this is "nightline." >> tonight, a killer's confession. four mysterious disappearances finally solved. after days of searching, human remains found. >> those dogs could smell these four boys 12 1/2 feet below the ground. >> strange internet posts casting suspicion on this man. >> he confessed to his participation and commission in the murders of four young men. >> now police connecting the dots. did the victims know their alleged killer? plus, into the wilde. >> hey, i'm alex. >> we're with the o.c. favorite olivia wilde now taking her star power to the stage in a new broadway adaptation of "1984." >> no love except love of big brother. no loyalty except to the party. >> the surprising family history that makes her perfect for this

part and how her young son is already taking after his mom. and monkey business. don't let that smile fool you. he's feel quite litigious. neruda the monkey involved in a lawsuit over copyright to his selfie. does he have a branch to stand on or is this case bananas? but first the "nightline" 5. number 1 in just 60 seconds. who are these people? the energy conscious people among us say small actions can add up to something... humongous.

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good evening. thank you for joining us. tonight, what appears to be a quadruple homicide rocking a pennsylvania suburb. police have been searching for four young men mysteriously gone missing. two of them last seen together. but tonight the mystery appears to have been solved. after a shocking discovery on a farm that led to one man's confession. here's abc's eva pilgrim. >> what do you have to say to these families? >> i'm sorry. >> reporter: tonight a stunning admission ending a more than week-long mystery in bucks county, pennsylvania. >> mr. dinardo this evening confessed to the district attorney. he confessed to his participation and commission in the murders of four young men. >> reporter: the defense attorney for 20-year-old cosmo dinardo speaking to cameras outside the courthouse, saying his client spared the death penalty in exchange for his confession to the district

attorney. >> when you say four young men mean the four young men who were missing? >> yes. >> reporter: since last week local and federal investigators have been scouring the suburban philadelphia community in search of four young men who vanished. >> we've negotiated this outcome for cosmo to be very honest, forthright, and truthful in what occurred within the last week and a half. >> reporter: the search for days focusing on this 90-acre farm in solberry township owned by dinardo's family. officials making a grim announcement overnight, recovering the body of dean finocchiaro alongside other human remains. >> we have found human remains in an approximately 1 12 1/2-foot-deep common grave that we have painstakingly dug with a lot of care so as not to damage any potential evidence. >> did he tell police where all four bodies are? >> yes.

i'll leave that for law enforcement. >> reporter: finocchiaro along with 22-year-old mark sturgis and 21 saerld thomas meo were last seen friday. 19-year-old jimi patrick has been missing since last wednesday. >> i know more than i'm sharing on the relationships, and i have to keep it that way, unfortunately, to maintain the integrity of the investigation. >> reporter: officials now putting together a timeline of what they say happened. authorities say around 4:00 p.m. friday sturgis went to meet meo. four hours later license plate readers spotted meo's car within feet of dinardo's truck. the next day both meo and sturgis failed to show up at work. >> where was the sound of these gunshots coming from? >> reporter: susan coleman says she heard gun nooir on the dinardo family property saturday afternoon. >> all of a sudden we heard this very, very loud boom, boom-boom. then it was like boom, boom, boom, boom. lots and lots of gunshots that were startling. and sort of reverberated.

they were coming from the farm. the farm, the field right over there. they were very violent. and then i could hear in the distance like ah, ah, some sort of commotion. >> it was a lot of gunfire? >> a lot of gunfire. >> reporter: on sunday detectives discover meo's car in this garage on the dinardo family's property. with meo's life-saving diabetes medications still inside. >> this is a homicide. make no mistake about it. >> one of the things you obviously want to determine is how did they die. and the prosecutor was very clear today that this is a homicide. so there is forensic evidence at that scene to support a homicide, which i'm going to guess could well be a firearm. >> reporter: today investigators were back at the farm delicately digging for more answers. >> evacuation crews, network of victim assistance who have been there with our victims' families as they mount this round-the-clock vigil. they're side by side.

they're combing through vast fields and buildings. they're down 12 foot deep in a hole that's getting deeper by the minute. they're tenderly, painstakingly, reverentially recovering the remains of people that they do not even know. >> reporter: it's here amid the stifling heat where a cadaver dog led officials to a common grave. >> that is a very impressive hole. and clearly he was trying to bury them so deep the hope would be they would never be found. >> i don't understand the science behind it, but those dogs could smell these four boys 12 1/2 feet below the ground. >> this investigation has been some very good policework. you've had everything from cadaver dogs to cell phone evidence to video evidence. all coming back to one place, which is him. >> reporter: as the community

begins to mourn the loss of four young men, new and haunting images are emerging showing dinardo pointing a pistol. dinardo posted the photos in a group chat, telling acquaintances he wasn't worried that 19-year-old dean finocchiaro was still missing, suggesting instead that he was on the run. >> this is not some impulse homicide. he thought this through. he figured out how to do it. and in the short term he pulled it off. so that is very important in my view when it comes to when you're going to sentence him. >> reporter: dinardo was first arrested on monday for an unrelated gun charge, then again on wednesday after he bonded out. officials say the 20-year-old allegedly stole a car that blongds to o belonged to one of the missing men. >> this is for receiving stolen property and theft of a 1996 nissan maxima that is owned by thomas meo. >> reporter: dinardo then tried to sell the car for $500 the day after meo disappeared. today cosmo dinardo's attorney

appeared before a grand jury at the bucks county courthouse as investigators probed for information. >> did he say why? >> that'll come out in time. i don't think it's appropriate for me out of respect for the families. >> reporter: dinardo has been known to police since he was 14 years old. a recent court document stating he suffered from mental illness and had been the subject of involuntary commitment to a mental institution. prosecutors saying during his arraignment that he was diagnosed with schizophrenia. >> can you talk about his mental health? >> i don't want to talk about his mental health right now. >> it wouldn't be a defense to just say i am mentally ill. it would have to be so mentally ill that he literally didn't understand that what he was doing was wrong. and that's the insanity defense. if he's convicted. the only other way his mental illness could come up would be he's charged, he's convicted, and during sentencing he pleads for leniency, basically saying that he has real mental

challenges. >> reporter: the bucks county district attorney plans to hold a briefing tomorrow to try and answer questions and bring closure to a community who has gone from searching for their missing men to now remembering them. for "nightline" i'm eva pilgrim in bucks county, pennsylvania. next, why olivia wilde might just be the perfect fit for the broadway adaptation of "1984." and later, the monkey in the middle of a contentious lawsuit over the copyrights to his selfies. when you're close to the people you love, does psoriasis ever get in the way of a touching moment? if you have moderate to severe psoriasis, you can embrace the chance of completely clear skin with taltz. taltz is proven to give you a chance at completely clear skin. with taltz, up to 90% of patients had a significant improvement of their psoriasis plaques. in fact, 4 out of 10 even achieved completely clear skin. do not use if you are allergic to taltz.

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george orwell's "1984"

depicts a dark future with omnipresent surveillance, where thought crimes are punished by thought police, and language is regulated by the government. so it might surprise you to learn that the happy go lucy "o.c." star olivia wilde might just be the perfect person to retell this story. here's abc's david wright. >> reporter: big brother is watching. >> the party has been >> reporter: george orwell's s distoppian vision of the surveillance state. >> i have to do something. whatever the consequences, i have to do something. >> reporter: "1984." a cold war classic everybody read in high school. now taking broadway by storm. >> down with big brother! down with big brother! down with big brother! >> reporter: not exactly light fare for date night. >> this show comes from a big place of anxiety. >> yes. anxiety is a buzz word for us.

>> reporter: model and actress olivia wilde is one of the stars. you may remember her from the hit series "house." >> i did good work yesterday. and i was still fired. >> reporter: where she played 13. >> hey, i'm alex. >> reporter: before that she was alex kelly on the teen drama "the o.c." >> my passion. >> reporter: she also starred as devon finestra. my heart is full. >> reporter: in mick jagger's hbo show "vinyl." so if the 1984 on broadway is a bit of a departure for her. so this is your broadway debut? >> this is, yes. >> reporter: what an intense debut. >> it is an intense debut, but i wouldn't want it any other way. >> sunday afternoon. at 15 get the train. >> reporter: the character julia is the ambiguous love interest who's either betraying the regime or betraying her lover. we're never quite sure which. >> no love except love of big brother. no loyalty except to the party. >> ambiguous. >> ambiguous, yes.

as orwell intended. >> is she a collaborator or is she -- >> the question is never answered. i have an answer for myself. >> what do you believe? >> i don't know. it sort of ruins it to give i away. >> tell me afterwards. >> reporter: the production comes at a moment when new york theater is a political hotbed. >> vice president-elect pence, we welcome you and we -- >> reporter: last year the incoming vice president got an earful during the curtain call at "hamilton." >> we are the diverse america who are alarmed and anxious that your new administration will not protect us. >> reporter: earlier this summer shakespeare in the park staged "julius caesar" complete with dark suits and trump ties. that production targeted by trump loyalists. >> shame on all of you! >> reporter: -- eager to make a scene. and now this. >> yeah. >> how does this fit into that conversation about politics and art? >> it's interesting because this is the least literal of all of those in terms of reflecting the

current politics. there's no one dressed up as trump in our show. we're not diverting from the text to draw any parallels to today's world. it's just clear. when the audience hears words like "the truth matters," "words matter," that's something that they recognize from their own lives. >> reporter: wilde points to moments like this. >> sean spicer, our press secretary, gave alternative facts to that. >> reporter: to demonstrate the play's relevance. >> it was of course when kellyanne conway said alternative facts that "1984" shot to the top of the best-seller list once again. >> if ever there were newspeak. >> if ever there were newspeak it has been coined and perfected by kellyanne conway and the entire trump administration. i think people are sort of aware of but they kind of would rather not believe it was that dangerous. >> we destroy the party with tiny secret acts of disobedience. >> reporter: in a way olivia wilde was born to play this role. >> you grew up in a family that would certainly have been of interest to the thought police.

>> yes. we wouldn't have lasted long. thought criminals. unpersoned. the whole lot of us. >> reporter: her grandfather claude coburn was one of the most famous radical journalists of his time. a contemporary of orwell's. wilde's uncle was alexander coburn, a columnist for the "village voice" and "the nation." >> his latest book is the soon to be published "encounters with the sphynx." >> reporter: alex coburn came on "nightline" in 1990 to argue that communism was alive and well despite the collapse of the berlin wall. >> i think the ideals that animated the communist movement or the socialist movement 100 years ago are still very much alive. >> how did that shape who you are and your political awareness in dealing with this material? >> i was raised to question everything. my grandfather was a great journalist, and he had a quote which i love which is "believe nothing until it has been officially denied." >> it's all lies anyway. >> remember who we're at war -- >> reporter: the show for all its relevance is based on

material that predates the trump era by decades. wilde's co-star tom sturridge plays the main character, winston. >> 95% of this text was written in 1949. this play was conceived five years ago in nottingham, england, way before american politics has shaped the way it has right now. >> sure. >> so when people come into this space, they bring all of the things, the burdens of the world on their shoulders, but it's their interpretation, not us presenting something to them. >> when this play was originally adapted, it was mostly about the nsa and about, you know, the revelations of snowden and what people were suddenly realizing about how they were being monitored and what we are willing to give up in the name of security. >> reporter: part of the play takes place behind the scenes. >> this is the little room where we retreat to during the show four times. and we run from the stage back here. everything here is then broadcast live out to the theater. the idea is that winston and julia think they're in a private

place. >> reporter: but the audience outside is watching it all. complicit in the surveillance. >> the rats are everywhere these days. the city's crawling with them. >> can we stop -- >> reporter: the intensity of all this takes a toll night after night. >> that is what alcohol is for, it turns out. turns out it was made for broadway. >> reporter: are your kids in town? do you go home and tuck the kids in at night? >> they are in town. they're asleep, thank god. >> reporter: wilde is a new mother. she and her fiance, actor jason sudeikis, have two young children. what do you tell them about this world and what mommy's doing? >> it's very funny because my son loves -- he loves to perform. he loves the stage. and i could barely tell him any bit of the plot. i look forward to doing something one day that my kids could see. so far i haven't chosen one thing that they can see. one day i'll get into like "toy story 17." >> exactly. you can do the voice of a disney princess. >> oh, a dream. >> reporter: you were born in 1984. >> i was born in 1984.

>> i remember 1984, and i remember in high school reading that book and thinking, well, george orwell got it wrong. but now -- >> it was like sci-fi. >> right. it was still the distant future. and now it's kind of -- >> now it's current events. >> reporter: an old drama with new relevance in the era of alternative facts. i'm david wright for "nightline" in new york. and next, you've heard of a kangaroo court. but how about a monkey plaintiff? nerudo, the smiling simian. legal battle for copyrights to his selfies. ♪ ♪ more kinds of crab than ever, new dishes,

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and finally tonight, when the law of the jungle isn't enough there's the ninth circuit court of appeals. there was some serious monkey business at the ninth circuit court of appeals when the court was asked to consider who owns these world famous selfies. >> it makes no sense to allow a monkey to enforce a copyright suit. >> reporter: the animal rights group peta is suing wildlife photographer david slater and his book publisher blurb for copyright infringement claiming

naruto the monkey is the rightful owner after he picked up slater's camera and snapped these selfies. >> the definition of an authorship turns on he who originates. it doesn't look at the he, she, who or what. >> reporter: the smiling self-portrait was later sold by slater and also used as the cover for his book about wildlife personalities. and peta says any proceeds from that book or sales of the image should be turned over to benefit the monkey. but according to slater's lawyer, that's bananas. >> monkey see monkey sue will not do in federal court. >> reporter: the case was already dismissed by a lower court last year because naruto isn't, for lack of a better word, human. >> but if you're going to do that it's equally absurd to deny a monkey written notice. >> naruto wouldn't need written notice. maybe the other macaque monkeys in indonesia would. >> reporter: now it's in the hands of a federal appeals court to decide whether an animal can hold a copyright. >> thank you for watching abc news. and as always, we're online at

abcnews.com and our "nightline" facebook page. thanks for the company, america. good night.