Lauderdale multi-millionaire He was Murdered see following article in next post We went to school together thru high School played football together and built cars together, Lost a great guy.

.

The Broward County Medical Examiner may disclose the cause of death of Ronald C. Vinci, a car dealership magnate found dead Tuesday inside his waterfront home.

Funeral arrangements for Vinci have not been announced.

By DIANA MOSKOVITZ and LUISA YANEZ

lyanez@MiamiHerald.com

The multimillion-dollar, waterfront home of a Fort Lauderdale businessman found dead under suspicious circumstances remained a crime scene on Thursday as detectives tried to piece together the final hours of Ronald C. Vinci’s life.

The 70-year-old entrepreneur, who owned multiple homes, car dealerships and businesses and often piloted himself from the East and the West, was found on Tuesday dead inside the home — his body allegedly restrained by duct tape.

But detectives had shied away from calling Vinci’s death a murder. On Thursday, they released few new details, but hinted the cause of death may be known on Friday.

“Detectives are actively working the case and using due diligence to determine what happened to Mr. Vinci,” spokeswoman Detective Kathy Collins said.

Vinci, who also owned two other Fort Lauderdale homes: a condo near Las Olas Boulevard in the heart of downtown and a single-family home near the Intracoastal Waterway. He had just bought his third, a two-story mansion in the Tarpon River neighborhood, for $2.96 million.

He bought the home from friend Tom Gonzales. On Thursday, Gonzales said the two met through mutual friends in Arizona about a decade ago. They shared a love of aviation, boating and South Florida.

Gonzales built the home in 2005, he said, but never lived in it.

“It was just a very nice, comfortable place to be," Gonzales said. "Ron really liked the house. We made an arrangement and he bought it.”

Vinci was the first person to live in it.

Divorced, Vinci had a long-time girlfriend, Catherine Marie Pileggi, 54. Neighbors in their Tarpon Bend neighborhood recalled seeing the two at the home.

Pileggi’s family in Georgia said the two had been together for about 20 years. A pilot, Pileggi met Vinci in San Diego.

Acquaintances described Vinci as a savvy businessman, who used money to make more money. He was gregarious and outgoing and loved to ski, boat, fly his planes and helicopters, and tool around on his motorcycles.

“He was self-made millionaire and a great guy,’’ said a San Diego man who was a friend of Vinci’s son, Kerry when the two were growing up. The boys attended Torrey Pines High School together.

“He was selling Hondas when Hondas first arrived in the U.S., so you can imagine how much money he made.’’

Back in the 1980s, the Vinci family lived in a home in the exclusive neighbor of Rancho Santa Fe, said the man who did not want to give his name. “The family was very wealthy but very down to earth,’’ he said. “Mr. Vinci did not wear three-piece suits or anything like that. He spent most of his time traveling, visiting his three dealerships, usually flying himself there.”

Records show Vinci at one time owned Honda dealerships in San Diego, Las Vegas and Lake Tahoe. He had a heliport built at the San Diego dealership so he could fly his helicopter to and from work.

He also faced his share of battles. Neighbors protested his plans for a heliport at his home. And he ran into trouble with California civil courts for receiving 70 DeLorean cars in 1982, in exchange for payment for a $1 million loan to the famed car make, John DeLorean, whose car empire eventually collapsed.

Over time, he got out of the car dealing business and eventually settled down in Fort Lauderdale, near friends like Tom Gonzales.

The two last talked about five or six days ago, Gonzales recalled. They talked about going out to breakfast.

It was Vinci’s turn to buy.

Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/06/30/2294028/police-continue-probe-into-the.html#ixzz1UCjNYrTQ