A drug dealer has confessed to selling four young men marijuana before killing them and burning their bodies at his family’s farm, a person with firsthand knowledge of his confession said on Thursday.
The person spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to publicly discuss details of the case.
The person said a coconspirator was involved in the shooting deaths of three of the men, who had been reported missing.
Photo: AP
Cosmo DiNardo had confessed to murdering the missing men, who included a Maryland college student, and had told investigators where their bodies were, his lawyer said on Thursday.
DiNardo, 20, agreed to plead guilty to four first-degree murder counts, attorney Paul Lang said outside court, where DiNardo had met with investigators.
“I’m sorry,” a shackled DiNardo said as he left the Doylestown courthouse.
The person with firsthand knowledge of DiNardo’s confession said the men were shot in the head or the back after DiNardo felt cheated or threatened during three drug transactions.
DiNardo sold 113g quantities of marijuana for several thousand dollars and sold handguns to area residents, the person said.
“Every death was related to a purported drug transaction, and at the end of each one there’s a killing,” the person said.
DiNardo said one victim was killed on Wednesday last week and the other three on Friday last week. the person said.
Investigators on Wednesday said the remains of the last three killed had been discovered, and DiNardo agreed to tell investigators the separate location of the first victim’s body, the person said.
Authorities had charged DiNardo earlier this year with having a gun despite an involuntary mental health commitment.
In seeking a US$5 million bail on a stolen-car charge this week, prosecutors said he had been diagnosed with schizophrenia.
DiNardo also suffered a head injury in an ATV accident a year ago.
His parents declined to comment after leaving a government building where he spent several hours with Bucks County District Attorney Matthew Weintraub and other investigators.
In exchange for DiNardo’s cooperation, Lang said that prosecutors were taking the death penalty off the table.
There was no immediate comment from prosecutors, but they retweeted news reports of DiNardo’s confession on Thursday and planned a briefing yesterday.
The mystery of the four men’s disappearances transfixed the Philadelphia area over the past week, taking a grisly turn when human remains were discovered in a 3.7m-deep grave on the farm.
The four men, all residents of Bucks County, disappeared last week. At least three knew each other. The remains of only one, 19-year-old Dean Finocchiaro, have been officially identified.
Weintraub said the victims’ families were holding up “remarkably well.”
The other missing men are Mark Sturgis, 22, and Thomas Meo, 21, who worked together in construction, and Jimi Taro Patrick, 19, a student at Loyola University in Baltimore.
Patrick and DiNardo had attended the same Catholic high school for boys.
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