Global Courant 2023-05-11 06:26:33
The wife of a Miami-area businessman was “responsible” for her husband’s murder more than six decades ago amid an impending divorce, police said Tuesday.
In a statement, Miami-Dade Police charged Frances Dimare with a murder that has long eluded authorities due to several factors, including motive, inconsistent statements she provided to authorities, and an unconfirmed account of events it believes preceded. the fatal shooting of Joseph Dimare. , 53, on March 24, 1961.
“Investigators have met with the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office, who all agree that there is no credible evidence to support that anyone other than Frances Dimare is the person responsible for the murder of Joseph Dimare.” , the department said.
Joseph Dimare.The Miami Dade Police Department
Frances Dimare was previously considered a suspect in the case and died in 2006, a police spokesman said. She was never charged.
It is not clear who fired the gun that killed Joseph Dimare, the spokesman said. The statement said Frances Dimare may have worked with accomplices.
In 1961, she told authorities that the couple, who lived in North Miami, were on their way to dinner when two gunmen burst into their car at an intersection.
They pointed a gun to her head and instructed her to drive to a vacant lot, Frances Dimare told authorities at the time, according to the statement. The men pistol-whipped her, causing her to lose consciousness, and when she woke up, she discovered her husband in the driver’s seat, the statement says.
Joseph Dimare had been shot.
Frances Dimare told authorities she fled the car barefoot and called police, but investigators found no signs of scratches on her feet — even though the road was gravel, according to the statement.
Her shoes were neatly against the car, according to the statement.
The car in which Joseph Dimare was shot.The Miami Dade Police Department
Authorities concluded that Joseph Dimare had been shot with his own gun in the couple’s garage before they left for dinner, the statement said, adding that a review of physical evidence showed the gunshots came from the driver’s seat.
A trail of blood was found leading from the couple’s home to the vacant lot, the department said.
Investigators also found that the couple had marital problems, and before his death, Joseph Dimare changed his living will to state that his wife had to be living with him at the time of his death in order to be considered a qualifying beneficiary.
The couple had an impending divorce, the statement said.
Frances Dimare was living in Ohio at the time, but returned to Florida after she discovered the change, according to Paul Novack, an attorney who helped investigate the cold case, That reported NBC Miami.
After a battle in probate court, Frances Dimare inherited about 1/3 of Joseph Dimare’s estate, Novack told the station.
Novack described the inheritance as a “significant amount of money she wouldn’t have had had she been in jail,” according to NBC Miami.
He added that she later married the lawyer who represented her in the probate case, the station reported.
