PHILADELPHIA _ A pair of cousins charged in connection with the disappearance and slayings of four young men missing since earlier this month were ordered held without bail Friday just hours after being charged in the case.
Cosmo DiNardo killed the men after luring them in with offers to sell them marijuana, authorities said. With his cousin Sean Kratz, he burned three of the bodies in a metal tank he called "the pig roaster" then buried them on his family's Solebury Township estate, according to court filings released Friday.
Those gruesome details emerged as DiNardo and Kratz were charged with multiple counts of conspiracy, homicide and abuse of a corpse as the investigation into their slayings shifted focus to Kratz's role in the case. Both have confessed, authorities said.
But as for a motive to explain what led the pair to a series of killings that have gripped Philadelphia and much of the region for the past week, Bucks County District Attorney Matthew Weintraub had no explanations to offer.
"I'm not sure I could if we could ever answer that question," he said at a news conference Friday afternoon.
At a brief court appearance Friday, District Judge Maggie Snow ordered the men held in separate prisons. The district attorney said he does not think any other people were involved in the four killings.
"We have the two men locked up that need to be brought to justice," Weintraub said. "I am very, very relieved to say that we brought four young men one step closer to their loved ones."
Weintraub's statements offered the first confirmation of a deal outlined Thursday by DiNardo's lawyer. In exchange for his confession, prosecutors agreed to spare the confessed killer's life.
The district attorney explained Friday that he offered to take the death penalty off the table in hopes of securing DiNardo's cooperation in locating the body of the fourth missing man, Jimi Taro Patrick, 19, of Newtown Township, whose remains were located in a single grave "up on top of a mountain."
"I can tell you, for I've been there, we'd still be looking for Jimi Patrick had we not made this agreement," Weintraub said.
That grave was far away from the 12 {-foot common grave where investigators found the other three _ Dean Finocchiaro, 19, of Middletown Township; Thomas Meo, 21, of Plumstead Township; and Mark Sturgis, 22, of Pennsburg, Montgomery County _ on Wednesday evening. They were buried together in what the district attorney described as an old oil tank that had been converted into a cooker. He said he believed DiNardo attempted to burn them but was not successful.
An affidavit naming the cousins _ DiNardo, of Bensalem, and Kratz, of Northeast Philadelphia, both 20 _ said the four victims were lured to the farm in Solebury to buy several pounds of marijuana.
DiNardo agreed to sell Patrick 4 pounds of marijuana for $8,000 on July 5, and picked him up at his Newtown home to complete the transaction. But when they arrived, DiNardo said, Patrick had only $800.
"So DiNardo offered to sell him a shotgun for that amount," according to the affidavit. "They walked to a remote part of the property, where DiNardo said he fatally shot Patrick with a .22-caliber rifle," according to prosecutors.
Weintraub said the weapons used in the killings, the rifle and a .357 handgun belonging to Sandra DiNardo, Cosmo DiNardo's mother, were recovered in the deal.
It was DiNardo who led investigators to Kratz and the bodies of the four young men. In exchange for the confession, DiNardo's lawyer Paul Lang told reporters, prosecutors promised not to seek the death penalty against his client. Asked Friday about the charges filed in the case, Lang declined to comment.
Detectives arrived in force to search a house in Ambler that Kratz had listed as his address. Their arrival came just hours after authorities took Kratz into custody at a Northeast Philadelphia home late Thursday night.
When he was taken into custody, Kratz was out on bail for separate charges, with two pending burglary cases in Philadelphia courts. In one, he was charged with burglary, criminal trespassing, theft, receiving stolen property and other charges relating to an alleged December 2016 incident. He posted 10 percent of $10,000 bail in March.
In May, his last scheduled hearing was postponed because he had "medical issues," according to court records.
On Thursday, his attorney was in Philadelphia court to request a continuance for further investigation in that case. "Defense: Not ready, case listed for status," reads the court filing. Kratz was present and signed a subpoena. His next court date was set for Aug. 4.
Kratz was implicated twice last year in connected burglary cases in Philadelphia.
In June 2016, surveillance video caught him and an accomplice breaking into a shed on a property on the 6400 block of Dorcas Street and walking away with a leaf blower, weed whacker and a box containing tools, all valued at $1,000, according to the probable cause affidavit filed for his arrest. The homeowner later posted the video to his Facebook page, where a witness _ whose neighbor was dating Kratz at the time _ identified him in the footage, the document states.
Kratz was arrested on June 20 that year and released on bail. But within seven months he was back in police custody again.
Detectives arrested him in February this year for breaking into the home of the witness in the previous case and stealing several items of jewelry. Investigators later determined that Kratz had sold the pieces for $345 at a resale shop on Cottman Avenue.
Both cases remain open.
In addition, court records show that in December 2016, Kratz was charged with retail theft and related charges in Montgomery County. The case was marked closed in court filings.
The Associated Press reported late Thursday that DiNardo sold quarter-pound quantities of marijuana for several thousand dollars and that the victims were killed after DiNardo felt cheated or threatened during three drug transactions. The wire service cited an unidentified source with knowledge of the confession who said DiNardo admitted he killed the men separately _ at least three were shot _ and then burned their bodies at the farm.
"Every death was related to a purported drug transaction, and at the end of each one there's a killing," the person said, according to the AP.
Staff writers Julie Shaw and Bill Bender contributed to this story
