MIAMI-DADE COUNTY – Detectives said they have found a man’s killer more than six decades after a dinner outing with his wife ended with him being fatally shot in his car in North Miami.
Joseph DiMare’s murder on March 24, 1961, was a mystery for 62 years. He was 53.
That was until Miami-Dade police said in a news release Tuesday that investigators met with the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office and all agreed that there was no credible evidence to support that anyone other than Frances DiMare, Joseph DiMare’s wife, is responsible for his murder.
According to detectives, Joseph DiMare, who founded the produce company DiMare Fresh with his two brothers, had been found shot in the head inside of his car in an empty lot behind a gas station in the area of Northeast 122nd Street and North Bayshore Drive.
Police said Frances DiMare told investigators that she was driving her car and was on the way to dinner with her husband when two armed men entered the vehicle, attacked them and demanded her to drive to the empty lot where the vehicle was located.
Francis DiMare also told police that the men demanded all of her belongings and said that the robbers hit her over the head with a gun making her unconscious.
Francis DiMare said that when she awoke, she discovered that her husband had been shot and killed, according to police.
Detectives said that DiMare provided a statement saying that she fled from the vehicle barefoot and responded to the gas station, where she called for police.
Investigators told Local 10 News that there were inconsistencies with her story and said there were no armed men and that DiMare was killed with his own gun. They also said the murder happened in the garage of the DiMare home and that the pistol was discarded as Frances Dimare was driving.
“She was beat up, she was hit with the firearm (and) she had no injuries. Her shoes were nicely placed right outside the vehicle, and she indicates she runs to the field to a gas station,” said MDPD Det. Jonathan Grossman.
Authorities said DiMare had no signs of any cuts or scrapes on the bottom of her feet from the gravel road, and investigators said they found her shoes neatly placed next to her car.
According to detectives, after further investigation, they discovered that after the couple had been having marital issues, Joseph DiMare later decided to change his living will to state that his wife, Francis DiMare, must be living at his home at the time of his death in order to be an eligible beneficiary.
Police said the pistol that was used to kill Joesph DiMare was discarded along the way, “perhaps into the waterway under the two bridges that Frances DiMare drove over on her short path.”
According to detectives, as blood ran down out of the vehicle, it left a trail as it was driven from the couple’s home on Arch Creek Drive to the location where Joseph DiMare’s body was found, which is only a 3–4-minute drive.
Detectives believe Frances DiMare drove the car to the Northeast 122nd Street location in Sans Souci and exited while leaving her gloves and purse in the car.
Police said she also removed her shoes and placed them next to the vehicle and then walked carefully along the undeveloped field towards the gas station and then ran the last part of her path, coming from behind the gas station to the office.
According to authorities, the original statements provided by Frances DiMare alleging that two men entered the vehicle were never corroborated, though it was learned that she may have had additional accomplices.
Detectives said that further investigations revealed that Joseph Dimare wanted a divorce and decided to change his living will in order to protect his business.
DiMare’s son, Richard DiMare, was 19 years old when his father was murdered and told Local 10 News Wednesday that he knew all along who killed his father.
“There was enough evidence that my stepmother should have been arrested that day,” he said.
Miami-Dade police circled back on the case at the request of Richard DiMare, who said he’s grateful that he finally has this closure after six decades.
“While I’m relieved on one hand, I’m probably more angry now that police had no intention of solving this murder,” said Richard DiMare.
Richard DiMare said he feels like detectives back in 1961 dropped the ball on this case and said after his father’s death, his mother kicked him and his siblings out of their house.
Frances DiMare died in 2006.
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