On February 19th, 2005, two friends—34-year-old Danielle Imbo and 35-year-old Richard Petrone Jr.—made last-minute plans to get together. The pair had dated in the recent past, but this would be the first time they’d seen each other in a while.
They met friends at a Philadelphia bar and by all accounts the evening was an enjoyable one. Nothing seemed amiss.
Shortly before midnight, Richard and Danielle left together, never to be seen again.
An extensive search and lengthy investigation into their disappearance would culminate in the FBI’s belief that foul play was involved—specifically a murder-for-hire plot. However, solid evidence remained as elusive as Danielle and Richard themselves and the case soon hit a standstill.
What happened to Danielle Imbo and Richard Petrone Jr.?
Danielle and Richard
Danielle Imbo was born on August 7th, 1970, in South Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to parents John and Feliz Ottobre. Her father, a singer who went by the stage name “Johnny October,” rose to fame in the 1950s as a member of the doo-wop group The Four Dates, which eventually became a backup group for popular singer Frankie Avalon.
As the daughter of a musician, Danielle developed a deep love for music and enjoyed singing and attending concerts. She was also an avid reader of murder mysteries and worked as a loan processor.
Those close to Danielle knew her as a kind and outgoing person, as well as a dedicated mother to her 18-month-old son, Joe Jr.
Richard Petrone Jr. was born on August 29th, 1969, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to parents Richard and Margaret. Described as hardworking, laidback, family-oriented, and compassionate, Richard was a devoted single father to his 14-year-old daughter Angela and worked at his family’s bakery—Viking Pastries—in Ardmore, Pennsylvania.
Like Danielle, Richard loved music, especially rock. Additionally, he enjoyed watching sports and was a fan of the Chicago Bears.
Richard and Danielle Reconnect
In 2004, Danielle’s husband, Joe Imbo, flew to Houston to see the Super Bowl, leaving behind his wife and baby, both of whom had a cold at the time.
When he got back, he announced that he had met another woman on the plane and wanted a divorce. Though shocked and deeply hurt, Danielle complied with Joe’s wishes and the two began divorce proceedings.
Sadly, the separation took a toll on Danielle, who began chain-smoking and dropped an alarming amount of weight.
This is when Richard Petrone Jr. came back into her life.
Richard and Danielle grew up in the same neighborhood and had known each other for most of their lives. Danielle was close friends with Richard’s sister but had lost touch with Richard over the years. However, they hit it off immediately upon reconnecting and soon began dating.
Richard had never felt this strongly about a woman before, according to his daughter Angela:
“Danielle was the first girl he ever really fell in love with, wanted to dedicate his time to.”
Though the pair were happy together, Danielle was still in the middle of a painful divorce and decided that it would be best if she and Richard didn’t see each other for a while, so she could put her entire focus on her baby as well as getting through the divorce proceedings. As much as this hurt Richard, he respected Danielle’s wishes and stayed away.
Joe’s Temper
Unsurprisingly, Joe’s new relationship with a woman he barely knew didn’t last, and it wasn’t long before he asked Danielle to reconcile and give their marriage another chance.
While she still had feelings for her husband, she also felt that a divorce was the right decision and wanted to remain on that path. Joe was allegedly controlling and short-tempered, and his pleas for reconciliation often erupted into explosive arguments.
On one of these occasions, Joe reportedly became so angry that he threw his son’s highchair at the wall, though he would later deny this accusation.
Danielle and Richard Go Out Together One Last Time
On February 19th, 2005, Richard was eating dinner alone at a bar when he decided that he wanted to go somewhere to see live music.
However, he didn’t want to go alone, so he called his sister Christine and asked if she’d like to join him. She declined but passed on the invitation to Danielle, who happened to be visiting her at the time—Joe had the baby and was out of town that night.
Richard and Danielle hadn’t spoken in weeks, but she accepted the invitation to his surprise.
He picked her up in his 2001 black Dodge Dakota and the two of them went to a bar called Abilene’s on Philadelphia’s South Street, meeting up with Richard’s friends, Anthony and Michelle. They watched a band perform and, by all accounts, nothing seemed out of the ordinary.
In fact, Richard and Danielle looked happy and were seen sitting close to each other and kissing inside the bar. They also compared their schedules for the following weekend, as if to plan another date.
Anthony and Michelle asked the couple to go with them to another bar, but both declined, explaining that they each had an early morning the next day and didn’t want to stay up too late.
Then, at approximately 11:45 p.m., they prepared to leave and Richard was overheard saying he would drive Danielle home to Mount Laurel before returning to South Philly.
They walked outside into the evening air together and haven’t been seen or heard from since.
[Side note: It’s unknown where Richard parked his truck, but it can be reasonably narrowed down because he made a comment to Anthony that night about being happy that he was able to get a parking space so close to the bar.]
Where Are They?
The next morning, Danielle missed her hair appointment and, throughout the day, both her cell phone and Richard’s went straight to voicemail. Their families became increasingly concerned.
Danielle’s brother, John Ottobre, decided to go check on her, using the spare key she had given him to enter her home. It was dark inside and nothing seemed suspicious or out of place.
But by 3 p.m.—the time Joe Jr. was usually dropped off by his father—Danielle still wasn’t home. That’s when John knew something was wrong.
“She wouldn’t have missed that. No way,” he later remarked.
Both Danielle and Richard were close to their families and in frequent contact with them. It wasn’t like either of them to vanish with no explanation.
When Joe arrived at Danielle’s home that afternoon to drop off little Joe, he found her family there, but not Danielle. John tried to cover for her by saying that she couldn’t be there right now and had asked him to take care of Joe Jr. in her absence.
However, as the hours went by with no word, their families knew something must be wrong and reported them missing.
The search began.
The Search
When night fell, John and Richard Petrone Sr. drove through the city streets and checked the highway routes in search of Richard’s truck, slowing to peer down every side street and back alley between Philadelphia and Mount Laurel.
They even checked the city’s waterways and overpasses, including the Walt Whitman, Ben Franklin and Betsy Ross bridges. Finally, at sunrise, they went home.
That day, friends and volunteers organized a grid search that covered a hundred miles in every direction, carrying pictures of Richard’s truck and its license plate number, YFH-2319.
John spent $1,200 hiring a Camden police officer to commandeer a helicopter, which they used to scour the city from above.
But no one found anything. According to one report, a police deputy said to John:
“No one is ever going to find anything.”
“What do you mean?” John asked.
“It’s too clean.”
Despite several extensive searches, no sign of Danielle and Richard or the truck could be located.
There were no eyewitness accounts of them after leaving the bar. They didn’t appear on any of the toll bridge cameras after their departure from Abilene’s. And when investigators checked their respective bank accounts, credit cards and cell phones, nothing unusual came up. In fact, there was no activity at all.
So what happened to the couple?
Theories
A theory that often comes up considering the fact the truck vanished as well is that they accidentally drove into the nearby Delaware River. But those familiar with the Philadelphia area believe this is an unlikely explanation, as there isn’t easy direct access to the river from the street.
Another possible explanation is that they were carjacked and murdered, with the truck taken to a chop shop afterwards and sold for parts.
This idea seemed plausible to some—after all, over 13,000 vehicles were stolen in the Philadelphia area in 2004 alone. The FBI and the Philadelphia stolen car squad worked in conjunction to investigate this lead, but it ultimately went nowhere as no evidence of a carjacking could be found.
FBI involvement in a missing persons case is relatively rare, so what compelled them to join this particular investigation?
Murder For Hire
In 2014, FBI special agent Vito Roselli, the investigator in charge of the case, put out a press release, stating:
“Making two people and a truck disappear, with no witnesses and no evidence of any kind for nine years, suggests methodical planning. It’s possible a perpetrator could just get lucky, but it’s more likely just what it looks like: Someone behind this knew what they were doing.”
Danielle Imbo and Richard Petrone Jr. were, according to the FBI, likely the victims of a “murder-for-hire” plot.
Given how cleanly and abruptly they disappeared, without any evidence left behind, this seemed like a plausible explanation.
But who would want to hurt them? And why?
Suspects
The first people that the authorities looked into were the last ones known to have seen the missing pair before they vanished: Richard’s friends Anthony and Michelle. Both were questioned multiple times, but ultimately detectives came to believe that neither was involved in the disappearance.
The next logical suspect was Danielle’s husband. His alibi was soon verified: Joe was 50 miles away at a children’s birthday party that day, a party at which his stepfather, a former NYPD officer, was in attendance. Joe took a polygraph test as well, but the results were inconclusive.
During the investigation, it was revealed that Joe possessed the password to Danielle’s voicemail and had accessed her account multiple times in the months leading up to her disappearance.
Another fact that came to light was that Joe made several threatening phone calls to Richard, both at his home and workplace, during the same timeframe, warning him to stop seeing his wife.
Nevertheless, no solid evidence for Joe’s guilt was discovered and he has adamantly denied being involved.
No other suspects have been named.
According to J.J. Klaver of the FBI: “We’re not identifying anybody as a suspect, but we’re not ruling anyone out. Everybody is ruled in at this point.”
Further Developments
A tip was received from a local waitress about a broken gate near the Delaware River. It appeared that someone had driven through it. A search was conducted of the river in that area and several vehicles were found, but Richard’s Dodge Dakota was not among them.
In 2021, the FBI released a new statement reporting that “an extensive investigation to date has generated some promising leads; however, neither they nor the vehicle has ever been located.”
In March 2022, a private Oregon-based search and recovery dive team, known as “Adventures with Purpose,” announced they were working on the case. The team has solved 11 of its 36 missing person investigations since 2021 and carried out multiple dives in the Delaware River.
Doug Bishop, one of the group’s members.
“I know the FBI’s position is that there was foul play and that the vehicle has somehow made it to a chop shop; however, there’s no actual information leading to suspect those types of conclusions. So our specialty is water, we know we have a couple that’s missing and missing with their vehicle and we’re going to do what we do best.”
So far, however, no evidence relevant to the disappearance of Richard and Danielle has been recovered from the river.
There is a $50,000 reward for information leading to the location of Richard and Danielle and/or to the arrest of those responsible for their disappearance.
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Current State of the Investigation
The case is still open and being actively investigated by the FBI, Philadelphia Police Department, Mount Laurel Police Department, New Jersey State Police, and the Burlington County Prosecutor’s Office.
Though the whereabouts of Danielle Imbo and Richard Petrone Jr., as well as the events leading up to their disappearance, remain a mystery, their families are still holding out hope that the case will be solved someday and that they will be able to give their loved ones a proper resting place.
If you’ve ever had that feeling that something’s wrong, something’s just not right. I think everybody has that once in their life. Just something doesn’t feel right. I have that feeling from the time I wake up until the time I go to bed every day.
— Danielle’s brother John, describing what it’s like not knowing what happened to his sister