Family Betrayal & Murder

By Steven Winer

Duncan Squires died in the emergency room of a local hospital in April, 2020, at the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic. Duncan Squires, who was the retired CEO and Chairman of the Board of a Fortune 500 company was rushed to the local hospital from his home in Fort Myers, Florida, where he was ignored while the understaffed medical personnel took care of those who were infected with the virus. The CEO was 85 years old with a history of heart problems. He died without any examination, but his death certificate, signed by one of the doctors on call, stated the cause of death as a heart attack. Squires had two ex-wives, was currently married, and had 5 children between the three wives, multiple grandchildren and several illegitimate children and grandchildren. He was buried the next day after his death by his current wife with only her present at the funeral. His estate was worth over $600 million. Squires had stopped supporting one of the woman with whom he had a weekend fling 20 years prior to his death. in Miami, while at a conference. That affair produced an illegitimate daughter, Alexia Weston, who at the age of 19 came to Fort Myers to confront her father about him stopping her mother’s monthly support. While in Fort Myers, Alexia Weston was raped and murdered by a man whose DNA was a familial match to a member of the Squires family. She was murdered 4 days before Duncan Squires died, for reasons unknown to the Squires’ family and the police authorities due to the fact that the Squires’ family was unaware of Alexia’s existence. The investigation into Alexia Weston’s murder, discovered that Duncan Squires was also murdered causing a Judge to approve an Order for the exhumation of Squires’ body. This book takes the reader into Duncan Squires’ rise to his position of CEO and Chairman of his company, the narrative of his wives, children and affairs and the accumulation of his wealth. It sets forth the mystery, of not only who committed the two murders, but also the betrayals among family members, legitimate and illegitimate, as to whom was entitled to the CEO’s large estate. It combines the significance of the interaction between all three wives, their children, grandchildren and their attorneys as to why a large portion of
Squires’ estate was allocated to his illegitimate children and grandchildren. The betrayals as between the Squires’ family members intensifies the mystery as to whom may have committed the murders.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Dec 2, 2020
• ISBN: 9781664145139

Steven Winer

Steven Winer was born in St. Paul, Minnesota. He went to the University of Minnesota undergraduate School and received his B.S. degree in both Business Administration and History. He had season tickets for 40 years to his beloved Golden Gopher football games. He still attends as many games as he can each year. After a stint in the Army Security Agency, Steven then attended Law School at the University of Illinois in Chicago where he received his J.D. Law Degree. Steven returned to Minnesota, after finishing law school, and practiced law for 10 years in Minnesota. He then followed several of his Minnesota developer clients to Fort Myers, Florida in 1984, and continued practicing law until he retired in 2013. While practicing law in Fort Myers, Steven represented large banks, developers of large golf course communities and developers of high rise condominium. Steven practiced law during both the depressed years for real estate in the early 1990’s as well as the robust real estate boom during the 2000’s and the recession years thereafter, until he retired. Steven met his wife in Fort Myers who have been married for 30 years. Between them, they have 3 children and 6 grandchildren. Steven enjoys his retirement by aiding entrepreneurs fulfill their dreams of starting their own businesses. He also volunteers for the Lee County Visitors and Convention Bureau in Southwest Florida. Steven enjoys writing about his diverse experiences during the years of practiced law.

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Copyright © 2020 by Steven Winer.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

THIS IS A WORK OF FICTION. NAMES, CHARACTERS, BUSINESSES, PLACES AND INCIDENTS ARE EITHER THE PRODUCT OF THE AUTHOR’S IMAGINATION OR USED IN A FICTIONAL MANNER. ANY RESEMBLANCE TO ACTUAL PERSONS, LIVING OR DEAD, OR ACTUAL EVENTS ARE PURELY COINCIDENTAL.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

Rev. date: 12/02/2020

Xlibris

844-714-8691

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CONTENTS

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Chapter 24

Chapter 25

Chapter 26

Chapter 27

Appendix: Squires Family Tree

This book is

dedicated to my wife, Linda, who without

her encouragement and patience, as well as her creative

thoughts, this book would not have been written

CHAPTER 1

Memorial Gardens Funeral Home had just brought Duncan Squires’ body to the funeral facilities in Fort Myers, Florida the morning of April 16, 2020. Duncan died the night before at Lee Memorial Hospital. It was less than one month since the whole Country had been instructed to lock down due to the Covid-19 virus. Duncan had not been feeling well for several days prior to his death. His wife, Shyann, was concerned and spoke with Duncan’s internist, Dr. Terrell Sutherland, several times before he was taken to the hospital, by ambulance, the night of April 15. Dr. Sutherland was not certain if Duncan may have contracted the virus or it was his heart or maybe something else. Duncan was 85 years old and had triple bypass surgery 10 years earlier. Dr. Sutherland believed that an emergency ambulance with personnel protective gear from the virus would be the best manner in which to transport Duncan to the hospital. The doctor requested Shyann, over her objection, not to go to the hospital and to contact all of Duncan’s family, in town, to also refrain from trying to see Duncan. Shyann had no intention of contacting Duncan’s family. All of them except their son, Logan, lived in different locations around the Country. No one, other than first responders and patients, were allowed to enter the hospital due to the unknown contagiousness of the virus.

Duncan died before Dr. Sutherland could get a doctor, at the hospital, to examine him. By executive order from the Governor of Florida, all questionable deaths after March 16 of that year required medical personnel to test the deceased to determine whether or not the death was caused by the virus. Duncan was tested and it was determined that he did not die from the virus. No other test were taken. The death certificate, signed by the Doctor, on call that night, indicated heart attack as the cause of death. An 85 year old man with a history of heart problems, was an easy call by the doctor. No one would ever ask any questions. His temperature was never taken. No fluids were taken for a toxicology test. Not even a hospital chart was created for Duncan. There were barely enough doctors or nurses, on call, to handle all of the patients coming in with the virus. Other sick people who came in to the emergency ward that evening, without the virus, were also ignored, unless a doctor or nurse had a few minutes to ask that patient questions and determine if immediate help was needed. Duncan Squires was unconscious. No one could ask him any questions. Shyann, and the rest of Duncan’s family, after they heard about the death, and many of Duncan’s friends were distraught as to how Duncan was treated at the hospital. Shyann made immediate arrangements to have the funeral home pick up Duncan’s body first thing the next day. No one was allowed to come to the funeral home to view the body or to be present for the burial. That upset many people, including many friends, and some of Duncan’s family members who became aware of his death. Most of his family didn’t even find out about Duncan’s death until days later. Those who knew about Duncan’s death understood that the Covid-19 virus was a relatively new disease, unfamiliar to the family, as well as the rest of the world. They understood that there were few new rules being instituted by the government for the care of the virus victims. But that didn’t make it any easier. But why did Shyann act so quickly to bury Duncan? The entire Squires’ family were quite astonished, even for those who heard about the death days or weeks later.

Shyann was Duncan’s third wife. She was 40 years younger than Duncan. They had one son, Logan, who was 20 years old at the time of Duncan’s death. Logan was only one of Duncan’s five children he had with his three wives. He had one illegitimate son born in 1959 when he had a short affair with a co-worker. It nearly cost Duncan his first marriage. With much reluctance by his first wife, Duncan kept in touch frequently with his illegitimate son, and paid everything required by him under the Settlement Agreement in a paternity lawsuit filed against Duncan and his employer. Duncan saw something in his illegitimate son that reminded him of himself years before. Duncan also had an illegitimate daughter born in 2000. That was two years into his third marriage. It was just a one weekend affair with a restaurant server. Much different circumstances than with his co-worker. Duncan only kept in touch with his restaurant worker and his illegitimate daughter through an intermediator for purposes of paying support and making decisions as to the girl’s schooling. His third wife didn’t even find out about the girl until after Duncan’s death. Duncan handled his different affairs in different ways for reasons of his own. That was just the way Duncan was.

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Duncan had started working for North Central Airlines in 1957 when he was 22 years old. He had just graduated, first in his class, from the University of Minnesota Business School with a Masters in Business Administration. While he was in graduate school, Duncan married Kaydence, nicknamed ‘Candy’, in 1956. She and Duncan had been very good friends since grade school when they both lived in the St Paul Groveland Park area. A blue collar middle class area. Both went to Mattocks grade school and St. Paul Central high school. Candy was a cheerleader and Duncan played basketball and football. Candy was the homecoming queen her junior year when Duncan was the homecoming King his senior year. They were the perfect couple. They had three children. A son, Mitchell born in 1957, and two daughters, Dianne born in 1959 and Karen in 1961. Duncan was Vice President for marketing at North Central Airlines within two months of being hired by North Central making a fairly good salary compared to his father who was a grocery store manager of one of the Piggly Wiggly chain stores in St. Paul. Duncan’s mother was a housewife and took care of the needs dealing with the home and bringing up their only child, Duncan. Both of Duncan’s parents died young and, unfortunately, never saw Duncan graduate with his Master’s degree. Duncan was young, but all ways remembered his parent’s funerals. Those type of events stayed with Duncan throughout his life. Duncan was smart, ambitious, cunning, and articulate with a personality that could charm his biggest skeptic. He was tall at 6 foot 2inches, slim with back slicked black hair and extremely handsome. The perfect businessman. He worked in the airline business for nearly 50 years and retired in the top echelon of the national airline industry. He helped guide North Central Airlines from a small, regional airline, through mergers and take overs to the largest airline company in the United States at the time of his retirement. He was enormously successful in all aspects of his business undertakings even though there were many people who either worked, or dealt, with Duncan who believed that not everything he did was always in the best interest of the company and maybe even borderline illegal. Some of his actions may have even been looked at, by others in the industry, as borderline unethical. He disliked unions, which were prevalent throughout the airline industry. In Duncan’s mind, unions were too difficult to work with. They put too many constraints on many of the ideas Duncan wanted to implement for the companies he worked for. Despite that impediment, Duncan ended up as the highest paid airline executive in a large publically held fortune 500 company. He had to make many difficult decisions that upset many people. But being a public company, Wall Street looked for results on a quarterly basis. Long term results were secondary to the quarterly sales projections which affected the price of the company’s stock. The stock’s price was one of the major barometers as to an executive’s compensation package. The unions were one of Duncan’s most disconcerting adversaries his entire career. However, during his career he had other unrelated issues. Unfortunately, those issues dealt with his personal life and his blended families. It seemed that every week there was a crises with one or more of his family or ex-family members. Duncan attempted to deal with them, as best he could, and sometimes maybe a little too harshly. Most of the issues were family members asking for money. Those dealings caused the most upsetting changes in his life. The issues family members asked about schools and relationships made Duncan feel much more adored by his family, and meant a lot to him.

North Central’s headquarters was located in St. Paul, Minnesota, when Duncan joined the airline. His first major accomplishment, which got him noticed and fast-tracked him in the airline business, was the use of his management skills organizing a merger between North Central Airlines and Southern Airways in 1979. After that merger, Duncan, with approval of his shareholders, had the name of the new company changed to Republic Airlines. Duncan immediately became executive Vice President of operations for the newly merged airline. He was looked at as one of the more energetic rising stars in the airline business. Then in 1986, Duncan took the lead in another large merger. This time it was Republic Airlines and Northwest Airlines. Most, in the know, never believed the merger would happen. Yet, through the cunningness and business skills of Duncan, that merger triggered a major surprise to the airline industry and caught the eye of Wall Street. Again Duncan was immediately promoted. This time to President of the newly merged company.

The Delta Airline Board of Directors had their eye on Duncan for several years. They watched how he ran his companies and handled the unions. Then in 1995, Duncan was offered a position and compensation package he just couldn’t turn down and went to work for Delta Airlines. After coming to work with Delta, his most significant achievement occurred in 2010 when Northwest Airlines merged with Delta Airlines making the newly formed airline the largest in the Country. Duncan immediately became President and Chairman of the Board of Delta until he retired in 2014. The officers and several board members of Delta were not enthusiastic about Duncan’s quick promotion. His age was his biggest flaw. He was nearly 75 years old, but a very young 75. He had a heart attack soon after the merger, but a successful triple bypass surgery made him work even harder and longer hours. He worked more intensely and exercised daily and was much stronger than before the operation. He became the highest paid airline executive in the industry with a yearly salary of over $18 million plus stock options and many other benefits. He was highly respected and admired by nearly every employee in the company. The officers, some Board members and several high level managers were quite jealous and not so captivated. Wall Street loved what was happening with Delta’s stock. Duncan was able to accomplish all of those mergers without the unions enticing a sufficient number of employees to force several formations of a union. It was a coup for Duncan, and made a lot of union leaders very agitated, especially the Teamsters Union. It was an ongoing, difficult battle with the unions for years after each of the mergers, but one that Duncan seemed to navigate very well. Duncan’s management and influencing skills excelled during those mergers. The mergers showed how much the employees of all the companies Duncan ran, respected Duncan as their leader and as a person. After the Delta merger, the Delta employees were some of the highest paid employees in the industry with outstanding benefits. He engineered Delta’s stock to its highest point ever by the time of his retirement. That made Duncan a very wealthy man.

The main drawback to the Delta merger was the fact that Duncan, and his third wife, Shyann and their young son, Logan, had to relocate from their beloved City of Edina, a suburb of Minneapolis, to Atlanta. But that was where Delta had its headquarters and main hub. Atlanta was not the Squires family’s favorite city. Logan reluctantly, through Duncan’s constant persistence, had to transfer schools from Edina Middle School, which he loved, to a private school where many children of corporate executives had their children. It was a very snobby school with lots of clicks. Being able to join those clicks was hard for Logan. He was a difficult and lonely child, and not very happy. The Minneapolis/St. Paul area was always in the Squires’ blood. They loved everything about the Twin Cities and the entire family had lots of friends and colleagues who lived there. The only other area the Squires ever had their radar on was Southwest Florida. The winters there were a perfect respite from the cold Minnesota winters. Duncan attempted to get to Fort Myers several times each winter. He always took different members of his blended family when he went to Fort Myers. Every trip during those frigid winters was relaxing and enjoyable for whomever joined Duncan. He also kept them on the go with tennis, golfing, boating and enjoying the beautiful weather at the many pristine beaches. It was always difficult to take that first class flight back the reality of the cold weather of Minnesota or even Atlanta, after his family moved there. But Duncan and his family were always treated as royalty on those flights. There was always an allure Duncan felt for his winter retreats in Florida.

Those trips were the motivation for the Squires’ family to eventually move to Fort Myers after Duncan’s retirement. Atlanta was just too large and the people they met there were never as true of friends as they had in Minneapolis. Duncan had always had a large condominium, overlooking water, in the Fort Myers area ever since he accomplished his first merger. He loved the area. It was the one place he and his family could relax. When Duncan started to vacation there, it was still just a small town located adjacent to the Gulf of Mexico, with beautiful weather, and just far enough away from the hectic life style of the East coast of Florida. However, it was still just a two hour car ride or five hour boat journey to the East coast if they wanted a little more culture or a better variety and different cuisines of restaurants. Naples, Florida was just 40 minutes south of Fort Myers by car, but was just a little too ostentatious for Duncan. It just wasn’t his personality. Also there were too many Fortune 500 executives who already lived or wintered there. Too pretentious.

So when Duncan finally retired, he purchased a large 5500 square foot home, with a large swimming pool and spa, overlooking the river, in a private south Fort Myers upscale development called Palmetto Pointe. The home was located on the Caloosahatchee River. Duncan kept his 65 foot Viking yacht at his dock, right behind his home. It took only 15 minutes to get to the Gulf of Mexico, an hour to Naples and four hours to Key West. The Bahamas was just a two day voyage with a night stop over at Bimini Island, one of Duncan’s favorite locations. Duncan was also an investor. He felt real estate was the best investment for the future. All of the properties purchases by Duncan, other than his home was always titled in a limited liability company and then the company was placed in a trust. He didn’t want to have to include those investments in his estate and pay attorneys to put them through probate. He chose a bank as the Trustee and changed the beneficiaries, from time to time, depending on whom he wanted to eventually inherit or control it after his death. Duncan purchased lots of commercial real estate, which he rented out, to include single family homes, apartment buildings and commercial centers. Duncan was rich. Shyann had no property in her name except the car she drove. Duncan’s wealth was accumulated by hard work, long hours and innovative thinking. He was worth in the high hundreds of millions of dollars when he retired. However there were some people who believed that some of the business decisions that were made by Duncan, benefited only Duncan’s bottom line, and were not really for the company’s shareholders. Duncan would have argued strenuously with anyone who had the audacity to make that claim. Maybe it was true, or not. But no one really questioned most of his decisions. They knew Duncan could squash them. Duncan always had his critics. During his working years, many other difficult decisions that Duncan had to make dealt with issues between his blended family members. Duncan had to travel a lot for business and each of his wives hoped that Duncan would keep his mind on work, but Duncan also liked woman. While on work trips he enjoyed some of the ‘off the clock’ pleasures. Duncan was not a perfect man or husband.

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The funeral was held two days after Duncan’s death. Only a clergyman and Shyann were allowed grave side. Logan, their son was taking finals, on line, at the University of Florida since he was locked down in his off campus rented home due to the virus. No celebration of his life could be held due to the virus’ requirement on gatherings of more than 5 persons. If anyone deserved a celebration, it was Duncan. But the year 2020 was a different kind of year. Both Candy and Nora, Duncan’s first and second wives, as well as all his children and adult grandchildren, except Logan, were upset that either an autopsy or some type of medical investigation should have been performed before his funeral. Even though Duncan was 85, he was still very active. He played golf and tennis several times a week. He was as healthy as a 65 year old. He loved boating, even though he would always had a crew handle the boating tasks. The crew’s quarters were at the bow of the boat with their own entrance. It keep the crew and Duncan’s family and guest separated. Duncan enjoyed boating to the Keys and the Bahamas as well as Miami, South Beach and West Palm Beach. Life was good and Duncan seemed to be in perfect health. There were rumors, within the family, that there may have been some foul play, since most of his family were tired of being patient waiting for Duncan to die, each figuring, that they would get a piece of Duncan’s accumulated wealth. It was just a feeling on the part of some of the family members. No obvious reasons. However, once Duncan passed, everyone was getting prepared for Duncan’s estate to be probated. Duncan’s second and third wives were both parties to prenuptial agreements which specifically set forth what they and their children, were entitled to. Candy, Duncan’s first wife, who did not have a prenuptial agreement, was, in Duncan’s mind, well taken care of during his first divorce. However, Candy never believed that she, or her children were treated fairly. After all, she was with Duncan since first grade and through his schooling and the hard times. She worked and finished undergraduate school while Duncan went to graduate school and through his first years of work. After their first child, Mitchell was born. Candy had to give up her professional ambitions and take care of Duncan and their family. And that’s not forgetting his little discretion early in their marriage. A lot of their money went to support the woman he had his affair and their child.

Each of Duncan’s three wives hired an attorney to attempt to either break their prenuptial agreements or, in the case of Candy, get what she believed she and her adult children deserved. But Duncan could afford the best divorce and estate planning lawyers in Minneapolis and then in Fort Myers once the family moved there. Duncan usually got the best of everything he wanted. He made all the decisions. But he also tried to be fair, in his own way. Duncan’s idea of fairness was not always his adversaries or family’s idea of fairness. In that way, Duncan became an even richer man.

But again, the year 2020 was an unusual year. The Courts were all closed and all matters were temporarily put on hold. No one, not even the lawyers or judges, were sure how to handle probates, or the procedure to challenging wills and trusts or breaking prenuptials. Most of Duncan’s family members were Zooming or face calling in order to discuss their concerns with their lawyers. That was the only way to communicate due to the lock down. Most of Duncan’s family were in the Minneapolis area, with several scattered elsewhere around the Country. The probate was under Florida’s jurisdiction since Duncan had made Florida his legal residence after he retired. The Covid virus ruled everyone’s daily routine and all business matters. Most businesses, government activities, including the Court system, were mostly shut down, or sparsely managed. Even Shyann, who was not on the deed for the Fort Myers home or the yacht or any of Duncan’s other toys didn’t know if or when she may get the titles changed into her name. Other members of the family believed they were entitled to part, or at least some of the assets, let alone some of Duncan’s large holdings of Delta stock and other securities. Some even wanted Shyann to vacate the home. It was frustrating for Duncan’s family since none of them even knew what was in Duncan’s will or trusts. It was if the world had stopped. No one seemed to be able to get any answers as to how to proceed with any determinations as to the true reason for Duncan’s death or how the legal transfer of his wealth was to be divided. How long this hiatus was going to last was unknown. There were over a dozen family members and other illegitimate persons related to Duncan, all in limbo. Only Shyann and Logan had any control of some of Duncan’s wealth. Duncan had retained brokers and wealth management people from Bank of America, as his Power of Attorney, concerning most of his assets. He had also retained the Fort Myers law firm of Haley & Franklin as his legal counsel and estate planning attorneys as well as for other legal matters that came up, from time to time. Duncan’s personal attorney, and main contact, was a partner in the firm and had his Power of Attorney for his day to day decisions concerning financial matters. Nearly everyone, including all lawyers, were in lock down at their homes. No one, even Duncan’s current wife really knew the terms of his will and trusts. Who were the trustees? Who were the beneficiaries? Something had to be done to move the estate along. However, Shyann had a prenuptial agreement. But, she hoped that maybe her prenuptial could be voided since she had been married to Duncan for 22 years. Little did she know or understand. She needed legal advice. Each family member had their own idea on how to accomplish what they believed was theirs, but they just couldn’t get anyone to listen to them. The year 2020 was inhibiting the ambitions and birthrights of a naïve and frustrated Squires’ family.

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On April 15, the day Duncan was taken to Lee Memorial Hospital, it was extremely crowded with Covid-19 patients. All of the hospital staff were suited with protective sanitized gear, face masks and face shields. They had little knowledge about the virus and were undertaking whatever they were told by the Commission for Disease Control to attempt to stabilize their virus patients. All other patients, even those who needed emergency assistance, were being mostly ignored. Duncan Squires fell into that category. Even Duncan’s internist was skeptical about sending Duncan to the hospital. No one knew how contagious the virus was or how it spread. Dr. Sutherland spoke with several interns who gave him very little time, for a consult, due to the mayhem that was occurring at the hospital. The interns all agreed that Duncan had just had a massive stroke or heart attack and that Dr. Sutherland should not come to the hospital. There was one surgeon on call and he didn’t believe that Duncan could be saved. He was 85 years old with a history of heart problems. There were dozens of virus patients for whom the surgeons could better utilize their skills. Duncan was on the gurney in the emergency room. The emergency staff, without any medical evaluation or even one test concerning his medical condition, didn’t know his condition. Could he had been saved? Probably not. But most of his family, and even his internist, believed that Duncan was collateral damage from the Covid virus. The truth was that Duncan was already dead when he arrived at the hospital.

Shyann, who truly loved Duncan, and had been married to him for nearly 22 years knew that there would be questions about the manner and underlying reasons for his death that night. She refused to contact any of Duncan’s children or his ex-wives that night since she was also very skeptical about how he died. Did Shyann lie? Was Duncan’s death a part of some foul play by one or more of the Squires’ family members, an old business rival, a disgruntled union executive, or maybe even his current wife? Or did Duncan just die of natural causes? Either way, Shyann didn’t seem to want an investigation, but for sure no autopsy. Many of Duncan’s family members had been waiting years for Duncan to die so they would receive, what each believed, they deserved. But Duncan was in such good health at 85 years old, it seemed as if he would never die.

So with the cooperation of the hospital, which didn’t even have a chart made up for Duncan, Shyann made sure that the funeral home retrieved Duncan’s body first thing the next morning. Arrangements were made for the funeral to occur as quickly as possible. Shyann knew that, due to the virus, no one would be able to see Duncan. The last thing she wanted was some family member attempting to find a Judge to sign an Order, from his office at his home, authorizing an autopsy or medical investigation or even contacting the police. She was unsettled. All of that just frustrated some of Duncan’s immediate family members after they learned of Duncan’s passing, and made them even more curious as to the handling of Duncan’s hospital stay and the speed of his funeral.

Some of the comments Shyann