In the summer of 2017, one young man went missing in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. While investigating his disappearance, it came to light that three other young men were missing in Bucks County at the same time. Days later, three of their bodies would be found, and the common thread between them would prove to be responsible for their deaths. His eventual cooperation led to the location of the 4th body, and all 4 of the lost boys of Bucks County were returned to their families.
Bucks County Pennsylvania
Bucks County is nestled along the eastern border of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. When the US Census was taken in 2020, the population of Bucks County was just over 628K. It is the fourth most populous county in PA. During the American Revolution, George Washington and his troops camped in Bucks County before making their historic crossing of the Delaware River to take Trenton, New Jersey, and turn the tide of the war in favor of American Independence.
Alecia Moore was born in Bucks County, but you may recognize her by a different name, P!nk. Throughout the years, several movies have been filmed in the area as well. A scene from Charlotte’s Web and the Stephen King classic “The Stand” were both shot there. M. Night Shyamalan shot “Signs” predominantly in Bucks County, as the film was based there. 2008’s “The Happening” was also filmed there, and a scene from “Lady in the Water” was shot in Bucks County as well.
While there are several different tid bids and factoids we could go on and on about in regards to Bucks County, today we’re here to talk about what happened in July of 2017 in Bucks County.
Jimi Patrick
19 year old Jimi Patrick lived with his grandparents in Newton Township. His mother had been dealing with drug abuse issues, and his grandparents were essentially mom and dad from the day he was born. They took him home the day after he was born, and he was with them from that moment on. Sharon and Rich Patrick said that it took a little work and getting used to, since they were in their mid 50s with a newborn, but they made it work. They raised Jimi as their own, and he thrived under their care.
Jimi excelled on the baseball diamond and loved the game of baseball. He excelled in High School, and he was given a scholarship worth over $50K per year to Loyola University Maryland, where he completed his freshman year. At Loyola, Jimi was a business major and unsurprisingly to everyone who knew him, he was excelling there as well. In the summer of 2017, Jimi had returned home after his freshman year. He worked a part time job at a local restaurant, and when he wasn’t working, hung out with his friends when he could.
When Jimi went out with his friends, it wasn’t normal for him to be out all night, and in the off chance that he was going to be out all night, he would contact his grandparents and let them know.
Around 6PM on July 5th, Jimi told his grandparents that he was going to go meet some friends at Chick-Fil-A and get some food. He told Sharon that he wouldn’t be long and gave her a hug, and they exchanged “I love yous.” Jimi saw his grandfather Rich in the garage and gave him a hug as well as he told him goodbye.
As the night wore on, Sharon and Rich were a little worried as they went to bed. They hadn’t heard from Jimi, even though he said he wouldn’t be gone long. Rich said that when Jimi would come in late at night, he would always come into their room and wake them up to let them know that he was home. At 2AM, Sharon woke up and went to Jimi’s room to see if he was home. His bed was empty, and his bed was still made, Jimi hadn’t been home.
She began to text him, “Jimi, where are you?”
But, Jimi never came home that night. Rich and Sharon called the police around noon the day after he went to Chick-Fil-A. They told them that Jimi hadn’t been missing for 24 hours, and to call back later in the day. Around 4PM, Sharon called back. Initially, they told her that he was probably off somewhere with his girlfriend, possibly parked somewhere in his car. She told them that his car was in the driveway. Rich and Sharon said that it was terribly frustrating dealing with the police. They wanted some kind of response, or at the very least acknowledgement. The police told them they would send someone over after a shift change. After the shift change, a patrolman showed up at the family home and according to Rich, “made some entries in his log and that was it.” He left, telling them that Jimi would probably show up.
They gave the police Jimi’s cell phone number and a description of Jimi and what he was wearing when he was last seen. They traced his cell phone and gave Rich and Sharon his last pinged location. It was in nearby Springfield, in Delaware County. Rich drove there and began to hand out fliers, tried to talk to anyone he could including the police, and he scoured a local park to see if he could find any sign of Jimi.
After Jimi had been missing for 3 days, the Patricks reached out to a private investigator who came in and talked to all of Jimi’s friends and talked with detectives throughout Bucks County as well. It was during these talks with other detectives that the P.I. learned that there was another missing teen boy in Bucks County, in Middletown Township.
Dean Finocchiaro
19 year old Dean Finocchiaro lived fairly close to Jimi and his grandparents in Bucks County, but they went to different high schools and ran in different social circles. From what everyone knew, they didn’t hang out and weren’t friends with one another.
Officer Megan Freer was on her normal patrol on July 8th, 2017 when a call came over the radio about a missing 19 year old in Middletown. Officer Freer responded to the call and went to the Finocchiaro residence and talked to Bonnie and Anthony, Dean’s parents. Officer Freer was familiar with Dean, because she had dealt with him in the past. Dean had been in trouble for joy-riding with friends on the streets with their dirt bikes and 4 wheelers.
When Bonnie talks about Dean, she says that he didn’t fear anything. He would go out riding quads or dirt bikes with his friends. When they went to Jamaica, he was one of the first to jump off of the cliffs into the water below. When he played hockey, he always took on the bigger players and wouldn’t back down when push came to shove. She also said that trait would also get him into trouble occasionally, with the joy riding. Anthony said , “My son wasn’t a goody-two-shoes kid, but he was a good person… just an honest, loyal kid.”
Anthony said that in the weeks and months leading up to Dean going missing, he saw a change in him. He could see him maturing. He had gotten a Pit Bull named Ace, and Anthony could see in how he cared for him that he was growing and thinking larger than just himself. He worked 50+ hours a week at a local restaurant, Richman’s Ice Cream and Burger Co.
On the Friday that he went missing, Dean called down to his father, who was in the basement, that he was going out to meet some friends. Anthony still thinks about if things would be different if he were up stairs when Dean left. He feels like he would have been at the door and seen who Dean was with, and they would have seen him and know that he knew who they were.
Dean never returned home that night. Anthony sat up all night calling and texting but never got a response. That’s when they called the police, and Officer Freer came to take the missing person’s report. Freer said that it was odd when she got to the house, because not only were his parents there but all of his friends were there too. It wasn’t normal to have that many people there just for a missing person’s report. Officer Freer told them that she knew their son, because of their previous run-ins. Upon hearing that, they were worried that his case wouldn’t be taken as seriously.
Officer Freer said that since it was around a holiday weekend, her initial thought was that Dean was possibly just hanging out with friends and laying low for a few days. After talking to Bonnie and Anthony though, she also began to worry something more sinister was going on, just because of how worried they were, and the fact that DEan’s cell phone had been turned off. Officer Freer sat with Dean’s parents and his friends for several hours and talked through a timeline of what everyone knew from that day.
Bonnie had a planned girls weekend, and she left earlier in the day Friday. Anthony got home from work and he and Dean went to a local sushi restaurant and had dinner. Anthony said that it wasn’t very often that it was just the two of them, so he enjoyed being with his son one on one and having a conversation. After they got home, Anthony was down in the basement doing the laundry when Dean called down that he was going out. Anthony asked who he was going out with, and Dean told him just a neighborhood kid, and he’d be back in 15 minutes.
An hour later, Anthony started texting… and texting… and texting.. And texting… but Dean never responded. Anthony called Bonnie and told her Dean never came home that night, and he didn’t show up for work the next day. The next day, Anthony called local hospitals and police departments. After talking to everyone, Officer Freer agreed that there was something going on. They reached out to all of Dean’s friends, and no one knew anything. There was one friend that no one could get ahold of though, Cosmo DiNardo, to which Anthony said, “Who the fuck is Cosmo?”
Thomas Meo & Mark Sturgis
Thomas Meo was 21 years old when he went missing in July of 2017. His mom, Melissa, often sits and just thinks about her son when he was younger. When she does, she can feel his arms wrapping around her. She can see him as a young boy, running around the playground, full of energy. Thomas was an affectionate boy growing up, and Melissa said he was selfless. As he grew up, he always made sure to set time aside for his family. If he hadn’t spent much time with his mom, he would go out of his way to have breakfast with her, or specifically set time aside to hang out with his younger sisters.
Thomas was always looking out for the girls. He was nine years older, but was always able to get through to them. When his sister Gabriella had something going on in her life, it was Thomas who she confided in.
He graduated from Bensalem High School, and attended East Stroudsburg University for a year. After that year, he took a year off to figure out what he really wanted to do with his life. During that year off, he began working at a construction job, and in the months leading up to Thomas going missing, he was working a second job at a local gas station as well.
Melissa said that Thomas never judged people, and that he was so curious about everything and loved asking questions.
When he was working construction, Thomas wasn’t alone, he worked with his best friend, Mark Sturgis. Mark’s father worked with the construction company as well. Thomas and Mark were so close that they finished each other’s thoughts, and their personalities balanced each other perfectly. Thomas was small in stature but was extremely outgoing. Mark Sturgis was physically much larger but was also much more shy.
Mark had recently moved into an apartment that had been setup at his father’s home in Pennsburg. His parents said that he lived his life as a peacemaker. Whether he was at home or school, he was just trying to help people. At school, he was the one to step in when people were about to fight and try to stop it. Since he was much larger than most of the people in his class, it was usually easy for him to stop anything before it started. His mom said that he was always protecting the smaller people around him, including Thomas.
On the Friday that they were last seen, Melissa said that she woke Thomas up before she went to work that morning. She kissed him goodbye as he laid in bed, before he got up to meet Mark for work that day. After their day at work, Thomas went back home and shared a bowl of mint chocolate chip ice cream with Gabriella, who was the last family member to see him alive.
Melissa knew something was wrong when Thomas’ girlfriend called her Saturday morning and asked if she knew when Thomas was going to be leaving to visit her in Philadelphia. Melissa thought Thomas was already in Philadelphia and from there, everything just blurred for her.
On that same Friday, Mark and Thomas had talked about hanging out later that night while they worked with Mark’s dad, also named Mark. A few hours after they had left work, Mark went outside and noticed that his son’s car was gone, and his son was gone as well. Initially he thought that Thomas and Mark must have just gone out to a bar or something to get a drink, and they would be at work in the morning. The next day rolled around though, and Thomas and Mark never showed up.
The Search Continued
So now we go back to Officer Freer who has started to try to unravel the question that Dean’s dad had, Who the fuck was Cosmo? Dean’s friends told her that Cosmo lived in Bensalem, a township in Bucks County. From there, Freer called the Bensalem Police Department, and they were able to give her basic details about Cosmo; Name, address, DOB, and vehicle registration. Comso was 20 years old, and his family ran 2 successful trucking companies in Bucks county. With that info, Freer googled Cosmo and obtained two addresses that belonged to the family. One was their primary home in Bensalem and the other was out in a more rural area.
Freer then contacted the phone carrier and asked if they could give her the location Dean’s phone was last used. They told her it was in Solebury Township, which was the area where the DiNardo family owned the rural land. Freer began to think that maybe Dean and Cosmo were out on his family land together.
Next, Freer met up with an officer from the Solebury Police Dept, and they made the trip out to the DiNardo land around 1:30 AM. The officer that she met with said that upon initially talking to Freer, he could tell that she had what could only be described as “that police instinct” and that she thought there could be more to the situation than just a missing person.
The two officers arrived at the DiNardo property just after 2AM, and after driving for a bit, they came across a house on the property. The house was in disrepair and was clearly not being lived in. Paint was chipping everywhere and the screen on the front door was coming off. There were no vehicles they could see, just an old worn down looking shed or garage.
Freer said that they approached the house and fully expected to find Dean and possibly someone else just hanging out inside. Unfortunately, they didn’t find anyone. Freer said they continued to circle the property and search but found nothing to draw further suspicion. It was around 2:40 AM when they left the property. After they left though, the other officer couldn’t return to his regular patrol without something eating at him. He said that he couldn’t shake the feeling that they should have searched that shed. So, 15 minutes into returning to his patrol, he radioed Officer Freer that he was going back, it was 3AM.
He approached the shed and opened the side door to take a peek inside. Looking inside, he saw a car, which was clearly not one that had been sitting long. It wasn’t covered in dust or anything like you would expect if it had been sitting long. Next, he stepped out of the shed and shined his flashlight on the ground up to the shed, and he could see tire impressions, which were fresh. They had just missed someone bringing that car to the shed.
They ran the plates on the car, which came back to Thomas Meo. That’s when another officer came on the radio and said that Thomas’ mother had been in their station earlier in the day to report him missing. That’s when everyone began to suspect that this was much worse than just a missing person’s case.
Freer thought that the chances of Cosmo DiNardo not being involved with 2 people being reported as missing were slim. Freer got a call from her husband because she hadn’t come home yet and he asked if she was coming home. She told him yeah, but she was either onto a whole lot of something, or a whole lot of nothing, but at that point, she didn’t know what it was.
Freer went to the DiNardo house, hoping to find the boys just hanging out. Cosmo’s mom answered the door, and Freer told her that she wanted to talk to Cosmo because a boy was missing, and Cosmo was thought to have been with him and she just wanted to ask a few questions. Cosmo’s mom said he wasn’t home, and he wouldn’t be back until later. Freer left the DiNardo residence and began to reach out to all the townships that had missing boys, just trying to gather as many details as she could. When she began to put everything together Freer connected the dots and realized that there were 4 people missing in Bucks County; Jimi, Dean, Tom, and Mark.
With this coming to light, agencies from all over the county got together and laid out everything they had to see how their cases were connected.
They returned to the shed where Tom’s car was and found that it was unlocked. There were no signs of a struggle or anything, it just looked like it was casually parked there. Investigators found the keys and the title to the car pinned to the wall, which stuck out as extremely odd. Why would Tom leave that there, in this random shed? Upon searching the car, they found something else. Tom was diabetic, and they found his diabetic kit in the car. It had been almost 48 hours since he had his insulin. Tom never went anywhere without his kit, and he was extremely diligent about taking his medicine. They knew that if Tom was still alive, his time was limited due to not having his medication.
At this point, the Patricks weren’t convinced that Jimi’s disappearance was linked with the other 3 missing boys. They didn’t recognize any of their names, except for… Cosmo DiNardo.
Cosmo DiNardo and Further Investigating
Officer Freer received a call from Dean’s parent’s, and they said that they had more information they could give her. She went to their house and they told her that a neighbor up the road had security cameras, and one faced the road on the outside of his house. They asked him if he could review the footage from the day and time Dean left and see if he might have picked up anything. He did and gave them the footage. They handed it over to Freer, who took a look and saw a silver truck drive down the road at the time that Dean left. Cosmo DiNardo drove a silver truck, which matched the one that was on the footage.
Now, Freer knew they needed to talk to Cosmo. Investigators went back to the DiNardo home, and talked to his parents again. They arranged a time for Cosmo to come in voluntarily and speak with the police. During this interview, they talked to Cosmo about how he might have known the boys, and basically just wanted him to give a timeline of where he was when they all went missing.
Cosmo told them that he didn’t know where the boys were or what happened to them. He did admit that he was with Dean the night he went missing. They were supposed to go to a friend’s house together, but there had been an argument while they were driving, and Cosmo kicked him out of the truck and left him on the side of the road. After he left him, Cosmo said that he went to a local park and went fishing, where he stayed until 9PM. While the alibi was shaky at best, investigators noted that one thing was clear throughout the interview, Cosmo was trying to distance himself from the missing boys and the property where Tom’s car was found as much as possible. Based on that interview, they wanted more information and reached out to the news and local communities for any links they could provide between the missing boys.
News outlets learned that the police were talking to DiNardo, and they began to dig into his past. The DiNardo’s were a rather prominent upper middle class family in Bucks county. They learned that over the years, Cosmo had over 2 dozen encounters with law enforcement but had never been arrested. They had been called several times, because Cosmo would become aggressive with family members, causing them to fear for their safety.
At one point, Cosmo had been placed in a mental health facility and was experiencing mental health issues. A few months before the boys went missing, Cosmo had been charged with possessing a firearm, which he wasn’t allowed to do. He was in a vehicle and was pulled over, and upon searching, they found the gun on him. Upon learning this, and Cosmo’s history, Dean’s family was upset. Dean never got a break from law enforcement, which they acknowledged that he shouldn’t, he should pay for any crimes or violations he committed, but Cosmo had been in trouble over 2 dozen times and was never charged. Anthony said that if Dean had been caught with a shotgun in his car, he would be in jail in no time, and Cosmo was allowed to walk away.
Investigators dug into Cosmo’s social media accounts as well. They discovered that Cosmo had a short temper and was quick to threaten people.
A lot of Cosmo’s childhood friends said that they felt like he was “strange” growing up. They felt a sense of “unease” when they were around him. Cosmo would relentlessly harass girls online and constantly challenge people to fight.
As this information began to come to light, the police started to try to build a timeline of where Cosmo was during the times that the boys went missing. Using automatic license plate readers, they went through their files and were able to place Cosmo’s truck in the vicinity of when Mark and Tom went missing, which directly contradicted his story of being in the park fishing.
Another person came forward and said that Cosmo was trying to sell a car that was identical to Tom’s car, which was found in the shed on his family’s property. With that information in hand, investigators obtained a search warrant for the DiNardo property and began to search for any signs of the missing boys. The property was 90 acres, so it was a slow process, to say the least. As that was happening, they arrested Cosmo on a re-filed weapons charge, and held him on a high bail, to hopefully keep his family from bailing him out, $1 million dollars.
They went into an old barn on the property and found that there was blood pooled on the ground as well as splatter on a ladder. With that in mind, they knew that they had an active crime scene, and a scene where a horrific crime had taken place judging from the blood they found.
The four boys’ families began to wait at the farm as police searched. They grouped together, and just waited. It was during this time that Anthony got a message from Verizon saying that a line on his account had dialed 911, it was Dean’s number. He said that it took his breath away, and he thought Dean was trying to reach out and get help. Anthony reached out to the police. They told him that they knew about the call, because they were the ones who placed it to identify who the phone belonged to. They found Dean’s phone in a field on the DiNardo property. Anthony was beyond heartbroken.
By this time, the Patricks were at the farm too, even though they still had their suspicions that Jimi’s disappearance wasn’t related to the others. They thought his phone had last pinged in Springfield Delaware County, but as they were there, an officer told them that was incorrect. Jimi’s phone’s last ping was the same as the others, Solebury. At this time, Cosmo was released from Bucks county jail when his family posted the 10% required for his bail, $100K.
On Wednesday, July 12th, the search teams zeroed in on a large pile of rocks and earth that had been recently disturbed. As they dug, they found vegetation that was much lower than it could have normally survived. As they kept digging, the smell of gasoline overpowered them. Again, that indicated to them that they were on the right track.
Arrest and Confession
They went back and re-arrested Cosmo, for stealing Tom’s car. His bail was set at $5 million. With Cosmo back in custody, the dig continued. After several hours of digging with shovels so as to not disturb any evidence, their shovels struck metal. It was a large metal oil tank. Beneath that, they discovered a blue tarp. 12 feet underground, next, they discovered the bodies of Tom, Dean, and Mark. All 3 had significant, traumatic injuries and burns on their bodies.
3 boys had been found, but Jimi was still missing. That’s when Cosmo’s attorney and investigators struck a deal. Cosmo offered to tell them where Jimi’s body was if they took the death penalty off the table. They offered him the deal and he told them where to find Jimi. Cosmo then recounted how each boy was killed….
He said that he was going to meet Jimi, and act as a middle man between Jimi and another person who was selling marijuana. When they arrived at the farm, Cosmo told Jimi to give him the money so he could count it. Jimi was supposed to have $8000, but only had $800. As they were sitting there, Cosmo told him that the deal wasn’t going to happen, but he could sell Jimi a shotgun. They got out of the truck and Cosmo handed him the shotgun to look at, and as he turned around, Cosmo shot him. After he shot him, he went and got a backhoe and dug the hole where he buried Jimi. He put his body in, said a prayer, and filled it with dirt.
2 days after Jimi was murdered, Cosmo called his cousin, Sean Krats from Philly to come to the farm. Sean had some minor run-ins with the police, but nothing violent.
That Friday, they went to pick up Dean under the pretense of a drug deal. Sean was supposed to rob and kill Dean in the woods, but he didn’t follow through. They all ended up in a barn on the property. They were looking at a Vespa that Cosmo had. Dean went to walk out, and Sean shot him several times as he walked away. Cosmo then took the gun and shot Dean’s body as he laid on the ground.
Cosmo left Sean at the farm and went to meet Tom and Mark. They followed Cosmo back to the farm. After they got there, they got out of the cars and Tom and Mark could sense that something was wrong. As they turned their backs on him, Cosmo pulled out his gun and shot Tom in the back, dropping him to the ground. Cosmo turned to Mark and unloaded the rest of the gun on him. Tom was laying in the driveway screaming. The bullet hadn’t killed him, but paralyzed him. Sean put his head in his hands and watched as Cosmo went to get the backhoe, since he was out of bullets. He used the backhoe to drive over Tom, killing him.
Next, they placed the bodies in the large oil tank and lit them on fire. They left the farm and went and had cheesesteaks. Cosmo started crying at this point of his confession, saying that he didn’t know why he did it, and that he threw his life away.
With his confession and detailed account of what happened, the police next set out to find Sean Kratz. They began to search and quickly found Sean and brought him in. Sean denied shooting Dean, and said he was in the car when Cosmo and Dean went in, and Cosmo came out alone. Investigators kept pushing Sean because they suspected that he wasn’t telling the whole truth and that he had more of an involvement than he was letting on. They kept pressuring Sean, but he stuck to his story… for almost 9 months.
Later, Sean said that Cosmo came up with the plan for Sean to rob and shoot Dean in the woods after driving him out there on a four wheeler. Sean said that he told Cosmo he wanted to go home, but Cosmo wouldn’t take him. Sean didn’t shoot Dean in the woods like Cosmo told him to, which made Cosmo mad. As they were in the barn later, Dean went to leave and as he did, Cosmo motioned to Sean to shoot him. Sean said that he pulled the gun out and aimed it, closed his eyes, and fired. He said that he did it because he thought Cosmo would hurt him, his brother, or mom.
Cosmo was charged with 4 counts of criminal homicide, conspiracy to commit criminal homicide, abuse of a corpse, and 12 other charges. He pleaded guilty to all charges and was sentenced to 4 consecutive life sentences, without the possibility of parole. Sean Kratz was convicted of first and second degree murder and voluntary manslaughter and was sentenced to life without the possibility of parole.
sources for this episode
Sean Kratz guilty of murder in grisly slayings | Inquirer.com
Cosmo Dinardo, Sean Kratz charged in homicides of missing Pennsylvania men | CNN.com
Cosmo DiNardo Gets Life In Prison, Cousin Sean Kratz Faces Death Penalty Trial | Oxygen.com
Cosmo Dinardo, who killed and buried four men, sentenced to life in prison | CNN.com
Cosmo DiNardo and His Descent Into Madness | phillymag.com
July 2017 Pennsylvania murders | Wikipedia.org
10 Days of Horror: The Killings That Stunned Small-Town Pennsylvania | wnep.com
Tom Meo: An ever-curious extrovert devoted to his family | inquirer.com
