On 23rd February 2008, firefighters responded to a garage fire in Lake Barrington, Illinois. Beneath a white pickup truck, they found a badly burnt body. The wallet identified the victim as Ari Samuel Squire, 39.
It looked like a tragic accident. A jack failure. A fire. A life lost.
But dental records didn't match. The body was too young—about twenty, not forty. The tattoos were wrong.
The body wasn't Ari Squire. It was Justin Newman, a young man Ari had lured to his home with the promise of construction work.
Ari was $400,000 in debt from Medicare fraud. He'd hatched a plan: kill someone who resembled him, stage his own death, steal the victim's identity, and disappear.
For eight days, Ari lived as Justin Newman, using his credit cards and ID. Then police tracked him to a Missouri motel.
Before arrest, Ari put a gun to his head.
Tonight on Crime at Bedtime, the story of a fake death that became real murder.
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