Cousins’ lives escalate from petty crimes to alleged murder
PHILADELPHIA — The cousins started small — break-ins, jewelry heists and traffic violations — but on Friday they were charged in a grisly crime spree that ended with police unearthing the bodies of four young men from two pits buried deep on a sprawling family-owned farm.
Police found the missing men after a grueling, five-day search in sweltering heat and pelting rain, but it’s still not clear why the 20-year-old suspects’ crimes escalated from petty offences.
For Cosmo DiNardo, whose lawyer said he confessed to all four killings in exchange for being spared the death penalty, brushes with the law began in his early teenage years.
He was about 14 when the Bensalem Police Department first had contact with him. Over the next six years, he had more than 30 run-ins with its officers, department director Frederick Harran said, although court filings reflect only the minor infractions and traffic stops that came after age 18.