Man Kills Stranger, Fakes Own Death

A Chicago-area construction boss trying to work a life-insurance scam killed another man, used the body to fake his own death, then killed himself as police converged, the Chicago Tribune reports. Authorities are now looking at whether the killer and his wife, who had email contact after his “death,” conspired to cash in his policy.

After killing Justin Newman, Ari Squire dressed the body in his clothes and staged a garage fire to obscure its identity. Squire then assumed Newman's identity and holed up at a Missouri hotel—which, after Newman was entered into a missing-persons database, tipped authorities. Police, after knocking at Squire's motel door, "heard some movement followed by a single gunshot,” authorities said. (More Chicago stories.)