July 2017 Pennsylvania murders

July 2017 Pennsylvania murders
Top Row: Meo and Finocchiaro; Bottom Row: Patrick and Sturgis
Location	Bucks County, Pennsylvania, United States
Date	July 5, 2017 – July 7, 2017
Attack type	Shooting, Murder
Deaths	4
Victims	Dean A. Finocchiaro, age 19 Thomas C. Meo, age 21 Jimi T. Patrick, age 19 Mark R. Sturgis, age 22
Suspected perpetrators	Cosmo DiNardo, age 20 Sean M. Kratz, age 20

Between July 5 and July 7, 2017, four young men were reported missing in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, United States. All were subsequently found murdered. The victims were Dean A. Finocchiaro, age 19; Thomas C. Meo, age 21; Jimi T. Patrick, age 19; and Mark R. Sturgis, age 22.

The murders are suspected to have been carried out by cousins Cosmo DiNardo and Sean Michael Kratz, both age 20. The four victims were murdered, in three separate incidents, after DiNardo arranged to sell them marijuana.

The disappearances began on July 5, with Patrick being the first of the men to vanish. Two days later, on July 7, Meo, Finocchiaro, and Sturgis were also reported missing. Each of the four men was reported to be murdered the same day he went missing.

DiNardo, a drug dealer, confessed to killing the four men; he said he did so because he felt cheated or threatened during drug transactions. The only motive disclosed by investigators was that DiNardo said he wanted to set the victims up when they came to the farm to buy marijuana.

On the afternoon of Saturday, July 8, authorities tracked Finocchiaro's cell phone to a 90-acre farm in the Solebury Township owned by DiNardo's parents, Antonio and Sandra DiNardo, who also own a cement and construction company.

While being investigated for the four July 2017 Pennsylvania murders, DiNardo also claimed to be responsible for at least two other killings in the previous five years in Philadelphia. Investigators have yet to verify these claims.

Second cousinsCosmo DiNardo (born January 21, 1997) and Sean Michael Kratz (born February 14, 1997), both age 20, were charged in the murders.

On July 10, DiNardo was arrested for an unrelated weapons charge. He was not allowed to own a firearm due to his schizophrenia; nevertheless, at least one of the firearms used by the perpetrators belonged to DiNardo's mother. Despite 30 run-ins with local police, DiNardo, the son of a wealthy businessman, had, for unexplained reasons, never been convicted of a crime. DiNardo was later released after his father posted 10% of the $1 million bail.

On July 12, DiNardo was arrested and charged for stealing and attempting to sell a car that belonged to Thomas Meo for $500. Suspicion was also raised by the fact that Meo left his insulin in the car, something his family said was unusual for him to do. His bail was set at $5 million. The next day, DiNardo confessed to the murder of the four men. In exchange for his confession, prosecutors stated that they would not seek the death penalty.