July 1, 2024 • 38 mins
How do two adults and a pickup truck disappear from a busy Philadelphia street? That’s the question that’s baffled law enforcement and the families of Danielle Imbo and Richard Petrone for almost 20 years. The FBI called the crime “personal”. But who would want to harm Danielle or Richard? And why?
If you would like to reach out to the There and Gone Team, please email us at thereandgonepod@gmail.com.
If you have any tips on the disappearance of Richard Petrone and Danielle Imbo, please contact the Citizens Crime Commission at 215-546-TIPS (8477).
Jerri Williams hosts the podcast “FBI Retired Case File Review”.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
Throughout this entire time Danielle has been missing. Trying to
find her literally consumed me. Some psychic called my mother
in law and said Danielle was dying in a box car.
So in the middle of the night, I went down
(00:22):
to Philadelphia and searched the train tracks under the bridge
with a flashlight. Here I am scaling this fence at
midnight with a flashlight looking in box cars. I got
in trouble for that one. The Mount Laurel police detective
(00:45):
called me up screaming, telling me that they had to
stop all of commerce in Pennsylvania to get me out
of the railroad because I was looking in railroad cars.
I just can't stop. It just consumed me.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
JOHNA. Tobray his sister Danielle went missing in February of
two thousand and five, but she wasn't alone. Danielle and
her friend Richard left a bar and simply vanished. Nineteen
years later, they still have yet to be found.
Speaker 1 (01:16):
She was my sister, she was my friend, she was
my blood. I would do anything for her throughout all
these years. Speaking with the FBI, I know my sister
died that night, but to this day I still don't know.
(01:37):
I can't stop my mind from wandering to the darker things.
She alone? Was she scared? Was she calling out for someone?
Speaker 3 (01:47):
Was?
Speaker 1 (01:49):
For all I know? They have all this information, the FBI.
Speaker 2 (01:55):
So what does the FBI say?
Speaker 4 (01:57):
We have several working theory, We've done a number of
searches in different areas. We have a lot of folks
that we've talked to. We have statements, phone records. I
probably have the silver bullet and all of that stuff.
I need somebody to tie it together. This needs to
get solved.
Speaker 2 (02:19):
I'm Andrea Gunning and this is Therein Gone South Street
Episode one, Ghosts.
Speaker 3 (02:29):
All Yes, I see you in my dream, reached out
on the dog for you, the last to me. I'll
never give up, no matter how long I opened my
(02:52):
eyes Define you Gone.
Speaker 2 (03:03):
A note that the views and opinions expressed in this
podcast are solely those of the individuals participating. This podcast
contains subject matter which may not be suitable for everyone.
Discretion is advised. For fifteen years, Danielle and Richard were
strangers to me. Ghosts that loomed over I ninety five South.
(03:26):
It's the stretch of highway that connects Philadelphia to New
York City. Each side is lined with billboards. Most are
ads for ambulance chasers or beer, but one shows two
smiling faces next to the word missing. It's Danielle Mbau
and Richard Patron, and it's been there for almost twenty years.
Speaker 5 (03:46):
Inbo and Patron were last seen leaving a South Street
bar in the late evening of February nineteenth, two thousand
and five.
Speaker 2 (03:52):
I knew their faces, I knew their names.
Speaker 5 (03:56):
Investigators have turned up a few promising leads, but have
not found the couple or the car.
Speaker 2 (04:02):
South Street is one of the busiest and most popular
places for nightlife in Philadelphia, at least it was in
two thousand and five. Think Bourbon Street, but without the
balconies and beats. It's not exactly the same, but you
get the idea. No shortage of places to grab a
drink and have a good time. It's not a place
where two people just vanish, and it's certainly a spot
(04:24):
where you'd have plenty of eyewitnesses.
Speaker 5 (04:27):
They had left a bar at Fourth and South, headed
to his pickup truck and simply vanished, not a trace.
Speaker 2 (04:34):
Two adults in their mid thirties walk out of a
bar and into oblivion. How is that even possible. I
live within walking distance to South Street. I've been to
those bars, and I've walked those same streets. I know
how busy they are, so this has often haunted me.
(04:56):
The story of Richard Patrone and daniel Imbou became an
annex don't a Philadelphia urban legend. If my team was
ever going to produce a missing persons podcast, this was
the one. And as I'll explained in a bit, it
turns out we're way more connected to the story than
I originally thought. When I begin working on a story,
I usually reach out to law enforcement. From the initial research,
(05:20):
it was clear the FBI was involved, so I decided
to start there.
Speaker 6 (05:26):
This case was different because it was two people. They
were adults that were just out having fun and now
they disappear with you know, no information about where they
could be.
Speaker 2 (05:40):
That's Jerry Williams. She was an FBI agent and the
spokesperson for the Philadelphia Bureau when Danielle and Richard went missing.
Speaker 6 (05:50):
I don't think anybody had heard of a case like
this ever before. Vita would come into my office and
keep me updated.
Speaker 2 (06:00):
Veto Special Agent Vito Rosselli. He has been working on
this case since the very beginning.
Speaker 6 (06:07):
I could tell that it was more than just another
investigation for him.
Speaker 2 (06:12):
Agent Rosselli had spent almost two decades tracking down every
lead in this case but came up short.
Speaker 6 (06:19):
There are so many times over the past few years
that I thought Veto was close in solving this and
then nothing.
Speaker 2 (06:29):
I needed to talk to Vito.
Speaker 4 (06:32):
Hey, Andrea, I really appreciate your effort on this huge helme.
Speaker 2 (06:36):
Special Agent Vito Rosselli looks and sounds like someone in
a TV show who's playing an FBI agent. He's a
stocky guy, muscular with dark skin, and seems like someone
you'd want to grab a beer with.
Speaker 4 (06:50):
My dad was an old Hoover guy. He was an
old FBI agent, So I grew up around that. I
got in Philly in February of ninety seven, and I've
been in Philly pretty much my whole career.
Speaker 2 (07:00):
Video is a warm and welcoming guy, but I could
tell that he carries pieces of this investigation around with him,
and that clearly rests heavily on his heart. I don't
know how else to explain it, but there's a heaviness
to that.
Speaker 4 (07:16):
It wasn't just an accident driving off a bridge, a truck,
and two people just don't disappear. What I do know
is that the people who are involved had to have
the means to get rid of two bodies and a
truck in a very quick amount of time. That means
that they did it before or they had access to
(07:39):
those circles. So I don't have the truck and they
don't have the bodies.
Speaker 2 (07:44):
Just think about that. Not only are Danielle and Richard missing,
but so is the Dodge Dakota pickup truck they were driving.
And after nineteen years of searching, Fudo still has no
physical evidence to work with. He's been trying to figure
out who wanted to kill either Danielle and Richard without
a fingerprint, a tire mark, or a single drop of blood.
(08:07):
But maybe what's stranger than any of that is the why.
Because on paper, neither of these two seem to have
a target on their back.
Speaker 4 (08:16):
What I did uncovers that both were good people. A
lot of people cared for him. Danielle was very close
to him, her mom and her brother, and rich was
very close to both his parents and all his siblings
and had a child that he was raising. Both families
are still extremely destroyed. It's very emotional for him, as
(08:37):
emotional today as it was when I first met them.
Speaker 2 (08:42):
Vito has a lot writing on this investigation. Obviously, he
felt for Danielle and Richard's families. It's been on his
plate since two thousand and five. And all investigators will
tell you they always feel like they're racing against time,
but Vito had a different clock. You see in the
FBI there's a mandatory retirement age of fifty seven, and
(09:03):
Vito's fifty seventh birthday was fast approaching.
Speaker 4 (09:08):
Every investigator, every detective, has that white whale that hangs
over the head, and in this particular case, where you
don't get an answer, that just crushes people's souls and
it's tough. So the case is very much open and
hopefully we make it arrest.
Speaker 2 (09:23):
I've met with Vito a few times now. After those conversations,
it's become clear what Veto is missing testimony, someone who
heard something or saw something, or remembers anything, anything about
what happened on the night of February nineteenth, two thousand
and five. He just needs someone to come forward.
Speaker 4 (09:44):
Everybody that's working on this case and everybody that has
worked on this case wants this to get out in
the public and wants people to call in. And that's
why I'm very thankful for you guys.
Speaker 2 (09:57):
This case was a big deal in Philadelphia, and to
be fair, it did get national attention, but that interest
lasted for like two months because in May of two
thousand and five, an American teenager went missing in Aruba,
Natalie Holloway, and the nation turned their attention to her. Slowly,
Danielle and Richard faded from public consciousness, but Philadelphia hasn't forgotten.
(10:22):
For a big metropolitan city, there is a small town
feel here and it's that close knit community that keeps
their memory alive. See, everybody knows everybody here, or at
least knows someone who knows your sister or your cousin,
or used to work with that guy that you used
to work with. All of that is relevant here. The city.
(10:43):
It's people, It's all important to this story. Philadelphia is
the city of brotherly love, and often love extends to
loyalty vows of silence when it comes to nefarious behavior.
The FBI un doubtedly believes that there are people who
know what happened to Richard and Danielle, but have remained silent.
(11:07):
So why now? I once heard this theory from law
enforcement that when it comes to these types of cases,
there are usually three windows of time to solve them,
the first few weeks, the first year, and then the
next best is the twentieth anniversary.
Speaker 4 (11:26):
I've gotten confessions from folks because it was chewing them
up on the inside. Not all folks that do illegal
activity are evil folks. A lot of them have consciences
and kids and families of their own, and eventually it
wears on them.
Speaker 2 (11:43):
By the time this podcast launches, we'll approach the opening
of that final window. Maybe after two decades, perhaps someone's
own mortality will change their view and come forward with information.
I approached my team about taking this on and knew
(12:04):
my producing partner Ben would be interested because, like me,
he grew up in Philadelphia too. He knew this story
as well as I did. But there was something I
didn't expect. When discussing it with my colleague Carrie, she
went white. She looked at me and said, you know,
my brother grew up with Richard Patron and was good
friends with him. Right. I had no idea, So she
(12:26):
put me in touch with her brother, Jimmy.
Speaker 7 (12:28):
He was so likable. He just had such a huge heart.
Speaker 2 (12:32):
Jimmy Hartman grew up across the street from Richard, and
the two immediately became fast friends.
Speaker 7 (12:37):
We'd like to play hockey. We would get the guys together,
and we became friends from there. And I knew Danielle
also because I graduated high school with her.
Speaker 2 (12:47):
Like I said, everybody knows everybody.
Speaker 7 (12:50):
She was always nice. I just never got to know
her that well, but I knew her and she knew me.
Speaker 2 (12:55):
So Jimmy not only knew Danielle and Richard, but was
even close with Richard's parents, Richard and Marge Patron.
Speaker 7 (13:03):
You couldn't go to the house without eating, just so
typical Italian family, and there's just pasta and food and
bread and wine and everything everywhere.
Speaker 2 (13:15):
Jimmy said, It's been tough to watch the Patron suffer
all these years.
Speaker 7 (13:20):
You could see the pain, especially in Marge's eyes. You
could just see how much it hurts her, you know,
And when you have somebody taken from me like this,
it's just really hard to say goodbye.
Speaker 2 (13:35):
At first, he said that patrons were dreading that phone
call from police, the call that would confirm that Richard
was dead, but now any information would be welcomed information.
Speaker 7 (13:47):
I would hate for either one of them to leave
the earth without having enclosure. I mean, they have not
let up on trying to get this mystery solved.
Speaker 2 (13:58):
We had the FBI on ourself, but we understood that
to move forward we would need both families to participate.
It's a painful process, but also an opportunity. The more
you talk about a missing person, the more likely it
is that someone who knows something will say something. But
approaching these families, I knew I would be asking them
to relive so much. It's tough. Since Jimmy knew the
(14:22):
Patrons from childhood, he made an introduction, So we started there.
Speaker 8 (14:44):
Right we go.
Speaker 2 (14:48):
Marge Patrone greeted me and my colleague Ben at her
front door. It was a bright Sunday afternoon, nearly nineteen
years after her son, Richard and his friend Danielle Imbo vanished.
We needed to learn who Richard and Danielle were and
understand everything they left behind. On February nineteenth, two thousand
and five, we had been told that both families were
(15:09):
done speaking to the press. Think about it. The closest
people to Richard and Danielle had to answer the same
questions about their disappearance for over nineteen years now, Yet
here I was, with my partner Ben, standing at the
threshold of the patron's family home to again pick at
that scap. It took an introduction from Richard's childhood friend,
(15:33):
many conversations and veto expressing the importance of participating. Ultimately,
the patrons agreed.
Speaker 8 (15:41):
You want to sit like somewhere comfortable or.
Speaker 7 (15:44):
What do you want to do anything?
Speaker 2 (15:45):
And much to my surprise and relief, Marge welcomed us
with a warm, friendly smile, and just like I was told,
she immediately wanted to feed us.
Speaker 8 (15:56):
I want something to eat.
Speaker 2 (15:59):
Marge is a grandma as well as a mother of three,
so hosting us seemed like old hat for March, like
we'd been over for dinner many times before, even though
this was a first for all of us. And that day,
Marge invited us for Sunday dinner. And know this isn't
just a meal that happens to fall on Sunday. It's
actually a long running tradition for the Patrons. That's when
(16:21):
their family comes together for a big Italian meal. So
we felt honored to be invited. It was just before Christmas,
and every inch of our house was decorated, including the kitchen.
That's where we all gathered around a charcuterie board filled
with slice delling meats and cheeses, while a huge pot
of red gravy bubbled on the stove behind us. Marge's
(16:43):
freezer door was lined with several baby pictures and a
ton of magnets. She pointed to the Chicago Bears magnet
and said it was Richard's favorite football team. And then
there was this, I have a Susan Lucci doll. You
might remember Susan Lucci from the long run daytime TV
show All My Children.
Speaker 8 (17:02):
You know it's funny because I love soap, opwerds and
all that.
Speaker 2 (17:07):
Marge explained that she always watched All My Children and
how one year for Christmas, Richard surprised her with this
Susan Lucci doll.
Speaker 8 (17:16):
For a guy, he was the best gift giver and
just very thoughtful and did it all himself, Like he
didn't just go to the mall and buy anything. He
knew what you were into.
Speaker 2 (17:29):
I could tell. Richard is Marge's first born. She lights
up at every mention of his name, like how he
played hockey from the time he was seven until the
day he went missing, and how she still holds onto
Richard's Bobby Clark jersey. That's when her voice trailed off.
And as the firstborn, you could say Richard got special treatment.
(17:51):
When Richard had a sore throat, I would run him
to the doctors.
Speaker 8 (17:54):
That Christine always would say. If I said I had
a store throat, you'd say, spray your throat.
Speaker 9 (17:58):
You're right.
Speaker 2 (17:59):
So Christine and Alisa are Margin's daughters. Christine was also
best friends with Daniel Imbo. She was supposed to join
us for dinner, but Christine backed out at the last minute.
Her sister Elisa gave us a clue as to why.
Speaker 9 (18:16):
I think this whole thing was really hard for Christine
because it's her best friend and her brother Richard and Christine,
we rolling your difference, and she doesn't really say anything
too much about that night.
Speaker 2 (18:29):
Alisa is well into her thirties now, but was just
a teenager when her brother Richard disappeared.
Speaker 9 (18:36):
We have no idea what happened to them or how
this happened, and we just lived with that, and it's
an awful feeling.
Speaker 2 (18:45):
There was a row of stockings in the living room
that hung across their mantle, just above the fireplace. I
couldn't help but wonder if Richard's stocking was one of them. Okay,
we all moved to the kitchen table as Marge arrived
with a giant bowl of stuffed mannicotti and homemade meatballs.
It was enough to feed a small army.
Speaker 8 (19:05):
Everything to me is happy and sad.
Speaker 2 (19:09):
Marge pointed to where Richard sat for thirty five years,
and then to the empty chair where her husband used
to sit for forty years. Marge and her husband, Richard Senior,
owned and operated a Swedish bakery called Viking Pastries in
the suburbs of Philly. That's where Richard and his father
worked side by side. The two were very close. Richard
(19:31):
Senior suffered multiple strokes and hasn't been home for a
while now. He's just never been here since Richard disappeared.
Speaker 8 (19:37):
Let's face it, he's never been the same, no, never,
He's the shell of the person he used, but he's
not at all who he was with them.
Speaker 2 (19:47):
You know, I don't want to say that life hasn't
gone on for the patron since Richard disappeared. Because it has.
But I got the feeling that Marge in particular has
been sort of treading water ever since that day. The
void Richard left was on full display that Sunday.
Speaker 8 (20:02):
I had to keep going, which I still am doing,
even though it's like yesterday for me.
Speaker 2 (20:11):
Back on February twentieth, two thousand and five, Richard didn't
make it home for Sunday dinner.
Speaker 8 (20:17):
I remember Christine calling me. She said, Mom, Richard's missing,
and I said, missing, What do you mean.
Speaker 9 (20:22):
He's home.
Speaker 8 (20:22):
There's a nice car today. You would never leave the house.
He's home.
Speaker 2 (20:25):
Marge said she was out running errands with her husband
that afternoon and she was certain Richard was home. It
was the day of the Daytona five hundred, and Richard
had been looking forward to it all week.
Speaker 8 (20:36):
She's not home, mom.
Speaker 2 (20:38):
Christine called Marge from the salon where she worked. She
was concerned about Danielle. Yeah, the same Danielle who was
with Richard the night before.
Speaker 8 (20:48):
And she said, Danielle didn't show up for an appointment
today and she never does that, and he's not home.
He's missing.
Speaker 2 (20:55):
Marge and her son Richard were close. They usually talked
multiple times a day, but that Sunday, she hadn't heard.
Speaker 8 (21:03):
From him, and so when I called his phone a
million times and I just want right to voicemail, he
would never not answer his phone to me.
Speaker 6 (21:12):
Never.
Speaker 2 (21:13):
One thing to keep in mind, back in early two
thousand and five, most of us had flip phones and
texting wasn't common yet, so when our phones rang, we'd
actually answer them. The fact that Richard wasn't answering his
phone immediately concerned March that.
Speaker 8 (21:30):
Christine said the same thing with Danielle. It's just going
right to voicemail.
Speaker 4 (21:34):
Now.
Speaker 8 (21:34):
I called my sister and I said to her, we've
got to go in his apartment.
Speaker 2 (21:38):
Marge's sister lived down the street from Richard, so she
had a spare key and headed over to the apartment.
She didn't see Richard's truck parked out front, so she
unlocked the door and went inside.
Speaker 8 (21:50):
She said, no, nobody came back here, and the book's barking.
Speaker 2 (21:54):
Richard's dog, Bismarck was in distress and needed to go out.
His food bowl was empty, and it was clear Richard
had not been home for hours. From everything I've learned today,
Richard was a reliable guy, not one to be out
of touch, leaving his family in the dark like this.
It was out of character.
Speaker 8 (22:16):
He would never go anywhere without telling me. I know immediately. Immediately,
I'd like, so, oh my god, this could not be happening.
But I lost my shot today. Oh my god. Christine said,
we're never going to see them again, are we?
Speaker 1 (22:37):
Mom?
Speaker 8 (22:37):
I said, no, we're not. We're not.
Speaker 2 (22:41):
Christine and Marge feared the worst, but Richard's father wasn't
about to jump to conclusions. Richard was a strong Italian father.
He's as much braun as he is brains, and when
his wife was telling him it wasn't registering.
Speaker 8 (22:58):
He said, what are you saying? I'm saying that something
terrible happened to your son.
Speaker 2 (23:10):
While the fear was hitting the Patron family, John and Tobray,
Danielle's brother, was also realizing Danielle didn't make it home
that night.
Speaker 1 (23:21):
I woke up Sunday morning early and I took a
ride to her house to fix the curtain. I sold
her car out front. I knock on the door. She's
not answering the car. Her cell phone it goes right
to voicemail. So I called my mother and I said, Mom,
I'm outside of Danielle's. I see her car here, but
she's not answering. I have her key. I don't want
(23:42):
to just walk in if she's in the shower or something.
I don't want her to get scared, and she said
maybe she slept at Richard's.
Speaker 2 (23:49):
At the time, John had been trying to support Danielle
as much as possible. See in the last twelve months,
Danielle's life had gotten complicated. Danielle I had recently separated
from her husband, Joe Imbo. To make matters more challenging,
Danielle and Joe welcomed their son together just two years prior.
In February of two thousand and five, Danielle was in
(24:12):
uncharted waters. She was a single parent, navigating custody of
their twenty month old child, and deep in the throes
of dissolving her marriage with Joe. Anything John could do
to help his sister, he would, whether it be helping
out around the condo or looking after the baby.
Speaker 1 (24:29):
It was a typical ugly separation, you know, it was
headed towards divorce, so I didn't think anything of it.
Like hung the curtains up and I left Zobius.
Speaker 2 (24:41):
No one was home, so John packed up his tools
and went about his day like he would any other.
That was until I.
Speaker 1 (24:50):
Got a phone call around three o'clock. It was my
mother and she said, Danielle never came home last night.
I'm at her condo now I need you to come here.
And my mother isn't full blown panic. She said, Joe's
getting ready to drop the baby off in the next
hour and she's not here, and no one can get
in touch with either one of them. I knew right
(25:14):
there something was wrong. I just knew it.
Speaker 2 (25:19):
The divorce was nasty. Danielle's mom knew how bad it
would look for her daughter if Joe dropped off her son,
only to find out Danielle never came home that night.
It was currently Mia. You see, over the past few months,
Danielle had been dating Richard Patron, and Joe knew that.
She didn't want to give her soon to be ex
(25:40):
son in law any ammunition.
Speaker 1 (25:47):
My mother said, don't tell him what's going on. I
don't want him to know because I don't want him
to say, well, I'll keep the baby until she comes home.
I said, Mom, don't worry about it.
Speaker 2 (25:57):
It was three o'clock that afternoon when to drop off
their son. That was the agreed upon time for Joe
to end his weekend with a baby, and.
Speaker 1 (26:06):
He kind of walked in. He goes, looked confused, and
he said worth Danielle and my mother said, oh, she
went to dinner with Christine. And then he said something
like he mumbled under his breath. I guess telling a
lie is better than telling the truth. Then he left,
like saying what we were saying was bullshit.
Speaker 2 (26:31):
It was always our intention to start our own investigation,
but we had to ask ourselves, where do you start
on a case when two people go missing. We started
by retracing their last steps. We wanted to understand exactly
where Richard Petrone and Danielle Imbo were the night of
February nineteenth, two thousand and five.
Speaker 8 (26:53):
We're all altogether. That right went to Chicky and.
Speaker 2 (26:56):
Pete Margein her two daughters, Christine and Elisa, had dinner
with Danielle Imbo and Danielle's mother at Chickie and Pete's,
which is a popular Philadelphia restaurant. I think chicken sandwiches,
she seks, crabfries and beer. It's a sports bar with
games on TVs everywhere A good place to blow off
steam after a long week. Here's Alisa, Richard's sister.
Speaker 9 (27:20):
It was just a girl's night out. I wanted to
tag along anywhere my sister and my mom were going,
so I was there.
Speaker 2 (27:26):
Toward the end of dinner, Richard called Danielle to see
if she wanted to join him for the evening. Initially
Danielle wasn't sure, but eventually agreed she was open to
making the most for child free Saturday night.
Speaker 9 (27:43):
And then my sister drove Danielle to meet Richard.
Speaker 2 (27:48):
Christine agreed to drop her off since Danielle's car was
back at her condo in Jersey.
Speaker 8 (27:53):
That was really like a spark of the moment thing.
I don't think he even knew that she was going
to actually go with.
Speaker 2 (27:59):
Him, And that's an important detail from Marge and something
to remember. This was a spontaneous meetup between Danielle and Richard.
Speaker 8 (28:09):
Richard was at another tap room having to dinner and
told Christine to drop her wolf she would go with
Richard that night.
Speaker 2 (28:16):
As for Danielle, her brother John got the story of
what happened from his mother.
Speaker 1 (28:21):
She said, well, last night, Danielle and I and Marge
and Christine went to Chicken and Pete's, and Richard called
and said, Hey, I'm at this bar, Abilene's on Sale Street.
Why don't you come. Danielle said, she'll meet you as
long as you can get her home at a reasonable time.
Speaker 2 (28:41):
Danielle had an appointment at a salon the next morning.
It was the same salon that Christine Patron worked at.
So it's our understanding that from Chicky and Pete, Christine
drives Danielle to meet up with Richard, and Richard and
Danielle drive to Abilene's on South Street together.
Speaker 10 (28:57):
South Street had this huge strip of bars, Ebiline's. One
of them.
Speaker 2 (29:03):
Journalists DeVoe covered the story for Philadelphia Magazine and explains
what happened next.
Speaker 10 (29:09):
I remember that they were having a good time, that
they were enjoying themselves. They sat close together, they shared
a kiss at some point, they were laughing a lot.
You know, they had a nice evening together.
Speaker 2 (29:20):
We heard Danielle and Richard spent a couple hours at
the bar that Saturday night, listening to a band.
Speaker 10 (29:26):
They leave before midnight. He was going to drive her
back to her home in Mount Laurel, and that's where
the trail ends.
Speaker 2 (29:38):
No one has seen Danielle or Richard.
Speaker 10 (29:41):
Since, not just them, but a truck disappeared into the
ether from one of the most frequented spots in the
whole city. It was stunning. I just wish that the
families could have an answer, and whatever the answer was,
(30:05):
to sort through it and deal with it.
Speaker 4 (30:09):
I'm a father, I'm a brother, I'm a husband, I'm
a son. It is very hard not to see the
human side, the human impact on the two families. It
keeps me motivated.
Speaker 2 (30:25):
For Vito Rosselli, he lives with the impact of that
reality every day and one of the major factors that
has stopped him from solving this case is the evidence,
or lack thereof. This happened in two thousand and five,
when even basic equipment like security cameras were using outdated technology.
Speaker 4 (30:44):
Back then, everybody was still on VCRs that they were
taping over after two weeks of thirty days, street light cameras,
none of that existed. Back then, you know, the iPhones
weren't a thing, so it was a little different animal.
Speaker 2 (30:57):
Today, we can track our friends. Everyone is essentially has
a GPS in their pocket. Plus there's no shortage of
documenting with people recording their life for the whole world
to see. But in two thousand and five, people had
flip phones in MySpace. Even YouTube didn't come out until
February of two thousand and five.
Speaker 4 (31:17):
We have a lot more tools available to us now
than we did back then.
Speaker 6 (31:24):
Today, when something happened, you know, there's cell phone video,
and there's video on buildings, and people are going on
social media and talking about it. Well, we didn't have
any of that back then.
Speaker 2 (31:38):
That's former FBI agent Jerry Williams.
Speaker 6 (31:42):
In my years of doing media relations for the FBI,
I've never heard of a case like this ever before.
I mean, people are concerned. If this happened to this couple,
what could happen to me and my kids if I
let them go on South Street.
Speaker 2 (32:00):
The community was concerned, and law enforcement didn't have much
to work with. After those initial days of the investigation,
the FBI got tapped in and the lack of evidence
actually started to tell a story to Vito.
Speaker 4 (32:16):
Nobody checks into a hospital. Neither one of them would
have left their children. They wouldn't just have run away.
Speaker 2 (32:25):
The idea of Richard and Danielle getting hurt or skipping
town got ruled out pretty quickly.
Speaker 4 (32:30):
There was no activity on their credit cards or on
their phones. The people who did it made two people
in a truck disappear. That's a clean cry, and it
could have been cleaned by accident, it could have been
cleaned by luck, or it could have been clean by design.
So it was clear that something bad happened pretty much
off the start.
Speaker 2 (32:51):
Vido and Jerry were adamant about one thing. After nineteen
years of dead ends, they were out of options.
Speaker 6 (33:00):
When you have a case like this, you have to
figure out how to keep it in the news.
Speaker 4 (33:08):
Each year at the anniversary where you put something out
and without fail, we always get tips, callings and more.
Over the past few years have been pretty consistent, so
it's good it keeps it out in the public's eye.
Speaker 3 (33:24):
Well.
Speaker 1 (33:25):
Today marks ten years since the local couple vanished without
a trace, and despite a decade since their disappearance, today
their relatives made an emotional plea for new information.
Speaker 2 (33:35):
Every February twentieth, without fail, the city of Philadelphia is
reminded of Danielle and Richard.
Speaker 5 (33:42):
It has been eleven years to the day since daniel
Believe it or not, Today marks twelve years since Danielle
Imbo and Richard Patron Junior.
Speaker 2 (33:49):
First one message they have not been seen in thirteen years,
despite and from nineteen years now. These segments go out
and tips come in prints and repeat to a family.
Speaker 10 (34:00):
But the MBI says they have not given up on
this case.
Speaker 2 (34:05):
Having lived here my whole life. I've watched the segment
each February with the rest of Philadelphia. Now I have
more of a context as to why. Just like that
billboard I mentioned in the beginning, it's a lifeline thrown
out for Richard and Danielle and their families, anything to
keep hope for justice alive.
Speaker 6 (34:28):
I think putting it out there to the public on
a true crime podcast is a brilliant step to add
to what has been done so far.
Speaker 2 (34:40):
It's crazy for me to say this, but I think
the FBI needs our help and your help. So do
Danielle and Richard. The two left a crowded bar in
a popular area at Philadelphia on a Saturday night two
decades ago, and in those twenty years, we still don't
know who wanted to harm them and why.
Speaker 4 (35:01):
One of the important directions that law enforcement had to
take was to determine the history between Danielle and Richard.
When you look deep into anybody's backgrounds, you gotta be
digging up stuff. And we found some angles that were
of interest to us.
Speaker 6 (35:23):
That's when started to look like this may have been
a very personal crime.
Speaker 2 (35:33):
That's next time on There and Gone.
Speaker 3 (35:38):
All is a same you in my dream reached out
in the dog for you, fellastoy. I'll never give up,
no matter how. I open my defind car hitch corner
(36:13):
it lit another puss ho peace. I follow the clues
looking for the key. He level give up no matter hell,
(36:34):
I open my defind that your car.
Speaker 2 (36:45):
If you have any information about the disappearance of Danielle
Imbo and Richard Patron, please call the Citizens Crime Commission
tip line at two one five five four six eight
four seven seven, or you can reach out to the
show in our team by email at varrengonpod at gmail
dot com. That's There and Gone pod at gmail dot com.
(37:07):
Thank you so much for listening. One way for you
to show support is by subscribing to our show on
Apple Podcasts. Don't forget to rate and review, because five
star reviews go a long way. A big thank you
to all of our listeners varren Gonn is a production
of Glass Podcasts, a division of Glass Entertainment Group, in
partnership with iHeart Podcasts. The show is executive produced by
(37:29):
Nancy Glass, Ben Fetterman, and me Andrea Gunning. It's hosted
and written by me Andrea Gunning, with additional reporting and
writing by Ben Fetterman. The series is also written and
produced by Todd Gans. Our associate producer is Kristin Melcurrie.
Research by Mason Klinder, Annah Hamilton, and Bella Riki. Our
iHeart team is Ali Perry and Jessica Crincheck. Audio editing
(37:53):
and mixing by Matt Delvecchio, additional editing support by Nico Aruka.
Thearren Gonn's theme and original compositions were composed by Oliver
Bains and Darry macaulay of Neuser Music Library, provided by
my Music Special thanks to both the Beatrone and tow
Ray families. For more podcasts from iHeart, visit the iHeartRadio app,
(38:15):
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts
Throughout this entire time Danielle has been missing. Trying to
find her literally consumed me. Some psychic called my mother
in law and said Danielle was dying in a box car.
So in the middle of the night, I went down
(00:22):
to Philadelphia and searched the train tracks under the bridge
with a flashlight. Here I am scaling this fence at
midnight with a flashlight looking in box cars. I got
in trouble for that one. The Mount Laurel police detective
(00:45):
called me up screaming, telling me that they had to
stop all of commerce in Pennsylvania to get me out
of the railroad because I was looking in railroad cars.
I just can't stop. It just consumed me.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
JOHNA. Tobray his sister Danielle went missing in February of
two thousand and five, but she wasn't alone. Danielle and
her friend Richard left a bar and simply vanished. Nineteen
years later, they still have yet to be found.
Speaker 1 (01:16):
She was my sister, she was my friend, she was
my blood. I would do anything for her throughout all
these years. Speaking with the FBI, I know my sister
died that night, but to this day I still don't know.
(01:37):
I can't stop my mind from wandering to the darker things.
She alone? Was she scared? Was she calling out for someone?
Speaker 3 (01:47):
Was?
Speaker 1 (01:49):
For all I know? They have all this information, the FBI.
Speaker 2 (01:55):
So what does the FBI say?
Speaker 4 (01:57):
We have several working theory, We've done a number of
searches in different areas. We have a lot of folks
that we've talked to. We have statements, phone records. I
probably have the silver bullet and all of that stuff.
I need somebody to tie it together. This needs to
get solved.
Speaker 2 (02:19):
I'm Andrea Gunning and this is Therein Gone South Street
Episode one, Ghosts.
Speaker 3 (02:29):
All Yes, I see you in my dream, reached out
on the dog for you, the last to me. I'll
never give up, no matter how long I opened my
(02:52):
eyes Define you Gone.
Speaker 2 (03:03):
A note that the views and opinions expressed in this
podcast are solely those of the individuals participating. This podcast
contains subject matter which may not be suitable for everyone.
Discretion is advised. For fifteen years, Danielle and Richard were
strangers to me. Ghosts that loomed over I ninety five South.
(03:26):
It's the stretch of highway that connects Philadelphia to New
York City. Each side is lined with billboards. Most are
ads for ambulance chasers or beer, but one shows two
smiling faces next to the word missing. It's Danielle Mbau
and Richard Patron, and it's been there for almost twenty years.
Speaker 5 (03:46):
Inbo and Patron were last seen leaving a South Street
bar in the late evening of February nineteenth, two thousand
and five.
Speaker 2 (03:52):
I knew their faces, I knew their names.
Speaker 5 (03:56):
Investigators have turned up a few promising leads, but have
not found the couple or the car.
Speaker 2 (04:02):
South Street is one of the busiest and most popular
places for nightlife in Philadelphia, at least it was in
two thousand and five. Think Bourbon Street, but without the
balconies and beats. It's not exactly the same, but you
get the idea. No shortage of places to grab a
drink and have a good time. It's not a place
where two people just vanish, and it's certainly a spot
(04:24):
where you'd have plenty of eyewitnesses.
Speaker 5 (04:27):
They had left a bar at Fourth and South, headed
to his pickup truck and simply vanished, not a trace.
Speaker 2 (04:34):
Two adults in their mid thirties walk out of a
bar and into oblivion. How is that even possible. I
live within walking distance to South Street. I've been to
those bars, and I've walked those same streets. I know
how busy they are, so this has often haunted me.
(04:56):
The story of Richard Patrone and daniel Imbou became an
annex don't a Philadelphia urban legend. If my team was
ever going to produce a missing persons podcast, this was
the one. And as I'll explained in a bit, it
turns out we're way more connected to the story than
I originally thought. When I begin working on a story,
I usually reach out to law enforcement. From the initial research,
(05:20):
it was clear the FBI was involved, so I decided
to start there.
Speaker 6 (05:26):
This case was different because it was two people. They
were adults that were just out having fun and now
they disappear with you know, no information about where they
could be.
Speaker 2 (05:40):
That's Jerry Williams. She was an FBI agent and the
spokesperson for the Philadelphia Bureau when Danielle and Richard went missing.
Speaker 6 (05:50):
I don't think anybody had heard of a case like
this ever before. Vita would come into my office and
keep me updated.
Speaker 2 (06:00):
Veto Special Agent Vito Rosselli. He has been working on
this case since the very beginning.
Speaker 6 (06:07):
I could tell that it was more than just another
investigation for him.
Speaker 2 (06:12):
Agent Rosselli had spent almost two decades tracking down every
lead in this case but came up short.
Speaker 6 (06:19):
There are so many times over the past few years
that I thought Veto was close in solving this and
then nothing.
Speaker 2 (06:29):
I needed to talk to Vito.
Speaker 4 (06:32):
Hey, Andrea, I really appreciate your effort on this huge helme.
Speaker 2 (06:36):
Special Agent Vito Rosselli looks and sounds like someone in
a TV show who's playing an FBI agent. He's a
stocky guy, muscular with dark skin, and seems like someone
you'd want to grab a beer with.
Speaker 4 (06:50):
My dad was an old Hoover guy. He was an
old FBI agent, So I grew up around that. I
got in Philly in February of ninety seven, and I've
been in Philly pretty much my whole career.
Speaker 2 (07:00):
Video is a warm and welcoming guy, but I could
tell that he carries pieces of this investigation around with him,
and that clearly rests heavily on his heart. I don't
know how else to explain it, but there's a heaviness
to that.
Speaker 4 (07:16):
It wasn't just an accident driving off a bridge, a truck,
and two people just don't disappear. What I do know
is that the people who are involved had to have
the means to get rid of two bodies and a
truck in a very quick amount of time. That means
that they did it before or they had access to
(07:39):
those circles. So I don't have the truck and they
don't have the bodies.
Speaker 2 (07:44):
Just think about that. Not only are Danielle and Richard missing,
but so is the Dodge Dakota pickup truck they were driving.
And after nineteen years of searching, Fudo still has no
physical evidence to work with. He's been trying to figure
out who wanted to kill either Danielle and Richard without
a fingerprint, a tire mark, or a single drop of blood.
(08:07):
But maybe what's stranger than any of that is the why.
Because on paper, neither of these two seem to have
a target on their back.
Speaker 4 (08:16):
What I did uncovers that both were good people. A
lot of people cared for him. Danielle was very close
to him, her mom and her brother, and rich was
very close to both his parents and all his siblings
and had a child that he was raising. Both families
are still extremely destroyed. It's very emotional for him, as
(08:37):
emotional today as it was when I first met them.
Speaker 2 (08:42):
Vito has a lot writing on this investigation. Obviously, he
felt for Danielle and Richard's families. It's been on his
plate since two thousand and five. And all investigators will
tell you they always feel like they're racing against time,
but Vito had a different clock. You see in the
FBI there's a mandatory retirement age of fifty seven, and
(09:03):
Vito's fifty seventh birthday was fast approaching.
Speaker 4 (09:08):
Every investigator, every detective, has that white whale that hangs
over the head, and in this particular case, where you
don't get an answer, that just crushes people's souls and
it's tough. So the case is very much open and
hopefully we make it arrest.
Speaker 2 (09:23):
I've met with Vito a few times now. After those conversations,
it's become clear what Veto is missing testimony, someone who
heard something or saw something, or remembers anything, anything about
what happened on the night of February nineteenth, two thousand
and five. He just needs someone to come forward.
Speaker 4 (09:44):
Everybody that's working on this case and everybody that has
worked on this case wants this to get out in
the public and wants people to call in. And that's
why I'm very thankful for you guys.
Speaker 2 (09:57):
This case was a big deal in Philadelphia, and to
be fair, it did get national attention, but that interest
lasted for like two months because in May of two
thousand and five, an American teenager went missing in Aruba,
Natalie Holloway, and the nation turned their attention to her. Slowly,
Danielle and Richard faded from public consciousness, but Philadelphia hasn't forgotten.
(10:22):
For a big metropolitan city, there is a small town
feel here and it's that close knit community that keeps
their memory alive. See, everybody knows everybody here, or at
least knows someone who knows your sister or your cousin,
or used to work with that guy that you used
to work with. All of that is relevant here. The city.
(10:43):
It's people, It's all important to this story. Philadelphia is
the city of brotherly love, and often love extends to
loyalty vows of silence when it comes to nefarious behavior.
The FBI un doubtedly believes that there are people who
know what happened to Richard and Danielle, but have remained silent.
(11:07):
So why now? I once heard this theory from law
enforcement that when it comes to these types of cases,
there are usually three windows of time to solve them,
the first few weeks, the first year, and then the
next best is the twentieth anniversary.
Speaker 4 (11:26):
I've gotten confessions from folks because it was chewing them
up on the inside. Not all folks that do illegal
activity are evil folks. A lot of them have consciences
and kids and families of their own, and eventually it
wears on them.
Speaker 2 (11:43):
By the time this podcast launches, we'll approach the opening
of that final window. Maybe after two decades, perhaps someone's
own mortality will change their view and come forward with information.
I approached my team about taking this on and knew
(12:04):
my producing partner Ben would be interested because, like me,
he grew up in Philadelphia too. He knew this story
as well as I did. But there was something I
didn't expect. When discussing it with my colleague Carrie, she
went white. She looked at me and said, you know,
my brother grew up with Richard Patron and was good
friends with him. Right. I had no idea, So she
(12:26):
put me in touch with her brother, Jimmy.
Speaker 7 (12:28):
He was so likable. He just had such a huge heart.
Speaker 2 (12:32):
Jimmy Hartman grew up across the street from Richard, and
the two immediately became fast friends.
Speaker 7 (12:37):
We'd like to play hockey. We would get the guys together,
and we became friends from there. And I knew Danielle
also because I graduated high school with her.
Speaker 2 (12:47):
Like I said, everybody knows everybody.
Speaker 7 (12:50):
She was always nice. I just never got to know
her that well, but I knew her and she knew me.
Speaker 2 (12:55):
So Jimmy not only knew Danielle and Richard, but was
even close with Richard's parents, Richard and Marge Patron.
Speaker 7 (13:03):
You couldn't go to the house without eating, just so
typical Italian family, and there's just pasta and food and
bread and wine and everything everywhere.
Speaker 2 (13:15):
Jimmy said, It's been tough to watch the Patron suffer
all these years.
Speaker 7 (13:20):
You could see the pain, especially in Marge's eyes. You
could just see how much it hurts her, you know,
And when you have somebody taken from me like this,
it's just really hard to say goodbye.
Speaker 2 (13:35):
At first, he said that patrons were dreading that phone
call from police, the call that would confirm that Richard
was dead, but now any information would be welcomed information.
Speaker 7 (13:47):
I would hate for either one of them to leave
the earth without having enclosure. I mean, they have not
let up on trying to get this mystery solved.
Speaker 2 (13:58):
We had the FBI on ourself, but we understood that
to move forward we would need both families to participate.
It's a painful process, but also an opportunity. The more
you talk about a missing person, the more likely it
is that someone who knows something will say something. But
approaching these families, I knew I would be asking them
to relive so much. It's tough. Since Jimmy knew the
(14:22):
Patrons from childhood, he made an introduction, So we started there.
Speaker 8 (14:44):
Right we go.
Speaker 2 (14:48):
Marge Patrone greeted me and my colleague Ben at her
front door. It was a bright Sunday afternoon, nearly nineteen
years after her son, Richard and his friend Danielle Imbo vanished.
We needed to learn who Richard and Danielle were and
understand everything they left behind. On February nineteenth, two thousand
and five, we had been told that both families were
(15:09):
done speaking to the press. Think about it. The closest
people to Richard and Danielle had to answer the same
questions about their disappearance for over nineteen years now, Yet
here I was, with my partner Ben, standing at the
threshold of the patron's family home to again pick at
that scap. It took an introduction from Richard's childhood friend,
(15:33):
many conversations and veto expressing the importance of participating. Ultimately,
the patrons agreed.
Speaker 8 (15:41):
You want to sit like somewhere comfortable or.
Speaker 7 (15:44):
What do you want to do anything?
Speaker 2 (15:45):
And much to my surprise and relief, Marge welcomed us
with a warm, friendly smile, and just like I was told,
she immediately wanted to feed us.
Speaker 8 (15:56):
I want something to eat.
Speaker 2 (15:59):
Marge is a grandma as well as a mother of three,
so hosting us seemed like old hat for March, like
we'd been over for dinner many times before, even though
this was a first for all of us. And that day,
Marge invited us for Sunday dinner. And know this isn't
just a meal that happens to fall on Sunday. It's
actually a long running tradition for the Patrons. That's when
(16:21):
their family comes together for a big Italian meal. So
we felt honored to be invited. It was just before Christmas,
and every inch of our house was decorated, including the kitchen.
That's where we all gathered around a charcuterie board filled
with slice delling meats and cheeses, while a huge pot
of red gravy bubbled on the stove behind us. Marge's
(16:43):
freezer door was lined with several baby pictures and a
ton of magnets. She pointed to the Chicago Bears magnet
and said it was Richard's favorite football team. And then
there was this, I have a Susan Lucci doll. You
might remember Susan Lucci from the long run daytime TV
show All My Children.
Speaker 8 (17:02):
You know it's funny because I love soap, opwerds and
all that.
Speaker 2 (17:07):
Marge explained that she always watched All My Children and
how one year for Christmas, Richard surprised her with this
Susan Lucci doll.
Speaker 8 (17:16):
For a guy, he was the best gift giver and
just very thoughtful and did it all himself, Like he
didn't just go to the mall and buy anything. He
knew what you were into.
Speaker 2 (17:29):
I could tell. Richard is Marge's first born. She lights
up at every mention of his name, like how he
played hockey from the time he was seven until the
day he went missing, and how she still holds onto
Richard's Bobby Clark jersey. That's when her voice trailed off.
And as the firstborn, you could say Richard got special treatment.
(17:51):
When Richard had a sore throat, I would run him
to the doctors.
Speaker 8 (17:54):
That Christine always would say. If I said I had
a store throat, you'd say, spray your throat.
Speaker 9 (17:58):
You're right.
Speaker 2 (17:59):
So Christine and Alisa are Margin's daughters. Christine was also
best friends with Daniel Imbo. She was supposed to join
us for dinner, but Christine backed out at the last minute.
Her sister Elisa gave us a clue as to why.
Speaker 9 (18:16):
I think this whole thing was really hard for Christine
because it's her best friend and her brother Richard and Christine,
we rolling your difference, and she doesn't really say anything
too much about that night.
Speaker 2 (18:29):
Alisa is well into her thirties now, but was just
a teenager when her brother Richard disappeared.
Speaker 9 (18:36):
We have no idea what happened to them or how
this happened, and we just lived with that, and it's
an awful feeling.
Speaker 2 (18:45):
There was a row of stockings in the living room
that hung across their mantle, just above the fireplace. I
couldn't help but wonder if Richard's stocking was one of them. Okay,
we all moved to the kitchen table as Marge arrived
with a giant bowl of stuffed mannicotti and homemade meatballs.
It was enough to feed a small army.
Speaker 8 (19:05):
Everything to me is happy and sad.
Speaker 2 (19:09):
Marge pointed to where Richard sat for thirty five years,
and then to the empty chair where her husband used
to sit for forty years. Marge and her husband, Richard Senior,
owned and operated a Swedish bakery called Viking Pastries in
the suburbs of Philly. That's where Richard and his father
worked side by side. The two were very close. Richard
(19:31):
Senior suffered multiple strokes and hasn't been home for a
while now. He's just never been here since Richard disappeared.
Speaker 8 (19:37):
Let's face it, he's never been the same, no, never,
He's the shell of the person he used, but he's
not at all who he was with them.
Speaker 2 (19:47):
You know, I don't want to say that life hasn't
gone on for the patron since Richard disappeared. Because it has.
But I got the feeling that Marge in particular has
been sort of treading water ever since that day. The
void Richard left was on full display that Sunday.
Speaker 8 (20:02):
I had to keep going, which I still am doing,
even though it's like yesterday for me.
Speaker 2 (20:11):
Back on February twentieth, two thousand and five, Richard didn't
make it home for Sunday dinner.
Speaker 8 (20:17):
I remember Christine calling me. She said, Mom, Richard's missing,
and I said, missing, What do you mean.
Speaker 9 (20:22):
He's home.
Speaker 8 (20:22):
There's a nice car today. You would never leave the house.
He's home.
Speaker 2 (20:25):
Marge said she was out running errands with her husband
that afternoon and she was certain Richard was home. It
was the day of the Daytona five hundred, and Richard
had been looking forward to it all week.
Speaker 8 (20:36):
She's not home, mom.
Speaker 2 (20:38):
Christine called Marge from the salon where she worked. She
was concerned about Danielle. Yeah, the same Danielle who was
with Richard the night before.
Speaker 8 (20:48):
And she said, Danielle didn't show up for an appointment
today and she never does that, and he's not home.
He's missing.
Speaker 2 (20:55):
Marge and her son Richard were close. They usually talked
multiple times a day, but that Sunday, she hadn't heard.
Speaker 8 (21:03):
From him, and so when I called his phone a
million times and I just want right to voicemail, he
would never not answer his phone to me.
Speaker 6 (21:12):
Never.
Speaker 2 (21:13):
One thing to keep in mind, back in early two
thousand and five, most of us had flip phones and
texting wasn't common yet, so when our phones rang, we'd
actually answer them. The fact that Richard wasn't answering his
phone immediately concerned March that.
Speaker 8 (21:30):
Christine said the same thing with Danielle. It's just going
right to voicemail.
Speaker 4 (21:34):
Now.
Speaker 8 (21:34):
I called my sister and I said to her, we've
got to go in his apartment.
Speaker 2 (21:38):
Marge's sister lived down the street from Richard, so she
had a spare key and headed over to the apartment.
She didn't see Richard's truck parked out front, so she
unlocked the door and went inside.
Speaker 8 (21:50):
She said, no, nobody came back here, and the book's barking.
Speaker 2 (21:54):
Richard's dog, Bismarck was in distress and needed to go out.
His food bowl was empty, and it was clear Richard
had not been home for hours. From everything I've learned today,
Richard was a reliable guy, not one to be out
of touch, leaving his family in the dark like this.
It was out of character.
Speaker 8 (22:16):
He would never go anywhere without telling me. I know immediately. Immediately,
I'd like, so, oh my god, this could not be happening.
But I lost my shot today. Oh my god. Christine said,
we're never going to see them again, are we?
Speaker 1 (22:37):
Mom?
Speaker 8 (22:37):
I said, no, we're not. We're not.
Speaker 2 (22:41):
Christine and Marge feared the worst, but Richard's father wasn't
about to jump to conclusions. Richard was a strong Italian father.
He's as much braun as he is brains, and when
his wife was telling him it wasn't registering.
Speaker 8 (22:58):
He said, what are you saying? I'm saying that something
terrible happened to your son.
Speaker 2 (23:10):
While the fear was hitting the Patron family, John and Tobray,
Danielle's brother, was also realizing Danielle didn't make it home
that night.
Speaker 1 (23:21):
I woke up Sunday morning early and I took a
ride to her house to fix the curtain. I sold
her car out front. I knock on the door. She's
not answering the car. Her cell phone it goes right
to voicemail. So I called my mother and I said, Mom,
I'm outside of Danielle's. I see her car here, but
she's not answering. I have her key. I don't want
(23:42):
to just walk in if she's in the shower or something.
I don't want her to get scared, and she said
maybe she slept at Richard's.
Speaker 2 (23:49):
At the time, John had been trying to support Danielle
as much as possible. See in the last twelve months,
Danielle's life had gotten complicated. Danielle I had recently separated
from her husband, Joe Imbo. To make matters more challenging,
Danielle and Joe welcomed their son together just two years prior.
In February of two thousand and five, Danielle was in
(24:12):
uncharted waters. She was a single parent, navigating custody of
their twenty month old child, and deep in the throes
of dissolving her marriage with Joe. Anything John could do
to help his sister, he would, whether it be helping
out around the condo or looking after the baby.
Speaker 1 (24:29):
It was a typical ugly separation, you know, it was
headed towards divorce, so I didn't think anything of it.
Like hung the curtains up and I left Zobius.
Speaker 2 (24:41):
No one was home, so John packed up his tools
and went about his day like he would any other.
That was until I.
Speaker 1 (24:50):
Got a phone call around three o'clock. It was my
mother and she said, Danielle never came home last night.
I'm at her condo now I need you to come here.
And my mother isn't full blown panic. She said, Joe's
getting ready to drop the baby off in the next
hour and she's not here, and no one can get
in touch with either one of them. I knew right
(25:14):
there something was wrong. I just knew it.
Speaker 2 (25:19):
The divorce was nasty. Danielle's mom knew how bad it
would look for her daughter if Joe dropped off her son,
only to find out Danielle never came home that night.
It was currently Mia. You see, over the past few months,
Danielle had been dating Richard Patron, and Joe knew that.
She didn't want to give her soon to be ex
(25:40):
son in law any ammunition.
Speaker 1 (25:47):
My mother said, don't tell him what's going on. I
don't want him to know because I don't want him
to say, well, I'll keep the baby until she comes home.
I said, Mom, don't worry about it.
Speaker 2 (25:57):
It was three o'clock that afternoon when to drop off
their son. That was the agreed upon time for Joe
to end his weekend with a baby, and.
Speaker 1 (26:06):
He kind of walked in. He goes, looked confused, and
he said worth Danielle and my mother said, oh, she
went to dinner with Christine. And then he said something
like he mumbled under his breath. I guess telling a
lie is better than telling the truth. Then he left,
like saying what we were saying was bullshit.
Speaker 2 (26:31):
It was always our intention to start our own investigation,
but we had to ask ourselves, where do you start
on a case when two people go missing. We started
by retracing their last steps. We wanted to understand exactly
where Richard Petrone and Danielle Imbo were the night of
February nineteenth, two thousand and five.
Speaker 8 (26:53):
We're all altogether. That right went to Chicky and.
Speaker 2 (26:56):
Pete Margein her two daughters, Christine and Elisa, had dinner
with Danielle Imbo and Danielle's mother at Chickie and Pete's,
which is a popular Philadelphia restaurant. I think chicken sandwiches,
she seks, crabfries and beer. It's a sports bar with
games on TVs everywhere A good place to blow off
steam after a long week. Here's Alisa, Richard's sister.
Speaker 9 (27:20):
It was just a girl's night out. I wanted to
tag along anywhere my sister and my mom were going,
so I was there.
Speaker 2 (27:26):
Toward the end of dinner, Richard called Danielle to see
if she wanted to join him for the evening. Initially
Danielle wasn't sure, but eventually agreed she was open to
making the most for child free Saturday night.
Speaker 9 (27:43):
And then my sister drove Danielle to meet Richard.
Speaker 2 (27:48):
Christine agreed to drop her off since Danielle's car was
back at her condo in Jersey.
Speaker 8 (27:53):
That was really like a spark of the moment thing.
I don't think he even knew that she was going
to actually go with.
Speaker 2 (27:59):
Him, And that's an important detail from Marge and something
to remember. This was a spontaneous meetup between Danielle and Richard.
Speaker 8 (28:09):
Richard was at another tap room having to dinner and
told Christine to drop her wolf she would go with
Richard that night.
Speaker 2 (28:16):
As for Danielle, her brother John got the story of
what happened from his mother.
Speaker 1 (28:21):
She said, well, last night, Danielle and I and Marge
and Christine went to Chicken and Pete's, and Richard called
and said, Hey, I'm at this bar, Abilene's on Sale Street.
Why don't you come. Danielle said, she'll meet you as
long as you can get her home at a reasonable time.
Speaker 2 (28:41):
Danielle had an appointment at a salon the next morning.
It was the same salon that Christine Patron worked at.
So it's our understanding that from Chicky and Pete, Christine
drives Danielle to meet up with Richard, and Richard and
Danielle drive to Abilene's on South Street together.
Speaker 10 (28:57):
South Street had this huge strip of bars, Ebiline's. One
of them.
Speaker 2 (29:03):
Journalists DeVoe covered the story for Philadelphia Magazine and explains
what happened next.
Speaker 10 (29:09):
I remember that they were having a good time, that
they were enjoying themselves. They sat close together, they shared
a kiss at some point, they were laughing a lot.
You know, they had a nice evening together.
Speaker 2 (29:20):
We heard Danielle and Richard spent a couple hours at
the bar that Saturday night, listening to a band.
Speaker 10 (29:26):
They leave before midnight. He was going to drive her
back to her home in Mount Laurel, and that's where
the trail ends.
Speaker 2 (29:38):
No one has seen Danielle or Richard.
Speaker 10 (29:41):
Since, not just them, but a truck disappeared into the
ether from one of the most frequented spots in the
whole city. It was stunning. I just wish that the
families could have an answer, and whatever the answer was,
(30:05):
to sort through it and deal with it.
Speaker 4 (30:09):
I'm a father, I'm a brother, I'm a husband, I'm
a son. It is very hard not to see the
human side, the human impact on the two families. It
keeps me motivated.
Speaker 2 (30:25):
For Vito Rosselli, he lives with the impact of that
reality every day and one of the major factors that
has stopped him from solving this case is the evidence,
or lack thereof. This happened in two thousand and five,
when even basic equipment like security cameras were using outdated technology.
Speaker 4 (30:44):
Back then, everybody was still on VCRs that they were
taping over after two weeks of thirty days, street light cameras,
none of that existed. Back then, you know, the iPhones
weren't a thing, so it was a little different animal.
Speaker 2 (30:57):
Today, we can track our friends. Everyone is essentially has
a GPS in their pocket. Plus there's no shortage of
documenting with people recording their life for the whole world
to see. But in two thousand and five, people had
flip phones in MySpace. Even YouTube didn't come out until
February of two thousand and five.
Speaker 4 (31:17):
We have a lot more tools available to us now
than we did back then.
Speaker 6 (31:24):
Today, when something happened, you know, there's cell phone video,
and there's video on buildings, and people are going on
social media and talking about it. Well, we didn't have
any of that back then.
Speaker 2 (31:38):
That's former FBI agent Jerry Williams.
Speaker 6 (31:42):
In my years of doing media relations for the FBI,
I've never heard of a case like this ever before.
I mean, people are concerned. If this happened to this couple,
what could happen to me and my kids if I
let them go on South Street.
Speaker 2 (32:00):
The community was concerned, and law enforcement didn't have much
to work with. After those initial days of the investigation,
the FBI got tapped in and the lack of evidence
actually started to tell a story to Vito.
Speaker 4 (32:16):
Nobody checks into a hospital. Neither one of them would
have left their children. They wouldn't just have run away.
Speaker 2 (32:25):
The idea of Richard and Danielle getting hurt or skipping
town got ruled out pretty quickly.
Speaker 4 (32:30):
There was no activity on their credit cards or on
their phones. The people who did it made two people
in a truck disappear. That's a clean cry, and it
could have been cleaned by accident, it could have been
cleaned by luck, or it could have been clean by design.
So it was clear that something bad happened pretty much
off the start.
Speaker 2 (32:51):
Vido and Jerry were adamant about one thing. After nineteen
years of dead ends, they were out of options.
Speaker 6 (33:00):
When you have a case like this, you have to
figure out how to keep it in the news.
Speaker 4 (33:08):
Each year at the anniversary where you put something out
and without fail, we always get tips, callings and more.
Over the past few years have been pretty consistent, so
it's good it keeps it out in the public's eye.
Speaker 3 (33:24):
Well.
Speaker 1 (33:25):
Today marks ten years since the local couple vanished without
a trace, and despite a decade since their disappearance, today
their relatives made an emotional plea for new information.
Speaker 2 (33:35):
Every February twentieth, without fail, the city of Philadelphia is
reminded of Danielle and Richard.
Speaker 5 (33:42):
It has been eleven years to the day since daniel
Believe it or not, Today marks twelve years since Danielle
Imbo and Richard Patron Junior.
Speaker 2 (33:49):
First one message they have not been seen in thirteen years,
despite and from nineteen years now. These segments go out
and tips come in prints and repeat to a family.
Speaker 10 (34:00):
But the MBI says they have not given up on
this case.
Speaker 2 (34:05):
Having lived here my whole life. I've watched the segment
each February with the rest of Philadelphia. Now I have
more of a context as to why. Just like that
billboard I mentioned in the beginning, it's a lifeline thrown
out for Richard and Danielle and their families, anything to
keep hope for justice alive.
Speaker 6 (34:28):
I think putting it out there to the public on
a true crime podcast is a brilliant step to add
to what has been done so far.
Speaker 2 (34:40):
It's crazy for me to say this, but I think
the FBI needs our help and your help. So do
Danielle and Richard. The two left a crowded bar in
a popular area at Philadelphia on a Saturday night two
decades ago, and in those twenty years, we still don't
know who wanted to harm them and why.
Speaker 4 (35:01):
One of the important directions that law enforcement had to
take was to determine the history between Danielle and Richard.
When you look deep into anybody's backgrounds, you gotta be
digging up stuff. And we found some angles that were
of interest to us.
Speaker 6 (35:23):
That's when started to look like this may have been
a very personal crime.
Speaker 2 (35:33):
That's next time on There and Gone.
Speaker 3 (35:38):
All is a same you in my dream reached out
in the dog for you, fellastoy. I'll never give up,
no matter how. I open my defind car hitch corner
(36:13):
it lit another puss ho peace. I follow the clues
looking for the key. He level give up no matter hell,
(36:34):
I open my defind that your car.
Speaker 2 (36:45):
If you have any information about the disappearance of Danielle
Imbo and Richard Patron, please call the Citizens Crime Commission
tip line at two one five five four six eight
four seven seven, or you can reach out to the
show in our team by email at varrengonpod at gmail
dot com. That's There and Gone pod at gmail dot com.
(37:07):
Thank you so much for listening. One way for you
to show support is by subscribing to our show on
Apple Podcasts. Don't forget to rate and review, because five
star reviews go a long way. A big thank you
to all of our listeners varren Gonn is a production
of Glass Podcasts, a division of Glass Entertainment Group, in
partnership with iHeart Podcasts. The show is executive produced by
(37:29):
Nancy Glass, Ben Fetterman, and me Andrea Gunning. It's hosted
and written by me Andrea Gunning, with additional reporting and
writing by Ben Fetterman. The series is also written and
produced by Todd Gans. Our associate producer is Kristin Melcurrie.
Research by Mason Klinder, Annah Hamilton, and Bella Riki. Our
iHeart team is Ali Perry and Jessica Crincheck. Audio editing
(37:53):
and mixing by Matt Delvecchio, additional editing support by Nico Aruka.
Thearren Gonn's theme and original compositions were composed by Oliver
Bains and Darry macaulay of Neuser Music Library, provided by
my Music Special thanks to both the Beatrone and tow
Ray families. For more podcasts from iHeart, visit the iHeartRadio app,
(38:15):
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts
Hosts And Creators
Andrea Gunning
Ben Fetterman
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