The wife of a Miami-area businessman was «responsible» for the murder of her husband more than six decades ago amid an impending divorce, police said Tuesday.
In a statement, the Miami-Dade Police Department charged Frances Dimare with a murder that long eluded authorities due to several factors, including motive, inconsistent statements she provided to authorities and an uncorroborated account of the events that, according to her, preceded the fatal shooting of Joseph Dimare. , 53, on March 24, 1961.
«Investigators met with the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office and 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. .
Frances Dimare had been 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 says that Frances Dimare may have worked with accomplices.
In 1961, he told authorities that the couple, who lived in North Miami, were driving to dinner when two gunmen broke into their car at an intersection.
They held a gun to his head and ordered him to drive to a vacant lot, Frances Dimare told authorities at the time, according to the statement. The men hit her with a gun, causing her to lose consciousness, and when she awoke she discovered her husband in the driver’s seat, her statement said.
Joseph Dimare had been shot dead.
Frances Dimare told authorities that she fled the car barefoot and called police, but investigators found no evidence of scratches on her feet, even though the road was gravel, the statement said.
His shoes were carefully placed against the car, according to the statement.
Authorities concluded that Joseph Dimare was shot with his own pistol in the couple’s garage before they left for dinner, the statement said, adding that a review of physical evidence showed the shots 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 in his home at the time of his death to be considered a beneficiary. eligible.
The couple had an impending divorce, the statement said.
At the time, Frances Dimare was living in Ohio but returned to Florida after discovering the change, according to Paul Novack, an attorney who helped investigate the cold case. NBC Miami reported.
After a battle in probate court, Frances Dimare inherited about 1/3 of Joseph Dimare’s estate, Novack told the station.
Novack described the estate as a «substantial amount of money that he would not have had if he had been in prison,» according to NBC Miami.
She added that she later married the attorney who represented her in the probate case, the station reported.