Where There's Smoke...

As the Lake County Sheriff's office was investigating the apparent accidental death of Ari Squire in his garage, there were more questions than answers. Did the truck really slip off the jack? How did the fire start? Why did Ari's wife, Denise, who had revealed to detectives her husband was costing her a lot of money, claim not to know about the life insurance?

What's more, detectives say Denise met with a funeral director the day after the fire and was adamant Ari's body be cremated immediately. But there was one big problem: the county coroner, Dr. Richard Keller, was not releasing the body. He was having trouble making a positive identification even though it had Ari's I.D .and clothing, right down to the socks and underwear. The coroner tried to locate Ari's dental records, but Ari hadn't been to a dentist in years.

Richard Keller: The dental records were somewhat difficult to find. Initially we were told that all those records had been purged and that there were no records.

Making the official identification was difficult because not only was the face burned beyond recognition, but the fire destroyed the fingerprints. The bones were intact, though, and the coroner learned Ari had broken his arm years earlier, so he ordered an x-ray. 

Richard Keller: There was no healed break where it should have been.

One way to identify a victim is with tattoos. The coroner didn't find any on the lower body, so he wanted to know if Ari had tattoos on his arms.

Richard Keller: Despite the fact that they were significantly burned, certainly our hopes were that we would be able to see at least a remnant of the tattoos.

Sgt. Lucas asked Denise and Ari's sister if Ari had tattoos. A simple question that ended up raising even more.

Sgt. Lucas: When we asked Denise, she said that Ari had one tattoo. Ari's sister interjects that he has two tattoos.

Rob Stafford: But Denise is the wife.

Sgt. Lucas: There was a lot of confusion then. You would assume that the wife would know how many tattoos her husband had.

Rob Stafford: Was she nervous about these questions?

Sgt. Lucas: She seemed a little thrown back at that particular one and she kind of tossed it off as, "I'm not sure how many he has."

Richard Keller: Although the story changed a little bit as to whether there was one or two, neither of those marks were where they should have been.

And what about Justin Newman? He was supposed to have been at Ari Squire's the morning of the fire and now he was missing.

Rob Stafford: Is Justin Newman a possible suspect in the death of Ari Squire?

Dave Godlewski:  Absolutely. Without knowing Justin's background at that point in time, it could be financially motivated. It could've been just merely an accident that he witnessed and became scared and fled. 

In a week when the investigation was moving in many directions at once, detectives went to home depot to ask about Ari Squire and Justin Newman, but they met another man with a strange story to tell that seemed connected to the case but weren't certain how.

Sandy Lively, a carpenter by trade, works at Home Depot and says Ari Squire was a frequent customer, who, a couple months earlier, offered to double his salary if he'd quit and work for his construction company.

Sandy Lively: He said he had a lot of work.  He had work in Missouri. And he offered me $60,000 guaranteed the first year.

Rob Stafford: No matter how much work you had?

Sandy Lively: If he couldn't keep me working, I'd still get my check.

Rob Stafford: That's an incredible offer.

Sandy Lively: Almost too good to be true.

And when Ari gave sandy an application to fill out, the questions seemed hard to believe.

Sandy Lively: It's questions that you just don't ask on an application.

Rob Stafford: Like what?

Sandy Lively: My color of my eyes, my tattoos, where they're at, that they're of, piercings, ATM pin numbers, uniform size.  I've never wore a uniform on a construction site.

Ari went to Home Depot often to talk to Sandy.

Rob Stafford: How many times did he come to the store looking for you?

Sandy Lively: Four times a week.

Then one day at the store he noticed Ari from a distance.

Rob Stafford: What's he doing?

Sandy Lively: Staring at me.

Rob Stafford: Right at you?

Sandy Lively: Yep.

Rob Stafford: What went through your mind?

Sandy Lively: Nothing at the time. I just thought he wanted me to come over there and talk to him.

Ari also phoned repeatedly, sometimes several times a day, to talk about the job. Sandy agreed to meet with him a few times but never followed through. Once Sandy was just minutes from Ari's home when his mom called with an enticing offer.

Sandy Lively: She just made cornbread and beans and I said, "Okay, I', going - I'm coming over."

When Sandy didn't show, Ari got angry.

Sandy Lively: He called me up and you know, swear at me. And, "Don't you wanna work?" Just blows his top on the phone. He'd usually come in after that and then be all apologetic, say he had a bad day and get back on the same routine trying to get me to work for him.

Finally, Sandy says he fully intended to meet Ari - on the morning of the fire.

Sandy Lively: I was gonna call him at around 6 o'clock when I got up, and he was gonna tell me where to meet him and I overslept.

Sandy never met Ari that Saturday morning. A few hours later his phone rang. A friend from Home Depot was calling to tell him Ari had been killed in a fire. He felt bad for Ari - and his wife - but sandy was relieved he had not quit Home Depot.

Sandy Lively: Right away, I thought, "Wow, I would have been out of work if I would took the job." You know, it's just kinda ironic that, you know, he passed away.

Then sandy went to work Monday and learned Justin Newman was missing and was supposed to have gone to Ari's house that Saturday morning for a new job. 

Rob Stafford: Did you know Justin was talking to Ari Squire?

Sandy Lively: No. Thought I was the only one.

One man was dead, his wife a person of interest. Another was missing --- and investigators were suspicious of him, too. His mother, though, was sure Justin was not involved.

Donna FioRito: I know he would've called me. There's no doubt about it.

Lake County Sheriff Mark Curran could see the desperation in Donna - and took her son's case seriously.

Mark Curran: He's still a baby in her eyes and a mother-son relationship as strong as virtually any on the face of the Earth. 

And as the investigation continued, the coroner raised questions about the age of the victim. He thought the body looked like that of a 20 or 30-year-old. Ari Squire was almost 40.

Dr. Richard Keller: Looking at the body, it looked to be someone much younger. We also had our forensic dentist come in. Their comments were that the teeth appeared to be of someone who wasn't as old as the stated age of this individual.

How could that be? And what could it mean? And where was Justin Newman? So few answers for so many questions, and a phone call to Det. Morrison would raise even more. The call was from Ari's business partner and it changed everything.

Scott Morrison: The partner called me and was upset on the phone. He was shaking and he said I really need to get something off my chest and tell you something very important.

Would what he had to say take the investigation into another direction?

Scott Morrison: He said that a couple years ago, on their way to a job site, he and Ari had had a conversation. This was in the middle of the Medicare problems, so he was under a lot of stress with that case going on. And he explained to the partner that wouldn't it be great to - to find - a dead body someplace and then burn it up. And then start my life over with that identity.

Rob Stafford: Start his life over with a new identity?

Scott Morrison: That's right.

Rob Stafford: What's going through your mind when you hear that?

Scott Morrison: I said, "You have to tell me in your own words, what do you think happened?" And he stated to the effect that, "I think that Ari may have killed an innocent person for the money." 

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