Update to: Missing Men in Bucks County, PA
Sadly, the remains of all four men have been found and timeline of the crimes reported. Yesterday, Cosmo Dinardo confessed to his involvement in the homicides, and told police where the bodies can be found. Today, another man – Sean Kratz – was charged in the homicides. The four men (18-22 years old) were shot, burned, and buried 12.5 feet underground. Jimi Taro Patrick, Dean Finocchiaro, Thomas Meo, and Mark Sturgis were murdered by the 2 men currently charged in the homicides.
What these simple sentences cannot possibly capture is the world of pain 6 families are in. Admittedly, I have been paying attention to the story, because it is human nature to want a mystery solved. Sadly, what is also human nature is to judge the ever-loving shit out of other humans. According to every article I’ve scanned, several words are repeated ad-nauseum: Mentally Ill, Schizophrenia, Drug Dealer, Guns. People have latched to schizophrenia and mental illness like flies on shit, and I have seen many comments about these young men being “drug addicts”. I’m not even going to debate marijuana, because the reports all say these are “drug deals gone wrong” (Um, I’d say getting shot for pot is more then going wrong…) and they apparently were planning to purchase pot from him, but were murdered instead. The reports don’t totally make sense – 700 bucks for a quarter pound of weed? Another notes $8,000 for 4 pounds of weed?
One of my own friends posted “Rot in hell asshole” towards Cosmo. Okay, clearly what this guy did is awful, awful. Rot in hell? Really? I have also read multiple times, “I am not a fan of the death penalty, but in this situation…” Hmm. “If I was one of their father’s, I’d kill him myself” These reactions are what make me want to live in a tent in the mountains yelling at goats for the rest of my days.
You cannot formulate opinions based on headlines. Well you can, I mean I cannot stop anyone from anything, but without all of the facts, it is impossible to make informed conclusions. What you are doing, however, is judging and tossing opinions around as facts. (you’re also kind of playing god on facebook…) I get the anger, etc. I guess, but I mean… This kid has parents too? He is..in fact..a human? A human who fucked up big time, sure, but human. Also, the death penalty was taken off the table for his confession, so illogic abounds as people are *furious* that he won’t get the death penalty, but … fuck man, the families of the victims (Ya know the people actually … like… important here??) will get the peace of finding their son’s bodies and having closure. Up until yesterday, these people were in the hell of not knowing if they are alive or dead. Is this the answer they wanted? No, but closure means more then payback.
More worrisome is, “I knew he had to be crazy…only someone crazy would do something like this.”
“This is what drug addicts do…”
“The world is better off without them/him…”
As per usual, I gotta take ire with crazy… For one, FOR ONE, this man’s schizophrenia (which is still unclear, everything is still unclear, but I’m going to prematurely articulate) has nothing to do with this crime. How do I know this? Well, it is an organized, premeditated killing. You see, and this is where people become ignorant, a mental illness describes symptoms. Much like the flu, or diabetes. A symptom, disease, etc. is not responsible for all of a person’s life. It could have a drastic effect, hell it can end the life, but it is not responsible for everything.
Schizophrenia is marked with psychotic episodes – a person can hear voices, hallucinate, and have delusions. If someone is having a schizophrenic episode, they are unable to think clearly, plan, or organize. Like psychosis – the person is having a break from reality. Yes, I guess, a case could be made that “the voices told him to do it” but these do not appear to be crimes of passion. Premeditation and psychosis don’t really go together, premeditation and being insane/not knowing right from wrong/etc. don’t go together. If you are able to plan, you are able to organize, which means you are able to think logically. According to the latest report: they planned to rob the men, they killed the men, they got backhoes and buried the men. This is (very sad/shitty) logical planning. Realistically, then, his schizophrenia is relevant only in the context that he should not have had a firearm.
Which really, is kind of irrelevant, because it’s also illegal to kill people and he did that too. So, what this is turning into is agenda pushing. Mental illness, gun control, and drugs all in one story. Based on the outlet you read, there are emphases placed accordingly. If it bleeds, it leads, and people love to point fingers. What is lost is the humanity of the people that no one actually knows beyond a headshot and a caption with some biographic bits. Suddenly, the voyeurs of Facebook are experts on complete strangers, because they read NBC10’s article…
I get it, I’m wasting a lot of time and breath wondering why people are assholes – these are trolls with nothing better to do then comment on news articles, and here I am commenting on the commenters, but the attitudes are common. Fear and aspersion are very, very common against people with mental illness and addictions. Both stem from ignorance, which is so often mistaken for knowledge. Without all of the facts, you are not informed, period. Generalizations and stigmatization are nothing more than giving ignorance a longer name. I get, too, that this is my opinion. I am a woman with an itchy ass, but like all my fellow assholes on the internet, I too am allowed to run my mouth. I just hope to spread reasonableness…or something.
The victims and their families don’t deserve the judgement that this unrequested spotlight has thrust on to them. A victim of a crime should not have their lives torn open and dirty underwear scrutinized publicly in the name of investigative journalism. One caption “the helicopter noise from our aerial coverage disturbed the neighbors, but allowed our viewers the opportunity to watch the investigation from their desks” come on!
Unfortunately, stories like these highlight humanity at its worst and bring out the worst of humanity. As media outlets use buzzwords to increase views/hits/ratings, the people who share these buzzwords are treated to more ignorance for the sake of advertising. The victims are treated to more scrutiny in the name of headlines. The perpetrators will be railed against – people are already saying the parents are involved. I’m sure, too, lots of hashtags and conversations will be had about needing to fix these epidemics of extremely horrendous events that seem much more frequent due to the attention they get…#RIP
News outlets exist to sell, not inform. Realistically, anyone outside of the victims have no “rights” in this situation – to information, judgement, or justice, and are doing nothing more than passing ignorance around. The fucked up part in all of this is the victims names will be forgotten, but the killers will be remembered. The inevitable shit storm of gun control, mental health conversations, and war on drugs will replace people, facts, and events with opinions, agendas, and bullshit. Luckily, there are plenty of assholes…ahem, opinions to go around.
I wish I could offer these families more than paltry condolences, and as a mother my heart breaks for these parents – all 12 of them.
Mah Butt Itches 
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