What Happens When Doctors Take Red Flag Patients Off All Meds
Cosmo DiNardo was born on January 21st, 1997 in Bensalem, Pennsylvania to parents Sandra and Antonio Tony DiNardo. Sandra and Tony both describe themselves as honest and hardworking business people. They ran concrete construction, snow removal, and real estate businesses. Tony owned the family concrete company, Metro Ready Mix and Supplies.
Sandra ran a logistics company, Bella Trucking Corp. Cosmo was the oldest of four children and had a pretty happy life as a child. He grew up with money and went to Holy Ghost Preparatory School, which was a private Catholic prep school in Bensalem. In 2005, the family purchased a farm in Solebury Township. In addition to the farm, they’d owned a small suburban development of around eight homes in Bensalem Township, located about 20 miles south of the farm.
The family home included several amenities such as a back- yard swimming pool. And beyond the farm, they’d built well over 30 homes across the city and suburbs, a dialysis clinic, and a short-term residential center for teens in Philadelphia called The Bridge. Sandra described Cosmo as a model son, dependable, hardworking, and a good student.
He was also a devout Christian, always wearing a cross around his neck and carrying a Bible with him. According to Sandra, he used to decorate his room with crucifixes and statues of saints and would fall asleep with his Bible on his chest. During junior high, Cosmo also served as the captain for his football team, the Bucks County Bears.
Unfortunately, his football career ended after a neck injury and several concussions. In 2015, the mayor of Bensalem appointed Cosmo to the Drug and Alcohol Advisory Board, a group that reviewed substance issues and made recommendations to the Township Council. Members are typically appointed for 1-year terms. In June of 2015, Cosmo graduated and got a scholarship to Arcadia University.
He studied biology and talked about becoming an orthodontist. He dropped out after a single semester. Around the same time, his plans to pursue a career as a Navy SEAL also fell through. Some have speculated that this was likely due to his declining mental health, and we’re going to touch on more of that in just a moment.
According to Sandra, Cosmo’s mental health started falling apart in 2015 after a breakup with his girlfriend. In the summer of 2015, he met a girl named Sarah at a concert. She was going to be a freshman at Arcadia as well. Sarah later said Cosmo made her feel very uncomfortable. He invited her and her friends back to his house and then repeatedly harassed her on social media afterwards.
Sarah described it as aggressive and uncalled for. According to neighbors and family, Cosmo had some anger issues, but he always came across as polite and helpful. One neighbor said, “Cosmo Genardo is the kind of kid who would always say hello. He would grab your groceries out of your hand and walk you to your car.
” According to another family member, “If my husband was digging in the yard, Cosmo would grab a shovel and dig alongside of him. If he saw me shopping, he would carry my packages inside for me. When it snowed, he would shovel my driveway.” Sandra was desperate. Over the years, she went through at least 10 different psychiatrists and psychologists at eight different hospitals and clinics.
Sandra also wondered if something supernatural was going on. According to local legend, their neighborhood in Bensalem was built over a Native American burial ground. Sandra had said she’d heard screams in the basements for years. At first, Tony called her delusional until he started hearing them, too. After the accident, Sandra started taking Cosmo to morning mass at St.
Charles Borromeo in Bensalem. Around this time, Cosmo told his mother he was hearing voices. Voices telling him to hurt people. Sandra also asked Father Charles Ravert of the local church to perform a spiritual cleansing on the house. According to Sandra, the priest started in the basement and said he felt something was wrong, especially around the fireplace and later in Sandra and Tony’s bedroom.
It got to him so badly that he ran outside and threw up on the lawn. Later, Father Charles talked about his relationship with the family but refused to speak about the alleged spiritual cleansing. According to an archdiocese spokesperson, and I quote, “Father Charles is not inclined to discuss the DiNardo family, nor will he provide further comment.
” Cosmo was put on heavy antidepressants, which caused him to gain around 100 lb. According to Sandra, her 5-ft 10, 160-lb son, who was, according to her, the hottest boy in Bensalem, had blown up like a house. She also noted that Cosmo had also allegedly developed man boobs, which apparently made things worse.
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com/miserymachine to get 30% off any plan. Thanks, and back to the episode. In July of 2016, Sandra drove Cosmo to Abington Memorial Hospital in an attempt to get him to commit himself. During the drive, Cosmo suddenly became violent and bit his mother’s arm and punched her, resulting in a black eye. Despite being on crutches, he got out of the car in the middle of traffic and tried to force his way into a stranger’s car, yelling that he was being kidnapped by his mother.
Police put him in handcuffs and took him to the hospital. They gave a statement saying he felt his mother was a Russian spy and that his cast was bugged. Doctors subsequently diagnosed him with paranoid schizophrenia. The Mnape Valley Crisis Center evaluated him first and sent him to Doylestown Hospital.
According to his psychologist, the mother is overwhelmed trying to manage her son’s illness. Despite everything, Cosmo’s parents were described in medical records as extremely supportive, but support alone wasn’t enough because Cosmo showed no real signs of improvement. As he cycled in and out of these facilities, Cosmo became more and more violent and erratic.
He stayed at Belmont Behavioral Hospital for around 3 weeks where he attacked nurse multiple times and threw a wheelchair at a technician. He had to be put in restraints. In October of 2016, he showed up uninvited to a Holy Ghost Prep Open House. He had to be escorted out and was later banned from campus. Cosmo was also angry with his father for sleeping with other women.
According to his psychologist, Jeffrey Wycoff, Cosmo talked about his father’s infidelities, said he hit the car of a woman who was with his father with a baseball bat. Father pushed him. They got in a fight. In November of 2016, a psychiatrist named Christian Kohler began treating Cosmo. In their first session, he wrote, “Cosmo hunted after his dad with an AR-15 but decided not to kill him.
” Sometime in December, Cosmo attacked his father while he was driving. Cosmo was angry at his dad for not coming home the day before. According to Sandra, he ended up beating his dad up in the truck. He came after me and my husband hit him in the head with a brick. The cops were called because the neighbor saw us running.
After that incident, Cosmo was hospitalized again. According to his medical reports, he had a plan and intent to commit along with fleeting thoughts of homicide. During his stay, Cosmo threatened the staff, at one point telling doctors, “If I had a gun, I’d kill them all.” In late 2016, Cosmo tried to re-enroll at Arcadia University.
He got into verbal fights with students and staff and was subsequently banned. Cosmo also talked about selling drugs and weapons. >> [music] >> According to one friend, he’s told me and my friends, “Yeah, I’ve killed people before. I just haven’t been caught.” We literally were like, “Yeah, all right, Cosmo. Sure you did.” Eventually, most of his friends had cut him out.
In December of 2016, Cosmo made a post saying, “It’s official. I have no friends.” Cosmo was put on a mix of antipsychotics and antidepressants. The meds helped with the violence, but they had wrecked his body. He’d randomly start trembling and foaming at the mouth. According to Sandra, his eyes just pierced right through me like there’s no emotion.
His doctors kept adjusting his prescriptions. On December 19th, Dr. Wyckoff noted that Cosmo was making vulgar comments about his mother and telling stories about selling drugs, cutting someone’s head off with a chainsaw, and feeding him to an alligator. The psychologist wrote, “It’s hard to say whether Cosmo really believes these stories as he claims.
” Cosmo was clearly manic and delusional. The same day, Sandra drove Cosmo to Dr. Kohler’s office. Cosmo punched his mother, kicked an elevator, and kept up his vulgar remarks. He also made the receptionist extremely uncomfortable. At one point, leaning towards the glass partition separating them and licking it. Dr.
Kohler told Cosmo that if he didn’t knock it off, he was out. That stopped Sandra cold. She slammed her hands on the table and said, “Doctor, I can’t go home with him. He’s going to kill me. I’m not leaving unless you help me. I’m not going to make it home alive.” Dr. Kohler changed his prescription. Later that night, Sandra stayed up praying with her rosary, begging God to give her back her son.
The next morning, Cosmo seemed better. He woke up, turned to his mother peacefully and said, “Good morning, Mama. How are you today?” Sandra believed her prayers had worked. She called it a Christmas miracle, but it didn’t last. Cosmo was still as violent and volatile as ever. On December 27th, he made a Facebook post reading, “I am a savage. No explanation needed.
” A month later, on January 20th, he posted, “Birthday sex, anyone?” The next day was his 20th birthday, and he spent it soliciting strangers online saying things like, “Who wants to go out with me tonight for my birthday?” and “Who loves intercourse like me?” In February of 2017, someone called the police after seeing Cosmo get into the family Cadillac with a shotgun.
An officer pulled him over and found a Savage Arms 20 gauge in the vehicle. Under Pennsylvania law, anyone who’s been involuntarily committed cannot carry a gun, so that was a felony. Cosmo was arrested, but never jailed. A judge dismissed the charge because of faulty paperwork. Now, not long after this arrest, he got into a fight at Temple University.
He ended up getting a cut on the chin, as well as a black eye. His next appointment, Dr. Kohler still wrote that Cosmo was not a risk to anyone. In mid-March, Cosmo had not taken his antipsychotic medication for 2 days. Doctors also noted that his bipolar disorder appeared to be in remission. A month later, Dr.
Kohler felt that his patient was making progress and experienced low hypomanic elated mood. Cosmo was taking his medication every other day instead of every day. Still, Dr. Kohler reduced Cosmo’s prescription. In May of 2017, he wrote in a letter, “Cosmo has responded well to treatment and his symptoms are currently in remission.” A month later, Dr.
Kohler reduced Cosmo’s medication again. He also suggested that Sandra and her husband, Tony, give Cosmo some personal space while he adjusted. That summer, one of Cosmo’s paternal relatives, Vanessa Amato, got in touch with Sandra and Vanessa understood. Her own son Sean Kratz, who was also 20 years old, was struggling, too.
But unlike Cosmo, Sean had a serious criminal record. According to some newspaper records, Sean had flashed a gun at his 9-year-old brother and threatened to blow his brains out in September of 2016. He also threatened to kill his own sister. His mother Vanessa admitted him to Friends Hospital in the Northeast.
In 2017, Sean was under investigation for an attempted murder in Philadelphia, which involved a shooting that left a victim in a wheelchair. He also had two ongoing burglary cases and his ex-girlfriend had reported him for various break-ins, as well. When Vanessa first reached out, Sean was recovering from a drive-by shooting, one that was believed to be in retaliation for something.
He had been shot 19 times and somehow survived. Sandra didn’t know about any of Sean’s history. In early July 2017, Vanessa texted Sandra, which read, “Hopefully, he gets better over time. Him and Sean would be good together in that sense. Neither one knows anybody worth anything. They should stick together and stay away from the trash.
” Sandra replied, “True. We just need to make sure they don’t get in trouble together because Cosmo has no more sense of fear or what’s right or wrong.” On July 5th, Cosmo had offered to sell 19-year-old Jimmy Patrick 4 lb of weed for $8,000. Jimmy had also gone to Holy Ghost Prep. He was a year behind Cosmo and was a standout on the baseball team.
He was raised by his grandmother, Sharon Patrick. Everyone who knew him said he was a good kid. Jimmy had told Sharon in his high school years that Cosmo taught him how to make a few bucks selling sneakers online. In July of 2017, Jimmy was working at a restaurant in Buckingham, Pennsylvania. He had just finished his freshman year at Loyola University in Maryland on a full scholarship.
He’d even made it to the Dean’s List. According to some reports, Jimmy was once kicked out of high school. He’d also started using drugs and some photos found on his phone showed him posing with guns and various substances, but despite all of that, things were looking up for him. That afternoon, he told his grandmother he was going out to eat and would be back soon.
Cosmo picked Jimmy up from his home in Newtown and then took him to his family farm. Once there, Jimmy said that he had only brought $800. Instead of the weed, Cosmo offered to sell him a shotgun. Took Jimmy to a remote part of the farm and shot him in the head, instantly killing him. Cosmo claimed he did it in self-defense. He said he had spotted a Glock in Jimmy’s backpack.
Later said, This particular deal, I was not making any money. I was just, you know, getting him a good price on a large quantity amount. So, we get there, you know, said, “Okay, well, let me see, you know, the $8,000. Let me see the money.” So, I I started to count the money. There’s 800 bucks there. So, I’m like, “Dude, if you don’t have the money, like this this is horrible.
This is not good for me.” And I said, “Well, I could sell you a gun.” So, we get out of the truck, I hand him the shotgun. He goes to shoot it, and I shoot him. No, so after you shoot him, I go, get the backhoe, dig the hole, you know, say a prayer, put him in a hole. I I I I believe I burned all the money. Why did you do that? I didn’t want the kid’s $800.
I didn’t tell him I already had 800. I wasn’t robbing him. This was not going to go good for me. The guy would have shot me if I went to meet up with him and didn’t have the money. And I did not want to get killed for his stupid ass mistake. According to later police reports, the rifle was stolen from North Carolina around 2016.
The DiNardos said they had no idea this rifle even existed. For killing Jimmy, Cosmo got a backhoe and dug a 6-ft hole. He buried Jimmy there. Around 2:00 a.m., Jimmy’s grandmother texted him and got no response. Around 4:45 the next day, his grandfather reported him as missing. Same day, Sandra drove Cosmo to see Dr. Kohler again.
In the waiting room, Cosmo Googled soup maker cartel on his iPad. The cartel got its name by dissolving roughly 300 murder victims in barrels of acid and serving what was left as soup. Dr. Kohler, who is obviously unaware that Cosmo just killed a man, wrote that he was no clear risk to self or others. Furthermore, he recommended that Cosmo discontinue all of his medication.
A day later on July 7th, Cosmo picked up his cousin Shawn in his silver 2016 Ford pickup. He drove to Home Depot and bought three 5-gallon gas cans and stopped at A+ to fill them up with 13 and 1/2 gallons of gas. He went out and brought some more guys to the farm. Same [music] setup, weed deals.
First up was 19-year-old Dean Finnecaro. Dean was a 2016 graduate of Neshaminy High School, where he was a member of the local ice hockey team and played for several other local teams. Dean loved being outdoors. He enjoyed doing stunts on his bike, skateboard, and dirt bike. His favorite quote was, “Love the life you live, and live the life you love.
” In March of 2017, he started working as a cook at Richmond’s Ice Cream Company. Dean lived with his parents in Middletown Township and struggled with his mental health. A lot of it tied to his drug use. In earlier years, his brother had sent him a message that read, “People I went to high school with that were like you are all either dead from overdoses or drug addicts. You got to start caring.
” Dean bought and sold drugs regularly and had picked up a few minor charges. According to a friend, he had once tried to buy a Tech 9 from Cosmo, but backed out of the deal after the gun had misfired. On July 7th, Cosmo and Shawn drove to Hampton Drive and picked up Dean from his parents’ house, offering him a quarter pound of weed for $700.
They drove him out to the farm, where Cosmo took Dean and Shawn on ATV towards the barn. They had originally planned to rob Dean in the woods, but changed it up and moved the whole thing inside. Once inside, Shawn shot Dean in the head with a Smith & Wesson handgun that Cosmo had given him, his mother’s gun.
After Shawn fired, Cosmo took the gun from him and also shot Dean while he was face down on the floor, though Cosmo claimed Dean was already dead when he pulled the trigger. Cosmo later said, So, I go to meet up with Dean. Where are you going to meet up with Dean? A drug deal. This was pre-planned? Yeah.
What did he to buy off you? Quarter pound of weed. I don’t have a quarter pound. I had 2 oz. So, we picked Dean up. Now, this was a robbery. Shawn was going to, you know, rob him in the woods by himself on the quad and kill him. He didn’t. So, we come back into the barn, you know, we’re looking at the Vespa I had, and when we stopped looking at that, Dean turned around to go walk out, and when I went to turn, I just hear a bunch of shots go off.
Dean goes down. I took the gun from Shawn, and I shoot Dean, you know, I think once or twice. I don’t know how many times I shot. Why was he not dead? No, he was dead, but I just just to finish, you know, just I just shot him. I’m not lying. He was dead. He His head was split split the hell open. His brain You You probably found it.
Half his brain was on it in the barn. After killing Dean, Cosmo wrapped his body in a blue tarp and tried to drag him out of the barn. Using the backhoe, he dumped him in an old oil tank the family called the pig roaster. Dean was later reported missing at night when he didn’t show up for work. Cosmo told Shawn he had two more kids coming.
Those two were 21-year-old Thomas Mayo, his best friend 22-year-old Mark Sturgis. Both of them worked at a construction company owned by Mark’s dad. Tom had dropped out of East Stroudsburg University and was working construction and picking up shifts at a gas station. Mark’s mother described him as a teddy bear.
He’s goofy, always joking around, and his favorite actor was Jack Black. Cosmo met both Mark and Tom at a church in Peddler’s Village, not far from the DiNardo’s family farm. Mark and Tom had come there in their separate cars. Mark parked his Nissan Maxima in Peddler’s Village, got in Tom’s car, and they followed Cosmo to the farm.
Tom parked his car at 2827 Aquetong Road. The area was owned by the DiNardo’s. From there, Tom and Mark got into Cosmo’s truck. Cosmo drove them deeper into the property where Shawn was already waiting. Cosmo mentioned that the two could tell something was off. Whether they actually did or this was Cosmo’s paranoia, we’ll never know, but Cosmo recalled his version of events.
They keep saying something’s not all right. So, when they turn their backs on me, >> Mhm. I shoot Tom in the back, drop him. Mark’s like, “What the He was such a big kid, I unloaded the gun on him. So, he’s paralyzed. He goes, “I can’t feel my legs. I can’t feel my legs.” I went and grabbed the machine cuz he’s screaming now.
I mean, I’m surprised the neighbors didn’t hear it. >> Why are Why aren’t you shooting him again? I’m out of bolts. He’s screaming, going crazy. Shawn’s like, got his head in his hands. I grab the backhoe. You know, he sees that coming, just shuts the [ __ ] up, and I just run him over. He used the backhoe to load Tom and Mark into the pig roaster with Dean.
Then he poured gas over the bodies and set them on fire. As their bodies were burning, he and Sean went to Steve’s Prince of Steaks. Although both ordered Philly cheesesteaks, Cosmo later said he didn’t eat because his stomach was upset. He later said, “I just did something so gruesome. I didn’t have the appetite.” It should also be noted that after the murder, Cosmo called his father Tony multiple times asking him to drive out to the farm.
There are differing accounts of time frames here. One claiming that Cosmo called his father, begged him to come to the farm, but told him to leave once he realized he was with his mistress. Another account came directly from the mistress herself. She testified in court saying that she and Tony pulled into the driveway after the murders took place, but said that they left because she didn’t want Cosmo to see her.
She said that neither of them noticed anything suspicious and that Cosmo called after they drove away. Nothing about the call raised any red flags to either of them. Some theorized that Cosmo was calling his dad for help after coming to his senses. Others believe that Cosmo was planning on killing his own father. We’ll never truly know what his intentions were.
Later that night, Sean went over to Cosmo’s house. When he saw Sandra, both guys seemed to be in good spirits. She texted Sean’s mom that the kids had been out quadding saying, “Well, they sounded like they were having fun.” Vanessa replied, [music] “I hope they both use their positives to cancel out the negatives.
I’m sure you do, too, and I think they will.” Sandra texted back saying, “And thank you. Cosmo really needed a friend.” The next day, July 8th, when Mark and Tom didn’t show up for work, Mark’s dad got worried. He figured they had a big night out and were sleeping it off somewhere. That same day, [music] Cosmo dug a 12 and 1/2 foot grave with a backhoe and dumped all three inside.
Sean also hid the murder weapons at his aunt’s house. Later that day, [music] Tom’s mom contacted the police and reported him as missing. She told authorities that Tom was diabetic and would never go anywhere without his diabetes kit. She also mentioned that he was a close friend of Mark Sturgis who was also reported missing.
Now, around the same time, Tom’s friend group created a Snapchat thread called “Tom, where you at?” to figure out what had happened to him, Mark, and Dean. Cosmo DiNardo was also in that chat. When someone asked Cosmo if he wasn’t worried about Dean, he replied, “I mean, I know the kid, but yeah, I feel bad for his parents.
He’s a pill-popping junkie who had two DUIs. He probably just jumped parole or probation.” Cosmo also talked about how someone had trespassed on his property that weekend. He threatened to call the police over the trespassers and get them arrested. On July 9th, detectives found Tom’s vehicle somewhere around the DiNardo’s farm. Mark’s Nissan was also found around 2 miles from the farm.
One of Cosmo’s friends tipped off the police. Cosmo had offered to sell him a Nissan Maxima for $500 the day before. The police brought Cosmo in and at around 2:30 p.m., Bucks County Detectives Quinn and Kemmerer interrogated him. He told the detectives he’d picked up Dean on July 7th. According to Cosmo, Dean wanted to go to Langhorne to do a big coke deal.
Cosmo said he refused and kicked Dean out of the truck near Route 413 in Bridgeton Pike. He also denied being in the Solebury Township area that day, claiming that he had gone fishing, but the detectives didn’t buy it. They knew Cosmo was involved. Dean’s cell phone was still on and it had pinged at the DiNardo’s farm.
They didn’t have enough to charge him yet for the murders, but they held him on that gun charge from February. His bail was set at $1 million. Detectives obtained a search warrant at the farm. >> [music] >> Forensic teams set up nearby. Hundreds of volunteers, police officers, and FBI agents along with cadaver dogs scoured the property.
Bucks County District Attorney Matthew Weintraub called it the biggest investigation the county had ever seen, he said. Take the biggest one you’ve ever seen and multiply that by a million. That’s what we’re dealing with here. It’s not just a single property. We have people combing the entire county trying to work on this case.
Two days later on July 11th, 2017, Cosmo was released on 10% of his $1 million bail. Was brought back in when his charges were upgraded. His bail was increased to $5 million. As detectives combed the farm, family and friends of the victims held a vigil nearby still holding out hope. According to one friend, “It’s hard. We’re all just shaken up by the whole thing.
We’re just scared. We just want to know something.” July 12th, detectives uncovered three victims, Dean, Mark, and Tom, from a 12 and 1/2 foot makeshift grave. According to local resident Claire Vandenberg, “It seemed like a horror film or something just unraveling before our eyes.” First Assistant District Attorney Greg Shore said, “Simply losing a loved one is overwhelming.
What they’ve had to do, sitting through 96 painstaking hours at a site where weather conditions were awful at times, to see whether their loved ones are in the ground, that has been an overwhelming experience for them.” On July 13th, Bucks County Detectives Martin McDonough and Lieutenant David Camera interviewed Cosmo again.
He admitted to the killings, told detectives he had killed Jimmy Patrick, and said where Jimmy was buried. He also admitted that he lied in his July 9th interview. Cosmo struck a plea deal. According to his lawyer Paul Lang, “In exchange for that confession, Mr. DiNardo was promised by the District Attorney that he will spare his life by not invoking the death penalty.
” Cosmo was charged with four counts of criminal homicide, conspiracy to commit criminal homicide, abuse of a corpse, and 12 other charges. Sean, meanwhile, tried to play innocent throughout the interview. I shot Dino. Was scared that he was going to harm not only myself, but you know, I have a a 1 and 1/2 month old nephew.
Got a little brother. Mother. He he he made it out, you know, like, you know, you say anything, you know, I will I will hurt you. You hurt your brothers, you know, after knowing, you know, what he’s capable of. Scared not only for myself, you know, for for others. Then his mother, Vanessa, was brought into the room who urged him to tell the truth.
After 40 minutes, Sean agreed. Led the detectives to the murder weapons and face three counts of criminal homicide, conspiracy to commit criminal homicide, abuse of a corpse, and additional charges. On May 16th, 2018, Cosmo DiNardo pled guilty to all charges and was sentenced to four consecutive life terms without the possibility of parole.
Sean was expected to take a plea deal, 118 years with the possibility of parole after 59, but surprisingly, against the advice of his public defender, Sean rejected the deal and pled not guilty. Got a new lawyer, Charles Peruto, who publicly called his court-appointed lawyer a scumbag for not taking the case to trial and instead pushing for a plea deal.
Attorney Peruto turned around and called his own client an idiot and slow with a tested IQ of 79. For him, Sean was afraid of his lunatic cousin and simply followed his lead, but that defense didn’t work. November 15th, 2019, Bucks County Judge Jeffrey Finley found Sean guilty. He was convicted of first and second-degree murder in the death of Dean Finocchiaro and voluntary manslaughter in the deaths of Thomas Mayo and Mark Sturgis.
Sean was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for the murder, plus consecutive terms of 5 to 10 years for each of the voluntary manslaughter charges in related to Thomas Mayo and Mark Sturgis, as well as 5 to 10 years for robbery, and 1 to 2 years for each count of abuse of a corpse. For sentencing, the victims’ families filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Cosmo’s parents, arguing they should have cut off his access to guns, ATVs, and construction equipment given his history.
>> Yes, all of the victims’ parents were in tears today describing life after losing their sons. They believe more should have been done to prevent the accused killer, Cosmo DiNardo, from getting a gun. I told him I loved him, and he told me he loved me. We hugged each other. And I told him I’d come to his parole hearing, and he said he would.
Sharon Patrick never saw her 19-year-old son, Jimmy Patrick, walk back through her front door. He was among four young men shot, killed, and buried on a farm in Solebury in Bucks County last July. On Monday, the attorneys for the families of Dean Finocchiaro, Tom Mayo, and Jimmy Patrick announced wrongful death civil lawsuits against the accused killer, Cosmo DiNardo, his parents, and his cousin, Sean Kratz.
The family of the fourth victim, Mark Sturgis, filed a wrongful death civil suit last year. According to the criminal complaint, Sturgis was shot with a gun owned by Cosmo DiNardo’s mother. The lawsuits also claim his parents neglected to safeguard their gun while knowing their son had serious mental health issues. The farm where the men were found is owned by DiNardo’s parents.
He and his cousin [music] were charged in all four murders. It’s indescribable, the emotions I feel and the loss. Jimmy Patrick’s mother says she was most proud of her son’s giving heart. >> His goal in life was to help people. Now her goal is to honor Jimmy’s goal by making a change in everyone’s life. Society can begin to change to make sure that mentally ill individuals disturbed never ever have access to weapons to kill people.
The lawsuit was settled in May of 2023, but these terms were never made public. Sandra also sued Dr. Kohler and the University of Pennsylvania Health System arguing that his negligent care had let Cosmo go off his meds and ultimately kill four people. Cosmo tried to piggyback on that same lawsuit seeking compensation for being imprisoned.
Pennsylvania Supreme Court shut that down under the state’s no felony conviction recovery doctrine where a convicted murderer cannot collect civil damages from his own crimes. Cosmo is still in prison today. Some point after his sentencing, Cosmo went off his medication again and became manic.
Got into a fight with his cellmate and was placed in solitary confinement. When he covered the only window in his cell with a towel and refused to respond to orders to take it down, team of corrections officers forced their way in. The time was over Cosmo had a broken nose, an injured jaw, and another probable concussion. July of 2017, Cosmo confessed to two additional murders from years earlier.
According to police sources, Cosmo DiNardo, who’s already admitted to killing Dean Finocchiaro, Tom Meo, Mark Sturgis, and Jimmy Patrick, says he’s also killed at least two others in Philadelphia during the last 5 years. He confessed only after the Bucks County District Attorney took the death penalty off the table, but with the consent of families of the four victims.
As of the date of this recording, almost 9 years after his confession, there has been no proof of any additional murders. While there have been rumors on social media, there’s been no names of missing people linked to him, and police haven’t announced any leads. Likely, this was some product of Cosmo’s declining mental status, but anything substantial to come from these supposed murders remains to be seen.
Jimmy Patrick was laid to rest at St. Andrew’s Catholic Church Cemetery in Newtown. Friends and family said goodbye to Dean Finocarro on July 22nd, 2017, gathering at James J. Daugherty Funeral Home in Levittown. His funeral was private, and his burial details were never made public. Mark Sturges’ funeral services were held at Fleur Funeral Home in Bensalem, though his burial details remain unknown.
For Thomas Mayo, relatives and friends gathered on July 19th and 20th at Burns Funeral Home in Philadelphia, followed by a service at St. Anselm Church, after which he was laid to rest at Resurrection Cemetery in Bensalem. There is something that doesn’t get enough attention when it comes to coverage of Cosmo’s case, and that’s the fact that a psychiatrist completely cleared Cosmo and ordered him to stop his psych meds.
I want to stress to you that this isn’t some random first-year psychiatrist. Christian Kohler is an experienced neuropsychiatrist. He received his doctorate in 1985 and completed two residencies, one in psychiatry and one in neurology. By the time he had assessed Cosmo, he had over 30 years of experience. He contributed to at least 13 publications that I could find.
He also held several assistant professor positions at the University of Philadelphia and is currently a professor of psychiatry and neurology. This is not just a man who was clearly educated, but very qualified for his job. Now, I’m not trying to say I know more than him. He’s probably forgotten more about neuropsychiatry than I know as a layperson, but having talked to other mental health professionals off the record, I find his choices very concerning.
Again, I’m not a doctor, but let’s look at what we know. First, Cosmo’s first involuntary commitment was in July of 2016. By this point, he had already seen several doctors and had been put on medication. He had documented head injuries. This is beyond the scope of this video, but I encourage you to look up the effects of head injuries and CTE, chronic traumatic encephalopathy, on a person.
This is a degenerative brain disease, if you’re not familiar with it. It’s linked to repetitive trauma to the head. You may have heard this brought up in the cases of Chris Benoit, Aaron Hernandez, or Phillip Adams. Knowledge on the subject is still fairly young, all things considered, but there’s well-documented evidence that major and/or repeated blows to the head can change a person and their behavior.
I myself had a friend in high school who got into a car accident, hit their head, and it was like talking to someone completely different afterwards. More risk-seeking, less stable, combative, you name it. Most people do not become homicidal from CTE or a head injury, but those injuries are relevant in the setting of a drastic change in a person’s behavior, especially if that behavior is violent.
Don’t forget, Cosmo was a high school football player before the ATV accident. While CTE is associated with NFL players, the effect high school football can affect the brain is well-documented. In 2023, the National Institute of Health released a study of male brain donors that had played about 12 years of football and died at age 60.
Out of 631 men, 180, or 28%, had no evidence of CTE in their brains, but 72% did, with 163 having low-stage CTE, and 288, roughly Yes, this was data collected after Cosmo’s crimes. But even by 2017, it was published in the Journal of American Medicine that 99% of brains obtained from NFL players had evidence of CTE, with 91% of college football players and 21% of high school football players showing evidence.
Now, does this mean your kid is destined to become a Cosmo DiNardo from playing high school football? Absolutely not. But, the fact that Cosmo played football and had several head injuries from an ATV accident are relevant pieces of information when deciding to discontinue treatment. Even if you want to discard the weight of his medical history, please take into consideration how he responded during treatment.
He had documented instances of paranoia and violence that started when he got into the ATV accident. These are all important parts of assessment for ongoing treatment. So, again, Cosmo’s involuntary commitment was in July of 2016. He was already well known to doctors, and his psych history was well documented.
From his hospitalization, he did not respond well to treatment. He attacked staff multiple times. When released, he had incidents with students on campus, and he got violent with his father. By the time he was assessed by Dr. Kohler in November of 2016, all of this information was available. Dr.
Kohler should also have been aware of Cosmo’s incidents when beginning treatment with him. During their first session, Cosmo tells him he attacked his dad and considered killing him. When he was hospitalized after that, he showed clear ideation towards others and himself, as well as made threats towards staff. When released, he was banned from another college campus for incidents there.
The other doctor treating him, Dr. Wyckoff, highlighted Cosmo’s bizarre behavior and documented that he was clearly manic and delusional. Dr. Kohler should have had access to that information. And even if he didn’t, when Cosmo visited Dr. Kohler’s office in December, he physically attacked his mother.
He made obscene gestures at the receptionist. Dr. Kohler even threatened to get rid of him as a patient. His mother told the doctor that she was afraid he was going to kill her, and Cosmo didn’t dispute it. He had a brief bounce back after a med change, but not even a month later, he was back to his volatile behavior. Two months after that, in February of 2017, Cosmo was arrested for carrying a gun.
After he was released, he got into a physical fight at Temple University. It was also documented that Cosmo was non-compliant with his medication regimen. Not even a month after that fight, Dr. Kohler wrote that Cosmo wasn’t a risk to anyone. In our research, it also states that Dr. Kohler considered Cosmo’s bipolar disorder to be in remission.
For any doctor worth their salt to consider a patient’s bipolar disorder to be in remission while just having a violent episode a month ago in the setting of non-compliance, in my opinion, that is very concerning. Yes, bipolar disorder can go into remission. But, with the evidence we have on Cosmo, a month after that, so we’re in April at this point, Dr.
Kohler felt Cosmo was making progress. Cosmo was still documented as non-compliant with his medication, and Dr. Kohler reduced it. Another month later in May, he wrote, “Cosmo has responded well to treatment, and his symptoms are currently in remission.” And in June, doubled down writing bipolar disorder was in full remission. One month later in July, Cosmo murders Jimmy Patrick.
And not even 24 hours after the murder, if my understanding of the timeline is correct, Dr. Kohler deems him no clear risk to self or others, and recommends all his medication be discontinued. Day later, Cosmo murders Dean Finnecaro, Tom Mayo, and Mark Sturgis. I personally believe that Cosmo still would have committed the last three murders whether or not Cosmo was taken off his meds at that point.
It was already too late. What I wonder is if Cosmo didn’t have his dosage reduced months earlier, would any of this have happened? And you might say, “Well, people lie to doctors all the time.” Maybe Cosmo was just very good at keeping up appearances. While anything is possible, I find it difficult because of the documentation of Cosmo admitting to his homicidal ideation, the doctors witnessing Cosmo’s outbursts even in the office and Cosmos’ documented public incidents during treatment and Cosmos’ mother fearing for her own life. To my
knowledge, Cosmo never tried to dispute any of this. And even if he did, the other evidence would outweigh it in my opinion. Which, it should be noted, initial neuro psych assessments aren’t short questionnaires. They aren’t laying on a couch for an hour while somebody asks you how you’re feeling.
These are workups that take hours. I’ve seen mention of some depending on the situation and the setting taking eight hours, sometimes split up between multiple days. That’s hard to just fake your way through. And it’s plenty of time, I would believe, for a neuropsychiatrist to gather necessary information. In the [snorts] setting of bipolar disorder and schizophrenia, which by the way usually aren’t diagnosed together, usually when symptoms of both are present, the diagnosis tends to be schizoaffective disorder, bipolar type.
In post-production, I found sources saying he did get schizoaffective disorder diagnosis, but there were also sources saying he was diagnosed with bipolar and schizophrenia. So, we can’t say for certain what his final diagnosis was or if these were working diagnoses, but regardless, the symptoms were clear.
In the setting, I need help understanding how a leading neuropsychiatrist has a patient with recent persecutory delusions, with homicidal ideation, with expressed danger to oneself, with recent violent incidents, with past history of brain injuries, and says, “You’re in remission. You don’t need medication.
” I understand needing to change a patient’s medication. I understand changing treatment approaches approaches, changing therapy modalities in conjunction with treatment, but I struggle to see discontinuing treatment. There are cases where a person with schizophrenia can live normal lives symptom-free without medication, but those people are not common.
And in my understanding, it is rare without some sort of other treatment protocol. There are anomalies, of course, but I could not find a case in my research where a patient was on medication for a year, give or take, was non-compliant with that regimen, and is now in remission without treatment. Denardo vs.
Kohler was a real lawsuit filed by the family. In it, Dr. Kohler was labeled an active participant in the murders. Cosmo’s mother alleged Dr. Kohler failed to obtain medical records for Cosmo’s hospitalization, refused to communicate with staff, mini- minimized Cosmo’s most violent outbursts, and ultimately incorrectly asserted Cosmo not being a risk to himself or others.
I do not know how this trial would have gone in other states, but based on my understanding of reading up on the court case, a huge barrier in reaching a verdict for Cosmo’s family was the fact that Cosmo would have benefited from the benefited, excuse me, from the success of the lawsuit, which directly violates the no felony conviction rule.
This exists in Pennsylvania. It was also highlighted that Cosmo pled guilty to the murders. He didn’t plead guilty or not guilty by reason of insanity, which the court felt was another reason to hold Dr. Kohler harmless in this case. Now, when reading about this case in the Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law, which I have an article in the source material below, something really stood out to me.
It was the final paragraph discussing the case. Now, I will quote it for you. The ruling in this case carries significant implications for treating psychiatrists. Had Dr. Kohler been held liable for losses experienced because of Mr. Denardo’s criminal conduct, this may have had a chilling effect upon other psychiatrists who may become hesitant to treat patients who express homicidal ideation or exhibit physical aggression for fear of being held liable for their patients’ future acts.
Similarly, such a liability may cause treating psychiatrists to practice defensive medicine, or over-hospitalize, or excessively medicate individuals with homicidal ideation or a history of physical aggression for fear of legal or financial consequences if an individual acted violently while under their care. This liability would also certainly undermine the difficulty treating psychiatrists face in predicting future dangerousness to others.
Moreover, on a societal level, such liability would have financial implications by increasing health care costs if medical providers incurred the financial burden of criminal conduct committed by their patients. I don’t know how you interpret that, but it makes me wonder. Was part of the court’s reasoning that we can’t even risk declaring malpractice in the setting because think of all the other poor psychiatrists that will suffer as a result of this ruling? Legal precedent is a very real thing.
I’m not going to pretend it isn’t, but where’s the line? I’m not a lawyer. There was a possibility that Dr. Kohler didn’t communicate with other doctors who treated Cosmo, and in my opinion, it seems possible based on what we know that he did downplay Cosmo’s violent outbursts. Would every psychiatrist who truly did their due diligence really be so horribly affected by this ruling? What is malpractice insurance even for anyways? I’m not declaring that this is malpractice or not.
I am not qualified to make that distinction. But I need to know where the line is because that wasn’t made clear to me by this court case. And it seemed like the court was all too happy to lean on the no felony conviction recovery rule and be done with it. So what does this mean for future neuro psych patients in Cosmo’s setting? Is it hopefully the doctor doesn’t discontinue treatment in less than a year, and if they do, we can’t hold them accountable.
Sorry about your dead loved ones. I don’t know. I just can’t help but feel like something more could have been done by those who had the knowledge and the ability to make something positive happen. Do we need better protocols when working with violent patients in the context of brain injuries? Do we need a minimum set of standards before discontinuing medication from schizophrenic or schizoaffective patients with recent histories of violence? I don’t have those answers.
All I know is that it doesn’t sit right with me that anyone can look at the pictures of these four young murder victims and say that nothing else could have been done.
