing fellas see as they went through dean finicaro's friends list they happened upon one they couldn't contact and they learned this friend owned a farm not far from where mark's car was found on a hunch they went up there it was a little dilapidated but in a shed they found thomas's car the title and keys of the car were there which was odd as was thomas tom's diabetic kit something he wouldn't leave behind and would be in big trouble without and the fourth missing person jimmy patrick his cell phone was pinned to that same location so there's four missing guys and clues about all of them are leading to this exact same place a guy on dean's friends list marx caravan there thomas's caravan there jimmy's phone traced there good afternoon authorities did just meet at this media staging area to give us an update on these disappearances the district attorney here in bucks county spoke saying all of the county resources are being dedicated to returning these men home safely last week is when the four men went missing here in bucks county those men include two teenagers and spawned this joint police investigation with local and state police from plumstead to middletown townships the missing men are jimmy tarpatric who was last seen on july 5 and reported missing after he never showed up to work that day two days later then gene excuse me dean finocchiaro went missing and the last reported sighting of him was getting into a vehicle near finocchiaro's home in langhorne also on july 7 is when mark sturgis and tom mayo went missing they were seen in the doylestown area together authorities overnight located the car of one of the missing men and then focused attention on a house along aquatong road police are not saying what they have found at that home or how it is relevant to this mysterious disappearance of four men here in bucks county there being a farm owned by the dinardo family the dinardo family had a son cosmo dinardo he was the one on dean finnocaro's friends list cosmo dinardo's story is really about how systems can fail and how those failures can create monsters cosmo was born to a wealthy family in 1997 and grew up in bensalem his parents antonio and sandra owned multiple companies a concrete company a delivery one so they could both produce and ship concrete and they were also part of the good old game known as real estate in 2005 the dinardos purchased a 90-acre property in solebury some 20 miles from bensalem it became a vacation spot for the family that included riding atvs deer hunting and of course shooting guns cosmo attended a private elementary school in bensalem he was good kid happy-go-lucky he even got peacemaker of the month because he was i guess so easygoing good for him he then went to prep school and was captain of the books candy bears until he had to call it quits on football due to several concussions and a neck injury now concussions you know are something that's come to the fore over the last decade or so as we learn more and more about their effects on the brain and brain injury we're still a long way off but you know we're learning more about them it's become a big thing in football so cozumel had quite a few and i think it's relevant now cosmo was intelligent and at a high iq he got a scholarship to arcadia university he was a biology major maybe thinking about becoming an orthodontist picks up those nashers but there was a dark side to cosmo see he would have about 30 encounters with the police quite a few nothing that would result in his arrest though you think that you know 30 times would kind of build up but he did come from a wealthy family so there were concerns over his mental health domestic incidents his alleged improper riding of an atv traffic citations so although there were quite a few maybe he was just a rich kid who thought you know the rules didn't apply to him but in 2015 there was a turning point that's really when the uh you know [ __ ] hit the fan he'd broken up with his girlfriend and a plan to become a navy seal hadn't worked out don't know how he got from orthodontist to navy seal but there you go in february 2016 he was diagnosed with a major depressive disorder he didn't complete the second semester of his freshman year at arcadia university and dropped out and in may 2016 cosmo was involved in an atv riding accident at the at the farm in sulbury he was pinned under the atv for hours fractured bones up and down his leg he would be in a wheelchair for a while after but the most important uh injury was to his head he had bleeding in his brain and his frontal lobe was damaged the frontal lobe helps govern personality and impulsivity so if it's damaged it's like uh someone cut the brakes if you will inside voice becomes outside voice anger aggression may be hard to control what happened to cosmo his um his switch done got flipped soon after the accident he started using k2 a synthetic cannabinoid that can have some unpredictable effects so now we're in doubly what's gonna happen territory because he wasn't getting any real help for his brain damage and now he's using a uh synthetic drug that could uh mess with how he saw the world which was already messed up but everybody around him was like ah he's fine don't worry about it be grant in july 2016 police got a call for help not far from the dinardo vacation home farm sandra cosmo's mother and cosmo got into a fight that turned physical cosmo bit his mother's arm and gave her a black eye just before jumping out of the car limping out into traffic and attempting to get into another woman's car claiming he was trying to escape a kidnapping he thought his mother was a russian spy and that he suspected she was poisoning his food so he refused to eat her cooking should have been a bit of a giveaway to how he was doing when the police arrived cosmo was handcuffed and he was admitted to a mental health institution he was diagnosed with bipolar disorder schizoaffective disorder and schizophrenia he said the voices in his head were telling him to be violent he'll start listening to them cosmo would be institutionalized three times in five months and he was put on different medications however as he was only institutionalized for brief periods at a time and was on and off his meds it did uh it did sweet [ __ ] all [Music] in december he attacked his dad antonio with a brick and so as you can imagine a family started to become quite worried about his mental state a few months later in early 2017 he was arrested while driving as he had a shotgun in his car with ammo you'd think you know leaving guns around a person in his state would be a bad idea you know just a thought he was arrested and charged with second-degree felony you know weapons charge as a person who has been involuntarily admitted to a mental institute he had no right to carry a firearm but those charges would be dismissed due to a paperwork issue so uh you can see quite a few things roulette slide let's slip as his condition deteriorated and it will continue to deteriorate the doctors even thought his bipolar disorder was in remission even though he was taking his meds every other day instead of every day his medication was reduced the issues he was going through psychologically weren't though so and it was around then right that two things happened both of which led to what happened one was he began running a drug business and the second was his friendship with one sean kratz sean kratz was cosmo's second cousin and let's just say he was probably the worst person cosmo could have been around not long before the gruesome twosome stuck up a friendship sean was investigated for his part in an attempted murder in philadelphia that left a man in a wheelchair sean had been shot in retaliation and walked with a limp now cosmo's parents they were worried about cosmo obviously and they were unaware of his new best friend's past because they were just happy cosmo had a friend because it seems like he had no friends whatsoever but they really should have picked up on what cosmo was posting on social media [Music] [Music] so we got all that and of course this selfie remarkable no one reported it and then in july 2017 four men disappeared the clues they left behind leading them to the dinardo farm and to cosmo himself i can tell you for sure that this investigation of course is a priority for us and for every agency involved and we've been working round the clock on it will not rest until we know exactly what happened district attorney in bucks county saying the police presence that we now see in solebury township all the resources in the county being dedicated they're searching a home over there again not saying what they're looking for and what they are finding police being very hush looked on this investigation saying they're focused on returning these men home safely they held the news conference here just a few minutes ago to really make a plea to the public and ask people with any information anyone with tips to come forward [Music] the county's district attorney immediately directed the search team to the 90-acre dinardo farm bringing in all terrain vehicles and heavy equipment for what was now considered a criminal investigation and on monday the 10th of july cosmo dinardo was labeled a person of interest he told the police sure yeah okay i was with dean that's the one person i was with the day he went missing but they got into some kind of fight and he left dean at the side of the road after that he did a bit of the old fishing was never near the dinardo farm the shotgun charge from a few months previous that was dismissed well they needed something to bring cosmo in you know so that was refiled cosmo was arrested on those weapons charges um but then you know the next day his dad antonio paid his bail it was 10 of a million books cosmo was out i didn't last long investigators hope four pennsylvania men who mysteriously vanished are alive a huge search is underway on this farm north of philadelphia now it belongs to the parents of a person of interest cosmo dinardo he was released last night after posting 10 percent of his 1 million bail for an unrelated weapons charge demarco morgan is outside the property in new hope with how the strange disappearances have rocked the community demarco good morning good morning norah the district attorney says the search at this farm is the largest of its kind in the county's history he hasn't revealed why they are focusing on this location but he's confident investigators are on the right track this picturesque part of pennsylvania is one of the safest in the state but the disappearance of the four young men has shocked the community it's frightening i have a 20 year old and i'm concerned what happened to these boys nearly 100 state and local police have been joined by fbi agents and u.s marshals in the all-out search they are using everything from hand sifting tools to heavy equipment says bucks county district attorney matt weintraub it's 90-some acres and we're going through it with the equivalent of a fine toothed comb families of the missing have been keeping vigil on the edge of the farm cadaver dogs have been brought in but no human remains have been found investigators are clinging to the possibility the missing men are still alive i have hope i think that it's very important to hang on to hope until there is no room left for it 19-year-old jimmy patrick a loyola university freshman disappeared last wednesday dean finocchiaro 19 mark sturgis 22 and tom meal 21 vanished two days later 20-year-old cosmo dinardo who was arrested monday on an unrelated charge has not been named a suspect police say he suffers from mental illness meanwhile a massive search was underway on the dinardo property however cosmo being out didn't last long either when he was arrested again for different charges see a friend of cosmos came forward saying that cosmo had sold thomas's car the one they found for 500 bucks cosmo was then charged with stolen property and theft he was set on five million dollars bail everyone a person of interest was just arraigned on new charges that is correct cosmo dinardo was arraigned inside the judge's chambers behind me just about 45 50 minutes ago he's currently on his way to the bucks county correctional facility as we show you some video a picture of him this time bail was set at 5 million dollars cash that's the highest bail amount the judge has ever set it means the family cannot bond him out at 10 percent of that amount which is what happened yesterday when he was being held on one million dollars for a weapons charge and his family came up with a hundred thousand dinardo now stands accused of taking the car of one of the four missing men and trying to sell it to a friend for 500 dollars no getting out this time especially when on thursday the 13th of july the remains of tree men were recovered from a pig roaster that had been dug in a 12-foot deep grave investigators uncovered a mass grave that contains multiple human remains the more than 12-foot deep hole is on a 90-acre farm this is a homicide make no mistake about it the bodies were identified as mark thomas and dean no sign of jimmy the first person to go missing yeah and cosmo confessed to the murders the next day sean kratz ii was arrested and charged with three counts of homicide officials said that the murders sprang from three separate deals right where cosmo and sean were gonna sell uh the four young men between a couple of ounces and a couple of pounds of the wacky tobaccoli missing young men were buyers in fact cosmo knew jimmy from prep school and he knew dean from atv riding but they had no explanation for you know why at the time a few you know minuscule little drug deals you know why that could lead to this during his confession cosmo told the investigators that on july 5th he agreed to sell jimmy four pounds of marijuana for eight thousand dollars you're selling drugs right i was middle-manning the ultimate problems this particular deal i was not making any money i was just you know get him a good price on a large quantity of marijuana cosmo drove to jimmy's house picked him up and then drove jimmy to the farm there cosmo said jimmy admitted he only had eight hundred dollars and so cosmo offered to sell him a shotgun instead the gun sale did not happen instead cosmo shot jimmy dead okay well let me see you know the 8 000 let me see the money so i gotta count the money there's 800 bucks there so i'm like dude if you don't have the money like this this is horrible this is not good for me i said well i could sell you a gun so we get out of the truck i handed a shotgun you know set a frame that was the beginning of cosmo's killing spree with sean helping them out on july 7th two days later they drove to dean's home to sell him weed but decided on the way that they would rob him and murder him instead sean cosmo picked him up in middletown township and drove him to the farm as well earlier that day cosmo had taken his mother's hidden handgun a magnum when they got to a barn on the farm dean was shot in the back of the head several times with this gun allegedly by sean after he was down cosmo shot him one or two more times in the back of the head where are you going to meet up with a drug deal this is pre-planned yeah once he's a bio quarter-pounder i don't have a quarter pound i have two ounces so he picked dean up now this was a robbery he was gonna you know rob him in the woods by himself on the bottom and kill him he did so we come back into the barn you know we're looking at the best by ad and when we stopped looking at that dean turned around to go walk out when i went to turn i just heard my shots go off dean goes down face down i took the gun from trump and i shoot you know i think once or twice i don't know how many times i shot why was he not dead no he was dead okay but i just just finished you know just i just shot him i'm not lying he was dead even his head was split split the hell open his brain you probably found it his brain his body was then wrapped in a blue tarp and placed into a metal tank he called the pig roaster an old oil tank that had been converted into a cooker and they weren't quite done yet that same day another meeting was arranged to sell weed this time to thomas mayo cosmo headed out to meet him at the shopping center where mark's car would be found while sean stayed at the farm once they met up it turned out to cosmo's surprise that thomas was not alone he was in the company of his best buddy mark sturgis cosmo convinced them to head over to the farm where the transaction would be carried out mark got into thomas's car and they followed cosmo to the farm upon arriving the boys sensed that something was off and as soon as they turned their backs to cosmo and sean cosmo shot thomas first who fell to the ground screaming he said something's not right so when they turn their backs on me i shoot tom in the back and drop him mark's like what the uh he was such a big kid i loaded the gun on cosmo then turned the gun on mark who was killed trying to run away but thomas wasn't dead uh the bullet had hit his spine he was paralyzed on the ground and cosmo was and cosmo was out of ammunition he's paralyzed because i can't feel my legs i can't feel my legs i went and grabbed the machine because he's screaming now i mean i'm surprised the neighbors think why are you shooting them again i'm out of bolts raymond going crazy sean's like got his head in his hands i grab tobacco you know he sees that come and just shut the [ __ ] up and i just run him over afterwards cosmo used the same machinery to put both bodies into the same tank that held dean's body and they tried to burn the bodies [Music] after that cosmo and sean boat showed up at the dinardo home in bensalem and according to sandra you know cosmo's mother they were in great form she even texted vanessa shawn's mother the next day when the boys were reported missing cosmo and sean returned to the farm to cover their tracks cosmo would show the police to jimmy's body which was buried on the farm and due to that and his confession he avoided the death penalty he pled guilty to four counts of first-degree murder along with additional counts of robbery abuse of a corpse conspiracy possession of instruments of crime and illegal firearms possession cosmo was sentenced to four consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole sean was offered a plea bargain first a mandatory prison sentence of a minimum of 59 years he turned the prosecutors down and the case would go to trial you know sean actually wanted the death penalty as you wanted to become notorious wow look at you talk about courtroom drama here in doylestown members of each of the victims families were there as cosmo dinardo admitted in court that he committed those horrific crimes up in bucks county last july then dinardo's cousin as you mentioned at the last second rejected a plea deal linked to his alleged role in three of those murders still when it comes to cosmo dinardo we now know he will spend the rest of his life in prison unfortunately for him he didn't get his blaze of glory instead he got a life sentence without the possibility of parole convicted killer sean kratz was sentenced today in bucks county court to life behind bars the sentencing closes a grisly murder case that prosecutors have called one of the most horrific days in the county's history the murderers are now behind bars but the story doesn't end there wrongful death suits were filed against the dinardo family all of the victims parents were in tears today describing life after losing their sons they believe more should have been done to prevent the accused killer cosmo dinardo from getting a gun on monday the attorneys for the families of dean finaccaro tom mayo and jimmy patrick announced wrongful death civil lawsuits against the accused killer cosmo dinaro his parents and his cousin sean kratz see a big aspect was that the gun used in the killings that cosmo used and dean may views as well it was sandra's gun so the dinardos had you know negligently provided the weapon the family insisted that after cosmo had first been admitted to the mental institution all guns had been removed from the home except for the 357 which she kept in a hidden lockbox in 2020 it was ruled that the parents of cosmo dinardo can be held legally responsible under pennsylvanian law for the deadly actions of their son another thing was that on you know the 7th of july when three murders were carried out cosmo tried to reach his dad over the phone multiple times and demanded his dad go to the farm as it turns out according to a police report antonio did go up to the farm he was driving up antonio had a mistress uh she was in the car also so when cosmo saw that his dad's mistress was there he was like you know you can go actually it's fine because cosmo wanted his dad to come alone so did he have some um would his dad have been killed if he had gone there as well alone would there be a higher body count well i mean one thing's for sure if they hadn't been caught there certainly would be now the police had no clue about cosmo's prior involuntary admissions to psychiatric care there was no database but there were so many slip ups in this case from the over 30 times he had run ins with the police to the failures to adequately provide him with medical and psychological care the system failed him for uh sure i think you know this shouldn't have been allowed to happen i mean hindsight looking back you know it's 20 20 right you're always gonna see what you missed but there were so many giveaways in this case you would think someone should have caught on something and should have seen this coming yet here we are but you know at the end of the day cosmo's not the victim here dean finicaro jimmy patrick thomas mayo and mark sturgis thank you so much for watching i really do appreciate it i will see you as always real soon in the next one alright stay safe out there mike

Channel: That Chapter

Views: 3,393,816

Keywords: that chapter, cosmo dinardo, lost boys of bucks county, cosmo dinardo parents, cosmo dinardo documentary, cosmo dinardo farm

Id: aw9MDYAYDH0

Length: 31min 4sec (1864 seconds)

Published: Tue Oct 13 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/RainyReese]

It's already been over 3 years since this happened. The interviews with the family from the aftermath left me shaking my head. The way he killed the one boy was atrocious shooting him, paralyzing him, then running him over with the backhoe as he screamed trying to drag himself away.

[u/DangerousThanks]

Pennsylvania finally getting some recognition!

[u/sharkfest473]

That was wild

[u/LighterTheif]

All the more reason to have mental health everyone's priority.