December 28, 2025 • 31 mins
This episode details the disturbing criminal plot of Ari Squire, a contractor who staged his own death to claim a multi-million dollar insurance payout. To execute the hoax, Squire murdered an innocent job seeker named Justin Newman and used a garage fire to disguise the victim's identity as his own. Investigators utilized forensic dental and DNA evidence to expose the inconsistencies at the scene, revealing that the body was not Squire’s. The fugitive eventually committed suicide in a Missouri motel as authorities closed in on his stolen identity. Ultimately, while Squire's wife avoided criminal charges, she was found civilly liable for the wrongful death of Newman. This account serves as a somber examination of how extreme financial desperation can lead to calculated violence and deception.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to the deep dive, where we take the sources
you share with us, dig into the hidden connections, and
deliver the essential nuggets of knowledge. Today we're not starting
with political manifestos or economic forecasts. We are plunging headfirst
into a suburban nightmare, a chilling scene that unfolded on
a quiet Saturday morning.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
That scene was February twenty three, two thousand and eight,
in Lake Barrington, Illinois. And you know, this was a
place where life was meant to be predictable, large homes,
manicured lawns, absolute comfort. That whole illusion was just well
violently shattered by a fire and thick black smoke.
Speaker 1 (00:36):
And that's precisely where our investigation begins. A frantic nine
one one call comes in from Denise Squire reporting a
massive fire in her attached garage. When the Waconda Fire
Department arrived, they had a fourth century and the scene
inside was just horrific. A multi ton diesel pickup truck
had seemingly collapsed off its jack.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
And it had crushed a man beneath it. Following that,
a fire erupted and the body was charged so extensively
it was, you know, almost beyond recognition. Initially, it checked
every single box for a devastating, random, tragic accident. Yeah,
the kind of thing is a terrible reminder of the
risks of even routine home maintenance.
Speaker 1 (01:11):
And the initial identification seemed definitive. I mean, it couldn't
have been more convenient. Right there in the victim's scorched
jean's pocket was a wallet. Inside that wallet was the
idea of the homeowner, thirty nine year old construction business
owner Ari Squire. He was known for being mechanically inclined,
so the story does fit right.
Speaker 2 (01:31):
His garage was supposedly the kind of place he spent
a lot of time tinkering, So the initial police report
reflected exactly that. Yeah, accidental death of the homeowner.
Speaker 1 (01:39):
And what about his wife, Denise? She made the call?
Speaker 2 (01:41):
Denise Squire provided the initial narrative. She said she was asleep,
was jolted awake by what she described as three loud boons,
and then she called nine one one when she saw
the smoke. Okay, investigators, of course, they observed her behavior,
and they noted a certain relative calmness when she was
told he was dead. How this could easily be shocked?
You know, people react to trauma in very different ways. Sure,
(02:04):
but it was a detail that got logged in the file,
just sort of waiting for more context.
Speaker 1 (02:08):
And that initial context is everything, because our mission today
is to move far beyond that first assessment. We are
going to explore how these minor, almost imperceptible forensic inconsistencies
quickly turned this from an accident investigation into a massive
criminal inquiry.
Speaker 2 (02:25):
An inquiry involving murder, a staggering five to six million
dollar insurance fraud plot, and a truly bizarre case of
attempted identity theft.
Speaker 1 (02:35):
We'll be focusing on the exact steps our squire took
to stage his own death, but I think more importantly,
we're going to analyze these specific, almost amateurish details he overlooked.
Speaker 2 (02:44):
Yes, it's those failures that ensured his entire scheme just
spectacularly unraveled in a timeline that is frankly shockingly fast.
Speaker 1 (02:52):
So for you the listener, this deep dive is really
a masterclass and how modern forensic science smashes into financial desperation.
It shows how matiliculous detective work can expose the fundamental
weakness in any elaborately planned crime, especially one that relies
on substituting a body.
Speaker 2 (03:07):
The sheer complexity of what Ari attempted required perfect execution,
and as we're about to see, he was profoundly incapable
of pulling it off.
Speaker 1 (03:16):
Okay, so let's really unpack this opening scene. I mean
the chaos of a garage fire. That alone is often
enough to cover a multitude of sins. But the responders
here were pros. They were trained to see past the smoke.
Speaker 2 (03:28):
Exactly when the Wacana Fire Department had to force their
way in, they walked into a scene that was designed
to tell one very specific story. A man crushed under
a large vehicle. Right the thick black smoke, which was
likely intensified by burning materials plus an accelerant. It hampered
immediate observation. But even that chaos, small details started to
(03:50):
stand out.
Speaker 1 (03:51):
The victim under the pickup, the chart ide. It was
a flawless setup for an insurance fraud claim. Everything was
there to reinforce that initial assumption an accidental.
Speaker 2 (04:00):
Death, and that assumption is precisely what Ari Squire was
counting on. He created this perfect visual narrative. But investigators,
they're trained to look for outliers for things.
Speaker 1 (04:09):
That don't fix like his wife's reaction.
Speaker 2 (04:11):
Well, yeah, Denise Squire's account of being asleep and hearing
three booms seemed plausible enough, but that noted calmness, the
lack of a profound emotional collapse. These are subtle human
behavioral cues, and when you combine them with the forensic
evidence that came later, they start to color the entire story.
In isolation, it's nothing, but combined it's highly suggestive.
Speaker 1 (04:34):
So the initial tragedy is logged. But the immediate question
that pops up for any observer is just why why
would Ari Squire, a guy who seemingly has all the
trappings of success, big house and an affluent area, fourteen
year marriage, a big contracting business, why would he feel
the need to resort to such extreme violent measures.
Speaker 2 (04:52):
Is to move past the outward image which our sources
tell us Ari cultivated very, very carefully. He was described
as charismatic, a larger than the life contractor. He projected success.
Speaker 1 (05:02):
In stability, but by two thousand and eight, the financial
reality under that facade was basically.
Speaker 2 (05:08):
Crumbling, completely crumbling.
Speaker 1 (05:10):
And we really have to emphasize the context of two
thousand and eight here. I mean this was the year
the global financial crisis was just hammering the housing and
construction sectors.
Speaker 2 (05:17):
Oh. Absolutely, A contractor who looked successful one year could
find himself facing catastrophic collapse the next. And that economic
pressure that is the foundation of the motive here.
Speaker 1 (05:27):
So his business was in trouble.
Speaker 2 (05:29):
It was struggling under mounting systemic pressure from the housing downturn.
He was likely leveraged contracts were drying up, as cash
flow as failing. But it wasn't just general business hardship.
He had a very specific, inescatable problem.
Speaker 1 (05:43):
And that problem came from prior illegal activity. Right, Let's
talk about the two thousand and seven guilty plea to
Medicare fraud.
Speaker 2 (05:49):
That is the absolute turning point. That's what pushed his
financial distress into a full blown existential crisis. The guilty
plea wasn't just a slap on the wrist. It resulted
in significant court ordered restitution.
Speaker 1 (06:02):
Payments, which are not negotiable, not at all.
Speaker 2 (06:04):
They have to be made on a strict schedule. So
you combine this massive financial hemorrhage of court debt with
the collapsing revenue stream of the two thousand and eight
construction market. I mean, Ari wasn't facing a temporary setback.
He was facing total ruin.
Speaker 1 (06:18):
Bankruptcy, public humiliation, the total loss of everything he'd built.
That level of desperation it requires a kind of nuclear option,
and for Ari, that came in the form of his
life insurance.
Speaker 2 (06:28):
The policy wasn't a safety net anymore. It became his
desperate escape ladder.
Speaker 1 (06:33):
So this is the driving force.
Speaker 2 (06:35):
Absolutely, the life insurance policy was the central driving force
behind the entire criminal act. Ari had made sure he
was covered for a massive amount it's reported to be
between five and six million dollars, with Denise as the
primary beneficiary.
Speaker 1 (06:50):
So in his mind, this wasn't about planning for the future.
It was about a massive cash injection to wipe out
the debt, provide for his wife, and fund his own
vanishing act exactly. And this is the moment we need
to really zoom in on the specific mechanism of the fraud,
because why the elaborate staging, why the body swap. It
all boils down to one critical.
Speaker 2 (07:09):
Detail, the suicide clause.
Speaker 1 (07:11):
The suicide clause, the necessity of avoiding it.
Speaker 2 (07:14):
This is fundamental to understanding the crime. Nearly every large
life insurance policy has a clause that voids the payout
if the death is found to be self inflicted, especially
if it's within the first one or two years of
the policy being active.
Speaker 1 (07:27):
So if Ari had just disappeared, or if his body
was found and it was ruled a suicide, the millions
of dollars would stay with the insurance company.
Speaker 2 (07:35):
And his entire plan in his family's financial stability would
fail completely.
Speaker 1 (07:41):
So staging the death as an accidental crushing followed by
an explosive fire was the only possible solution.
Speaker 2 (07:47):
It was the only way to trigger that payout. The
policy would treat it as an unforeseen, sudden, accidental loss
of life, which results in a clean payout. This requirement
dictated every step he took after.
Speaker 1 (08:01):
That, finding a victim, staging the scene, making sure identity
evidence was destroyed.
Speaker 2 (08:06):
Right. It elevates the crime from just fraud to premeditated
murder because the act of death itself had to meet
specific contractual terms, or he was essentially negotiating his freedom
through a corpse.
Speaker 1 (08:17):
That level of cold calculated planning just to satisfy an
insurance contract. It tells you everything you need to know
about a state of mind, but Satisfying that contract meant
he had to do the unthinkable. He needed a replacement.
The financial calculus required a body, and tragically, that brought
Aris Squire into the orbit of a completely innocent young man.
Let's introduce Justin Newman.
Speaker 2 (08:38):
Justin Newman was only twenty years old from Arlington Heights,
and the sources all describe him as just a kind
hearted kid, a young man who was doing what so
many young people do, especially during a tough economic time.
He was looking for a steady job.
Speaker 1 (08:52):
And the tragic vulnerability here is that he found an
ad for a job opening with Ari Squire's construction company that,
seemingly mundane led him directly to the Squire home on
the very day of the fire, February twenty three, two
thousand and eight.
Speaker 2 (09:05):
She arrived expecting an interview, a job discussion. It was
the fatal lure. Ari exploited, the trust and frankly, the
desperation of a young man who was just trying to
find work.
Speaker 1 (09:15):
But why Justin specifically? I mean there are millions of
young men looking for jobs.
Speaker 2 (09:19):
The crucial factor was a key physical detail. Justin Newman
bore a passing physical resemblance to Ari squire.
Speaker 1 (09:25):
A passing resemblance is all Ari needed, especially since he
planned to severely char the body. He just needed someone
who at a quick glance or with a burned ID,
could be mistaked in for him long enough for that
insurance claim to get processed, and.
Speaker 2 (09:39):
That sealed Justin's fate. The initial identification wasn't going to
rely on DNA or dental records. It was meant to
rely on the ID in the pocket and a general
assumption based on the man's build being similar to the homeowners.
Ari was just counting on the fire to do the
rest of the work.
Speaker 1 (09:55):
So with the victim secured, Ari set about creating this
perfect illusion of an accident. He staged the scene to
look like a routine repair gone horribly, horribly wrong. But
this is where the planning just fell apart, because Ari
was staging an accident for two different audiences.
Speaker 2 (10:10):
Yes, he was the police and the forensic scientists, and.
Speaker 1 (10:14):
That second audience is a lot more discerning.
Speaker 2 (10:16):
Oh much more. The staging was meticulous in his concept
man crushed by his own truck, but it was fundamentally
flawed in its execution. Because Ari was trying to replicate
the physics of an uncontrolled accident, and he just couldn't
manage it. These flaws were immediate red flags for any professional.
Speaker 1 (10:32):
Okay, So let's start with the mechanical evidence, the improper
jack placement. Why was that such a giveaway to an
experienced investigator.
Speaker 2 (10:40):
Well, if you are an experienced mechanic, and especially a
contractor who owns heavy equipment like a big diesel pickup,
safety is just ingrained in you. The jack was found
in what reports called an odd spot. Okay, But the
crucial detail is the absence of any safety supports. No
jack stands, no wooden blocks, nothing about up the hydraulic jack.
(11:01):
A collapsing hydraulic jack is always a risk. Someone like
Ari would know this standard safety procedure.
Speaker 1 (11:08):
So it looked staged.
Speaker 2 (11:09):
It looked less like a genuine accident and more like
a hurried, reckless positioning of the body after the fact,
designed purely to create that crushing mechanism.
Speaker 1 (11:17):
It speaks to a real lack of situational awareness in
the staging, or maybe just an arrogance that the details
wouldn't get checked. But the next staging flaw is I
think the most damning piece of scientific evidence.
Speaker 2 (11:29):
The fuel discrepancy the fuel discrepanty. This point cannot be overstated.
The vehicle in question was a heavy duty diesel pickup.
Diesel fuel has a high flash point. It is designed
to be stable, hard to ignite outside of a high
compression engine. You could throw a match on a puddle
of diesel and it'll probably just put the match out.
Speaker 1 (11:46):
But gasoline is incredibly volatile.
Speaker 2 (11:49):
Extremely gasoline vaporizes easily, and it ignites rapidly with a
spark or an open flame. Detectives determined the fire was
deliberately set using gasoline as the accelerant, even though the
truck was diesel powered.
Speaker 1 (12:02):
And that's an immediate, glaring forensic contradiction. It just screams arson.
Speaker 2 (12:07):
It does. If the mechanical accident had caused a spark
that ruptured the diesel fuel line, the fire would have
been slow, smoky, and very unlikely to charre a body
so rapidly or completely. The use of gasoline indicated not
just fire, but an intentional explosion of.
Speaker 1 (12:23):
Fire designed to consume evidence as fast as possible.
Speaker 2 (12:26):
Exactly, and the.
Speaker 1 (12:26):
Investigation didn't stop there. They looked for the ignition source itself,
and they found some pretty damning evidence that ruled out
any kind of accidental spark.
Speaker 2 (12:34):
Yes, investigators explored the theory that maybe a simple electrical
short had ignited the fire, but the garage's electrical circuit
breaker was turned off. Oh wow, that eliminates any possibility
of an electrical fault or an appliance malfunction causing the fire.
So you can bind the turned off circuit breaker with
the foreign accelerant the gasoline, and the only conclusion left
(12:54):
is deliberate human action arson.
Speaker 1 (12:58):
And they had a theory on the source.
Speaker 2 (13:01):
The sources concerned speculation that it may have been an
open propane torch used to ignite the pool of gasline
that was poured beneath the staged victim.
Speaker 1 (13:09):
The meticulous staging of the crushing itself also contained a flaw.
The truck's body didn't even match the story.
Speaker 2 (13:16):
A multi ton vehicle collapsing unexpectedly off a jack is
going to cause significant visible damage, dense scratches, torque marks,
evidence of impact against the floor or the frame.
Speaker 1 (13:27):
And the truck had none of this, none of it.
Speaker 2 (13:30):
The crushing mechanism was controlled and deliberate, designed only to kill.
Justin Newman and position the body are he focused on
the theatrics the fire and the ID, but he completely
overlooked the basic physics of kinetic energy and structural damage
inherent in a real accident.
Speaker 1 (13:46):
All these small failures start to accumulate, but the absolute,
irrefutable crack in the facade started right there at the
Lake County Coroner's.
Speaker 2 (13:55):
Office, doctor Richard Keller and his team. They began the
OUFO assuming they were dealing with Aris Squire, but they
immediately ran into physical discrepancies.
Speaker 1 (14:05):
The first one being the age.
Speaker 2 (14:06):
The age arit was thirty nine. The remains, despite the charring,
were clearly those of a person significantly younger. They estimated
early twenties. A nineteen year age difference is not something
high heat can easily disguise, especially when you're looking at
bone structure in biological.
Speaker 1 (14:21):
Markers, and what about other identifying features like tattoos. Ari
must have had distinguishing.
Speaker 2 (14:25):
Marks he did. The known physical markers, including his tattoos,
did not match Ari's documented description. These details, combined with
how young the body was, shifted the investigator's suspicion from
accident to foul play and misidentification almost instantly.
Speaker 1 (14:42):
And then the forensic team moved to the definitive test.
Despite all the fire damage, dental records proved impervious.
Speaker 2 (14:49):
Yes, dental records officially seal the revelation teeth and jaw
structure are incredibly resistant to high heat, so when they
compare them against Ari Squire's official dental history, the chart
remains were well categorically ruled out as being.
Speaker 1 (15:03):
The homeowner, and by early March two thousand and eight,
just a few days after the incident, the final piece
of the puzzle fell into place.
Speaker 2 (15:09):
The DNA testing confirmed the victim was tragically Justin Newman.
The seemingly perfect crime had failed in less than a
week purely based on scientific fact.
Speaker 1 (15:18):
So once forensics confirmed the identity swap in all those
staging flaws, the investigation shifted focus entirely. It was now
about finding Ari's Squire a fugitive and a murderer, and
to prove intent, they had to understand the exact cause
of death, and.
Speaker 2 (15:31):
The forensic examination was definitive on this point. Justin Newman
had been crushed to death before the.
Speaker 1 (15:37):
Fire started, so the death wasn't accidental, nor was it
caused by the fire. The fire was purely an act
of evidence concealment right that timing crushing then fire. It
just suggests a level of malice and planning that is terrifying.
If Justin Newman was lured there for an interview, he
wouldn't have been resisting. How did Ari subdue them to
position a multi ton truck on top of him.
Speaker 2 (16:01):
This required a significant amount of speculation on the part
of law enforcement, but the consensus was incapacitation. Ari couldn't
have gotten into a physical struggle without risking noise or injury,
which would have compromised his escape, So police speculated that
the victim was rendered unconscious first, possibly using a chemical
agent like chloroform, before being positioned under the truck.
Speaker 1 (16:22):
That suggests a calculated procurement of materials and a dark
rehearsal of the steps. The conclusion is just chilling. The
Arson was solely to destroy evidence and disguise the murder
of the look alike, all to facilitate the identity swap
he needed for the insurance fraud.
Speaker 2 (16:36):
It speaks to the incredible depth of his desperation. He
was willing to take a young, innocent life simply to
become financially invisible. He had to kill Stage and burn
all to vanish while the insurance clan for Ari Squier's
accidental death was being processed.
Speaker 1 (16:53):
And Ari's escape plan was already in motion. The minute
he drove away, he'd done the murder, swapped the clothes
and id and torched the scene.
Speaker 2 (17:00):
He fled the state in Justin Newman's car, and he
made this desperate, almost ludicrous attempt to adopt the persona
of the younger man. Have to remember he was thirty
nine trying to pass for twenty.
Speaker 1 (17:11):
So what did he do.
Speaker 2 (17:12):
He dyed his hair brown, he grew a beard to
further obscure his face, and he started wearing blue contact lenses.
Speaker 1 (17:18):
You really have to pause and consider the sheer psychological
breakdown that suggests Ari Squier, the successful contractor, reduced to
a fugitive wearing a flimsy, almost teenage level disguise, trying
to shave two decades off his appearance.
Speaker 2 (17:31):
It really demonstrates the difference between planning a crime in
theory and actually executing it under immense pressure. He was
trying to become Justin Newman, a man nineteen years his junior,
based on the assumption that law enforcement wouldn't be looking
for Ari squier anymore.
Speaker 1 (17:45):
He completely miscalculated the speed and the tenacity of the
murder investigation that would follow completely. So what really broke
the case wide open besides those initial forensic findings. Was
it a digital trail or just human betry?
Speaker 2 (18:00):
It was a combination, but it started with a crucial
human element, a tip off from one of Ari's own
business partners.
Speaker 1 (18:06):
Oh wow.
Speaker 2 (18:07):
This partner contacted the police and revealed they had heard
rumors of Ari planning a new life, and more specifically,
that Ari had been wiring significant amounts of money to
friends to help fund his relocation.
Speaker 1 (18:18):
That wire transfer detail is crucial. Money trails are incredibly
hard to erase, especially in the US banking system.
Speaker 2 (18:25):
Absolutely, that information immediately cemented the investigator's theory not just
that Ari was alive, but that he had premeditated his
disappearance and had funding channels already in place. So police
quickly began tracking any potential electronic signals, cell phone activity,
financial transactions related to those friends and Ari himself.
Speaker 1 (18:46):
And while the manhunt was on for Ari, investigators had
to deal with the person left behind, his wife, Denise.
She was the one who stood to benefit from the
massive insurance policy.
Speaker 2 (18:57):
Her position was incredibly complex. She claimed she was ignorant
of the precise details of the insurance policy, even though
she had signed the.
Speaker 1 (19:04):
Documents, and she passed a polygraph Crucially.
Speaker 2 (19:06):
Yes, she passed a polygraph test, which suggested she wasn't
directly involved in the physical act of the murder. However, however,
there is Investigators found emails from Ari that were sent
after the fire, in which he was discussing his new life.
These emails strongly implied that she was aware, at a
minimum that his death was staged, even if she didn't
know the specifics of Justin Newman's murder.
Speaker 1 (19:28):
So high suspicion of complicity in the fraud, but just
not enough evidence for criminal charges related to the homicide itself.
Speaker 2 (19:35):
Precisely, the threshold for filing murder charges is extremely high,
beyond a reasonable doubt. It just couldn't prove she helped subdue, crush,
or burn Justin Newman. But the suspicion around her knowledge
of the financial fraud and the attempted collection of that
six million dollars it lingered very heavily.
Speaker 1 (19:53):
Despite all of Ari's elaborate planning, his attempt at being
a fugitive was shockingly brief. The whole hoax collapse in
less than two weeks, eight days. Eight days after the
fire on March sag in two thousand and eight, the
manhunt came to a very sudden end.
Speaker 2 (20:07):
Eight days. That's all the time Ari bought himself with
this horrific act. The capture site was Eureka, Missouri, hundreds
of miles away from Lake Barrington. And this is where
modern law enforcement technology and database searches really shine.
Speaker 1 (20:20):
And the capture didn't come from some dramatic FBI stakeout.
It came from just routine police war.
Speaker 2 (20:26):
Yes, the system worked exactly as it was designed to. Yeah,
local police in Eureka, Missouri ran a routine license plate
check on a parked Sdan outside a day's in.
Speaker 1 (20:34):
And the sedan was justin Newman's It was.
Speaker 2 (20:37):
Justin Newman's car, and since Newman was now listed as
a missing person connected to a homicide investigation, that plate
immediately flagged an alert. The police acted quickly, and they
traced the registration to a specific motel.
Speaker 1 (20:50):
Room, and inside they found him.
Speaker 2 (20:52):
They confronted the person inside the motel room and found
Ari Squire living under that stolen identity, complete with the
dyed hair and the blue.
Speaker 1 (21:00):
Contacts, and the confrontation was just the end of the
line for him. The pressure realization that he'd been caught
so quickly despite the murder, in the complex staging it
must have been overwhelming. It was, and the tragic final
act of the story occurs right there in that motel room.
Speaker 2 (21:16):
Ari Squire committed suicide when he was confronted by the authorities.
This brought the physical manhunt to an immediate and abrupt end,
and critically it ended the criminal case against.
Speaker 1 (21:28):
Him, so he was never processed, never charged, never stood trial.
Speaker 2 (21:31):
He never stood trial for the murder of Justin Newman
or the massive fraud that he orchestrated.
Speaker 1 (21:36):
Sheriff Mark Curran of Lake County, who oversaw the investigation,
he summed it up by saying the case was stranger
than fiction.
Speaker 2 (21:43):
And you can see why this complex confluence of financial ruin, murder, identity, theft,
and arson was just dismantled so rapidly, not by luck,
but by the relentless application of forensic science and standard
police investigation protocols.
Speaker 1 (21:58):
The death of Aris Squire left behind this tangled knot
of legal and financial fallout. When the perpetrator of a
murder for insurance scheme kills himself, the path to justice
for the victim's family becomes incredibly complicated.
Speaker 2 (22:11):
The fallout was immediate and it was multi layered. First,
on the criminal side, the case was technically closed the
suspect was deceased, no criminal charges could be filed against
Ari Squire, and, as we discussed, without direct evidence of
her involvement and physical homicide, no criminal charges were filed
against any Squire either.
Speaker 1 (22:29):
So the murder itself went unprosecuted. But what about the
entire motive for the crime?
Speaker 2 (22:33):
The insurance money that claim? The massive five to six
million dollar policy was definitively denied by the insurance carrier,
and they had two ironclad reasons, either of which would
have been enough on its own.
Speaker 1 (22:46):
What were they?
Speaker 2 (22:47):
Reason one confirmed fraud, You staged a death that didn't
actually occur. Reason two, Ari's actual confirmed cause of death
was suicide, which triggered the suicide clause and void the
policy entirely.
Speaker 1 (23:01):
So the desperate murderous act achieved absolutely zero financial gain
for the family he was meant to save zero. The
Squire's lost everything, but for the Newman family, the parents
of Justin. The tragedy was the murder of their son.
If the criminal courts couldn't deliver a verdict, they had
to seek justice through a different channel.
Speaker 2 (23:18):
That channel was the civil justice system. Justin Newman's parents,
Furiedo and Testa Newman, pursued a wrongful death lawsuit against
any Squire and this decision, it highlights a crucial legal
discussion that is just vital for you, the listener, to understand.
Speaker 1 (23:34):
Okay, let's clarify that distinction because it's the key to
understanding the accountability that came later. Criminal court required the
state to.
Speaker 2 (23:40):
Prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.
Speaker 1 (23:42):
Beyond a reasonable doubt, which is the highest standard in
American law, it requires near certainty, no logical doubt left
that the defendant committed the crime. It's a massive hurdle
and it's designed to protect the accused right.
Speaker 2 (23:57):
But civil court that operates on a lower standard. It's
known as the preponderance of the evidence.
Speaker 1 (24:03):
So what does that mean in practice?
Speaker 2 (24:05):
Think of it like a scale of justice. In a
criminal case. The state has to tilt that scale so
far that it can't be easily questioned. In a civil case,
the Newman family only needed to show that it was
more likely than not that Denise Squire was liable for her.
Speaker 1 (24:20):
Son's death, So they just had to tip the scale
past fifty percent.
Speaker 2 (24:23):
Just past fifty percent, fifty point one percent of the
evidence pointing to her liability is enough. They argued that
because she stood to gain the millions from the fraud,
and based on the communications she had with Ari, she
was civilly responsible for the death that facilitated that.
Speaker 1 (24:37):
Fraud, and the civil jury agreed with that argument. They
delivered a really powerful verdict.
Speaker 2 (24:42):
A jury found Denise Squire civilly liable for Justin's death.
She was ordered to pay six million dollars to the
Newman parents, and this was a profound form of justice
for the family. An official judicial acknowledgment that the person
who stood to benefit from the crime was financially a
countable for the victim's loss.
Speaker 1 (25:02):
And while Denise maintained her innocence regarding the murder, the
weight of the civil evidence was just too great.
Speaker 2 (25:08):
She eventually settled privately with the new In family. While
the exact final amount that was paid isn't fully public,
that massive civil verdict ensured that the Newman family achieved
some measure of financial accountability and resolution. It forced the
beneficiary of the fraudulent plot to pay the price of
the scheme.
Speaker 1 (25:25):
So now let's step back and look at the anatomy
of this flawed crime itself. This case provides some incredible
chilling lessons for law enforcement and for forensic scientists.
Speaker 2 (25:34):
I think the biggest forensic lesson is about the limitation
of fire as a means of evidence destruction. Ari relied
on arsen specifically gas, lean and intense heat to obliterate
the body and mask the identity swamp. He truly believed
charring would prevent identification, but the.
Speaker 1 (25:49):
Body contains identifiers that are incredibly resistant to fire.
Speaker 2 (25:54):
Absolutely the specific details like bone structure, dental records, and
especially DNA analysis proved robustly impervious to the high temperatures.
Fire can destroy soft tissue and fingerprints, but it cannot
erase the fundamental biological blueprint or the structure of your teeth.
His whole plot rested on this assumption that fire was
an ultimate eraser, and modern forensics just proved him fundamentally wrong.
Speaker 1 (26:17):
And in this case, as bizarre as it is, it
actually fits into a specific, if rare pattern of high
stakes homicide.
Speaker 2 (26:24):
It does. It falls into the category of murderers who
kill specifically to assume an identity or fake their own
death for extreme financial gain. Our sources confirm that law
enforcement is familiar with similar, though usually less complex plots,
things like fraudsters burning bodies and cars or staging spectacular
accidents to maximize insurance payouts.
Speaker 1 (26:44):
So Ari Squire's plot was just a classic execution of
this criminal typology.
Speaker 2 (26:48):
It was distinguished mainly by its extreme financial motive that
six million dollars.
Speaker 1 (26:52):
Finally, what vulnerabilities did Ari Squire's actions really expose, not
just in the insurance world, but for the general public.
Speaker 2 (27:00):
Well, the case highlights multiple vulnerabilities for the public. There's
the immediate tragic risk for job seekers like Justin Newman,
who was lured into a private home under the pretense
of employment. It really underscores the critical need for vigilance
when you're pursuing job opportunities, especially from private individuals or
businesses operating under unusual circumstances.
Speaker 1 (27:21):
And what about for the systems designed to detect this
kind of thing?
Speaker 2 (27:25):
For insurance companies and law enforcement. It highlights the weakness
in initial identity verification. When the primary identifier, a driver's license,
is conveniently planted at a gruesome, obscured scene, insurance fraud
detection has to rely on rapid, thorough forensic investigation. The
speed with which investigators had to move to verify the
body's identity was paramount because every hour that passed was
(27:48):
an hour closer to a multimillion dollar payout being triggered.
Speaker 1 (27:51):
So the specific combination of the crushing debt, a high
stakes life insurance policy, and a young, unsuspecting look alike
just created this truly horrific scenario and.
Speaker 2 (28:02):
The failure to account for basic forensic science, the difference
between diesel and gasoline, the absence of safety supports the
disconnected power. It all demonstrated that Ari's enormous desperation was
matched only by his overwhelming lack of operational intelligence. He
designed a crime that required a genius and executed it
with monumental sloppiness.
Speaker 1 (28:23):
So what does this extraordinary story of Ari Squire and
Justin Newman ultimately mean for us?
Speaker 2 (28:28):
It means that desperation is a powerful, blinding motivator. The
looming financial collapse from that Medicare fraud debt, and the
promise of the six million dollar life insurance payout. Those
were the sole psychological engines of this crime. The complace
murder was engineered entirely around bypassing one legal restriction suicide,
the suicide clause.
Speaker 1 (28:46):
But the sheer rigor of modern forensic science and the simple,
meticulous legwork of investigators ultimately defeated him. The undeniable scientific facts,
the age discrepancy, the dental records, the DNA, there were
all irrefutable.
Speaker 2 (29:01):
And you combine that with the crucial behavioral clues, the
business partner's tip, tracking the victo's car, the sloppy staging errors.
All of it pointed away from an accident and directly
toward intentional murder and fraud.
Speaker 1 (29:13):
And we can't forget that swift justice, driven by those
facts collapsed his entire elaborate scheme in just eight days.
That rapid timeline just underscores the near impossibility of maintaining
a complex lie under the constant scrutiny of modern law enforcement.
And finally, we have to reflect on the devastating human cost.
Justin Newman, a kind hearted twenty year old, was extinguished
(29:36):
solely to serve a financial scheme. This deep dive into
the source material provides not just facts about a sensational case,
but a poignant lesson in vigilance and the absolute necessity
of achieving accountability no matter what legal path you have
to take.
Speaker 2 (29:49):
Accountability achieved through those two very different legal systems. Our
Squire escaped state prosecution through his suicide, and Denise avoided
a criminal conviction, yet the court found her financially responsible,
ordering that massive six million dollar payment to the Newman family.
Speaker 1 (30:06):
So we'll leave you with this final provocative thought, tom
all Over, What does the stark distinction between criminal and
civil burdens of proof tell us about the nature of
justice when the primary perpetrator is gone and criminal accountability
is out of reach. What does it say about the
enduring necessity for victims' families to pursue a lower standard
of proof in the civil system, even if it is
(30:27):
financially focused rather than punitively focused, to achieve some form
of resolution and acknowledge the profound wrong that was committed.
Speaker 2 (30:35):
The civil verdict acknowledges that financial gain derived from violence,
even if it's indirect, still carries a heavy price. It
forces us to consider which definition of justice ultimately provides
solace when money, desperation, and murder intersect so tragically.
Speaker 1 (30:50):
Something to ponder as you process the details of this
truly extraordinary and chilling case. Thank you for joining us
for the deep dive. We'll see you next time.
Welcome to the deep dive, where we take the sources
you share with us, dig into the hidden connections, and
deliver the essential nuggets of knowledge. Today we're not starting
with political manifestos or economic forecasts. We are plunging headfirst
into a suburban nightmare, a chilling scene that unfolded on
a quiet Saturday morning.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
That scene was February twenty three, two thousand and eight,
in Lake Barrington, Illinois. And you know, this was a
place where life was meant to be predictable, large homes,
manicured lawns, absolute comfort. That whole illusion was just well
violently shattered by a fire and thick black smoke.
Speaker 1 (00:36):
And that's precisely where our investigation begins. A frantic nine
one one call comes in from Denise Squire reporting a
massive fire in her attached garage. When the Waconda Fire
Department arrived, they had a fourth century and the scene
inside was just horrific. A multi ton diesel pickup truck
had seemingly collapsed off its jack.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
And it had crushed a man beneath it. Following that,
a fire erupted and the body was charged so extensively
it was, you know, almost beyond recognition. Initially, it checked
every single box for a devastating, random, tragic accident. Yeah,
the kind of thing is a terrible reminder of the
risks of even routine home maintenance.
Speaker 1 (01:11):
And the initial identification seemed definitive. I mean, it couldn't
have been more convenient. Right there in the victim's scorched
jean's pocket was a wallet. Inside that wallet was the
idea of the homeowner, thirty nine year old construction business
owner Ari Squire. He was known for being mechanically inclined,
so the story does fit right.
Speaker 2 (01:31):
His garage was supposedly the kind of place he spent
a lot of time tinkering, So the initial police report
reflected exactly that. Yeah, accidental death of the homeowner.
Speaker 1 (01:39):
And what about his wife, Denise? She made the call?
Speaker 2 (01:41):
Denise Squire provided the initial narrative. She said she was asleep,
was jolted awake by what she described as three loud boons,
and then she called nine one one when she saw
the smoke. Okay, investigators, of course, they observed her behavior,
and they noted a certain relative calmness when she was
told he was dead. How this could easily be shocked?
You know, people react to trauma in very different ways. Sure,
(02:04):
but it was a detail that got logged in the file,
just sort of waiting for more context.
Speaker 1 (02:08):
And that initial context is everything, because our mission today
is to move far beyond that first assessment. We are
going to explore how these minor, almost imperceptible forensic inconsistencies
quickly turned this from an accident investigation into a massive
criminal inquiry.
Speaker 2 (02:25):
An inquiry involving murder, a staggering five to six million
dollar insurance fraud plot, and a truly bizarre case of
attempted identity theft.
Speaker 1 (02:35):
We'll be focusing on the exact steps our squire took
to stage his own death, but I think more importantly,
we're going to analyze these specific, almost amateurish details he overlooked.
Speaker 2 (02:44):
Yes, it's those failures that ensured his entire scheme just
spectacularly unraveled in a timeline that is frankly shockingly fast.
Speaker 1 (02:52):
So for you the listener, this deep dive is really
a masterclass and how modern forensic science smashes into financial desperation.
It shows how matiliculous detective work can expose the fundamental
weakness in any elaborately planned crime, especially one that relies
on substituting a body.
Speaker 2 (03:07):
The sheer complexity of what Ari attempted required perfect execution,
and as we're about to see, he was profoundly incapable
of pulling it off.
Speaker 1 (03:16):
Okay, so let's really unpack this opening scene. I mean
the chaos of a garage fire. That alone is often
enough to cover a multitude of sins. But the responders
here were pros. They were trained to see past the smoke.
Speaker 2 (03:28):
Exactly when the Wacana Fire Department had to force their
way in, they walked into a scene that was designed
to tell one very specific story. A man crushed under
a large vehicle. Right the thick black smoke, which was
likely intensified by burning materials plus an accelerant. It hampered
immediate observation. But even that chaos, small details started to
(03:50):
stand out.
Speaker 1 (03:51):
The victim under the pickup, the chart ide. It was
a flawless setup for an insurance fraud claim. Everything was
there to reinforce that initial assumption an accidental.
Speaker 2 (04:00):
Death, and that assumption is precisely what Ari Squire was
counting on. He created this perfect visual narrative. But investigators,
they're trained to look for outliers for things.
Speaker 1 (04:09):
That don't fix like his wife's reaction.
Speaker 2 (04:11):
Well, yeah, Denise Squire's account of being asleep and hearing
three booms seemed plausible enough, but that noted calmness, the
lack of a profound emotional collapse. These are subtle human
behavioral cues, and when you combine them with the forensic
evidence that came later, they start to color the entire story.
In isolation, it's nothing, but combined it's highly suggestive.
Speaker 1 (04:34):
So the initial tragedy is logged. But the immediate question
that pops up for any observer is just why why
would Ari Squire, a guy who seemingly has all the
trappings of success, big house and an affluent area, fourteen
year marriage, a big contracting business, why would he feel
the need to resort to such extreme violent measures.
Speaker 2 (04:52):
Is to move past the outward image which our sources
tell us Ari cultivated very, very carefully. He was described
as charismatic, a larger than the life contractor. He projected success.
Speaker 1 (05:02):
In stability, but by two thousand and eight, the financial
reality under that facade was basically.
Speaker 2 (05:08):
Crumbling, completely crumbling.
Speaker 1 (05:10):
And we really have to emphasize the context of two
thousand and eight here. I mean this was the year
the global financial crisis was just hammering the housing and
construction sectors.
Speaker 2 (05:17):
Oh. Absolutely, A contractor who looked successful one year could
find himself facing catastrophic collapse the next. And that economic
pressure that is the foundation of the motive here.
Speaker 1 (05:27):
So his business was in trouble.
Speaker 2 (05:29):
It was struggling under mounting systemic pressure from the housing downturn.
He was likely leveraged contracts were drying up, as cash
flow as failing. But it wasn't just general business hardship.
He had a very specific, inescatable problem.
Speaker 1 (05:43):
And that problem came from prior illegal activity. Right, Let's
talk about the two thousand and seven guilty plea to
Medicare fraud.
Speaker 2 (05:49):
That is the absolute turning point. That's what pushed his
financial distress into a full blown existential crisis. The guilty
plea wasn't just a slap on the wrist. It resulted
in significant court ordered restitution.
Speaker 1 (06:02):
Payments, which are not negotiable, not at all.
Speaker 2 (06:04):
They have to be made on a strict schedule. So
you combine this massive financial hemorrhage of court debt with
the collapsing revenue stream of the two thousand and eight
construction market. I mean, Ari wasn't facing a temporary setback.
He was facing total ruin.
Speaker 1 (06:18):
Bankruptcy, public humiliation, the total loss of everything he'd built.
That level of desperation it requires a kind of nuclear option,
and for Ari, that came in the form of his
life insurance.
Speaker 2 (06:28):
The policy wasn't a safety net anymore. It became his
desperate escape ladder.
Speaker 1 (06:33):
So this is the driving force.
Speaker 2 (06:35):
Absolutely, the life insurance policy was the central driving force
behind the entire criminal act. Ari had made sure he
was covered for a massive amount it's reported to be
between five and six million dollars, with Denise as the
primary beneficiary.
Speaker 1 (06:50):
So in his mind, this wasn't about planning for the future.
It was about a massive cash injection to wipe out
the debt, provide for his wife, and fund his own
vanishing act exactly. And this is the moment we need
to really zoom in on the specific mechanism of the fraud,
because why the elaborate staging, why the body swap. It
all boils down to one critical.
Speaker 2 (07:09):
Detail, the suicide clause.
Speaker 1 (07:11):
The suicide clause, the necessity of avoiding it.
Speaker 2 (07:14):
This is fundamental to understanding the crime. Nearly every large
life insurance policy has a clause that voids the payout
if the death is found to be self inflicted, especially
if it's within the first one or two years of
the policy being active.
Speaker 1 (07:27):
So if Ari had just disappeared, or if his body
was found and it was ruled a suicide, the millions
of dollars would stay with the insurance company.
Speaker 2 (07:35):
And his entire plan in his family's financial stability would
fail completely.
Speaker 1 (07:41):
So staging the death as an accidental crushing followed by
an explosive fire was the only possible solution.
Speaker 2 (07:47):
It was the only way to trigger that payout. The
policy would treat it as an unforeseen, sudden, accidental loss
of life, which results in a clean payout. This requirement
dictated every step he took after.
Speaker 1 (08:01):
That, finding a victim, staging the scene, making sure identity
evidence was destroyed.
Speaker 2 (08:06):
Right. It elevates the crime from just fraud to premeditated
murder because the act of death itself had to meet
specific contractual terms, or he was essentially negotiating his freedom
through a corpse.
Speaker 1 (08:17):
That level of cold calculated planning just to satisfy an
insurance contract. It tells you everything you need to know
about a state of mind, but Satisfying that contract meant
he had to do the unthinkable. He needed a replacement.
The financial calculus required a body, and tragically, that brought
Aris Squire into the orbit of a completely innocent young man.
Let's introduce Justin Newman.
Speaker 2 (08:38):
Justin Newman was only twenty years old from Arlington Heights,
and the sources all describe him as just a kind
hearted kid, a young man who was doing what so
many young people do, especially during a tough economic time.
He was looking for a steady job.
Speaker 1 (08:52):
And the tragic vulnerability here is that he found an
ad for a job opening with Ari Squire's construction company that,
seemingly mundane led him directly to the Squire home on
the very day of the fire, February twenty three, two
thousand and eight.
Speaker 2 (09:05):
She arrived expecting an interview, a job discussion. It was
the fatal lure. Ari exploited, the trust and frankly, the
desperation of a young man who was just trying to
find work.
Speaker 1 (09:15):
But why Justin specifically? I mean there are millions of
young men looking for jobs.
Speaker 2 (09:19):
The crucial factor was a key physical detail. Justin Newman
bore a passing physical resemblance to Ari squire.
Speaker 1 (09:25):
A passing resemblance is all Ari needed, especially since he
planned to severely char the body. He just needed someone
who at a quick glance or with a burned ID,
could be mistaked in for him long enough for that
insurance claim to get processed, and.
Speaker 2 (09:39):
That sealed Justin's fate. The initial identification wasn't going to
rely on DNA or dental records. It was meant to
rely on the ID in the pocket and a general
assumption based on the man's build being similar to the homeowners.
Ari was just counting on the fire to do the
rest of the work.
Speaker 1 (09:55):
So with the victim secured, Ari set about creating this
perfect illusion of an accident. He staged the scene to
look like a routine repair gone horribly, horribly wrong. But
this is where the planning just fell apart, because Ari
was staging an accident for two different audiences.
Speaker 2 (10:10):
Yes, he was the police and the forensic scientists, and.
Speaker 1 (10:14):
That second audience is a lot more discerning.
Speaker 2 (10:16):
Oh much more. The staging was meticulous in his concept
man crushed by his own truck, but it was fundamentally
flawed in its execution. Because Ari was trying to replicate
the physics of an uncontrolled accident, and he just couldn't
manage it. These flaws were immediate red flags for any professional.
Speaker 1 (10:32):
Okay, So let's start with the mechanical evidence, the improper
jack placement. Why was that such a giveaway to an
experienced investigator.
Speaker 2 (10:40):
Well, if you are an experienced mechanic, and especially a
contractor who owns heavy equipment like a big diesel pickup,
safety is just ingrained in you. The jack was found
in what reports called an odd spot. Okay, But the
crucial detail is the absence of any safety supports. No
jack stands, no wooden blocks, nothing about up the hydraulic jack.
(11:01):
A collapsing hydraulic jack is always a risk. Someone like
Ari would know this standard safety procedure.
Speaker 1 (11:08):
So it looked staged.
Speaker 2 (11:09):
It looked less like a genuine accident and more like
a hurried, reckless positioning of the body after the fact,
designed purely to create that crushing mechanism.
Speaker 1 (11:17):
It speaks to a real lack of situational awareness in
the staging, or maybe just an arrogance that the details
wouldn't get checked. But the next staging flaw is I
think the most damning piece of scientific evidence.
Speaker 2 (11:29):
The fuel discrepancy the fuel discrepanty. This point cannot be overstated.
The vehicle in question was a heavy duty diesel pickup.
Diesel fuel has a high flash point. It is designed
to be stable, hard to ignite outside of a high
compression engine. You could throw a match on a puddle
of diesel and it'll probably just put the match out.
Speaker 1 (11:46):
But gasoline is incredibly volatile.
Speaker 2 (11:49):
Extremely gasoline vaporizes easily, and it ignites rapidly with a
spark or an open flame. Detectives determined the fire was
deliberately set using gasoline as the accelerant, even though the
truck was diesel powered.
Speaker 1 (12:02):
And that's an immediate, glaring forensic contradiction. It just screams arson.
Speaker 2 (12:07):
It does. If the mechanical accident had caused a spark
that ruptured the diesel fuel line, the fire would have
been slow, smoky, and very unlikely to charre a body
so rapidly or completely. The use of gasoline indicated not
just fire, but an intentional explosion of.
Speaker 1 (12:23):
Fire designed to consume evidence as fast as possible.
Speaker 2 (12:26):
Exactly, and the.
Speaker 1 (12:26):
Investigation didn't stop there. They looked for the ignition source itself,
and they found some pretty damning evidence that ruled out
any kind of accidental spark.
Speaker 2 (12:34):
Yes, investigators explored the theory that maybe a simple electrical
short had ignited the fire, but the garage's electrical circuit
breaker was turned off. Oh wow, that eliminates any possibility
of an electrical fault or an appliance malfunction causing the fire.
So you can bind the turned off circuit breaker with
the foreign accelerant the gasoline, and the only conclusion left
(12:54):
is deliberate human action arson.
Speaker 1 (12:58):
And they had a theory on the source.
Speaker 2 (13:01):
The sources concerned speculation that it may have been an
open propane torch used to ignite the pool of gasline
that was poured beneath the staged victim.
Speaker 1 (13:09):
The meticulous staging of the crushing itself also contained a flaw.
The truck's body didn't even match the story.
Speaker 2 (13:16):
A multi ton vehicle collapsing unexpectedly off a jack is
going to cause significant visible damage, dense scratches, torque marks,
evidence of impact against the floor or the frame.
Speaker 1 (13:27):
And the truck had none of this, none of it.
Speaker 2 (13:30):
The crushing mechanism was controlled and deliberate, designed only to kill.
Justin Newman and position the body are he focused on
the theatrics the fire and the ID, but he completely
overlooked the basic physics of kinetic energy and structural damage
inherent in a real accident.
Speaker 1 (13:46):
All these small failures start to accumulate, but the absolute,
irrefutable crack in the facade started right there at the
Lake County Coroner's.
Speaker 2 (13:55):
Office, doctor Richard Keller and his team. They began the
OUFO assuming they were dealing with Aris Squire, but they
immediately ran into physical discrepancies.
Speaker 1 (14:05):
The first one being the age.
Speaker 2 (14:06):
The age arit was thirty nine. The remains, despite the charring,
were clearly those of a person significantly younger. They estimated
early twenties. A nineteen year age difference is not something
high heat can easily disguise, especially when you're looking at
bone structure in biological.
Speaker 1 (14:21):
Markers, and what about other identifying features like tattoos. Ari
must have had distinguishing.
Speaker 2 (14:25):
Marks he did. The known physical markers, including his tattoos,
did not match Ari's documented description. These details, combined with
how young the body was, shifted the investigator's suspicion from
accident to foul play and misidentification almost instantly.
Speaker 1 (14:42):
And then the forensic team moved to the definitive test.
Despite all the fire damage, dental records proved impervious.
Speaker 2 (14:49):
Yes, dental records officially seal the revelation teeth and jaw
structure are incredibly resistant to high heat, so when they
compare them against Ari Squire's official dental history, the chart
remains were well categorically ruled out as being.
Speaker 1 (15:03):
The homeowner, and by early March two thousand and eight,
just a few days after the incident, the final piece
of the puzzle fell into place.
Speaker 2 (15:09):
The DNA testing confirmed the victim was tragically Justin Newman.
The seemingly perfect crime had failed in less than a
week purely based on scientific fact.
Speaker 1 (15:18):
So once forensics confirmed the identity swap in all those
staging flaws, the investigation shifted focus entirely. It was now
about finding Ari's Squire a fugitive and a murderer, and
to prove intent, they had to understand the exact cause
of death, and.
Speaker 2 (15:31):
The forensic examination was definitive on this point. Justin Newman
had been crushed to death before the.
Speaker 1 (15:37):
Fire started, so the death wasn't accidental, nor was it
caused by the fire. The fire was purely an act
of evidence concealment right that timing crushing then fire. It
just suggests a level of malice and planning that is terrifying.
If Justin Newman was lured there for an interview, he
wouldn't have been resisting. How did Ari subdue them to
position a multi ton truck on top of him.
Speaker 2 (16:01):
This required a significant amount of speculation on the part
of law enforcement, but the consensus was incapacitation. Ari couldn't
have gotten into a physical struggle without risking noise or injury,
which would have compromised his escape, So police speculated that
the victim was rendered unconscious first, possibly using a chemical
agent like chloroform, before being positioned under the truck.
Speaker 1 (16:22):
That suggests a calculated procurement of materials and a dark
rehearsal of the steps. The conclusion is just chilling. The
Arson was solely to destroy evidence and disguise the murder
of the look alike, all to facilitate the identity swap
he needed for the insurance fraud.
Speaker 2 (16:36):
It speaks to the incredible depth of his desperation. He
was willing to take a young, innocent life simply to
become financially invisible. He had to kill Stage and burn
all to vanish while the insurance clan for Ari Squier's
accidental death was being processed.
Speaker 1 (16:53):
And Ari's escape plan was already in motion. The minute
he drove away, he'd done the murder, swapped the clothes
and id and torched the scene.
Speaker 2 (17:00):
He fled the state in Justin Newman's car, and he
made this desperate, almost ludicrous attempt to adopt the persona
of the younger man. Have to remember he was thirty
nine trying to pass for twenty.
Speaker 1 (17:11):
So what did he do.
Speaker 2 (17:12):
He dyed his hair brown, he grew a beard to
further obscure his face, and he started wearing blue contact lenses.
Speaker 1 (17:18):
You really have to pause and consider the sheer psychological
breakdown that suggests Ari Squier, the successful contractor, reduced to
a fugitive wearing a flimsy, almost teenage level disguise, trying
to shave two decades off his appearance.
Speaker 2 (17:31):
It really demonstrates the difference between planning a crime in
theory and actually executing it under immense pressure. He was
trying to become Justin Newman, a man nineteen years his junior,
based on the assumption that law enforcement wouldn't be looking
for Ari squier anymore.
Speaker 1 (17:45):
He completely miscalculated the speed and the tenacity of the
murder investigation that would follow completely. So what really broke
the case wide open besides those initial forensic findings. Was
it a digital trail or just human betry?
Speaker 2 (18:00):
It was a combination, but it started with a crucial
human element, a tip off from one of Ari's own
business partners.
Speaker 1 (18:06):
Oh wow.
Speaker 2 (18:07):
This partner contacted the police and revealed they had heard
rumors of Ari planning a new life, and more specifically,
that Ari had been wiring significant amounts of money to
friends to help fund his relocation.
Speaker 1 (18:18):
That wire transfer detail is crucial. Money trails are incredibly
hard to erase, especially in the US banking system.
Speaker 2 (18:25):
Absolutely, that information immediately cemented the investigator's theory not just
that Ari was alive, but that he had premeditated his
disappearance and had funding channels already in place. So police
quickly began tracking any potential electronic signals, cell phone activity,
financial transactions related to those friends and Ari himself.
Speaker 1 (18:46):
And while the manhunt was on for Ari, investigators had
to deal with the person left behind, his wife, Denise.
She was the one who stood to benefit from the
massive insurance policy.
Speaker 2 (18:57):
Her position was incredibly complex. She claimed she was ignorant
of the precise details of the insurance policy, even though
she had signed the.
Speaker 1 (19:04):
Documents, and she passed a polygraph Crucially.
Speaker 2 (19:06):
Yes, she passed a polygraph test, which suggested she wasn't
directly involved in the physical act of the murder. However, however,
there is Investigators found emails from Ari that were sent
after the fire, in which he was discussing his new life.
These emails strongly implied that she was aware, at a
minimum that his death was staged, even if she didn't
know the specifics of Justin Newman's murder.
Speaker 1 (19:28):
So high suspicion of complicity in the fraud, but just
not enough evidence for criminal charges related to the homicide itself.
Speaker 2 (19:35):
Precisely, the threshold for filing murder charges is extremely high,
beyond a reasonable doubt. It just couldn't prove she helped subdue, crush,
or burn Justin Newman. But the suspicion around her knowledge
of the financial fraud and the attempted collection of that
six million dollars it lingered very heavily.
Speaker 1 (19:53):
Despite all of Ari's elaborate planning, his attempt at being
a fugitive was shockingly brief. The whole hoax collapse in
less than two weeks, eight days. Eight days after the
fire on March sag in two thousand and eight, the
manhunt came to a very sudden end.
Speaker 2 (20:07):
Eight days. That's all the time Ari bought himself with
this horrific act. The capture site was Eureka, Missouri, hundreds
of miles away from Lake Barrington. And this is where
modern law enforcement technology and database searches really shine.
Speaker 1 (20:20):
And the capture didn't come from some dramatic FBI stakeout.
It came from just routine police war.
Speaker 2 (20:26):
Yes, the system worked exactly as it was designed to. Yeah,
local police in Eureka, Missouri ran a routine license plate
check on a parked Sdan outside a day's in.
Speaker 1 (20:34):
And the sedan was justin Newman's It was.
Speaker 2 (20:37):
Justin Newman's car, and since Newman was now listed as
a missing person connected to a homicide investigation, that plate
immediately flagged an alert. The police acted quickly, and they
traced the registration to a specific motel.
Speaker 1 (20:50):
Room, and inside they found him.
Speaker 2 (20:52):
They confronted the person inside the motel room and found
Ari Squire living under that stolen identity, complete with the
dyed hair and the blue.
Speaker 1 (21:00):
Contacts, and the confrontation was just the end of the
line for him. The pressure realization that he'd been caught
so quickly despite the murder, in the complex staging it
must have been overwhelming. It was, and the tragic final
act of the story occurs right there in that motel room.
Speaker 2 (21:16):
Ari Squire committed suicide when he was confronted by the authorities.
This brought the physical manhunt to an immediate and abrupt end,
and critically it ended the criminal case against.
Speaker 1 (21:28):
Him, so he was never processed, never charged, never stood trial.
Speaker 2 (21:31):
He never stood trial for the murder of Justin Newman
or the massive fraud that he orchestrated.
Speaker 1 (21:36):
Sheriff Mark Curran of Lake County, who oversaw the investigation,
he summed it up by saying the case was stranger
than fiction.
Speaker 2 (21:43):
And you can see why this complex confluence of financial ruin, murder, identity, theft,
and arson was just dismantled so rapidly, not by luck,
but by the relentless application of forensic science and standard
police investigation protocols.
Speaker 1 (21:58):
The death of Aris Squire left behind this tangled knot
of legal and financial fallout. When the perpetrator of a
murder for insurance scheme kills himself, the path to justice
for the victim's family becomes incredibly complicated.
Speaker 2 (22:11):
The fallout was immediate and it was multi layered. First,
on the criminal side, the case was technically closed the
suspect was deceased, no criminal charges could be filed against
Ari Squire, and, as we discussed, without direct evidence of
her involvement and physical homicide, no criminal charges were filed
against any Squire either.
Speaker 1 (22:29):
So the murder itself went unprosecuted. But what about the
entire motive for the crime?
Speaker 2 (22:33):
The insurance money that claim? The massive five to six
million dollar policy was definitively denied by the insurance carrier,
and they had two ironclad reasons, either of which would
have been enough on its own.
Speaker 1 (22:46):
What were they?
Speaker 2 (22:47):
Reason one confirmed fraud, You staged a death that didn't
actually occur. Reason two, Ari's actual confirmed cause of death
was suicide, which triggered the suicide clause and void the
policy entirely.
Speaker 1 (23:01):
So the desperate murderous act achieved absolutely zero financial gain
for the family he was meant to save zero. The
Squire's lost everything, but for the Newman family, the parents
of Justin. The tragedy was the murder of their son.
If the criminal courts couldn't deliver a verdict, they had
to seek justice through a different channel.
Speaker 2 (23:18):
That channel was the civil justice system. Justin Newman's parents,
Furiedo and Testa Newman, pursued a wrongful death lawsuit against
any Squire and this decision, it highlights a crucial legal
discussion that is just vital for you, the listener, to understand.
Speaker 1 (23:34):
Okay, let's clarify that distinction because it's the key to
understanding the accountability that came later. Criminal court required the
state to.
Speaker 2 (23:40):
Prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.
Speaker 1 (23:42):
Beyond a reasonable doubt, which is the highest standard in
American law, it requires near certainty, no logical doubt left
that the defendant committed the crime. It's a massive hurdle
and it's designed to protect the accused right.
Speaker 2 (23:57):
But civil court that operates on a lower standard. It's
known as the preponderance of the evidence.
Speaker 1 (24:03):
So what does that mean in practice?
Speaker 2 (24:05):
Think of it like a scale of justice. In a
criminal case. The state has to tilt that scale so
far that it can't be easily questioned. In a civil case,
the Newman family only needed to show that it was
more likely than not that Denise Squire was liable for her.
Speaker 1 (24:20):
Son's death, So they just had to tip the scale
past fifty percent.
Speaker 2 (24:23):
Just past fifty percent, fifty point one percent of the
evidence pointing to her liability is enough. They argued that
because she stood to gain the millions from the fraud,
and based on the communications she had with Ari, she
was civilly responsible for the death that facilitated that.
Speaker 1 (24:37):
Fraud, and the civil jury agreed with that argument. They
delivered a really powerful verdict.
Speaker 2 (24:42):
A jury found Denise Squire civilly liable for Justin's death.
She was ordered to pay six million dollars to the
Newman parents, and this was a profound form of justice
for the family. An official judicial acknowledgment that the person
who stood to benefit from the crime was financially a
countable for the victim's loss.
Speaker 1 (25:02):
And while Denise maintained her innocence regarding the murder, the
weight of the civil evidence was just too great.
Speaker 2 (25:08):
She eventually settled privately with the new In family. While
the exact final amount that was paid isn't fully public,
that massive civil verdict ensured that the Newman family achieved
some measure of financial accountability and resolution. It forced the
beneficiary of the fraudulent plot to pay the price of
the scheme.
Speaker 1 (25:25):
So now let's step back and look at the anatomy
of this flawed crime itself. This case provides some incredible
chilling lessons for law enforcement and for forensic scientists.
Speaker 2 (25:34):
I think the biggest forensic lesson is about the limitation
of fire as a means of evidence destruction. Ari relied
on arsen specifically gas, lean and intense heat to obliterate
the body and mask the identity swamp. He truly believed
charring would prevent identification, but the.
Speaker 1 (25:49):
Body contains identifiers that are incredibly resistant to fire.
Speaker 2 (25:54):
Absolutely the specific details like bone structure, dental records, and
especially DNA analysis proved robustly impervious to the high temperatures.
Fire can destroy soft tissue and fingerprints, but it cannot
erase the fundamental biological blueprint or the structure of your teeth.
His whole plot rested on this assumption that fire was
an ultimate eraser, and modern forensics just proved him fundamentally wrong.
Speaker 1 (26:17):
And in this case, as bizarre as it is, it
actually fits into a specific, if rare pattern of high
stakes homicide.
Speaker 2 (26:24):
It does. It falls into the category of murderers who
kill specifically to assume an identity or fake their own
death for extreme financial gain. Our sources confirm that law
enforcement is familiar with similar, though usually less complex plots,
things like fraudsters burning bodies and cars or staging spectacular
accidents to maximize insurance payouts.
Speaker 1 (26:44):
So Ari Squire's plot was just a classic execution of
this criminal typology.
Speaker 2 (26:48):
It was distinguished mainly by its extreme financial motive that
six million dollars.
Speaker 1 (26:52):
Finally, what vulnerabilities did Ari Squire's actions really expose, not
just in the insurance world, but for the general public.
Speaker 2 (27:00):
Well, the case highlights multiple vulnerabilities for the public. There's
the immediate tragic risk for job seekers like Justin Newman,
who was lured into a private home under the pretense
of employment. It really underscores the critical need for vigilance
when you're pursuing job opportunities, especially from private individuals or
businesses operating under unusual circumstances.
Speaker 1 (27:21):
And what about for the systems designed to detect this
kind of thing?
Speaker 2 (27:25):
For insurance companies and law enforcement. It highlights the weakness
in initial identity verification. When the primary identifier, a driver's license,
is conveniently planted at a gruesome, obscured scene, insurance fraud
detection has to rely on rapid, thorough forensic investigation. The
speed with which investigators had to move to verify the
body's identity was paramount because every hour that passed was
(27:48):
an hour closer to a multimillion dollar payout being triggered.
Speaker 1 (27:51):
So the specific combination of the crushing debt, a high
stakes life insurance policy, and a young, unsuspecting look alike
just created this truly horrific scenario and.
Speaker 2 (28:02):
The failure to account for basic forensic science, the difference
between diesel and gasoline, the absence of safety supports the
disconnected power. It all demonstrated that Ari's enormous desperation was
matched only by his overwhelming lack of operational intelligence. He
designed a crime that required a genius and executed it
with monumental sloppiness.
Speaker 1 (28:23):
So what does this extraordinary story of Ari Squire and
Justin Newman ultimately mean for us?
Speaker 2 (28:28):
It means that desperation is a powerful, blinding motivator. The
looming financial collapse from that Medicare fraud debt, and the
promise of the six million dollar life insurance payout. Those
were the sole psychological engines of this crime. The complace
murder was engineered entirely around bypassing one legal restriction suicide,
the suicide clause.
Speaker 1 (28:46):
But the sheer rigor of modern forensic science and the simple,
meticulous legwork of investigators ultimately defeated him. The undeniable scientific facts,
the age discrepancy, the dental records, the DNA, there were
all irrefutable.
Speaker 2 (29:01):
And you combine that with the crucial behavioral clues, the
business partner's tip, tracking the victo's car, the sloppy staging errors.
All of it pointed away from an accident and directly
toward intentional murder and fraud.
Speaker 1 (29:13):
And we can't forget that swift justice, driven by those
facts collapsed his entire elaborate scheme in just eight days.
That rapid timeline just underscores the near impossibility of maintaining
a complex lie under the constant scrutiny of modern law enforcement.
And finally, we have to reflect on the devastating human cost.
Justin Newman, a kind hearted twenty year old, was extinguished
(29:36):
solely to serve a financial scheme. This deep dive into
the source material provides not just facts about a sensational case,
but a poignant lesson in vigilance and the absolute necessity
of achieving accountability no matter what legal path you have
to take.
Speaker 2 (29:49):
Accountability achieved through those two very different legal systems. Our
Squire escaped state prosecution through his suicide, and Denise avoided
a criminal conviction, yet the court found her financially responsible,
ordering that massive six million dollar payment to the Newman family.
Speaker 1 (30:06):
So we'll leave you with this final provocative thought, tom
all Over, What does the stark distinction between criminal and
civil burdens of proof tell us about the nature of
justice when the primary perpetrator is gone and criminal accountability
is out of reach. What does it say about the
enduring necessity for victims' families to pursue a lower standard
of proof in the civil system, even if it is
(30:27):
financially focused rather than punitively focused, to achieve some form
of resolution and acknowledge the profound wrong that was committed.
Speaker 2 (30:35):
The civil verdict acknowledges that financial gain derived from violence,
even if it's indirect, still carries a heavy price. It
forces us to consider which definition of justice ultimately provides
solace when money, desperation, and murder intersect so tragically.
Speaker 1 (30:50):
Something to ponder as you process the details of this
truly extraordinary and chilling case. Thank you for joining us
for the deep dive. We'll see you next time.
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