A Diesel Truck Racer’s Plan Backfires
(“A Squire’s Riches,” Forensic Files)
Does Forensic Files deter viewers from trying out insurance fraud or does it make them think they’re smart enough to do a better job of it?
“A Squire’s Riches” tells the story of a building contractor who apparently fell into the second category. Like a number of Forensic Files bad guys before him, he dreamed up a plan to get rich by faking his own death.
Case of the blues. Ari Squire’s plot didn’t involve a Harvard-educated surgeon or a walking ad for vasectomies, but it did have giant diesel trucks and blue contact lenses.
As so with the others, Squire’s plan failed.
He evaded justice by taking his own life, leaving behind a wife, Denise Squire, who almost certainly had some prior knowledge of her husband’s devious plans.
Star Truck. The Forensic Files episode, first broadcast in 2010, ends with a mention that authorities were still investigating Denise Squire’s role in the crime. For this week, I looked around to find out what happened to her, but first, here’s a recap of “A Squire’s Riches“ along with additional information from internet research:
Ari Squire, 39, ran a once-thriving construction business out of suburban Chicago.
It enabled him to indulge in a pastime popular at fairs and racetracks: competing to see whose diesel truck is fastest and can pull the heaviest load. He built a huge garage on his property in Lake Barrington to give himself room to tinker with the big vehicles.
Legal cost nightmare. By 2008, however, Squire’s fortunes had turned into a big flat tire. Forensic Files didn’t mention it, but in 2007, he had pleaded guilty to Medicare fraud in connection with a business called AccuCare Inc., the Daily Herald reported. He had to pay $63,000 to settle that matter.
An earlier case on similar charges had resulted in a $126,000 judgment against Squire.
In addition, Squire’s legal fees amounted to around $200,000, according to a Dateline NBC episode about the murder. The financial strain didn’t exactly help to rekindle Ari’s already-lukewarm marriage to Denise, who at one time worked as an adjunct professor at National-Louis University.
With the start of the subprime housing crisis, business slowed down at Squire’s construction firm. It was at a breaking point.
Squire came up with a plan, and it didn’t involve bankruptcy court.
Double trouble. He decided to stage an accident in his garage, making it look as though a pickup truck fell off a jack and crushed him – and then a lightbulb broke and ignited fuel from the truck’s diesel filter.
The blueprint required a dead body other than Squire’s, someone with a face and build that resembled his, just in case the fire didn’t obscure the body’s identifying characteristics.
His $5 million insurance policy payout would then go to three people: Denise Squire, Joseph Vaccaro, who was Ari’s best friend and business partner, and Shana Majmudar, one of Ari’s sisters.
Tempting wages. Presumably, one or all three of the parties would secretly funnel some of the money to Ari, who would disappear and assume the identity of the dupe killed in his garage.
Squire scoped out look-alikes at his favorite Home Depot in Lake Zurich.
He invited his first pick, a married dad named Sandy Lively, to his house to discuss a a job paying $60,000 a year. Lively and Squire had similar hair and facial features. Fortunately, Lively overslept and the meeting never happened.
Young life taken. Next up, Squire lured Home Depot worker Justin Newman, age 20, to his home, with the promise of a construction job paying $15 an hour — twice the Illinois minimum wage in 2008.
Newman’s height and weight were close to Squire’s.
Police believe that, once Squire got Newman in his garage, he incapacitated him with chloroform, moved his body under the truck and let it fall on him, then started the fire and fled.
On February 23, 2008, Denise Squire called 911 to report smoke coming from the garage. First responders found the dead body under the truck and initially believed it to be that of Ari Squire, an unfortunate accident victim.
Killer’s other side. Shortly after Ari’s “death,” Denise Squire arranged for a memorial banquet at a Skokie venue called Maggiano’s Little Italy, and 120 people came to pay their respects. Ari was popular within the diesel-truck pulling community, according to Chad Embrey, a friend interviewed on Dateline:
“He was an extremely nice guy. I think he stood out because he was willing … to volunteer his parts and tools to help others that he was competing against. And usually once that competitive nature takes over, people get into it for themselves. But Ari wasn’t like that.”
The Dateline episode isn’t on YouTube, but you can read the transcript online.
Plan’s downfall. Denise Squire pushed to have Ari’s body released and cremated (Red flag No. 147 — spouse in a hurry to burn the evidence), but the authorities wanted some answers first.
Investigators found the electricity turned off in Ari’s garage, so how did the lightbulb ignite the fire? And would an experienced mechanic really be sloppy enough to slide under an inadequately secured vehicle?
Police got a break when dental records showed that the dead body’s teeth didn’t match Squire’s.
Heartbreak hotel. Meanwhile, to make it appear that Justin Newman was still alive, Squire was using Newman’s credit cards and sending text messages to Newman’s mother, Donna FioRito. She got suspicious — her son didn’t normally text — and reported him missing.
On March 2, 2008, a detective discovered Ari Squire alive and hiding in a room at a Days Inn in Eureka, Missouri.
Instead of surrendering, Squire shot and killed himself.
Cyber trail revealed. Justin Newman’s cell phone, ID, and car were found at the Days Inn. Squire had colored his hair and obtained blue contact lenses so that his appearance would match the description on Newman’s driver’s license.
With Ari Squire now legitimately deceased, next up came determining Denise Squire’s involvement in the insurance fraud plot.
Lake County Sheriff’s investigators uncovered emails Ari had sent to Denise Squire to nail down the details about disposing of the body and holding the memorial service. He had sent the messages shortly after the staged accident, while he was supposed to be dead.
Cry me a river, Denise. The widow would later claim that she thought the emails were written before her husband died, and sent automatically later.
FioRito and her other son, Frank Testa III, sued Denise Squire for wrongful death. At the four-day civil trial in 2010, Denise’s lawyer, Martin A. Blumenthal, attempted to portray her as a victim, an AP story reported:
“Denise loses sleep over the fact that just a few yards away from her, Ari did this to a young man. Don’t forget, he set the house on fire with her in it.”
A jury awarded FioRito and Testa $6 million, although it’s not clear whether they received any of the money. Denise Squire reportedly hadn’t been able to collect on her husband’s $5 million Fidelity Investment Life Insurance policy because of a suicide clause.
Career still healthy. But legal documents from 2011 reveal that a judge ordered that “beneficiaries” receive $1.3 million in insurance money. It’s not clear who the beneficiaries were, but let’s hope Donna FioRito and her surviving son got the funds.
As far as Denise Squire’s whereabouts today, it looks as though she’s using her maiden name, Denise Mary Frank, and still living in the Chicago area.
LinkedIn lists a Denise Frank with some specs consistent with Denise Squire’s career — including a gig as an administrator at the Scott Nolan Behavioral Health Center. The profile mentions a degree from National-Louis University, the same school where Denise Squire once taught part-time. She gives her occupation as a senior health care executive. Her LinkedIn profile photo, however, looks significantly different from the picture shown on Forensic Files, so there’s no saying for sure.
Sins of the father. Incidentally, the health care profession and shady dealings appear to have run in Ari Squire’s family.
Morris Squire, Ari’s father, once owned a psychiatric facility named Forest Hospital in Des Plaines, Illinois. The elder Squire sold it for $10 million in 1999 so that the hospital could pay $4 million to settle a civil Medicare fraud suit that involved charging Alzheimer’s patients for care they didn’t need.
The Chicago Tribune reported that the services Forest Hospital was billing to Medicare included “unlicensed people reading [patients] horoscopes from the newspaper.”
Morris Squire outlived his son, dying at age 90 in 2014.
That’s all for this week. Until next time, cheers. — RR
Watch the Forensic Files episode on YouTube or Amazon Prime
