More than 100 family members and friends attended Ari Squire’s memorial banquet last week and signed his online condolence book, mourning a man they said was kind, selfless and gentle.
But the charred remains of the man found under Squire’s truck, ostensibly killed when a jack slipped, weren’t Squire’s.
He was alive and well, and his wife, police say, knew it. The congenial man, “the most kind, spirited and giving person ever,” as one friend wrote, allegedly was involved in a bizarre tale of desperation, deception and murder — all in an effort to collect a $5 million life insurance policy and start over with a new identity.
Authorities said Thursday that the Lake Barrington resident killed a 20-year-old Arlington Heights man, used the body to stage his own death then ultimately committed suicide Sunday in a suburban St. Louis motel room as police came close to unraveling the twisted plot.
“We have one murderer who was too much of a coward to face the music,” said Lake County Sheriff Mark Curran at a news conference.
Now authorities want to know if Squire’s wife, Denise, played a role in the slaying of Justin Newman, the man found in the couple’s garage Feb. 23. Police believe Ari Squire, 39, lured Newman to his home with the promise of a construction job.
Police described Denise Squire, 46, a former professor at National-Louis University in Wheeling, as a “person of interest” after questioning her Wednesday. She couldn’t be reached for comment.
Police believe Ari Squire may have been trying to collect on a life insurance policy the couple took out five years ago.
Squire was under financial pressure. He pleaded guilty last fall to bilking Medicare through a home health-care business he previously operated in Lincolnwood.
When police and firefighters rushed to Squire’s home early in the morning of Feb. 23 to put out the suspicious garage fire, they found the charred body of a man — clad in Squire’s clothes down to his underwear, with his wallet, identification and credit cards — beneath Squire’s souped-up Chevy Silverado pickup. A broken car jack was nearby. Newman’s mother reported him missing on Feb. 25. Donna FioRito told police that the only word she’d had from her son was a text message on Feb. 24 saying he was going to Missouri and would return in a week. Authorities believe Squire sent the message from Newman’s cell phone.
The two men met at the Home Depot store in Lake Zurich, where Newman worked and Squire visited regularly, according to Newman’s half-brother Frank Testa.
Newman had worked hard to support his mother the past six years, and was excited at the opportunity to make more money so they could move out of their cramped apartment, Testa said. “My mom made his lunch, kissed him good-bye, and that was the last time she saw him,” Testa said.
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Twists and turns
The Squires sent at least four e-mails to each other after Ari Squire had supposedly died, authorities said. In an e-mail Feb. 29, the day of his memorial dinner, Denise Squire allegedly told her husband that 120 people had attended his banquet at Maggiano’s Little Italy in Skokie, officials said.
