I know this might sound strange, he says, but justice isnt the important thing to me. He never thought Danielle Imbo would be interested. By early-March, a reward fund had already grown to $12,000 for information on the whereabouts of Danielle and Richard. The details offered by the Philadelphia Daily News, however, were not good. She fronted a rock band around New Jersey and boasted a singers outgoing personality, and after the trouble shed had with her estranged husband, shed responded to Richards gentler approach. Danielle Imbo was 34 years old when . [2] The couple had been involved in what family and friends describe as an "on again, off again" romantic relationship. But tonight, on February 19, 2005, he had been alone, eating in a South Philly bar and working his cell phone, searching for someone to meet up with for a drink. Danielles ex-husband, Joe Imbo, had a rock-solid alibi for February 19th, one that placed him 50 miles away at a kids party with his stepfather, an ex-NYPD officer, and multiple active police. That first Sunday Richard Jr. went missing, Marge Petrone felt her sons death lodge, as a certainty, in her gut, even as Richard Sr. sat down and called every hospital and police station in the region. But the night no doubt meant something special to him, because she was there. Here's everything we know about what happened to Danielle Imbo and Richard Petrone. Danielle was estranged from her husband, Joseph Imbo, who has a solid alibi for the night of the couple's disappearance. Danielle was going through a divorce from Joe Imbo in 2005, her husband of 3 years, and had returned to using her maiden name, Ottobre. But Leisek searched all the obvious areas in that particular stretch of the river and didnt find the car in the search in March of 2022. He reportedly didnt date much until he reconnected with Danielle. The Scope of the Problem: Intimate Partner Homicide Statistics. VAWnet.org, https://vawnet.org/sc/scope-problem-intimate-partner-homicide-statistics. He orders egg whites. If the person driving the truck was consumed with homicidal and suicidal intent, he or she could have easily driven the truck into the icy February waters of the Delaware River in a spot where we havent found it yet. The FBI continued to investigate the case and has actively been looking for tips. When Richard Sr., the writer, tries to talk about his son, he breaks down, sobbing, hiding his face behind his hands until he can regain his composure. Did someone follow him in another vehicle? Police: dredging isn't search for missing couple. Philadelphia Inquirer, 29 08 2005, https://www.newspapers.com/clip/102493641/police-dredging-isnt-search-for-missin/. So, maybe this case is cold because the police have been investigating murder-for-hire since 2008 and overlooking other explanations. Will he blame his father for the breakup, see it as the first step in the causal chain that led to his mothers disappearance? Not what is it but what could it be? Note that clicking the link below will block access to this site for 24 hours. With no arrests and no one officially declared a suspect, friends and family on both sides began to speculate. Laurel, New Jersey, and was separated from her husband at the time of her disappearance. Richards camp pointed to Danielles estranged husband, Joe Imbo, and their rough divorce. He takes detours, sometimes, on the drive from Cherry Hill to Ardmore, still looking for Richards truck. She could tear through three books in a week, especially murder mysteries. Since their disappearance, there has been no activity on Imbo's or Petrone's cell phones or personal finances. The sun set hours ago. They were still hoping for the best. According to Petrone Sr., his son told him prior to his disappearance that he received several threatening phone calls from Joe. Place of suicides. They were even overheard making plans for the next day. As John Ottobre tells it, Joe left Danielle with a sick infant and a cold of her own to attend the 2004 Super Bowl, only to return and announce that hed met someone else on the plane to New Orleans. You always feel it. Did the transfer take place on someone elses property? Is it just me or is that alibi almost too perfect? I also have not ruled him out.. If youre an amateur sleuth like me, you immediately wanna pull up Google Earth and plot the location of the truck on South Street, the path Danielle and Richard walked from Abilene to get to the truck, the driving route they would take to get to Danielles Mt. If anything, I can turn to the family and say You know what? Like maybe it was even up to me to find my sister., The family received lots of calls from psychics. Danielle Imbo loved Chinese food, her moms meatballs, and a particular Wawa coffee she called Christmas in a cup. She loved one pair of pajamas in her favorite color, baby blue, covered in penguins. Richard and Danielles relationship always bore this extra wrinkle: Danielle was his sisters best friend, dating back to high school. Is that how it went down? This investigation into Danielle and Richs disappearance remains open and active, and there is still a $50,000 reward for information on the couples whereabouts or for information leading to the arrest of those responsible for their disappearance. Richard, a NASCAR fan, planned to watch the Daytona 500. "I don't have evidence to arrest Joe" is all he says. That means everybody, even people who saw something or heard something unusual but didn't understand how important it was. If we can find the truck, well find Richard and Danielle. They were last seen walking on South Street toward Petrone's parked vehicle, a 2001 Dodge pick-up truck. "The caveat is that anything's possible in this, but pretty much from off the bat, you could rule out a crime of convenience," Roselli [said]. In the days after their disappearance, Richards then 14-year-old daughter Angela gave an absolutely heart wrenching public plea for the return of her dad that is very hard to watch. Accessed 24 May 2022. Danielles family believed the bad blood between the Petrones and Joe Imbo was counterproductive. Petrone's vehicle, a 2001 black over silver Dodge Dakota pickup truck with Pennsylvania license plates YFH 2319, is also missing. Neither the couple, nor the truck, were ever seen again spark The people who love them remain stuck inside that vast circle of snow, looking in every direction for a trace, track or footprint they will never find. 856-225-5470. Although several theories have been proposed,the case remains cold, and thefamilies are still searching for closure. Investigators stated that very little evidence is available to indicate what happened to Petrone and Imbo, but they have ruled out kidnapping and think a random act of violence is also unlikely. According to the Philadelphia Daily News, Richard Petrone Sr. considered the admission from the FBI a small victory. Christine said no. We dont say anything about her being missing. If you call in the tip and it leads to a resolution, youre gonna get paid. To find out what happened, and to see justice done.. Its one of my biggest fears that hes gonna resent me, he told me, drooping forward like a dying flower at the thought that he might one day find his sons judgment placed on him. If, as the FBI maintained, this was a murder-for-hire, the person who hired the hitman likely furnished him with a description of Richards Dakota. Danielle, like her late father John "Johnny October" Ottobre, had a passion for music. Shouldnt this be solved by now? But whats also brought him to the table is the chance, he says, to reminisce to contribute to a story that will recall Danielle as a person., The good times cause a torrent of happy memories: their first meeting at the car dealership, a first date that went on all night and meandered all over Philly and New Jersey. Then there was this weird bit at the end. I dont think Ill stop till shes found., The police have warned him: Danielle and Richard may have been incinerated, or left inside Petrones truck and run through a compactor. "You have to know how to get rid of two bodies and a truck quickly, and it would be hard for one person to do that.. It could be, but most agree its unlikely. And its because of this., At this, he gestures toward the audio recorder sitting on the table between us the whole mystery surrounding the vanishing of his estranged wife. Richard, a single-dad, worked primarily for his parents at Viking Pastries and had become a masterful wedding cake designer. A detective embarks on a missing-persons case with every possible end in sight. He just cant find the trail leading from the crime back to its perpetrators. He detours through parking lots when he spots one from the road. John would later tell ABC7 Joe Imbo seemed surprised to find a bunch of Danielles family at her place, but she wasnt there. But the FBI agent never followed through. She lived on Dunbarton Road in Mount Laurel in southern New Jersey in 2005; Petrone lived in South Philadelphia. Danielle and Richard were not the type to abandon their kids, and nobody had any reason to suspect either of them were depressed or considering suicide in any way. According to the Philadelphia Daily News, Anthony Valentino and his wife Michelle McLaughlin were the last people to see Danielle and Richard. He readily acknowledges that people looked at him like a monster in the wake of his wifes disappearance. Mt. Her boy, Timothy, the grandson Richard never knew, means everything to the Petrones, whose lives have been mostly blown apart. But there remain other leads. Laurel, New Jersey, and was separated from her husband at the time of her disappearance. The statement reiterated the facts of the case, then mentioned a reward. Were missing couple victims of a hit? Philadelphia Daily News, 07 02 2008, https://www.newspapers.com/clip/102527418/were-missing-couple-victims-of-a-hit/. At last report, Danielles family had a strained relationship with Joe, but they do occasionally get to see little Joe. My experience in a cold climate tells me Richard and Danielle were likely hand-in-hand, or perhaps arm-in-arm on a slippery sidewalk, as they hurried toward the truck. On the night they vanished, Danielle and Richard had met some Friends at a bar named Abilene's on the 400 Block of South Street in Philadelphia. Using maps and accounts of the missing persons last-known whereabouts, their home, and their destination, founder Jared Leisek has been able to locate a surprising number of vehicles (many times with remains still in them) in which the missing simply, for unknown reasons, drove their vehicle into a body of water. Thetwo were family friends who had dated as teenagers before they began an on-again, off-again relationship as adults. Imbo's family first noticed something was amiss when Imbo failed to show up for a hair appointment on Sunday morning at 11 am. The killer or killers might have been watching as Danielle and Richard approached the truck. Founder Jared Leisek explains a search of one an area in the Delaware River, where a witness reported a broken gate at a launch ramp two days after the couple went missing: So, these are like the old piers that are down here. Richard Petrone was described as 59 and about 150 pounds. Making two people and a truck disappear, with no witnesses and no evidence of any kind for nine years, suggests methodical planning, says FBI special agent Vito Roselli, the investigator in charge of the case. Petrone and Imbo's estranged husband had allegedly exchanged threats with one another over the telephone and Imbo had made multiple failed attempts to reconcile with her husband, who was involved with another woman. Statistics show, for the year 2013, fifteen times as many women were murdered by a male they knew than were killed by male strangers. They carried pictures of Petrones black Dodge Dakota truck, knew its license plate YFH-2319 and the image of its NASCAR decal by heart. She was the daughter of John Ottobre, a Philly lounge singer who went by Johnny October and gained national fame in the 50s doo-wop group The Four Dates. Danielle Finlay Jones, 31, was found dead in December Pair had just started dating after meeting on the app, Bumble Court hears neighbours heard 'loud, violent sex' Joe Imbo moved to the Carolinas with the son he had with Danielle, Joe III, and to this day, he maintains his innocence and he has never been named an official suspect by the police. They sat close, smiling and laughing. They simply vanished. I want to thank you, he will say. Updated 3 times since October 12, 2004. Thats what the investigation is like. They compared notes on what their ensuing Sundays entailed: Danielle had a hair appointment at 11 a.m.; her ex-husband was scheduled to return their son after that. Summer House's Danielle Olivera Confirms Mya's Ex-Boyfriend Oliver Cheated as Mya Talks "Red Flags" and Accuses Him of "Faking It". dr patel plastic surgeon oak brook. Ill admit, that part makes me a little nervous. On the night of February 19th, 2005, an unseasonably cold night, even for Philly, Danielle had been socializing with family over dinner and asked to be dropped off at a taproom where Richard was having a drink. by Anna Orso February 17, 2015 When Danielle Imbo and Richard Petrone left a South Street bar 10 years ago Thursday, they left no trace. Three to five remained in the murky water after the search was stalled by bad weather, but police said none was known to be a Dodge Dakota. The sudden and mysterious disappearance of Danielle Imbo and Richard Petrone Jr. on February 19, 2005, has left investigators and the public with more questions than answers. Did he cruise the streets outside Richards frequent hangout until he located the vehicle? It was also featured on the podcast Women & Crime in December 2021. A devious murderer could arrange to scrap a truck piece-by-piece, but that would involve other people in the plot people who helped dismantle the truck, people who bought the parts and would also run a strong risk that someone who was not part of the plot would see the truck while they had it stored in a garage somewhere as they parted it out. That theyd be all right.. RICHARD PETRONE. FBI.gov, https://www.fbi.gov/wanted/kidnap/richard-petrone. He watches the games alone. In 2008, the FBI would issue a press release to this effect, suggesting that Imbo and Petrone were victims of a murder for hire scheme. None of these efforts produced any leads. They have not been seen nor heard from since this last sighting. Danielles family were worried, yes, but they were not expecting the worst. "The FBI decided to come out with something that we've felt has been the case from day one, that it was a murder. She and Richard Sr. had long-since grieved their son. I am a bitter, bitter man, he says. Dani's ex-husband, Joe Imbo, was due to drop off their son at Dani's house at 5:00 pm, and it looked like she wasn't going to be there to meet him. But since their separation, Danielle Imbo had discovered a new confidence as a single mom. Their relationship was going well when Danielle's ex-husband began attempting to rekindle their romance. Oct 10, 2014 - On the night of February 19, 2005, Danielle Imbo, 34, and Richard Petrone, 35, vanished. No matter in what direction he looks, he only sees more snow, pure and undisturbed. And so, on a night when the temperature was about 27 degrees and the crowd at 4th and South was probably a little thinner than usual, Danielle and Richard walked out of Abilenes toward Richards truck. "We're not going to be able to go into great detail, but we thought it would be significant for the public to understand that this hasn't gone away. We can go in any direction at all, because there are no tracks or markers. The best detectives will tell you, they consider all options. They had drinks with friends at the establishment before leaving between 11:30 and 11:45 p.m.; they stated they were going to Imbo's home in Mount Laurel, New Jersey. At 23, she has moved past the fear, which dogged her as a teenager, that whatever evil took her dad will come back for his family. In 2008, the FBI announced that the case was being treated as murder-for-hire. He lost a wonderful person in his life.. Danielle Lloyd has revealed that she considered taking her own life during the height of her modelling career.. The authorities have since come out and expressed suspicion of their own. "Not anything.". Hes dressed in jeans, a button-down shirt and a black baseball cap. A desperate search for answers. Philadelphia Daily News, 06 06 2005, https://www.newspapers.com/clip/102529560/a-desperate-search-for-answers/. In April, 2005, the Allentown Morning Call reported: Joseph Imbo has said he made it clear in telephone conversations with Petrone that he did not like that his wife was involved with him. At about 11:45 pm, Imboand Petroneleft Abilene's. Then he called his sister, who was with Danielle. Sure, there are other ways to dispose of a vehicle. But two people who read the note told me that rumor is false.