All language subtitles for Accident.Suicide.or.Murder.S06E05.1080p.WEB.h264-EDITH_track3_[eng]

♪♪

-An inferno tears
through a garage

and a grisly scene emerges.

-It appears to be the truck

essentially dropped
right on top of a body.

It's a heck of a way
to have to die.

-The more police uncover,
the less things make sense...

-Inconsistencies
were being found

with the dental not matching,
the tattoos not matching.

-Something's off.
Why isn't he answering?

-Did he see Ari hurt somebody
or kill somebody?

-...until investigators
reveal a secret

with fatal consequences.

-All of a sudden,
there's a gunshot.

And we believed we
were being fired upon.

[ Gunshot ]

-Yes, she's been
involved all along.

-It's sick that this was all
just done to settle some debt.

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

-On a frigid morning in
a suburb northwest of Chicago,

911 dispatchers answer a call

from local resident
Denise Squire.

[ Line rings ]

-Denise had related
that her house was on fire

and that her husband was
missing.

[ Siren wailing ]

We responded with one
of our deputy sheriffs

and the Wauconda Fire
Department.

-When Lake County sheriff
officers arrived on the scene,

the first thing that they saw

was a woman out front
of the house,

presumed to be Denise Squire,
who had made the phone call.

-There was heavy black smoke
coming out of the garage.

-While firefighters arrive
and work to control the flames,

officers pull Denise aside.

-The first thing that
Denise Squire told our deputies

was that she was not able
to find her husband, Ari Squire,

and that he and his white truck
were missing.

-The fire department was
able to extinguish the fire,

went inside the garage.

They observed
the white pickup truck,

and there was a lot
of smoke damage

throughout the whole garage,

but the fire was
pretty much contained

to the engine compartment
and the floor

underneath the truck.

As they made their way around,

they observed
that there was a set

of feet
that were sticking out from

underneath the front
fender area of the truck.

-It was apparent that there
was a dead person's body

underneath the truck.

-After they had removed
the truck from the victim

that was underneath,
they were able to ascertain

that the truck looked

like it had accidentally
fallen off the jack stand.

-The truck essentially
dropped right on top of a body.

So you're talking
about thousands of pounds

and the force of that
dropping on a body.

That's a heck of a way
to have to die.

-Detectives carefully examine
the remains under the vehicle.

-Because the legs
had been sticking out,

they weren't too far
decomposed due to the fire,

but upper torso area
was pretty heavily charred.

Facial recognition was
not possible.

We were able to find a wallet
in the back pocket of the jeans.

The wallet belonged to that
of Ari Squire,

the husband of the homeowner,
Denise Squire.

-It appears to be that
Ari Squire died

from a tragic accident.

-Officers share
this horrific news with Denise.

-Denise Squire was
relatively calm,

considering
that we had just discovered

that her husband's
body was possibly

underneath the white truck
in the garage.

We didn't have time to determine
was she in shock at the time?

Was she just very cool
under hectic circumstances?

-Investigators press Denise
for details

about what happened
before the call.

-At 8:00 in the morning,

Denise Squire
was just getting up

and heard three very loud booms
from the garage area

that made her decide to go

and investigate what
those could have been.

She opened up the garage door
and black smoke billowed out.

She called in for
her husband, Ari.

Couldn't see anything
in there.

Tried calling him one or two
times before she realized

that she really needed to call
911 to get some help on the way.

-Denise gives the officers
background about Ari

and their marriage.

Born in 1969,

Ari Squire grew up
in the Chicago suburbs.

While his father built
a business

in the healthcare industry,

young Ari dreamt
of building engines.

-Ari Squire was a nice kid.
He lived at the end of the road.

We had an auto mechanic class
together

as a freshman,
and he was the first one

to put together his
two-cycle engine quicker

than anybody else.

He had the auto mechanic gene.
He truly loved it.

-He was described to us
as a gentle soul.

He didn't smoke or drink
or mistreat people.

-Ari left behind a passion
for auto work after graduation

and took a job at the hospital
his father owned.

It was there in the early 1990s,

that he met Denise Frank,

seven years his senior,
and the hospital president.

As their relationship grew,
so did Ari's drive.

In 1998, he took over another
one of his father's businesses.

-Denise told us that Ari was
once president of in-home

healthcare provider.

He was in that business
with his father.

-He never seemed to be
a CEO to me.

Ari was a gearhead.

-Ari found a way
to work with his hands,

starting a side business
in the late 1990s

doing home construction.

But while that new venture grew,

his healthcare career began
to unravel.

In 2005,

federal prosecutors accused him
of fraud

and misusing company funds.

Despite spending $200,000
on attorneys,

he was ordered to pay a $160,000
fine and $60,000 in restitution.

-From what I understand,

Ari was having
financial difficulties due

to that previous lawsuit.

-He was under house arrest
until he paid those debts,

but was allowed to leave
the home for work purposes.

-And now he was working
at his own business.

He had a construction business,
Main Beam Construction.

It was kind of floundering.

The housing crisis was
a huge problem for them.

-In 2008, there was
a recession that set in.

The housing crisis kicked in.

If you're in construction,
there would be a big challenge

to be building houses
during that time.

-Definitely appeared
to be in financial quandary

at the time of his death.

-Before they leave,
detectives ask

about the couple's
financial situation,

and Denise tells them that
she had her own career change

and had left the healthcare
industry to work

as a professor
at a local college.

-Ari and Denise
were married for 14 years.

They didn't have any children.

She was the breadwinner

and bringing home most of
the cash flow for the residents

and for their relationship.

When asked about
how his business was doing,

she said it wasn't doing
very well.

-Denise was painting a picture

where they kind of had
a compartmentalized marriage.

They lived in separate bedrooms.

They didn't actually
interact all that much.

Not what one would
expect from a married couple.

-We were asking Denise
if there was any insurance

that would cover Ari
for the incident.

Denise related that she didn't
have a life insurance policy

for him.

-Police wonder, was
this tragedy the result

of an accident
or a deliberate act by someone

who'd lost all hope?

Inside the charred garage,

detectives begin
a thorough examination,

starting with what
could have caused the fire.

-To me, it looked like
it had been an accidental fire.

There was a fluorescent light
that was underneath the truck

and the light bulb had broken.

The fluorescent light
could cause a spark which

would allow some incendiary
fluid to cause a fire.

-Before they get any answers,
at 12:30 PM,

Ari's business partner,
shows up on the scene,

having just learned of his death
from a coworker.

-Jim McCullough enters
into the investigation

as Ari's partner for Main Beam
Construction.

They're buddies.

Jim was very shocked
about the news.

We asked him
if there was any reason

why Ari would be
underneath his truck.

He said, yeah, Ari was going
to fiddle around

with his fuel filter
and had mentioned that.

Ari was
allegedly a very good mechanic.

The truck had the front
wheels removed, the front tires.

We asked him about taking
the tires off for a fuel filter.

The fuel filter
on a diesel truck is usually

either right
in the engine compartment

or just slightly underneath.

You can almost reach
underneath there

without even a jack and fix it.

And he had no explanation
with the wheels

except for maybe they were
out of alignment or something.

We originally asked Jim
if Ari was very cautious

on there, and he said, "Yeah."

-Any trained mechanic
of any kind would tell you

that you put something under
the truck just in case it falls.

You don't want it to fall on you
and crush you.

So it seems to me

that him taking
off the front tires

and not putting something in
to protect himself

would seem very strange.

-So the question is,

how does Ari Squire
get crushed under a truck?

It's not something
that happens very often,

and it's certainly
not the people

that have as much knowledge
as he does.

Denise mentioned to
the investigators

from our office that he had been
depressed,

that financial strain
and everything else,

that it was taking its toll
on him.

When you have all these hurdles
financially, you're down.

You're confined to
where you're able to go.

This is not a life that he's
enjoying at this moment in time.

And we've seen people take
their lives when that happens.

So, you know,
maybe it wasn't an accident.

Maybe it was a suicide.
We have to consider.

-By that afternoon, with the
cause of death still unclear,

detectives begin
closely examining the scene.

-When we started
processing the scene,

inconsistencies were
being found.

-It was a lot going on.

What it looks like is
that he's working on his truck.

Somehow the truck slipped
off a three-ton hydraulic jack.

But the odd thing is
that the truck had

no scratches or denting.

-I noticed that the jack,

where it was positioned
originally, was in

between the radiator
and the front fender.

Not a spot

where you would normally
put a jack with

a 10,000-plus-pound
diesel truck on it.

Ari, being the master mechanic,

if you will,
failed to use jack stands,

which is pretty surprising
considering

that your neighborhood
driveway mechanic

would always put
some kind of jack stand

to keep that vehicle
from falling on them.

When the body was removed,
we noted that there

had been a gasoline odor
on some of the clothing.

This is a diesel truck.

I don't know
why he'd be having gasoline out.

-It was a mystery.

What exactly
were the circumstances

that resulted in the truck
going on fire?

It looked like
a tragic accident.

But as we know
in law enforcement,

sometimes things aren't
as they first appear.

-He went missing the same day
that Ari was found dead.

-The phone just kept ringing
and ringing and ringing.

I didn't know what was going on.
Something was wrong.

-This is exactly what Ari
had told them two years before.

Her answers to the test
came back

that she was being deceitful.

♪♪

-Detectives have discovered
a body

they believe to be Ari Squire,

burned and pinned beneath
a pickup truck in his garage.

As the first day
of the investigation ends,

the cause of the fire
remains unclear

and the charred remains
are sent for autopsy.

-The coroner determined

that Ari had died
of massive chest injuries

and a ruptured heart.

Death would have been
instantaneous.

He wouldn't have even felt
what was going on.

Absolutely falls in line
with the truck's sliding off

and landing on your chest.

-While the manner of death

makes sense
with what they saw at the scene,

the medical examiner
is still perplexed

by the victim's identity.

-When somebody dies, obviously
you can tell who that person is.

But when something's burnt
and skin's burnt,

it's harder to figure it out.

-The upper torso had
been badly burned

as a result of the fire.

-The skin was damaged
from the fire,

but you could still
make out tattoos.

We determined that
there was just one on the body.

It was a letter J.

-It can help us confirm
Ari's identity.

-Detectives turn
to Ari's wife, Denise, for help.

-We asked Denise if there were
any tattoos on the body.

She indicated there were some
on the arm.

We asked Denise what
those tattoos were.

She said she wasn't sure,
which was very confusing

since they had been married
for 14 years,

that she wouldn't know
what the tattoos were.

-While Denise's answers
leave investigators uneasy,

other family members offer
key information.

-One of Ari's siblings indicated

that he had an American flag
on one arm,

and on the other arm,
he had a lion tattoo.

-There was definitely
not one of a flag

or a lion on this body.

-The body that was
underneath the vehicle

had Ari Squire's identification
in his back pocket.

Who is this body that
was found underneath the truck?

It wasn't Ari Squire.

-The coroner calls in
a forensic dentist

to match the remains
to Ari Squire's dental records.

As the scene is processed
further on the second day,

answers are elusive.

-Cause of the fire
was perplexing.

-We ended up looking at
the light

that was crushed by the truck,

and as we followed
that cord over to an outlet,

it was plugged in and then
up to the circuit breaker,

expecting to see
a tripped circuit breaker.

When I looked at
the circuit board,

all the breakers were off,

meaning that there was
no power to the light

at the time of the fire.

You know, I verified

that the fire department
didn't turn them off.

There was soot all the way
across the breaker board,

so they had been
off prior to the fire.

That eliminated my
electrical fire theory.

There was a propane torch
that was not too far from there,

and it was in the on position.

So now things are looking

that maybe it was set up
with a torch.

It was a big, big red flag
and we're looking at an arson.

-It could have been
all kinds of different things

that started the fire.
It wasn't the truck.

-It was a big pivot
for our investigation

because now we're turned in
a different direction again.

-Two days after the fire
in her garage,

Denise is becoming
increasingly impatient

as she waits for
the forensic dentist's findings.

-We received a phone call
from the funeral director

that was working with Denise
on Ari's body.

Denise was demanding

that the body be cremated
as soon as possible.

-But we couldn't have
the body cremated

until the autopsy was done,

and the funeral director
told her as much.

-She was very upset with that.

She was saying
that she needed to have it done

for a celebration
of life ceremony,

and she needed it done
as soon as possible.

We are in the middle
of a death investigation.

-Why is she so insistent
on getting the ashes?

-With questions surrounding
Ari's wife's behavior,

police complete a canvass
of the neighborhood

to find out more
about the couple's dynamics.

-So, the neighbors found
them to be odd people.

There were a couple times where
they saw the couple fighting.

Denise would be running out
in front of the house,

and Ari would be chasing
after her, apologizing.

Kind of like a puppy dog
trying to make things better.

And just seemed strange.

-One of the next door
neighbors said

that they had at least two
incidents of domestic disputes

in the three years
that he knew Ari.

We can only surmise,

if you're going to
be chasing your spouse outside,

there's probably a few incidents
that happened inside.

-Learning that her
marriage had been in turmoil,

combined with her unexplained
urgency to cremate the body.

Investigators begin to focus
in on Denise as a suspect.

-Now we start
looking at her background,

financials, anything
that could give us a motive to

why she would be involved.

-Initially, Denise told us

that there was
no insurance policy.

We started looking closer
at the financials,

and we were able to determine
that Ari did, in fact,

have a life insurance policy

that had been purchased
nine years earlier.

Denise was
the primary beneficiary

on that life insurance policy,

and the policy was going to pay
out somewhere

between $2 and $5 million.

Now we know Denise
was not being truthful with us,

and we're trying to connect
the pieces to the puzzle,

if you will.

And we have a guy
who's short on money.

An insurance policy
would help satisfy

those medical debts
that he owed.

-You can cash it in
and call it a day right now.

And it's looking
like she might want to cash in.

-As police prepare to confront
Denise about her involvement,

forensic results force them
to rethink everything.

-Dental records came back
as not Ari Squire's.

It was not his teeth
inside the dead person's body.

-The dental not matching,
the tattoos not matching.

This was definitely not
Ari Squire.

The forensic dentist

believed that the teeth
of our victim

belonged to
a 20-something-year-old,

as opposed to
a 40-year-old male.

Next big question was,
who was it?

♪♪

-Forensic results have
left investigators grappling

with many questions.

Who was the victim under
Ari Squire's truck,

and where is Ari?

-Was Ari Squire involved
in this murder

of the individual
underneath Ari's truck,

and did he abscond somewhere.

-As police reached day four
in their investigation,

Ari's old business
partner reaches out again

with a bewildering lead.

He's been contacted
about an employee Ari hired

who went missing the day
of the fire.

-Jim McCullough,
Ari's business partner,

receives a phone call
from a woman

asking where her son was at.

She's missing her son,
Justin Newman.

She's telling him

that he's supposed to be working
for Main Beam Construction.

Jim says he did
not know a Justin Newman

who the lady was looking for.

-Justin's mom knew
that Justin was my best friend.

The day after he disappeared,

she came to me asking
if I had heard from him,

if I'd seen him,

and my response was,
"No, I haven't heard from him.

I haven't seen him."

So I gave him a phone call
and I got no response.

The phone just kept ringing
and ringing and ringing.

So something within me was like,
hey, something's off.

Why isn't he answering?

I didn't know what was going on.

Something was wrong.

-Police reach out directly
to Justin Newman's mother

for more details.

-We sent some investigators
out to talk to Justin's mom.

She was definitely a wreck.

She was a wreck
when she had talked with Jim.

She was a wreck
to our investigators.

As we talked with Justin's mom,

we found out that Justin was a
20-year-old male,

blond hair, blue eyes,
5'8", 150 pounds.

-His description matches that
of the body in the morgue.

-But we weren't sure
if Justin was a victim,

if he was a suspect,
or if he was just on the run.

-As they continue
to interview Justin's mother,

she paints a heartbreaking
picture of her missing son.

-As we talked
with Justin's mom,

we found out
that Justin was the glue

that kept that family together.

He was employed over at
Home Depot for most of the time,

and he was making the $10
an hour,

and that was paying
all the family's bills.

-Justin's mother reveals
he had been excited lately.

A new opportunity was
on the horizon

that promised more money.

-Ari Squire was a regular
at Home Depot.

He had a construction company,

so Justin had to have his orders
ready for him to be picked up.

Ari raised interest in him.
It was put out as, "Hey,

one, do you want to make
some more money with me?

And do you want to learn
some construction?"

Justin said, "Yeah, more money,
and I get to learn stuff?

Why not?"

He took care of his mom.

So getting a higher raise,
or even making $15, $20 an hour,

that was going to be
so much more money for him.

For Justin, it was turning out
to be a dream job.

He was going to have, you know,

someone that owned his own
construction company teach him.

Ari was going to be
a mentor for him.

-Justin told his mom that
he had been meeting up with Ari

at local McDonald's

and talking
about employment opportunities

that Ari could provide for him.

-Justin's mother saw
no cause for alarm

on the last day she saw him.

♪♪

-On the morning of
February 23rd,

Justin had left at about 6 AM

to go meet with Ari Squire
at his house

to talk about
this employment opportunity.

Justin's mother, Donna,

started to get concerned
about Justin's whereabouts

because he failed to come home

and give her the ride to work
that he normally was 100% on.

He was using his
half-brother, Frank's, car,

which was
the only transportation

that the three of them had.

Later in the evening,
she received a text from Justin

that stated that he was
going to be in Missouri working.

When she got the text, she was
a little concerned with it.

-Justin's mom, Donna, gets this
text message saying that,

"Hey, I'm going out of town,
I'm gonna go work."

And he abbreviates
the state of Missouri as "MO."

The text was a little bit
too formal for him.

One, he wasn't a texter.

Two, he wasn't going to sit
there and abbreviate it.

If he was to spell it out,

he would have spelled it
probably wrong, knowing him.

And he would rather
have sat there and called.

So, yeah, she wasn't
buying that.

-Donna also related

that Justin didn't have
any extra clothing.

He didn't bring his cords for
his cell phone, he didn't pack.

Anybody that was going
to be going out of state

would have packed.

-With these ominous details
in mind.

Investigators ask
Justin's mother to provide some

of his personal belongings
to secure a DNA sample.

-We didn't disclose that
we were comparing it to the body

that we had in the morgue.

We just needed it
for a missing person's

identification for the DNA.

We weren't sure
if the body was Justin,

so we didn't know
if Justin was missing.

Did he see Ari hurt somebody,
kill somebody?

Was he involved in the incident
and on a run with Ari?

We weren't sure.

-Cook County puts out
an ISPERN,

which is an alert
for all law enforcement agents

that Justin Newman is missing,

that the vehicle was
reported missing, as well.

-While they await DNA results,

investigators head to Justin's
workplace for clues about Ari.

-We send investigators
out to Home Depot

to talk with Justin's coworkers.

-Detectives met
with an individual

by the name of Sandy Lively.

-Sandy Lively was a 41-year-old
employee of Home Depot.

When they met Sandy,

they realized that,
yeah, he has exactly the same

physical characteristics,
same age as Ari.

-From a visual standpoint,
I see a lot of similarities.

Ari looks like Sandy and Sandy
looks like Ari,

especially
after Ari grew his beard.

-And then, Sandy Lively
drops a bombshell.

♪♪

-Detectives speak
with Sandy Lively,

who may hold details
that link two missing men,

Justin Newman and Ari Squire,

to the charred body found
in Ari's garage.

-Sandy Lively worked
with Justin Newman,

but he also knew who Ari was
and what he looked like.

-He related that Ari had,
for the last several months,

wanted to offer employment
to Sandy.

-A few months earlier,
Ari had asked Sandy

to quit his job
and to come work for him,

and he even offered
him $60,000 for the first year.

-Sandy has a family,
he just wants to take care

of his family, he wants to
do the best he can in life.

-He was a little concerned

with the construction
business going up and down,

and the fact that Ari didn't
offer any kind of benefits

kind of concerned him greatly.

-The strange demands
of Ari's job application

are also concerning to Sandy.

-During the review
of the application,

Sandy was able to see

that Ari requested
his mother's maiden name.

Facts about tattoos.
Uniform size.

His PIN numbers for banks.

-He even asked about piercings
and eye color.

-Characteristics
that would definitely not be

on a normal standard
employment form.

-Sandy was put off
by Ari Squire.

Ari wouldn't take no
for an answer.

He kept going back in,

trying to talk Sandy
into changing his mind.

-And in the last week
and a half,

Sandy had mentioned that Ari
had called him several times,

pretty much begging him
to come work for him.

He said he had a lot of work,
and he really needed some help,

and that he didn't have
enough workers.

-Sandy, after
all this pestering from Ari,

agrees to meet with him
in the morning of the fire.

Sandy was going to meet
with Ari to help him on a job.

-Sandy overslept.

After his interview,

Police continue to unravel
what happened to Ari and Justin

while keeping Ari's
wife under close scrutiny.

-We also are looking
at Denise,

the only one that was
at the house at the time.

There's a lot of inconsistencies
that fall in her direction,

but there was
not any other evidence

that she was involved
in this fire.

-Denise continues
to carry on as a widow,

holding a celebration of life
ceremony

just six days after the fire.

-Denise Squire had
their celebration of life

for Ari at a restaurant.

We had sent a couple
of investigators to attend.

A lot of times,
you'll have somebody

that's involved in
a murder show up at the funeral.

We didn't know who
was going to show up there.

And, you know,
is Justin going to show up?

Is Ari going to be in some
kind of disguise and show up?

We had no idea
who was going to be there,

but we wanted to have eyes
on the situation

just to see who was there.

-The ceremony offers
little to the investigation,

so detectives weigh
their next move

until an unexpected lead
comes in.

-About a week after
the accident,

we received a teletype
from Eureka Police Department

in reference
to the missing vehicle

that Justin was supposed
to be in.

-I was working patrol
as a police officer

in Eureka, Missouri.

It was common for me
to go to hotels in the community

and look for things
that were out of place.

On March 2nd, 2008,

I was midway through my shift
working midnights in Eureka,

and I was conducting
a patrol at Days Inn

when I noticed
that there was a vehicle there

that was backed in.

When I see cars backed in,

it draws my attention
because it seems

as though they're doing it
for a reason.

Possibly a quick escape.

The vehicle in question
on this particular night

was a 1999
Pontiac Sunfire red in color,

and it had the plate
that was dangling off of it,

which is always a sign
of something.

Someone's either
possibly moved the plate

or used the plate of another.

So it definitely drew
my attention to it

and made me investigate
it a little further.

I pulled in front of it.

I ran the plate,
and by doing that,

it alerted me that the vehicle

had an endangered missing person

attached to it, and the missing
person was Justin Newman.

I had an uneasy feeling
about this,

and I've had these type of
situations throughout my career

where I get these feelings

and it turns out
that there's much more

than what meets the eye.

♪♪

-Nine days
after Justin Newman vanished,

a Missouri patrolman spots his
vehicle in a hotel parking lot.

-I actually went to
the register in a hotel.

I was informed by the attendant
that, in room 133,

a subject by the name
of Justin Newman

had checked in
for a couple of days.

-When we get the teletype
from Eureka

that the red Pontiac Sunfire
had been found,

we requested that they make
contact with Justin,

whoever was in possession
of that vehicle

and over at that hotel.

-We had a few of us go
to the hotel

and knocked on the door.

We called for Justin
numerous times

and no one responded,

which brought our concern
to a whole new level.

And the attendant unlocked
the door.

Then, all of a sudden,
there was a gunshot.

[ Gunshot ]

And we believe we were
being fired upon at that point,

so we took tactical positions.

We don't know
if Justin Newman was by himself.

Maybe there was somebody
in the room

and holding Justin
against his own will.

We made the decision to go in,

and as we entered the room,

we noticed that there was
a subject slightly on the bed

and partially off on the floor.

It appeared that
the subject had

a self-inflicted gunshot wound

from where the weapon
was under his chin,

and the exit point of the bullet

went through the top
of his head.

-This had all
the appearances of a suicide.

-Despite the condition
of the body,

officers can still clearly
make out the victim's face.

-I pulled the wallet
from his pocket

and was able to pull out
a driver's license

for Justin Newman.

After comparing
the driver's license

with the deceased subject
in the room,

I knew this was
not Justin Newman.

-This was not a young man,
20 years old.

-I'm not sure who it was,

but at this point,
I made another phone call

to Lake County Sheriff's
Department.

-The Eureka officer requested
photographs

of both Ari and Justin,
so we sent those over to him.

-When they brought the photos
back to me, it was at that point

that I realized it was, in fact,
Ari Squire.

I contacted Lake County again,

and I informed them that
I 100% believe that the subject

that I had in my room
was Ari Squire.

-This shocking suicide
clarifies what happened.

Ari had murdered Justin Newman,

stolen his identity,
and was on the run.

-They found brown hair dye

and blue tinted
sapphire contact lenses.

Justin had the bright blue eyes.

He had the light hair.

Ari's was originally brown
and brown eyes.

I believe that Ari was going to
assume Justin Newman's identity.

-Detectives now believe that
the body in the garage is Justin

and Ari had been alive
the entire time.

♪♪

The next day, police
call Denise to the station

to inform her about Ari
and press her for answers.

-So, now you have
to tell Denise

that you're a widow once again.

And it's a strange conversation
with her

because we believe it's possible

that she's been involved
all along.

-We proceeded to tell her
that Ari was dead

and she became very angry
about it.

"Well, I know Ari's dead.
He's been dead from the fire."

And then we explained to her
that, no,

he shot himself and committed
suicide in Eureka, Missouri.

She had almost
a callous attitude towards it.

She then became very,
very much enraged

and started
on being not so cooperative.

We requested that she do a VSA,

which is
a voice stress analyzer.

It's very similar
to a polygraph test,

and all of a sudden,
she remembered

that she had to grade papers.

We know she's feeling
the heat at this point in time,

and she needs
to get out of there,

but she doesn't want to say,
"I'm out of here."

With that being said,
we asked her to do it right now,

and she ended up saying
she would do it.

We had one of our investigators
administer the test,

and they were asking
if she had anything

to do with the death of Justin.

Did she know who killed Justin?

Her answers to the test
came back

that she was being deceitful.

-Even after cracking
under the voice stress test,

officers lack the proof
to charge Denise.

-She's still talking
about wanting to go home

and grade the papers,

and we tell her that she's
in our interview room.

We have a team at her residence
doing a search warrant,

and they're collecting
any kind of electronics,

cell phones, computers.

We determined that Ari had
allegedly died on February 23rd,

and they found an e-mail

that Ari had sent to Denise
after the fire.

-It appears that
Denise Squire knew absolutely

that Ari was alive,

that he was coaching her
on what he wanted to have happen

and what needed to be done next.

♪♪

-Detectives have uncovered
a troubling e-mail exchange

between Ari Squire and his wife

in the days
following Ari's apparent death.

-So there were questions that
Ari Squire was sending to Denise

in the form of e-mails.

"Did a accident happen?"

And her response is "yes."

The second question --
"Per my will,

when is the party set for?"

And her response is,
"Working on that now."

Next, "When are you planning
on dispersing my ashes?"

"Don't know."

And, "Is there anything
you need?"

And from Denise, "A new life."

That tells me that she is
100% invested and in the know

as to how everything transpired.

-Investigators interviewing
Denise waste no time

confronting her
about the suspicious exchanges.

-Denise tries to explain it
as an auto e-mail,

and obviously, our investigators

weren't going with that,
auto e-mail.

First, an auto e-mail,

how would he know
when to send it?

How was he to know he
was going to die?

She held fast to her story

and she just wouldn't break
from that.

She was being very uncooperative
at that point in time,

and eventually, she
just shut down and said,

"I'm not talking to you
anymore."

We did not have
enough evidence at that point

in time to hold her
or arrest her.

She wanted to stop
talking to us,

And that's one of her rights.

So she left the sheriff's
department at that time.

-10 days
after the body was discovered,

forensic results are finally in

and reveal the true identity of
the man burned in Ari's garage.

-The results of the DNA test
showed

that it indeed was Justin Newman
that was underneath the truck.

The coroner was
able to list the manner of death

of Justin as homicide.

-Investigators pieced
together a chilling theory of

how Justin Newman and Ari Squire

wound up in this deadly case
of identity theft.

-We think that, early morning,

Justin arrives to meet Ari
for work.

Ari overpowers
and incapacitates Justin.

He places Justin down
on the ground,

changes his clothes out,
puts him underneath the vehicle,

smashes the vehicle on his chest

while he's technically
still alive, kills him.

Stages the arson part
of the fire and ignites it.

Then Ari took Justin's vehicle
and fled the state.

And start a new life,
if you will.

♪♪

-With the identity now certain,

police inform Justin's family
of his tragic fate.

-Justin's mother
was just devastated.

20-year-old son that loved her
so much and was such a good son.

And it just killed her.

-I found out, you know,

it was Justin the whole
entire time underneath the car.

That's sick.
It's sick that that this was all

just done for some money,
all to settle some debt.

Whatever thing
that you had going on in life,

you chose to kill not only just
my friend, a brother, a son.

You chose to kill
a 20-year-old kid

that had his life ahead of him.

I miss him a lot.

-In the end, prosecutors
never charged Denise.

-I requested some assistance
from the FBI,

but we were never able
to come up with anything

that put her involved
in the crime.

-Though her
insurance claim was denied,

Denise fought
and won more than $6 million.

But her story was far from over.

-The Newman family
did file a civil lawsuit

against Denise Squire.

-The judge actually found
in favor

of Justin Newman's estate
against the Ari Squire estate

and allowed them
to have the insurance money.

-They did receive
an award of $6 million.

Well, even though she
wasn't criminally charged,

she was found civilly liable
for the death of Justin Newman.

It's a small element
of satisfaction.

-There's always a chance

that Denise could be called up
to explain her actions.

The statute of limitations
in the state of Illinois

is unlimited for this type
of case.

Personally, I just wish
that I could have interviewed.

I wanted to talk to Ari.

I wanted to find out his motive

and why he would do
such a heinous crime.

But that'll never happen.

-This is Justin's name.

I got it tattooed on me
about a year later.

He would make you laugh.
He loved to make you laugh.

Smile. He would always try
to cheer me up.

Justin was just a great person.

He was a great person
to be around.

You know, that's my friend.
That was my best friend.

♪♪