Pennsylvania police use dogs, backhoe in search for 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 held on an unrelated gun charge 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” 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. The charge had been dismissed by a judge but was refiled.

A busload of police cadets took part in the third day of the search of farmland in Solebury Township, about 30 miles north of Philadelphia. The missing are 22-year-old Mark Sturgis, 21-year-old Tom Meo, 19-year-old Dean Finocchiaro and 19-year-old Jimi Tar Patrick, a student at Loyola University in Baltimore. Patrick disappeared on Wednesday, the other three on Friday.

Sturgis and Meo are longtime friends who work at the Sturgis family’s construction business, and Finocchiaro is a mutual friend, Sturgis’ father has said.

Police have received “a ton of leads” and are making progress, but the entire 90-acre property is of interest to investigators, Weintraub said.

The farm property is owned by Dinardo’s parents, Antonio and Sandra Dinardo. Neither the Dinardos nor their son’s lawyer could be reached for comment.

Peter Dragani, a Bensalem real estate agent who said he coached Cosmo Dinardo in a youth football league, described the jailed young man as a “model citizen.”

“He comes from a good family,” he told The Associated Press. “I never met anybody that didn’t like him.”

Asked if the four missing men could still be alive, Weintraub said, “I think it’s very important to hang on to hope.”