Transcription
Today's story is considered one of the terrifying tales related to fraud, greed, and murder, and it ends with tragedies and painful events. Let's tell the story of Ari Squire.
It was the early morning of February 23, 2008, when 39-year-old Ari Squire was getting ready for work while his wife, Denise, was sleeping in a separate room. Ari was a partner in a startup construction company in Chicago. Ari was well-known in his neighborhood, and everyone described him as a kind person, always ready to help his neighbors. He had a passion for cars, so he was always helping fix neighbors' cars or giving them advice and information on the subject. He also engaged in races and competitions.
On February 23, which was a Saturday, Ari headed to the garage attached to their house to fix his white car. Denise and Ari's marriage had lasted eight years, and they had no children. They appeared to be a happy couple outwardly, but Ari and Denise were almost living separate lives from each other. For example, they slept in separate rooms, and each of them had different friends. Ari worked in construction, while Denise was a university professor specializing in health.
On Saturday, when Denise woke up, she was surprised by the presence of thick black smoke emanating from their house's garage, as if there had been a fire. She called Ari, but there was no answer. She went outside her house and noticed that the smoke was increasing in density. She immediately called 911. At the time of these events, it was 8:24 AM, and firefighters arrived minutes after the call.
When they arrived, Denise was waiting for help outside her house and told them she was worried about Ari because he wasn't answering her calls. The firefighters rushed towards the garage with their equipment and managed to control the fire quickly. When the fire went out, it became clear that Ari's white car was the one burning in the garage.
As the smoke density lessened and visibility improved, they saw something tragic. They saw two legs extending from under the car. The upper part of the person was severely affected by the fire, and this person was Ari. Although his facial features were not clear, his clothes were Ari's. They found his wallet, which contained Ari's ID. It was clear that his life ended while he was doing something he loved.
An investigation began to determine what caused the fire and how it started. It appeared that the fire was caused by a terrible accident. Ari was working under the car while it was raised by a lift. However, due to a catastrophic accident, the car slipped from the lift and crushed Ari. As it fell to the ground, it hit a lamp, and thus the fire started, causing the blaze.
The news of Ari's death was difficult, tragic for the community, and his death was very sad. The police expected Ari's death to devastate his wife, Denise. But when they informed her that she had lost her husband in the fire, her reaction was cold. However, reactions differ from person to person. A person receiving such a tragic and sudden piece of news might be under the influence of shock and denial, which is what the police interpreted from Denise's reaction.
But after several days had passed since the accident, Denise's reaction did not change, and she remained cold. A few days later, Ari's memorial service began at a local Italian restaurant, attended by 100 people. Denise was watching the time on her watch, showing no signs of grief over her loss.
The truth is that Denise and Ari's marriage was closer to a business partnership, with no emotional connection like that between any normal couple. It was just a cold relationship that brought them together. The police noticed when they entered the couple's house the absence of photos of them together. There was only one photo from their wedding day, and only Ari was in it.
What the police learned was that Ari had debts and was drowning in them. Before becoming a partner in a construction company, he owned a company specializing in home medical care. He was then accused of medical fraud amounting to $2 million and underwent a trial. This trial drained Denise and Ari's finances, and they paid over $200,000 during it. They also paid the same amount afterward for marketing.
After this trial, Ari was confined to his home under surveillance, and he was only allowed to leave his house for work and essential matters. Even the construction company he was a partner in was failing, and he wasn't making good profits from it. His debts even increased when he bought an apartment in Florida, which was also draining his finances. According to Denise's statement to the police, Ari was responsible for the loss of their money from their bank accounts.
In short, their marriage was closer to a business relationship than a marital and family relationship. This prompted the police to ask Denise if Ari had a life insurance policy. Denise said she had no knowledge of the matter. The investigation into this led the police to the insurance company, which informed them of Ari's life insurance policy worth $5 million, with Denise, his wife, as the sole beneficiary. This means Ari's death benefited Denise; not only would her financial problems be solved, but she would inherit $5 million.
Although the initial investigations concluded that Ari's death was an accident, when the accident was investigated more closely, several strange things became apparent. For example, Ari was a very skilled mechanic and very aware of safety instructions; he was cautious. Even when the news of his death spread, his colleagues were very shocked and surprised that such an accident could happen to Ari.
The information the police obtained from the accident scene, combined with Denise's strange behavior and their financial problems, made them think the matter was bigger than an accident. If the car slipped from the lift, it would have caused damage and scratches to the area, and this was not present. Ari had not used a stabilizer with the lift, but still, the lift was capable of holding the car without slipping.
Now, regarding the car hitting a lamp, which caused the fire. This is logical and possible to happen. But what was surprising was that there was no electrical power in the garage; the power was off. So how could the fire start if the lamp was not even working? The car's front wheels had been removed, and it turned out that Ari was changing the oil filter at the time of the accident. The mat that Ari was supposed to use under the car was found on top of his body, which is very strange.
His body was covered in a type of fuel, and they couldn't identify it, but the intention of this act seemed to be to set his body on fire. The amount of fuel was more than what could have spilled on him from the car; it was as if his body had been covered with fuel. The police concluded from all these signs that the accident was staged and arranged to look like an accident, and most likely, Ari was dead before the fire, and then he was set on fire to hide the truth. Therefore, what happened was a crime, not an accident.
During the investigation into Ari's death, the police learned of another incident not far from the fire scene. At first glance, the two incidents seemed unrelated, but what would be revealed might change all the facts.
On the morning of Ari's death, a worried mother was concerned about the sudden disappearance of her 20-year-old son, Justin Newman. On Saturday at 3 PM, he was supposed to take his mother to her work at a Target store. He did this every Saturday; it was a routine task for him. So, his mother was worried about his not arriving and not answering his phone.
Justin's main job was at Home Depot, where he was very diligent and ambitious. On Saturday, it was his first day at a secondary job, and his shift was from 7:00 AM to 3:00 PM. But where was Justin? The information that emerged regarding this matter states that a customer at Home Depot offered Justin another job on holidays in construction, including an opportunity to earn more money. Of course, Justin agreed; the offer was tempting for him. The person who offered him this job was Ari Squire.
Justin's mother contacted Home Depot, specifically Justin's manager, to ask if he had any information about Ari. While asking about Ari, Justin's manager informed her that Ari had been killed that morning. The next day, Justin's family received a message from him saying he was going to Missouri and would call them next week. This was strange and led the family to report him missing.
The question is: does Justin have anything to do with the fire? Is Justin in trouble? Or is he also in Missouri? Could he have been Denise's accomplice and gotten rid of Ari and fled? While everyone was asking these questions, Denise was trying to get rid of Ari's body by burning it as quickly as possible. However, the forensic examiner refused to release the body because the medical examiner was not sure it was Ari's body at all. The body was in Ari's clothes, and his wallet with his identification papers was with it. But a dental record check said something else.
The doctor noticed in Ari's medical record that he had a broken arm from years before the accident. The fracture would have been visible even in the current state of the body. So, an X-ray of Ari's arm was taken, and it was found that the arm had not suffered a previous fracture.
The police found a link between the deceased Ari and the missing Justin. On Saturday, Justin was supposed to go to the job he took from Ari at his house on the same day Ari died. So, is the deceased actually Ari? Or where is Ari? Or where is Justin?
The police went to Home Depot, Justin's workplace, and the place where Ari was a customer. They asked the workers present if they noticed any strange events. There, they met another customer who told them a strange story about Ari. The customer's name is Sandy, and he works as a carpenter. His story is somewhat similar to Justin's story as a regular customer of the store.
He met Ari, and they had several conversations. During these conversations, Ari offered him a huge salary if he resigned from his job and worked with him. Sandy initially agreed and received a paper with information he needed to write down, meaning the employment form included his work history, education, and information about his eye color, shoe size, clothing size, whether he had any scars or tattoos on his body, and their locations. The job application was more like a modeling job than for a construction company. This made Sandy feel strange and led him to refuse to proceed with this application.
The medical examiner, who was refusing to release Ari's body, concluded that the body did not belong to a person around 40 years old; this body belonged to a person in their twenties. And so, the information began to clarify. Afterward, Ari's partner in construction informed the police that Ari had once mentioned to him that there would come a time when he would fake his death, change his identity, and start anew.
The police followed any trace of Justin to Missouri. They reached a witness at a gas station who led them to a car number. When they searched for it, it turned out that the car belonged to Justin Newman. They reached the car parked outside a hotel and found Justin's room number, which was 133.
The police prepared a SWAT team to raid the room. They knocked on the door at first and announced they were the police, asking Justin to surrender. But they received no answer. When they opened the door with a card, the door was locked from the inside with a chain. They tried to look through the peephole, and then, suddenly, they heard a gunshot. Afterward, they stormed the room and found the body lying on the bed. The body was Ari Squire's, who had ended his life with a gunshot to the head. He had been hiding in the hotel room all along, and this time his life truly ended.
When they examined the body, they found Ari's eye color had turned blue. He had been wearing colored contact lenses to resemble Justin. Surprisingly, Denise and Ari had been exchanging emails all along, and it was clear they were planning a way to get rid of their debts. They found a way and were waiting for the insurance money. Then they planned to escape, and this was what Ari had been planning from Missouri.
The victim was Sandy, who greatly resembled Ari. Then the victim changed to Justin. Ari then tried to change his appearance to look like Justin. On Saturday morning, Ari lured Justin to his house, doused him with fuel, put him under the car, and set him on fire. Then he took his identity and fled in his car to St. Louis.
Denise's response to the emails between her and Ari was that she thought they were pre-written emails scheduled to be sent after his death. She claimed that they made her believe this. The content of the emails asked about the funeral and whether the body was burned or not. The saddest part of the story is Justin's end, who became a victim of this evil plan, while he was thinking of earning extra money and was excited about a new job. As for Sandy, he miraculously escaped the same fate when he refused Ari's offer.
A polygraph test for Denise showed that she was not aware of Ari's plan, and her lawyers denied her involvement and knowledge of the matter with Justin, despite an email between her and Ari asking about burning the body. She replied that the body had not been released from the examination. She said "the body" without referring to Ari, and this refutes his claim that he thought the emails he received from Ari were programmed to be sent after his death.
Despite suspicions of Denise's involvement in the crime, no criminal charges were filed against her. However, she faced a civil lawsuit that ended with a judgment ordering her to pay $6 million in compensation to the Newman family. The insurance did not pay the compensation to Denise, and it was Ari who ended his life. There is no information on whether the Newman family received the compensation or not.
And so ends the story of Ari Squire, whose greed led to the end of an innocent young man.