South Florida

11 Exchange Student Records Found at Home Before Sex Crime Suspect Committed Suicide

A search warrant NBC 6 exclusively obtained Thursday provides an inside look at the man who took his own life before facing the music for the horrible sex crimes he was accused of.  The alarming details NBC 6 discovered also shed some light on the number of foreign students that might have been living in Dale Leary's home.

The bizarre turn of events in this case left a Cutler Bay neighborhood in shock. Leary and his ex-wife, Claudia Leary attempted to commit suicide in a car parked in their yard July 4, police said. Dale died, but Claudia survived and was hospitalized.

Leary's current wife, Marta San Jose, remained behind bars on sex abuse charges. She and Leary were accused of sexually abusing a 14-year-old teen the couple brought to South Florida from Europe, according to officials. Police are worried there are many more victims. 

NBC 6 learned that investigators took more than 10 records involving foreign exchange students from the property. In bond court, the prosecutor told the judge that ”the state finds the facts of this case sickening.”  

About five years ago, the former couple started hosting foreign teenage exchange students. NBC 6 is aware of at least two teens who were exchange students and stayed in their Cutler Bay home. One of them, Marta San Jose, eventually married Leary. The couple is accused of photographing and recording the abuse with the teen victim.

The search warrant NBC 6 exclusively obtained Thursday shows that 11 foreign exchange student school records were found at the property. Other miscellaneous records about one student were also obtained.

One of the students we contacted in Denmark told us she was too upset over what’s happened to speak in detail with us. The police records show a laundry list of items Leary had in the home— items that police are certainly interested in.

The records show four high-end cameras, six laptops, 10 hard drives, two personal computers, and three memory cards were seized from the home.

Miami-Dade police IT experts were going over all the material with a fine-tooth comb in the search to see if other teens fell prey to Leary. The Miami-Dade School Board told NBC 6 that 16 different agencies place foreign students in classes and all must be vetted through the State Department.

Marta San Jose remained behind bars and presumed innocent on the charges. When it comes to those 11 student records taken from the home, we don’t know from the warrant if any of the items refer to the same student more than once.

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