Philadelphia Couple’s Night Out Ends in Mystery
Marge Petrone’s feeling of dread began when her son’s phone went straight to voicemail. He always picked up within the first few rings or called back immediately.
Richard Petrone Jr., 35, had gone out the night before with his on-again, off-again girlfriend, Danielle Imbo, 34. The morning after, he was supposed to be in his apartment in suburban Philadelphia, glued to the Daytona 500 on television.
“I knew something was wrong when I didn’t immediately hear back from him,” Marge Petrone says. “His phone was never off — it was always in his hands.”
But on this day he wasn’t answering, and neither was Danielle. As members of close-knit Italian families and parents to young children, it was out of character.
Both families later learned the couple had left Abilene’s bar on Philadelphia’s bustling South Street shortly before midnight. Richard’s 2001 black Dodge Dakota was parked outside.
And then, as if swallowed by the night, they and the truck just disappeared.Investigators found no forensic evidence after the couple left the bar, says retired FBI special agent Vito Roselli, who was the case’s first lead investigator. The Dodge truck did not appear on the area’s toll bridge cameras, and the couple’s credit cards and bank accounts registered no activity, he adds.
Philadelphia authorities and the FBI were baffled. How could two people and a truck just vanish into thin air?
Two decades since that night of February 19, 2005, Danielle’s brother says he’s still haunted by the lack of answers. He compares it to standing in a vast field of untouched snow with no trail or footprints to guide him.
“I try to picture her last moments of life. Was she afraid? Was she scared?” asks the brother, John Ottobre. “Was she crying out for help? I go to those dark places.”
Similar thoughts race through Marge Petrone’s mind.
“Where is he? What happened to him?” she says, her voice trembling. “The people who took him – what did they do to him? Did he suffer? Did he call my name?”
Over the years, the two families have navigated endless bouts of grief and questions. And what started as a tragic connection between them has spiraled into suspicions, finger-pointing and a broken relationship.
All because of a two-decade myst