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Two weeks after 4 Bucks County slayings, police leave DiNardo farm

Investigators released the crime scene on the Solebury property where Cosmo DiNardo allegedly killed four men this month.

A crew from J. Cummings Construction Company works fencing off the driveway at the DiNardo property Thursday. Police have released the property, where Cosmo DiNardo is charged with murdering and burying four young men earlier this month, back to the family.
A crew from J. Cummings Construction Company works fencing off the driveway at the DiNardo property Thursday. Police have released the property, where Cosmo DiNardo is charged with murdering and burying four young men earlier this month, back to the family.Read moreCHARLES FOX / Staff Photographer

Bucks County officials have released the sprawling Solebury property where Cosmo DiNardo is charged with murdering four young men this month back to its owners, the District Attorney's Office said Friday.

The release of the property means there is no longer a law enforcement presence on the 90-acre property on Lower York Road. Police spent nearly two weeks there as they looked for evidence and the bodies of four young men, which were found buried on site. In the days after the four men's disappearances, the search of the farm became the largest Bucks County investigation in recent history.

Antonio and Sandra DiNardo of Bensalem bought the 68-acre farm in 2005 for $5.45 million, and also own adjacent properties. Their son confessed to investigators last week that he lured the four men to the farm to sell them marijuana and then killed them. Police recovered the bodies of Jimi T. Patrick, 19 of Newtown; Dean A. Finocchiaro, 19, of Middletown Township; Thomas C. Meo, 21, of Plumstead Township; and Mark P. Sturgis, 22, of Pennsburg, from graves on the property last week.

DiNardo's cousin Sean Kratz, 20, of Philadelphia, is also charged in three of the killings. Both men are being held at the Bucks County Correctional Facility and are scheduled to appear for preliminary hearings Sept. 7.

Patrick was killed first, on July 5, prosecutors said, and buried in a grave no deeper than six feet. Finocchiaro, Meo, and Sturgis were found in a 12½-foot grave that DiNardo told police he dug with a backhoe after attempting to burn their bodies in a metal tank that he called "the pig roaster."

Before the property was released back to the DiNardos, police presence on the scene intensified Thursday for a final sweep for additional evidence, District Attorney Matthew D. Weintraub said.

"Because renewed probable cause would be required for us to revisit the property once it is released to its owners, we want to make absolutely certain that we have not missed any evidence before departing," Weintraub said in a statement Thursday.

A construction crew was on site Thursday afternoon, installing fencing at the end of the property's long driveway.