Danielle Imbo, 34, Richard Petrone, 35, Philadelphia PA, 2/19/05

[Audie]

http://media.amw.com/multimedia/fileRepository/db/472/81/Danielle-and-Richard.jpg

FBI: Couple last seen in Phila. in 2005 may be murdered
The Associated Press

PHILADELPHIA - A couple last seen at a Philadelphia nightclub in 2005 might be the victims of a professional killer, the FBI said Wednesday.

Danielle Imbo and Richard Petrone each left behind a child when they disappeared, children their families insist they would not have abandoned.

With no bodies or ransom notes after three years, the FBI has largely ruled out a kidnapping or random killing, FBI spokeswoman Jerri Williams said Wednesday.

And leads developed point to a murder-for-hire, she said.

"It's more than a process of elimination. Leads and tips have also taken us in that direction," Williams said, declining to be more specific.

Imbo, 34, of Mt. Laurel, N.J., and Petrone, 35, of South Philadelphia, had known each other since high school and had recently started dating. Imbo, estranged from her husband, worked from home and had a year-old son. Petrone, who worked at his family's bakery in Ardmore, had a teenage daughter.

The couple left bustling South Street at around 11:45 p.m. on Feb. 19, a Saturday, telling friends they planned to return to Mount Laurel. But that proved the last time they were seen.

"It didn't appear to be a random act of violence because it was such a clean disappearance," Williams said.

Petrone's 2001 Dodge Dakota has also not been found.

Surveillance cameras on the Ben Franklin and Walt Whitman Bridges did not catch the vehicle heading into New Jersey, police have said. They have also searched the Philadelphia International Airport, back roads of the New Jersey Pine Barrens and beyond.

"Obviously something happened to them," Williams said. "They just didn't disappear. The person or persons responsible know exactly what happened and it's our job to find out what this is."

Several police agencies in New Jersey and Philadelphia are also working the case.

"At the very end, there's always somebody who knows something," Williams said.

February 7, 2008 1:15 AM

http://www.phillyburbs.com/pb-dyn/news/103-02072008-1483658.html

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http://www.amw.com/missing_persons/case.cfm?id=30619

[Audie]

This was emailed to me. No specific link. Just phillyburbs.com. I couldn't find this particular story. This one has a little more info I think.

Was couple's disappearance murder for hire?

It's been three years since Danielle Imbo and Richard Petrone disappeared, but now authorities are investigating the possibility the pair were victims of a murder for hire.

"Sadly, this has gone from a missing persons case to obviously a case where they are no longer with us," said Philadelphia Police Detective Eric Johnson yesterday. "From some of the leads that we and the FBI have developed, this is turning into a murder-for-hire investigation."

Imbo, then 34, of Mount Laurel and Petrone, then 35, of Philadelphia were reported missing Feb. 20, 2005, after their families could not contact them and they missed appointments following a night out together in downtown Philadelphia.

Now, for the first time, authorities are discussing a possible theory of what happened to the two after they left the Abilene nightclub on South Street just before midnight on Februeary 19, 2005. Petrone was supposed to drive Imbo back to her Dunbarton Road condominium in Mount Laurel, but police said they never made it.

"We have continued to actively investigate this case and have taken all tips and run them down to their logical conclusion," FBI Special Agent Jerri Williams said yesterday. "One of the leads has led us to pursue a possible murder-for-hire scenario."

Williams would not say whether both were targets of a possible hit, noting that some aspects of the investigation must remain confidential. She said the investigation of the murder-for-hire scenario was in its preliminary stage and an arrest was not imminent.

The case had frustrated authorities from the beginning, with very little physical evidence to follow. Not only are Imbo and Petrone missing, so is Petrone's black Dodge Dakota. Their bank and credit card accounts and cell phones have never been accessed.

Search of surveillance tapes at the Delaware River bridge crossings yielded no sign of the truck. Likewise, searches of the neighborhoods around the bar, the New Jersey Pinelands and the shipyards along the Delaware River also produced no clues. Portions of the river have also been searched.

Authorities have said they conducted hundreds of interviews and chased hundreds of tips, including those that followed two broadcasts featuring the case on the nationally televised "America's Most Wanted." Johnson said there have always been persons of interest, but no particular suspect.

Police maintain their belief that Imbo and Petrone did not leave the area on their own. While the two had dated in the past, the pair were just friends at the time of the disappearance, Imbo's family has said.

Both had strong family ties. Imbo's son, Joe, was just 20 months old when his mother disappeared. Her family said she was separated from the boy's father and had recently decided to proceed with her divorce from Joseph Imbo Jr., who now lives out of state.

Petrone worked in his family's Ardmore, Pa., bakery and had recently moved to South Philadelphia to be closer to his teenage daughter, Angela.

In addition to the FBI and Philadelphia Police, the case is also being investigated by state police in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, the county prosecutors' offices in Burlington and Camden counties and the Mount Laurel Police Department.

The Citizens Crime Commission of the Delaware Valley is offering a $100,000 reward for information on the case. It recently expanded eligibility for the money from tips that lead to the arrest and conviction of the person or persons responsible to tips leading to the whereabouts of Imbo and Petrone, an official said this week.

The anonymous tip line is (888) 345-TIPS.

E-mail: dcamilli@phillyBurbs.com

[Nut44x4]

http://www.danielleimbo.com/

http://www.richardpetrone.com/

[sarahhod]

The Disappearance of Danielle Imbo and Richard Petrone

http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/criminal_mind/forensics/imbo_petrone/1.html

http://i33.tinypic.com/2q181md.jpg
Richard Petrone & Danielle Imbo


On the night of February 19, 2005, Danielle Imbo, 34, and Richard Petrone, 35, vanished. They were last seen at Abilene's bar and restaurant on South Street in Philadelphia, and Richard's best friend Rick Bellezzi told the Philadelphia Inquirer that the couple "left the club happy at about 11:45." But that was the last time they were seen. Two adults traveling in a pickup truck — gone. No phone calls to friends or family members, no ransom notes, no wreckage, no remains. And now after nearly ten months of searching, the police say they have "zero physical evidence."

Despite extensive searches, Richard's 2001 four-door Dodge Dakota pickup has not been located. Richard's and Danielle's credit cards and ATM cards have not been used since they walked out of Abilene's that night. There has been no activity on either of their cellphones. Surveillance cameras that routinely record transactions at ATM machines showed no signs of either of them. Video cameras at highway toll plazas and river crossings have no record of Richard's truck passing through that night. It's as if they vanished into thin air.

"Not a lipstick, not a bag, not a shoe, not a car, not an eyewitness, not a tip, not anything," Danielle's brother, John Ottobre, told Philadelphia Daily News reporter Scott Flander. A reward of $100,000 is being offered for any information that will lead to the whereabouts of Danielle and Richard, and police in Philadelphia and New Jersey as well as the FBI continue to search for the couple. But so far they've come up empty.

Danielle is an attractive brunette with hazel eyes and an infectious smile. Her friends agree that she's "very smart" and has a "great sense of humor." One friend described her as a "brutally honest" person, "a tell-it-like-it-is type of girl." Until a few years ago she sang in a rock band called the School Boys, following in the footsteps of her late father, Johnny Ottobre, who in the 1950s had been the lead singer in a well-known doo-wop group called the Four Dates. She wears a tattoo on her lower back — the symbol for her astrological sign (Leo) inside a horseshoe of flowers.

Richard has two tattoos. On his right arm he has an image of clowns; on his left he has his beloved daughter's name, "Angela." Often described as good-natured and jovial, Richard has a stocky, solid build. He has blue eyes and brown hair and usually wears a goatee or a sculpted full beard.

Richard's and Danielle's families are understandably distraught and perplexed. Some family members fear the worst; others struggle to remain hopeful. Danielle's estranged husband, Joe Imbo, had allegedly threatened Richard Petrone over the phone on several occasions. Imbo was questioned by the police after the disappearance, but so far no arrests have been made.

According to Sergeant Tim Cooney of the Philadelphia Police, "No one is a suspect and everyone is a subject of this investigation."

Much more at link:- Very good read.

[sarahhod]

http://www.myspace.com/find_danielle

[sarahhod]

http://uk.video.yahoo.com/watch/911240/3620981

[sarahhod]

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=H1lyTlqS4oE

[sarahhod]

Holding out faint hope, friends and family search for a couple that vanished.

http://www.citypaper.net/articles/2005-04-14/cb.shtml


On Feb. 19, Richard Petrone and his girlfriend, Danielle Imbo, enjoyed a casual Saturday night of drinking at Abilene on South Street. The couple was joined by Petrone's childhood friend Anthony Valentino and his wife, Michelle. A pleasant night out, everybody was happy and laughing. There were no confrontations. No arguments. Just discussing music and telling stories from when Richie and Anthony were kids.

Shortly after 11:30 p.m., Petrone and Imbo stood to leave. They said they had only a short walk to their car and were heading back to Imbo's home in Mount Laurel, N.J. Petrone hugged Valentino, said he'd talk to him tomorrow, and then he and Imbo walked into the cold night air, blending into the South Street crowd. They have not been seen or heard from since. The cops have no leads.

Donna Valente is a realist. She accepts that her cousin Richie is probably dead. But there is always hope, and on a recent warm Saturday morning, Valente led yet another search party for the missing couple.

"They are out there somewhere," she says in a tired voice while loading fliers and bottled water onto a folding table outside Abilene. "We won't stop until we bring them home."

Ostensibly, the aim of the day's search, which will travel to Pennsauken to comb some woods along the Delaware River, is to find a lead, any lead. Richard's black 2001 Dodge Dakota pickup, maybe. Or Danielle's cream-colored sweater. A washed-up license. A shoe. Something. Anything. But it's unlikely evidence will be found. Police have searched by land, air and sea from the Jersey Shore to Delaware County. They have found absolutely nothing.

Still, the search will keep the media's glare on the case. It has so far garnered a good amount of attention, including spots on America's Most Wanted, CNN and MSNBC, but as time slips away, so does interest and the chance of a random tip leading to a break in the case.

The couple's disappearance reads in the style of a one-hour TV police drama. Danielle's estranged husband, Joseph Imbo, allegedly made repeated threats against Petrone. And, just days before the disappearance, Danielle reportedly told Joseph Imbo and Petrone that she wanted space from both of them. Imbo says he has taken and passed a lie-detector test with the Mount Laurel Police Department, but since any results would be confidential, his assertion could not be verified.

"Right now anyone with any relationship to the subjects is being questioned and looked at," says Philadelphia Police Sgt. Tim Cooney of the South Detective Division, which has six officers working the case full time.

Two weeks ago, a psychic informed the Petrone family that Richie and Danielle's bodies were underneath the Walt Whitman Bridge. The psychic then called the Imbo family and told them Danielle was alive and trapped under the bridge in a freight car. Petrone left Danielle for dead, she said. The police conducted a search and found nothing.

"It was cruel," says Valente. "It freaked Danielle's family out. They thought she was alive and coming home."

On South Street, news crews film Valente and other volunteers as they pass out fliers and try to recruit people for the search party. Most passersby take the fliers, nod politely and keep walking, adding a step or two to their gait. One rheumy-eyed little man with broken teeth and gin on his breath mumbles after he's told the search is not a paying gig. A gray-haired man with a ponytail waves his hand haughtily and shouts, "The world is overpopulated enough already for Chrissakes."

Valente doesn't catch the man's invective but seems disappointed by the small amount of volunteers who have showed up. "We can't do this alone," she says, deflating her shoulders as a crowd of laughing, tattooed teenage boys push past. "We need help."

Petrone's friends stand outside Abilene and describe the missing couple to reporters. Petrone is a doting father to his 14-year-old daughter, Angela, and a lover of hockey, NASCAR and Bruce Springsteen. He and Imbo were dating for a year, although they have known each other since high school in Cherry Hill. Imbo, 34, is petite and pretty and sang in a rock cover band until her son was born two years ago. Petrone, 35, plans to take over the family bakery. Imbo has a lucrative job for a mortgage company. Nobody, including the police, think they abandoned their lives and ran off by themselves. And a random crime doesn't fit either.

"Normally in a random crime, we'd find some type of evidence," says Cooney. "However, there is nothing normal about this case."

The staging ground for the search is a pebble parking lot on the banks of the Delaware River about two miles north of the Ben Franklin Bridge. The group will fan out across the banks of the river in the chance that any evidence discarded in the river might have washed ashore. There are 12 volunteers now, and the news cameras have also made the trip. The early afternoon sun shines hot. A warm breeze blows off the river. A train steams by. Dogs bark. Soon, the group heads south along the train tracks. Recent rains have left the banks flooded and many of the entrances to the river are impassable. After three-quarters of a mile, a clearing leads to an expanse of small dunes surrounded by baby birch and oak trees. In the dunes lay the wrecks of abandoned cars, some still smoldering, but none are Petrone's.

Shortly after 3 p.m., volunteer Karol Anne Moscufo, a nurse from Burlington, N.J., inspects a small stretch of riverbank. The muddy trash- and bramble-filled water gently laps against the shore. The industrial skyline of the lower Northeast fills the horizon. Moscufo spots a bone floating in the tide. She calls over other volunteers, including Valente and Dave Swint, an off-duty cop from Willingboro, N.J., to inspect the find. It is too thin a bone to be human, they all agree, and is most likely the remains of a bird or cat.

The afternoon sun beats on, and soon the search party winds down.

"The possibilities of where they could be are endless," says Valente on the trek back to the car. "But we'll keep trying."

For information about upcoming searches go to www.richardpetrone.com or www.danielleimbo.com. A $60,000 reward is being offered for information leading to the couple's safe return. Friends and police ask anybody with information about the case to call 215-546-TIPS.

[sarahhod]

New appeal for help finding couple

http://abclocal.go.com/wpvi/story?section=news/local&id=5928287


Friday, February 01, 2008 | 7:30 PM

February 1, 2008 (WPVI) -- Authorities have made a new appeal in efforts to find out what happened to Richard Petrone Junior and Danielle Imbo.

Their disappearance remains one of the major mysteries for Philadelphia Police.

"I know I'll never see my son again. I know that. I know somebody took him against his will, and he's gone," said Richard Petrone Sr.

Petrone and his wife talked to us at their Main Line bakery nearly three years to the day since Richard, Jr. vanished along with his girlfriend, Danielle Imbo.
Story continues below
Advertisement

The two were last seen leaving Abilene's on South Street just before midnight on February 19, 2005. Gone too was Petrone's Dakota pickup truck. For Philadelphia police and the FBI, the trail is cold.

"I need closure. I want to bury my son," said a weeping Marge Petrone.

"We have the feeling in our conversation with law enforcement that they are relatively certain that this was not a random act of violence. They did not leave voluntarily and take off somewhere," said Richard Petrone.

Both Petrone and Imbo were devoted parents of young children. Petrone's daughter is now 17.

Abilene's Bar and Restaurant is history now, but three years later the 100-thousand dollars in reward money for information leading to arrest and conviction in this case still stands. In fact, eligibility has been expanded. It now includes anyone who provides information leading to the discovery of Petrone and Imbo's whereabouts.

"To not knowing has to be the worst thing for a mother. Not knowing what happened to your child, you know, it's a nightmare that does not go away. I know somebody out there knows something," said Marge.

The Petrone's continue to operate the top shelf bakery their son used to run for them hoping someone will soon make an anonymous phone call to the Citizen's Crime Commission at 215-546-TIPS.


Video at link:-

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http://www.njvu.org/cgi-bin/njsp/mpdisplay.cgi?mpid=172

> NJSP Home | > Missing Persons Unit | > Missing Persons List

Danielle Imbo http://www.njvu.org/njsp/mp/ImboPetroneUpdate2008.jpg
Last Name Imbo
First Name Danielle
Middle Name
Sex Female
Race Caucasian
Date Of Birth 8/7/1970
Place Of Birth Pennsylvania
Height 5'5
Weight 117 pounds
Hair Brown
Eyes Hazel
Complexion Fair
Scars/Marks/Tattoos smt
Last Seen February 19, 2005
NCIC M907299302
Danielle and Richard were last seen on Saturday February 19, 2005 at 11:45 p.m. leaving Abeline's Bar on South Street in Philadelphia, PA.

She is from Mount Laurel, NJ. Richard Petrone, Jr is from Philadelphia, PA. (NIC #M614738671) (Missing from PA) (Picture Above).

Danielle was last seen wearing a jacket, cream colored sweater, blue jeans and carrying a black purse. Danielle does have a tattoo on her lower back of "flowers."

Both Danielle and Richard are possibly traveling in his vehicle, a 2001 Black/Silver Dodge Dakota pickup truck (see similar picture above) bearing PA registration #YFH2319.

Any further information, please contact either Mount Laurel Twp Police Department at #856-234-1414, Burlington County Prosecutor's Office at #609-265-7105, NJSP Missing Persons Unit at #800-709-7090, or Philadelphia Police Department at #215-686-3013/3014.

For more information and photos, please visit: http://www.danielleimbo.com


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Reward In Missing Couple Murder Mystery

PHILADELPHIA - Only On Fox: A four-year-old murder mystery and a father's nightmare. Thursday marks the fourth anniversary of the disappearance of Richard Petrone and Danielle Imbo.

Last year, we learned this was a murder-for-hire, a hit on a young couple out for a night on the town. Now federal authorities say that disclosure generated some interesting tips. They remain optimistic this case will get solved, reported Fox 29's Dave Schratwieser.

Slideshow: Images Of Missing Couple

Everyday is painful for Rich Petrone and his family. Four years after his son, Richard, and his girlfriend, Danielle Imbo, disappeared, there are daily reminders of the immense loss.

"There's never a good time, some are much worse than others," said Richard Petrone in an exclusive interview with Fox 29.

Last February, the FBI announced the couple's disappearance from a South Street bar was a murder-for-hire plot, carried out by yet unknown killers. The young couple's bodies and their pickup truck have never been found.

"We're optimistic that we're gonna solve this case. We're still following up on the leads that we have, aggressively pursuing it and we're not giving up on it," said FBI spokesman J.J. Klaver.

FBI agents and detectives have scoured the area for the bodies, digging up garbage dumps and empty lots. Divers have searched lakes and waterways in vain.

"The thought that your son is laying out there somewhere, God knows where, in a marsh , in a field, in a trash dump," said Petrone.

Petrone believes more than one person carried out the hit. "Sooner or later, people talk. This was not a one-man operation. It took more than one person to make two people and a truck disappear."

While the investigation remains active, the sadness never leaves. Petrone runs the family bakery everyday, remembering the good times with his son at his side.

The Citizens Crime Commission is offering a $50,000 reward for information that leads to the couple's whereabouts.

"It’s important forensically. It's important to the families to put this to rest for them. But any piece of information is important in helping us solve this," said Klaver.

"It would be important to know that whoever did this, pay for it," said Petrone.

If you have any information in this case, you're asked to call the Citizens Crime Commission at 215-546-TIPS. You can give your information anonymously. It could help ease the pain for the Petrones and the family of Danielle Imbo.


http://www.myfoxphilly.com/dpp/news/local_news/021809_Imbo_Petrone_Murder_Mystery

[sarahhod]

Police 'remain optimistic' in solving 4-year-old case

By: DANIELLE CAMILLI
Burlington County Times

Danielle Imbo and Richard Petrone vanished Feb. 20, 2005, after leaving a Philadelphia nightclub.


Despite the passage of four years since a Mount Laurel woman and her friend seemingly vanished without a trace, authorities said Wednesday they remain optimistic that the case will be solved.
Today marks the fourth anniversary since Danielle Imbo and Richard Petrone were last seen alive leaving a Philadelphia bar. Last February, the FBI revealed that the disappearance officially had gone from a missing persons case to a murder investigation.
"We are still aggressively pursuing several leads that this was a murder-for-hire scheme," Special Agent J.J. Klaver of the FBI's Philadelphia office said Wednesday.
Authorities have not said whether both were targets of a possible hit, noting that some aspects of the investigation must remain confidential.
On Wednesday, law enforcement again asked for the public's assistance in the investigation, with representatives saying they "remain optimistic that the case can be solved."
Authorities have said there are persons of interest, but no particular suspect.
Imbo, then 34, of Mount Laurel and Petrone, then 35, of Philadelphia were reported missing Feb. 20, 2005, after their families could not contact them and they missed appointments after leaving Abilene nightclub on South Street together.
The friends left the club just before midnight on February 19, 2005. Petrone was supposed to drive Imbo back to her Dunbarton Road condominium in Mount Laurel, but police said they never made it. Review of tapes at multiple Delaware River bridges turned up no evidence that Petrone's black Dodge Dakota ever crossed into New Jersey.
Since the early days of the investigation, there has been little physical evidence to follow. The pair's bank and credit card accounts and cell phones never have been accessed.

Searches of the neighborhoods around the bar, the New Jersey Pinelands and the shipyards along the Delaware River also produced no clues. Portions of the river also have been searched.
Authorities have said they conducted hundreds of interviews and chased hundreds of tips, including those that followed broadcasts featuring the case on the nationally televised "America's Most Wanted."
While the two had dated in the past, they were just friends at the time of the disappearance, Imbo's family has said.
Imbo's son, Joe, was 20 months old when his mother disappeared.
She was separated from the boy's father and recently had decided to proceed with her divorce from Joseph Imbo Jr., who now lives out of state, family said.
Petrone worked in his family's Ardmore, Pa., bakery and has a teenage daughter, Angela.
The families and authorities do not believe Imbo and Petrone left on their own.
In addition to the FBI and Philadelphia Police, the case also is being investigated by state police in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, the county prosecutors' offices in Burlington and Camden counties and the Mount Laurel Police Department.
The Citizens Crime Commission of the Delaware Valley is offering a $50,000 reward for information about the case. Klaver said Wednesday the commission expanded eligibility for the reward from tips that lead to the arrest and conviction of the person or persons responsible, to tips leading to the whereabouts of the victims' bodies.
Anyone with information is asked to call either the FBI at 215-418-4000 or the Citizens Crime Commission tipline at 877-345-TIPS or 215-546-TIPS. Tipsters can remain anonymous.

February 19, 2009 03:20 AM

http://www.phillyburbs.com/news/news_details/article/16/2009/february/19/police-remain-optimistic-in-solving-4-year-old-case-1.html

[sarahhod]

Searching for Answers Four Years Later NJ couple still missing, FBI not giving up

By VINCE LATTANZIO (http://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/results/?keywords=%22VINCE+LATTANZIO%22&author=y&sort=date)
Updated 12:47 AM EST, Thu, Feb 19, 2009

The investigation that followed involved officials from two states and the FBI (http://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/topics?topic=Federal+Bureau+of+Investigation), but no one has been able to answer the question of what happened to the New Jersey couple.
Now on this somber anniversary, investigators are once again asking the public for their help in solving the case.
Cold Case Blog: The Missing South Street Couple (http://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/local/Cold-Case-Blog-Danielle-Imbo-Richard-Petrone.html) Imbo, 34, and Petrone, 35, had been dating for about a year when they went to Abiline, a now defunct bar and restaurant along South Street in Philadelphia (http://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/topics?topic=Philadelphia) on February 19, 2005. It would be the last time anyone saw them. “They weren’t using bank accounts, cell phones, nothing. It’s hard in this day and age to disappear like that, so we have every reason to believe that foul play is involved,” FBI special agent J.J. Klaver told NBC10’s Mike Strug Wednesday.
Family and investigators describe the couple as stable. Both have children from previous relationships and held good jobs.

Officials believe the two may have been the victims of a murder-for-hire plot, but will not say why. The couple has been pronounced dead, but the investigation still remains active.
“When it comes to murder, we don’t give up,” Klaver said.

Petrone’s Dodge Dakota pickup truck (http://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/topics?topic=Dodge+Dakota) was also never found.
A $50,000 reward is being offered for information leading to the whereabouts of the couple. Anyone with information is asked to call either the FBI at 215-418-4000 or the Citizens Crime Commission tipline at 877-345-TIPS or 215-546-TIPS. Tipsters can remain anonymous.

http://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/local/Searching-for-Answers-Four-Years-Later.html

Video and pictures at link:-

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http://www.theyaremissed.org/ncma/gallery/ncmaprofile_all.php?A200502518S

http://www.theyaremissed.org/ncma/gallery/ncmaprofile_all.php?A200502519S

[Nut44x4]

After 5 years, still no trace of missing couple

Every day, when Marge Petrone wakes up, her memory challenges her to a tug-of-war.

On better days, she'll remember her son, Richard Petrone, as a boy in his ice-hockey uniform, or as a man deftly decorating a cake in the family's bakery. She'll see his resemblance in her great-grandson's little face.

On the bad days, her memories can drag Marge Petrone toward the hole gouged out of her family's life when her son and his girlfriend, Danielle Imbo, disappeared after leaving a South Street bar.

"Every day it gets harder," she said recently. "It never gets easier."

The calendar suggests Feb. 19 might be a terrible day for the Petrones, but the Cherry Hill family says that the five-year anniversary of the couple's disappearance is simply another struggle to endure until there's a break in the case.

"It's the wait," said Marge Petrone, 61. "We have to wait. But we hope it will be worth it in the end."

On Feb. 19, 2005, Richard Petrone, 35, and Imbo, 34, were having drinks with another couple at Abilene's on Philadelphia's South Street. The couple left together shortly before midnight in Petrone's black 2001 Dodge Dakota pickup. Supposedly, they were heading back to Imbo's home in Mount Laurel.

No one has seen or heard from them since. There has been no trace of the truck.

"They vanished," said John Ottobre, Danielle's brother. "They walked out of Abilene and from the minute they got out the door, no one knows if they turned left or right. We don't even know if they made it to New Jersey."

Their credit cards, bank accounts and cell phones were never activated or used again. The Dodge Dakota was never found. If any surveillance footage was captured from the South Street area or on bridges into New Jersey, it has never been released. Investigators have followed leads in Florida and Illinois. Divers scoured murky rivers and lakes in New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Properties were dug up and landfills searched.

At each turn, there was nothing.

"To have zero evidence is amazing," said Philadelphia Police Sgt. Tim Cooney. "An entire truck disappeared."

The FBI is handling the bulk of the investigation and hasn't released any new information since 2008, when it announced that the case was being treated as a murder-for-hire.

The agency is still working on that angle, but won't say why it views the case that way.

"Most of the leads that we were previously following up on have not yielded many positive results," said Special Agent J.J. Klaver, an FBI spokesman. "The bottom line is, there is a person or persons who have knowledge of this."

Initial media reports said that Imbo's estranged husband, Joseph Imbo, allegedly had words with Richard Petrone before the disappearance. Joseph Imbo was questioned by police, but not charged. He is now living in North Carolina with the son he had with Danielle. He could not be reached for comment.

Ottobre, Danielle's brother, said his family does not see much of Joseph Imbo, other than when he brings Danielle's 6-year-old son, Joseph Imbo III, to South Jersey for visits. He said they don't talk much with the Petrones, either.

"We just knew Danielle was innocent in whatever happened," Ottobre said.

Marge Petrone does not believe her son was the intended target, either, if there was foul play.

"Richard was in the wrong place at the wrong time," she said.

Ottobre believes that reward money, a guilty conscience or an accomplice who's in a jam and looking to barter details about the incident for a lesser sentence could all play a part in breaking the case.

In August, the Petrones celebrated what would have been Richard's 40th birthday with a barbecue at his sister's house in Cherry Hill. Friends came to tell stories about their son. They listened to Bruce Springsteen, his favorite musician.

"You could feel the caring and the love and the brotherhood," Petrone said.

Some of the rituals of mourning have been denied them, though.

They have no body to bury, no accident site to turn into a memorial, no hospital to drive past with sad memories. The couple tried going to support groups for people whose children have died violently, but found themselves dancing around the edges since everyone there knew what had happened to their children. They didn't.

"We've talked about it: an illness, an accident, a war . . . but to just walk out the door on a normal Saturday night and not leave a trace, it's too hard to comprehend," Petrone said. "It's so, so over the top that there are days when you question, 'Is this real?' You just have to suspend all rational thought. Did this really happen to us?"

http://www.phillyburbs.com/news/news_details/article/92/2010/february/20/after-5-years-still-no-trace-of-missing-couple.html

[packy]

If this was a targeted abduction then that truck might have been crushed at some junkyard. I hope someone that may know something will come forward.