4 missing "boys" have added up to a big mystery in Pennsylvania, but Bucks County authorities are pursuing all leads and investigators now say they have identified a man as “person of interest” in the case.
Authorities said they know more than they're telling. Details were so vague until Tuesday that news media had been calling them "boys" when they were actually young men. Now their photos are available.
Since last week investigators have been conducting searches in multiple locations trying to find traces of the four: Tara Patrick, 19, Mark Sturgis, 22, Dean Finocchiaro, 19, and Tom Meo, 21. They were reported missing since Wednesday to Friday of last week.
On Tuesday, Bucks County District Attorney Matthew D. Weintraub confirmed that 20-year-old Cosmo Dinardo had been identified of interest to the case.
Dinardo was arrested on Monday, and later released on bail, on an unrelated felony firearms charge, said Weintraub.
He emphasized that Dinardo had not been accused of any role in the recent disappearances.
“I want to make it very, very clear that Mr. Dinardo has been arrested on charges that do not relate or pertain to this case," Weintraub said. "Mr. Dinardo is a person of interest in this case, but sometimes the chasm between being a person of interest and being a person who is accused, arrested and convicted of a crime is so wide that we never cross it."
Dinardo’s link to the case is his parent’s property which has been a main focus of investigators.
At a media briefing, Weintraub said he believed the property was a crime scene, based on information that couldn't be released to the public yet.
Weintraub said he suspected foul play.
“We have not recovered any human remains to this point, but we continue to work very, very hard on establishing all sorts of investigative leads and confirming those,” he said.
There were reports the four missing had known each other and investigators were working to confirm that.
"We have people combing the entire county working on this case and the amount of manpower that we’ve deployed just at this property is mind-boggling," Weiintraub said. "But that’s what it’s going to take. We’re committed to seeing this through to the end, regardless of what it’s going to take.”