Cadaver dogs used, dirt sifted in search for 4 missing men

PHILADELPHIA » Police used cadaver dogs, a backhoe and other construction equipment Tuesday to help search a sprawling farm for four missing men believed to be victims of foul play. A prosecutor, meanwhile, described a man who was held on an unrelated gun charge, but has since been released on bail, as a person of interest in the investigation.

District Attorney Matthew Weintraub said bail was set at $1 million Monday for Cosmo DiNardo, whose family owns the farmland and another property that was searched, because he was considered a flight risk. But Weintraub did not call him a suspect and cautioned there is often a “chasm” between being called a “person of interest” in an investigation and being charged with a crime.

DiNardo, 20, is accused of illegally possessing a shotgun and ammunition in February. A court affidavit said he had suffered from mental illness and had been involuntarily committed to an institution for inpatient care. It did not say when the commitment had occurred. The charge had been dismissed by a judge but was refiled.

Late Tuesday, DiNardo was released after he posted 10 percent of his bail amount in cash, according to the Bucks County District Attorney’s Twitter account.

A busload of police cadets also took part in the third day of the search of farmland in Solebury Township, about 30 miles north of Philadelphia.

Aerial TV footage on Tuesday showed law enforcement officers crowded around a deep trench — a backhoe parked next to it — as officers used shovels to dig deeper and passed up buckets of dirt that were then screened with sifters.