Pennsylvania prosecutors say missing 24-year-old was killed; two more charged after seven-month search

Prosecutors in Berks County, Pennsylvania, said this week they now have probable cause to conclude that a 24-year-old Lebanon County man is dead, seven months after he disappeared in what investigators describe as a drug dispute that ended in a kidnapping. His body has not been found, and the case now involves eight people charged, after two more arrests this week added fresh detail to how authorities say the killing unfolded.

Berks County District Attorney John Adams told reporters at an October 26 news conference that investigators have concluded Michael Petrino Jr., 24, of Palmyra, was killed by two of the men now charged in the case. "We are certain that he is deceased," Adams said, according to Local21News's account of the briefing, adding later that "there is no question Michael Petrino Jr. is deceased at the hands of Foxx and Vaux," in remarks carried by WFMZ-TV. Adams called it "a very complicated investigation."

A lure, an abandoned Jeep and an arrest months later

Investigators allege Petrino, who lived about 30 miles away in Lebanon County, was lured to the intersection of Second and Oley streets in Reading in the early hours of March 25, assaulted and driven away; his rented Jeep Compass was later found abandoned in the 1200 block of Muhlenburg Street, according to 6abc Philadelphia and Local21News, which separately confirmed the vehicle's location. Luke Foxx, 21, and Josiah Vaux, 23, were arrested October 22 by Reading police working with the U.S. Marshals Service and now face second-degree murder, kidnapping and related charges, according to a Reading Police Department release cited by Fox29 Philadelphia, which reported that the two men, both armed, bound Petrino and left the area after he was handed over to them. Adams has said Petrino was taken to the Birdsboro Preserve, a wooded recreation area outside Reading, on the day he was last seen, and has not been located since.

Foxx and Vaux are not the only people facing charges. Court filings and police statements name several other defendants, including some charged earlier in the investigation, for roles in luring and delivering Petrino before he reached Foxx and Vaux, according to LebTown and 6abc, though the two outlets differ on which defendants were charged as adults versus juveniles. Adams's office has said the total number of people facing charges across the case now stands at eight.

A dispute over drugs

Adams said the case traces to a dispute over drugs. According to charging documents described by Berks Weekly, Foxx accused Petrino of taking roughly two pounds of marijuana, about 100 THC vape cartridges and 15 bottles of promethazine, and Vaux offered a group of acquaintances the same quantity of marijuana and cartridges, plus $3,000 to $4,000 in cash, in exchange for delivering Petrino to him; one of the alleged go-betweens was paid in marijuana, Adams said. The outlet reported that the criminal affidavit quotes Vaux telling one witness afterward not to worry about what had happened, saying "this has nothing to do with you, the problem's taken care of," and separately quotes him saying of Petrino:

"I can still smell him."

A family's long wait, and an unusual prosecution

Petrino, a 2020 graduate of Palmyra Area High School, was reported missing by his family in late March after he stopped responding to calls and texts. His relatives spent months publicly appealing for information before any arrests were announced. Speaking to LebTown in July, as the case remained unsolved, his father, also named Michael Petrino, described the family's focus: "Our biggest thing is, we just want to know where he is."

That search has not ended. Investigators have conducted what Local21News described as "exhaustive searches" of locations identified through cellphone records, without finding Petrino's remains. "We need the public's help to find Michael Petrino Jr.'s remains," Adams said at the briefing. "I want to give this family some closure." Pennsylvania's statewide court-docket system lists Berks County's Court of Common Pleas as the venue where Foxx's and Vaux's cases will proceed, and the Berks County District Attorney's office has not said whether it expects further arrests. Reading police, in a statement reported by Local21News and 6abc, said only that "the investigation remains active and ongoing."

What's next

Foxx and Vaux are expected to face preliminary hearings in Berks County's court system in the coming weeks, where prosecutors will have to lay out their evidence publicly for the first time. Pennsylvania law allows prosecutors to bring and pursue murder charges on a theory of probable cause even without a recovered body, provided they can show through other evidence — digital records, witness accounts and forensic traces — that a death occurred and was not voluntary.

Any eventual sentencing would unfold under a different legal landscape than it would have a year ago. Pennsylvania's Supreme Court ruled in March that mandatory life-without-parole sentences for second-degree murder violate the state constitution's ban on cruel punishment when imposed without weighing a defendant's individual culpability, a decision described by WHYY's coverage of the ruling. The court left the question of retroactivity unresolved and gave lawmakers time to legislate a replacement sentencing scheme, so it remains unclear how the ruling will affect future second-degree murder cases such as this one if either defendant is convicted. Reading police have asked anyone with information about Petrino's whereabouts to call the department at 610-655-6116 or the anonymous Crime Alert Berks County tip line at 1-877-373-9913.