Truth After Time: Joseph DiMare’s 1961 Murder Resolved as Wife’s Guilt Surfaces Four Decades Later

Francis DiMare died before she could face any charges of murder

Joseph DiMare (Source)

It was on March 24, 1961, when Miami PD was called to the scene of what was believed to be a carjacking.

The alleged victim who called, thirty-three-year-old Francis DiMare, claimed that while she and her husband, fifty-three-year-old Joseph DiMare, were on their way to dinner, two men had jumped into their vehicle while they were at a red light and forced them to drive to an empty lot nearby.

She claimed that the men had guns and had pistol-whipped her, and she was knocked unconscious. When she came to, she saw that her husband had been killed in the driver’s seat. She claimed that when she realized her husband was dead, she ran barefoot to the nearest gas station to call the police.

When law enforcement arrived, they found the vehicle with Joseph inside, shot once in the temple. Francis hadn’t been hurt in the attack. In fact, she was completely clean despite being in close quarters with someone who was shot. She had been found barefoot but had no scrapes or cuts on the bottom of her feet, which was unusual for someone claiming to have sprinted barefoot on concrete, gravel, and dirt. Her sneakers were found neatly placed next to the vehicle.

Detectives went to DiMare’s home, where there was evidence that supported another theory. However, it doesn’t appear that an alternative theory was ultimately investigated.

Francis and Joseph had been having marital issues, so much so that Francis had moved out of the home. It was Joseph’s second marriage. His first wife had died of cancer, leaving him to raise his four children alone. Joseph was a millionaire, having founded a successful produce distribution company. Francis didn’t get along with Joseph’s children, and there was over a twenty-year age difference between the two. And after a few years of marriage, it was clear it wasn’t going well.

Joseph had suspicions that his wife wanted him killed and had changed his will to remove her as a benefactor of his estate in the event of his death. Francis had been notified of the change and returned home in the days…