Matthew Ascaridis left home with a flashlight after late-night noise complaints near Fort Sheridan Beach.
HIGHLAND PARK, Ill. — Matthew and Darci Ascaridis were packing for a trip when loud noises outside their home led to police calls, a walk to the beach and a killing that ended in two murder convictions.
The final hours of Matthew Ascaridis’ life became a key thread in the trial of Nicholas Caban and Jacob Firestone, who were convicted Saturday in Lake County of second-degree murder. Prosecutors said the father of two died after a violent confrontation at Fort Sheridan Beach and after the defendants failed to seek help for hours.
The night started inside the Ascaridis home, close enough to the lakefront that noise from Fort Sheridan Beach carried toward the house. Darci Ascaridis testified that she and her husband were preparing for an upcoming family trip around 11 p.m. Sept. 16, 2022, when they began hearing loud noises nearby. Matthew Ascaridis called police twice. Around 1 a.m., she told jurors, he learned that an officer’s response could take time. He then left the house with a flashlight and headed toward the beach after speaking by phone with an officer. That detail gave jurors a clear picture of his purpose, prosecutors said: He had gone to check on a disturbance near his home, not to begin a violent fight. A witness later told investigators that Caban and Firestone had been on the beach with music and a motorized surfboard before the encounter.
By the time a Lake County Forest Preserve officer reached Fort Sheridan Beach around 2:15 a.m., the officer testified, he did not see or hear anything unusual. The gap between that quiet check and the later discovery of Ascaridis’ body became one of the case’s central questions. Prosecutors said Ascaridis had approached Caban and Firestone about the noise, and the encounter turned violent. The state said the two men then left him alone near the shoreline, unable to move and struggling to breathe. A person walking the beach found him around 5:12 a.m. Sept. 17, lying near the water. The Lake County Major Crimes Task Force responded and found the 45-year-old Highland Park man dead with signs of severe trauma. The defendants’ 911 call came minutes later from Caban’s home, not from the beach where Ascaridis was found.
Police arrived at the home in the 3400 block of Dato Avenue around 5:23 a.m. after Caban reported an altercation. Firestone was lying in the front yard, and Caban was standing nearby. Both were injured and conscious. Firestone was taken to Highland Park Hospital, then to Evanston Hospital for surgery on a brain bleed. Caban was treated for cuts to his face and the back of his head. Their injuries helped frame the defense accounts that followed. Investigators testified that Caban said Ascaridis had fallen on the beach during a confrontation. Firestone claimed from the hospital that Ascaridis beat both men. Prosecutors did not deny that a fight happened, but they argued that the defendants’ accounts collapsed under the weight of the medical evidence, DNA evidence and the time that passed before anyone called 911.
The body told a different story from the one the defendants gave, prosecutors said. Dr. Eimad Zakariya of the Lake County Coroner’s Office testified that Ascaridis suffered catastrophic spinal cord injuries, trauma he said was often seen in car crashes. Other testimony described repeated blows to the head with significant force, a broken neck, signs of drowning and about a dozen lacerations to the back of his head. Assistant State’s Attorney Ben Dillon argued that the injuries showed Ascaridis was struck by at least two people while he was no longer moving. The autopsy findings were used to challenge the claim that a fall caused the fatal trauma. Prosecutors also pointed to blood and DNA evidence from the scene, saying it did not fit the defendants’ version. The coroner’s office ruled the death a homicide caused by multiple injuries from a physical fight.
The trial began April 13, 2026, and lasted six days. Prosecutors called more than a dozen witnesses, including law enforcement officers, emergency and medical personnel, coroner’s staff and expert witnesses. Lake County State’s Attorney Eric Rinehart said the case was charged after the Major Crimes Task Force and the coroner’s pathologist developed evidence that Ascaridis was killed by excessive violence. “We are thankful that the jury closely followed the forensic and circumstantial evidence in order to see the truth and to convict both offenders on all counts,” Rinehart said. The jury convicted Caban, now 23, and Firestone, now 22, of all counts of second-degree murder. They were 20 and 18 at the time of the killing and both lived in Highland Park.
Ascaridis’ death also moved through the courts in stages. Firestone was charged shortly after the killing with obstruction for allegedly hiding a cellphone and a wheelbarrow. The murder charges against both men were filed in March 2023, after investigators continued building the case. The verdict came more than three years after Ascaridis’ body was found along Lake Michigan. Second-degree murder in the case carries a sentencing range of four to 20 years in prison, with the term to be served at 50%. The June 18 sentencing hearing is expected to shift the focus from proof at trial to punishment, impact on the family and the defendants’ legal arguments for the sentence they should receive.
Outside the legal record, Ascaridis was remembered as a husband, business owner and father of two children. A family fundraising page described him as an “incredible husband” and a “devoted father” who greeted friends and relatives with warmth and a smile. Those memories added weight to the testimony from his wife, who gave jurors the last domestic scene before the killing. The trip bags, the late-night noise, the repeated calls and the flashlight became more than background facts. They explained why Ascaridis left home and why prosecutors argued that his death grew from an attempt to address a disturbance near his family, followed by force the jury found criminal.
Currently, Caban and Firestone remain convicted and await sentencing on June 18. The case now stands as a jury finding that the Fort Sheridan Beach confrontation crossed into second-degree murder before dawn on Sept. 17, 2022.
Author note: Last updated May 9, 2026.