It’s been 20 years since the disappearance of Richard Petrone Jr. and Danielle Imbo, a couple who went missing after leaving a bar on Philadelphia’s South Street in 2005. NBC10 investigative reporter Claudia Vargas has the latest details on the cold case.
Two decades since the unsolved disappearance of a couple who left a Philadelphia bar, officials continue to investigate and believe that foul play was involved.
During the late-night hours of Saturday, Feb. 19, 2005, Danielle Imbo and Richard Petrone Jr. left Abilene’s Bar on South Street in Petrone’s black pickup truck. The next evening, on Feb. 20, 2005, Mount Laurel Police received a call from Imbo’s family. They were concerned about the 34-year-old mother’s whereabouts.
“She went missing,” Mount Laurel Police Chief Timothy Hudnall said. “Or she was last seen anyway, with her boyfriend at the time. They were out at a restaurant or a bar over in Philly.”
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Around the same time, Philadelphia police received a similar call about Petrone who also never made it home after leaving the bar.
“About 11:30, 11:45, they left Abilene’s Bar. That was the last they were reportedly seen,” retired FBI agent Vito Roselli said. “They both disappeared along with Richard Petrone’s Dodge Dakota pickup truck.”
Imbo – who worked as a loan mortgage processor -- was last seen wearing a dark colored jacket, cream colored sweater and blue jeans. She was also carrying a two-handle black purse at the time of her disappearance.
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Petrone was last seen wearing a gray Polo sweatshirt and blue jeans. He also has a tattoo of the word “Angela” on his left arm and a tattoo of clowns on his right arm.
Petrone’s pickup truck was a black 2001 Dodge Dakota with the license plate “YFH 2319.”
Petrone and Imbo were South Jersey high school friends who had been dating on and off in the months leading up to their disappearance. Imbo had a 1-year-old son with her ex-husband while Petrone had a 14-year-old daughter from a previous marriage.
“He was a hard-working guy with a lot of friends. Outgoing,” Roselli told NBC10. “Just a typical South Philly dude. Danielle, same thing. Hard-working. Liked to have fun. But nothing nefarious in either one of their backgrounds or their families for that matter.”
Roselli said Mount Laurel Police and the Philadelphia Police Department’s South Detectives quickly realized something was wrong.
“They started working together, trying to track down last known locations, who they were supposed to be meeting,” Roselli said. “They checked their bank accounts, their phones, their phone records.”
Roselli eventually took the lead in the case. He told NBC10 that law enforcement received an interesting tip early on.
“A murder-for-hire on behalf of the LCN,” Roselli said.
LCN stands for La Cosa Nostra, or the Italian Mafia out of New York.
“There was enough meat on that allegation for us to get proactively involved,” Roselli said.
While investigators weren’t able to move that lead any further, it was not discarded. Roselli said a murder-for-hire scheme is still a possibility. Despite this, he’s still unsure of who would want to have them killed under that scenario.
“That’s my big challenge,” he said. “That was the whole challenge with this, you know, investigation. I couldn’t figure that out.”
Roselli said there were other tips that came in over the years that mentioned a Camden drug gang, the Pagan motorcycle gang and a drug dealer in Philadelphia’s Fishtown section being possibly involved in the couple’s disappearance. Investigators even looked into those who had been close to the couple.
“Statistically, it’s the estranged husband. You know, so we did a very deep dive into him and his family,” Roselli said.
Imbo’s ex-husband has denied having any involvement with the couple’s disappearance.
Roselli said a major challenge in the investigation has been the lack of physical evidence or surveillance video. While Petrone told his friends at the bar that his vehicle was parked nearby, police never found the black pickup truck or any evidence of a struggle or break-in, such as broken glass or personal items that had been dropped.
“You had two bodies missing. You had a truck missing. No crime scene,” Roselli said.
To this day, Roselli doesn’t believe the couple’s disappearance was an accident.
“Combing the Delaware River and different bodies of water and we don’t find that truck,” Roselli said. “Not impossible, but, you know, highly unlikely.”
A volunteer search group looked for the pickup truck in 2022 in the Schuylkill River but came up empty. Despite the disappearance remaining unsolved for 20 years, Roselli is still hoping for one tip that will crack the cold case.
“Hopefully somebody has a pain or conscience or finally feels free to come forward to say something,” Roselli said.
The FBI is offering a reward of up to $15,000 for information leading to the arrest and conviction of anyone involved in Petrone and Imbo’s disappearance. If you have any information on their whereabouts, please call your local FBI office or the nearest American Embassy or Consulate. The FBI can be reached at 215-418-4000.
