Where There's Smoke...

It was Denise Squire who had first called 911 to report a fire in her garage. She was worried about her husband, Ari. She couldn't find him and was afraid he might be in that garage. When police investigated, they found her fears were justified. Denise's husband had apparently been the victim of an accident -- he'd been crushed under his truck, his body badly burned in the fire. It fell to det. Scott morrison to tell her.

Scott Morrison: I took her aside. We actually sat in my squad car away from the busyness of  the scene.

Rob Stafford: Difficult thing to do?

Scott Morrison: It's always difficult. I tell her that Ari was located, deceased, underneath his vehicle and it appears that he died in the fire.

Rob Stafford: How did she react?

Scott Morrison: Very cold. Not a lot of emotion. Was asking, well, "How - what do I do now? What's my next step?"

Rob Stafford: What did you make of that?

Scott Morrison: She handled it - what appeared to me as being sensory overload. She just - she was in shock.

As he talked to Denise, he learned she married Ari in 1994 and they didn't have any children. The night before she'd been at an olive garden restaurant with friends, got home after 11 and was asleep when the fire broke out the next morning. She also said she and Ari had slept in different bedrooms, but that was often the case. In fact, the couple spent little time together.

Scott Morrison: They just lived separate lives. Her statement was "Ari's not one for conversation." They're not involved in each other's lives. It was more of a business relationship where she had her life as a teacher and he had his life as a general contractor and truck enthusiast.

He took a look around the house.

Rob Stafford: Anything that strikes you?

Scott Morrison: Yes. They'd been married for 14 years and I did not find any photographs of them together. There was a-a-one painting of her and also a small wedding photo of just him in the foyer of the residence.

As Det. Morrison looked around the house, Detective Sergeant John Lucas focused on the garage. It appeared the truck had slipped off a 3-ton hydraulic jack - unusual, Sgt. Lucas thought, because a jack like that was supposed to be very stable. And something else seemed strange about the truck.

John Lucas: If it would have slipped off the axel, it would have made some scratches and some denting.

Rob Stafford: Were there scratches?

John Lucas: We found none. No damage. No scratches.

The sergeant also wondered why Ari had taken off the front tires in what looked like a routine fuel filter change. And why didn't Ari use his jack stands to stabilize the truck in case the jack did slip? Puzzling for a man with a reputation for safety. The sergeant was also looking into the cause of the fire.

Rob Stafford: It looked like an electrical fire?

John Lucas: First appearance, yes.

The immediate likely source was a light hanging from the opened hood of the truck, which had been heavily burned.

Rob Stafford: It looks like the truck fell down, hit the light and that sparked the electrical fire?

John Lucas: That was a possibility, yes.

But there was a problem.

John Lucas: We traced the wire back and we determined that the fuse box, which is in the garage,  all the circuits were turned in the off position. All the power to that whole garage was off, including the light.

Rob Stafford: So how could it be an electrical fire if there wasn't any power to the light?

John Lucas: It couldn't have been. It was obviously a set fire.

What's more, on the body they discovered some kind of heavy fuel: diesel, kerosene or charcoal lighter. They weren't sure exactly which it was, but it was definitely highly flammable.

John Lucas: It's heavily - almost poured - on the clothing.

Rob Stafford: Any way that fuel could have leaked out of the truck and gotten on the clothes?

John Lucas: A possibility with him being underneath the truck. It could've possibly gotten on his shirt when he was doing a change of the fuel filter, if you wanted to believe that. However, it was on the jeans. It was down to his underwear. It was on his socks and it was on his boots. And the boots were actually sticking out from underneath the truck. It would have had to have been placed on him.

There was also a propane torch near the truck in the "on" position and cardboard on the body.

Rob Stafford: Why would cardboard be on top of the body?

John Lucas: It shouldn't have been there. I have a suspicious death. I have an arson going on. We're going in so many different directions with this. It's very complex.

Adding to the complexity:  the finances of Ari Squire, a guy many found so kind and likeable. As detectives talked to Denise, they learned Ari's life was in shambles. He'd previously owned a home health care company and had been accused by the government of more than 2 million in Medicare fraud. Fighting those charges drained the Squires' financial resources and caused a lot of emotional turmoil.

Scott Morrison: She had explained that they had spent about $200,000 in the last five or six years in legal fees defending Ari. That he was very distraught over the entire case, over having to plead guilty. He felt that he was not in the wrong. She basically said, "We ran out of money to defend and so we fired our attorney and we just settled the case out."

What's more, at the time of the garage fire, Ari was in the middle of a 6-month house arrest. He could only leave for work and essential appointments. He also had to pay the government close to another $200,000 as a result of the fraud.

Denise also told detectives Ari's construction company was a failure and they had refinanced their home to keep it afloat. On top of that, Ari was in debt on a condo complex he owned in Florida.

Denise, an adjunct professor at a university at the time, felt all the financial burden of their home and his business had fallen on her.

Dave Godlewski: According to Denise, he wasn't bringing money home to help with the day to day bills.

Investigators also asked Denise if Ari had any life insurance. She said she knew of none, they say, but detectives checked... And this is what they found. A policy in Ari Squire's name. The amount? Five million dollars. The primary beneficiary? Denise Squire.

Rob Stafford: Is she a suspect?

Dave Godlewski: She's a person of interest.

Rob Stafford: And that interest seems to be growing.

Dave Godlewski: Correct.

But detectives were far from solving this case.

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