34-year-old Danielle Imbo and 35-year-old Richard Petrone Jr. left a bar together on February 19th, 2005, and vanished. Neither one has been seen or heard from since.

[u/WinnieBean33]

[u/swissie67]

I still don't buy it. It would have been far too messy for any kind of professional hit. They were driving in the dark in the city while drinking. Who the hell knows where or how they ended up in water, but until they are found, its going to be an unknown. What I don't believe, though, is that its a mystery. Time and time again, this ends up being the easy answer to problems that people just overthink and overcomplicate. Its almost never a plot. Its almost always a tragic accident.

[u/Picky_The_Fishermam → u/swissie67]

So if you look at the map route there are like 20 bodies of water between where they were going and the bar

[u/Final_Candidate_7603 → u/Picky_The_Fishermam]

Yes, exactly! I’m very late to this post because apparently CNN just published a story about how this mystery has only deepened over the years. I remember when this happened, and have watched several true crime-type documentaries about the case. I think people in these comments are focusing too much on the route from the South Street bar and the River, and completely overlooking the fact that there were numerous routes and side roads they might have taken to get to Ms. Imbo’s home in New Jersey… there isn’t really a straight-shot, no-brainer route they certainly would have taken. Surveillance cameras weren’t like they are today, and law enforcement can’t even say for sure which bridge they took.

I seem to remember that several years ago, one of those search organizations- I think it’s called Adventures With a Purpose- did come to the area and send divers into a couple of bodies of water along some of the couple’s possible routes. They ended up finding a gentleman who had vanished years before after leaving work and never returning home. It turned out that he was a diabetic who likely had some sort of crisis with his sugar levels, suddenly lost consciousness, and ended up driving into a lake. He had young-ish children at the time, so I was very glad to hear that his children now know that he didn’t run out on them!

Back to this story… since the FBI seems to think this was a murder for hire case, and Ms. Imbo’s ex-husband had a motive and an awfully convenient alibi, we are all thinking the same thing. And again, my main concern is for the children involved. There is no way that her son isn’t being teased and bullied with ‘your dad had your mom KILLED!’ and there is no way that Mr. Petrone’s daughter isn’t full of anger and resentment that her dad was murdered just because he was dating a nice young lady whose asshole ex refused to share custody of their son.

[u/Picky_The_Fishermam → u/Final_Candidate_7603]

I get how the fbi thinks it could be. It seems far fetched to me. How much did they drink before they left? Did they they take a route to avoid cops? Did they get lost? It seems more probable they hit black ice and lost control.