00:00:04
[music playing] MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG
(VOICEOVER): 59-year-old Pamela Hutchinson
lies dead in a hotel room.
00:00:18
Baffled detectives can't figure
out who would want her dead. This was unlike any other
investigation that I had.
00:00:25
Her body was found
in the bathroom, she had been covered up with
some sort of blanket or cloth,
00:00:30
MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG
(VOICEOVER): On the run,
56-year-old Lois Riess, wife, mother, grandmother.
00:00:37
Unfortunately, there are
some very dangerous people out there, people who you would
not expect by looking at them
00:00:42
that they were dangerous. We have to get her before
she commits another murder. MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG
(VOICEOVER):
00:00:52
Could this smiling grandmother
really be a double murderer? We're about to find out.
00:00:57
I've had some wild cases that
I have covered over the years, but I've never seen
one like this before.
00:01:06
Are you sure the person
lying next to you in bed would never hurt you? If not, you might have
to pay more attention.
00:01:15
I'm Michelle Trachtenberg,
and it's time for another tale of "Meet, Marry, Murder."
00:01:21
[music playing] MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG
(VOICEOVER): Blooming Prairie,
Minnesota, just
00:01:39
your average
Midwestern backwater. Blooming Prairie is
a small, small town. It's less than 2,000 people
live there in Blooming Prairie.
00:01:50
But it's a very tight-knit
community where the people-- they're-- they're really,
really great people.
00:01:56
MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG
(VOICEOVER): To the outside world, Lois
and David Riess appear
00:02:01
to be the perfect couple. They met as teenagers,
fell in love, got married, started a family,
and I don't think
00:02:08
anybody would
suspect Lois of doing anything untoward with anyone. She looks like a
matronly, lovely person
00:02:17
who might bake you cookies
or take care of your children when you're gone. Lois and David Riess were
both from Rochester, Minnesota.
00:02:25
They both were
born in the 1960s, and then, about 20 years
later, they married. So it was like, local boy
meets and marries local girl.
00:02:34
It's that kind of
wholesome story. MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG
(VOICEOVER): In the 1980s
00:02:38
Lois and David moved out to
the country to start a family. CAROLYN CANVILLE: David
serves in the Navy,
00:02:43
and when he gets out,
he opens up a bait shop. He eventually sells it,
and then he opens up his--
00:02:50
his own worm farm business. They have this-- what
looks like this really nice storybook life together.
00:02:57
Just a happy couple, really
well-liked in the community. And what people don't
know is that it's
00:03:04
not such a pretty picture
behind closed doors. [music playing] MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG
(VOICEOVER): As a newspaper
00:03:13
editor for the "Owatonna Peoples
Press," Jeffrey Jackson got to know all about Lois Riess.
00:03:19
There was a history of-- of depression in her family. MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG
(VOICEOVER):
00:03:24
But it wasn't just depression. Lois was taking a cocktail
of antipsychotic medication,
00:03:30
or was supposed to, much to her
husband David's frustration. So she has a
troubled history here
00:03:37
that most people in the
community had-- had no idea. Nobody ever suspected that
there was any huge conflict,
00:03:44
and they just kind of blended
right into the neighborhood. MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG
(VOICEOVER):
00:03:47
As they started
raising their family, Lois and David were fixtures
in the local community,
00:03:52
and often seen regulars at
the local servicemen's club. While Lois cared for
her disabled sister,
00:03:59
David could usually be found
out on the lake fishing with his grandkids. Minnesota is the
land of 10,000 lakes.
00:04:07
And there's a lot of fishing
that goes on in this state. MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG
(VOICEOVER):
00:04:12
Journalist Carolyn Canville
spent time researching the life of David and Lois Riess.
00:04:16
He's a real outdoorsy guy
he loves fishing, hunting, and boating, and
especially loves sharing
00:04:23
that with his grandchildren. He was a good man. He loved his family,
loved his grandchildren.
00:04:30
It's a big, expanded family. You can imagine
the types of nice get togethers they might have.
00:04:35
And it seemed like the
family was very close-knit. Everybody knew grandma Lois,
and they enjoyed visiting her.
00:04:41
MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG
(VOICEOVER): While they appear
to be just a couple of regular Midwestern
grandparents,
00:04:46
behind closed doors,
Lois's mental health issues were getting worse. On top of that, she
was starting to develop
00:04:54
an unhealthy addiction. The hidden part of Lois
his personality was that she actually was a thrill-seeker and
she did this through gambling.
00:05:02
MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG
(VOICEOVER): Soon, Lois's
gambling habit began leading her down a dark path.
00:05:07
Once the gambling
addiction took hold, there was nothing
that could stop her. And if she didn't have the
funds to bankroll her gambling,
00:05:15
she would stop at
nothing to steal. MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG
(VOICEOVER): Conveniently, as her disabled
sister's primary caretaker,
00:05:22
Lois had easy access
to sister's accounts, eventually siphoning
off more than $100,000.
00:05:32
Lois was appointed
as her guardian, and she stole $100,000
before they said, something's wrong here.
00:05:39
I think Lois knew that she
had an opportunity, that are cognitively disabled sister
relied on her for everything,
00:05:44
and possibly wouldn't
even understand that she had stolen from her. And so she did so very
easily right under her nose.
00:05:51
MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG
(VOICEOVER): Lois almost got away with it, too. She was not charged
criminally in that,
00:05:58
but she was removed as guardian. And in the papers and
the legal documents that were filed
removing her from that,
00:06:05
it did indicate that she had
spent thousands and thousands and thousands of
dollars gambling,
00:06:11
particularly at this
one Casino, the Diamond Jo Casino, which isn't far from
their home in Blooming Prairie.
00:06:17
MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG
(VOICEOVER): After spending years
covering up for Lois, her issues were starting to
put a strain on her marriage
00:06:23
with David. Everything was saying that
the source of their trouble was money, and
particularly, the money she
00:06:32
was using for gambling. She had an addiction problem. She had a mental
illness that she
00:06:38
wasn't properly
treating because she had discontinued her medication. MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG
(VOICEOVER):
00:06:42
Whatever Lois was after,
one thing's for sure, her demons were about to put
her husband's life in danger.
00:06:48
I believe that she had planned
that she was going to have to continue along
this path of crime
00:06:52
so that she could amass
enough wealth for herself to do everything
that she wanted.
00:06:56
It seemed as if it just
kind of came to a one day. Seemed like she just snapped.
00:07:05
MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG:
After 35 years of marriage, you would think
David Riess would
00:07:09
have realized that his wife
was a ticking time bomb. Or maybe he just thought
that when she exploded,
00:07:16
it wouldn't be on him. Either way, she wasn't showing
any signs of slowing down.
00:07:23
In fact, she was just
starting to speed up. [music playing] In March of 2018, Lois Riess's
declining mental health
00:07:48
and addiction to gambling was
about to reach a boiling point. So here's this woman,
you know, she's in her 60s.
00:07:56
She and her husband have been
married for over three decades. They have three children,
five grandchildren,
00:08:03
and then, suddenly, one night,
she decides to kill him. He and Lois had
apparently gone to see
00:08:11
grandkids in sporting events. On the way back to their
home, they started arguing.
00:08:20
My guess is that they had
been arguing about money, and, particularly, about
money being used by Lois
00:08:29
to feed her gambling habit. When you look at how she
decided to cross that line into killing, it was really
motivated, first and foremost,
00:08:39
by finances and money. MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG
(VOICEOVER): Lois's gambling may have
caused her and her husband's
00:08:44
financial situation,
but David was the one about to pay the price. He handed her a loaded
pistol and told her, basically,
00:08:56
to shoot and kill herself. She had attempted
suicide before, and now, he was basically
telling her, do it right
00:09:07
this time. Get it right. Shoot yourself. And instead, she took the
gun, pointed it at him,
00:09:15
and shot him three times. MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG
(VOICEOVER): After murdering the man she'd
spent the last 35 years with,
00:09:25
Lois Riess begins
plotting her escape. But to pull it off,
she'd need a head start.
00:09:31
After she had killed him,
she covered him with a blanket and then lay down beside him.
00:09:36
It's like an old
Gothic William Faulkner tale or something, just quite-- quite gruesome.
00:09:45
Then she takes some
bath towels and she-- she closes the
door and she stuffs the towels under
the door to seal out
00:09:52
any odors that might escape. MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG
(VOICEOVER): With David's body
stashed in the bathroom,
00:09:57
Lois but the second part
of her plan into action. Former Homicide
Detective Rod Demery.
00:10:03
She then manufactured
text messages to his family and friends to say that he
had gone on a fishing trip
00:10:12
and that he wasn't
going to be around and they shouldn't come
out looking for him.
00:10:16
She eventually sends another
text that says he's sick and he doesn't want
to be bothered.
00:10:21
All of these text
messages, obviously, to keep people from
looking for him and throw them off the trail.
00:10:27
MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG
(VOICEOVER): Funding her gambling habit had
turn Lois into a practiced con
00:10:30
artist, a skill she
put to immediate use cleaning out David's
checking account.
00:10:36
She writes three
personal checks to herself and forges the signature,
all totaling $11,000.
00:10:46
And then, she hits the road. I think, at that point,
the world was open for Lois,
00:10:50
and she was not
going to turn back. MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG
(VOICEOVER): As Lois skips town, David is
still mysteriously nowhere
00:10:56
to be found. People began to get
a little suspicious. They wondered, where is he?
00:11:00
They couldn't-- they
would call, they couldn't-- they couldn't reach
him, they couldn't contact him.
00:11:05
MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG
(VOICEOVER): Lois's fake texts from David could only
fool people for so long
00:11:10
before someone
sounded the alarm. They realized, this
is really not something that he would have typed.
00:11:16
He wasn't known for
using punctuation, so it was pretty clear that
someone else had typed it.
00:11:22
Finally, they called the
Blooming Prairie Police Department and asked
for a welfare check,
00:11:27
and that's when police
discovered his body. They see the towels stuffed
into the door and then walk in,
00:11:33
and they see
David's rotting body underneath a pile of blankets. The cause of death was
multiple gunshot wounds
00:11:42
to the chest. [gun firing] MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG
(VOICEOVER): Police identify Lois as a prime
suspect right from the start.
00:11:51
His car is missing,
and so is his wife. When we first
heard about the case, and Lois was named as a person
of interest, which, of course,
00:12:02
is just a way of
saying a suspect, in the shooting
death of her husband, we didn't have a lot to go on.
00:12:09
MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG
(VOICEOVER): A warrant is issued
for her arrest, but by then, she's long gone.
00:12:16
I think there
was probably a part of Lois that always felt
disdain for a conventional life.
00:12:21
And once she
murdered her husband, then the floodgates were open. She can be whoever
she wanted to be.
00:12:25
MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG
(VOICEOVER): Before that could
happen, though, Lois would first need
to finish her 2,000
00:12:30
mile run to escape justice. Lois Riess is on the run. The first sign of her
is at a convenience store.
00:12:38
She's seen on a video camera
asking for directions. CCTV video will capture
her asking for directions
00:12:55
at a gas station,
which just happens to be next door to her favorite
casino, the Diamond Jo.
00:13:01
Diamond Jo's Casino,
that-- that Lois apparently frequented a lot. She spent the
day there gambling,
00:13:09
then she hits the
road and she starts traveling south to Florida. MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG
(VOICEOVER):
00:13:15
Lois drives David's
Cadillac first through Iowa before turning south, leaving
a trail of security footage
00:13:21
behind for investigators
to piece together later. Even on her way
down to Florida to try
00:13:27
to-- to-- to hide out, she
was stopping at casinos and spending money that she had
taken from her husband after
00:13:40
she had shot and killed him. [music playing] MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG
(VOICEOVER): In Florida, Lois thinks about
looking up an old friend
00:13:50
who had a place down there. Homicide Detective David
Foraker worked on the case.
00:13:55
It just so happened that our
suspect showed up to her house on Fort Myers beach and appeared
to be scoping the place out.
00:14:03
When she was confronted
by our witness, she, you know, put her head
down and just said, oh, I'm
00:14:08
sorry, wrong house, and then-- then left. We believe she came to
southwest Florida, and Fort
00:14:17
Myers beach, in particular,
perhaps because she knew her friend lived down here.
00:14:23
We believe that's why
she went to the house to-- to see the friend,
although she got
00:14:28
spooked when the
friend recognized her and she left immediately. MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG
(VOICEOVER):
00:14:32
But apparently, Lois isn't
spooked enough to leave town. In fact, she ends up
sticking around Fort Myers
00:14:37
long enough to
make a new friend. We have no evidence
to suggest that they knew each other prior.
00:14:47
Lois is the one who
initiated the contact because she had an agenda. She had a plan.
00:14:56
On April 3, Lois Riess is
hanging out with her new buddy. She's met a woman named
Pamela Hutchinson, who
00:15:04
actually looks similar to Lois. And the two of them are
having a grand time. They're out having
dinner and drinks.
00:15:12
It looks like they've
been friends forever. She looks like a
nonthreatening individual
00:15:18
who just wants to have fun. MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG
(VOICEOVER): Carmine Marceno, Lee County Sheriff.
00:15:26
She could be
your family member. She wants to have a drink. She befriends our victim.
00:15:30
Unfortunately, there are
some very dangerous people out there, people who you would
not expect by looking at them
00:15:36
that they were dangerous. MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG
(VOICEOVER): The next part of Lois's plan
is ready to fall into place.
00:15:41
So Lois Riess has
figured this out. She can just find someone
who looks like her so she
00:15:46
can steal their identity. There's a very
general resemblance as far as age and race and color
of hair, maybe build somewhat.
00:15:56
MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG
(VOICEOVER): For Lois, stealing Pamela
Hutchinson's identity
00:16:00
isn't enough. She believes she actually needs
to become Pamela Hutchinson. And she isn't going to let
a little thing like murder
00:16:10
get in her way of
that happening. Lois Riess took
advantage of a very kind, good-natured, lovely person.
00:16:19
ROD DEMERY: A call comes from
Hutchinson's rented condo to reception asking to
stay for a couple more days
00:16:28
and giving her
credit card number, and it's extended
for three days. MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG
(VOICEOVER):
00:16:33
It's another one
of Lois's gambles, but just how far is she willing
to go to stay out of jail?
00:16:39
Pamela Hutchinson is
about to find out. JEFFREY JACKSON: They
had drinks together.
00:16:44
They-- they had fun together. They talked and they-- they
laughed, until Lois killed her.
00:16:54
With her husband's
blood on her hands and the police on
her trail, Lois Riess
00:17:00
is running on borrowed time. As the clock runs
down, the question is, will she began her new
life as Pamela Hutchinson?
00:17:08
[music playing] April 5, 2018, after murdering
her husband of 35 years, Lois Riess is on
the run, gambling
00:17:39
that her plan to steal
another woman's identity will keep her from
having to face justice.
00:17:45
At 7:46 PM that
night, CCTV video will capture Pamela and
Lois laughing and walking
00:17:56
and talking together. We see them entering
the condominium together. We see them leaving,
we see them entering,
00:18:02
and then, all of a sudden, we
don't see our victim leaving the condominium anymore.
00:18:06
MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG
(VOICEOVER): When Pamela doesn't check
out of Village Marina
00:18:09
as originally scheduled and
goes dark on social media, her family tries to get in
contact with her to no avail.
00:18:16
Pamela's family has
started get a little worried because she should
have been home by now,
00:18:22
and she had been
posting on Facebook, but suddenly, she's
not posting anymore,
00:18:27
and she's not responding
to any of their posts, so they're getting concerned.
00:18:32
MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG
(VOICEOVER): But it's not just
Pamela's family that senses something is off.
00:18:37
The people in the
condo below her has called reception to
complain about a nasty smell
00:18:42
seeping in through the walls. The hotel personnel
go to room 404 to check. MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG
(VOICEOVER):
00:18:50
Housekeeping finds the bathroom
door blocked by something. When she tried to open
the door, she couldn't.
00:18:55
She couldn't. It kept running into something. And she finally managed
to shove the door open.
00:19:02
They open the door, and they
find Pamela's body covered in towels, and she's been shot.
00:19:11
A couple of things that I
first noticed when we got there and was briefed by the
others already on scene were
00:19:17
the spare bedroom and
the spare bathroom looked like they had been used. I don't know, typically,
if there's only one person
00:19:24
in a room, you would think they
would only use one bathroom, maybe use both. But then again, the
bedroom, the second guest
00:19:30
bedroom was also-- looked like
someone had slept in the bed. I knew that there
was only one person
00:19:34
that checked into the room. So knowing what I saw
from the video, I thought, OK, maybe this female stayed
the night, slept over.
00:19:42
This incident, this murder
investigation, it rocked us. This was certainly unlike any
other investigation that I had.
00:19:51
It wasn't just your normal
run of the mill, if there is such a thing, homicide.
00:19:55
Fort Myers beach is a
smaller town in Wake County, and it's-- it's a
quiet town, but not
00:20:01
by the norm to find
a murdered person in a rented condominium there. All sorts of things
were crossing my mind,
00:20:09
but it never would
have dawned on me that another elderly white
female would be my killer.
00:20:14
At that point, she would
stop at nothing, not only murdering her husband, but
taking the life of a stranger,
00:20:18
and then, therefore,
her identity. MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG
(VOICEOVER): Lois went with the
same escape plan
00:20:22
she used after
murdering her husband, delay and get ready to run. She starts to do her own
cover up of the crime scene,
00:20:30
puts the the towel by the door
so there's no odor coming out. Over the next couple
of days, CCTV video
00:20:37
will capture Lois going in
and out of Pamela's room carrying garbage bags. We see this white
female get in an Escalade
00:20:50
with Minnesota license
plates, leave the property, and then walk back to the
property about one hour later.
00:20:56
MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG
(VOICEOVER): Lois has dumped David's Cadillac
at a beachfront parking lot.
00:21:01
You got a woman
who comes to Florida, looks like she's
looking for somebody who
00:21:06
looks at least somewhat
like her to kill and assume their identity. MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG
(VOICEOVER):
00:21:11
As far as Lois
Riess is concerned, she's now Pamela
Hutchinson, so she's
00:21:16
safe to get back on the road. We see her walking back
and forth in the hallway before she takes off in
the victim's car, an Acura,
00:21:23
and starts to make her
trek out of Florida. MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG
(VOICEOVER): Local police quickly
put the pieces together.
00:21:29
Detective David Foraker. Once I entered the
bathroom, I noticed that there was a pillow.
00:21:35
It appeared to be from the bed
itself that had a defect in it consistent with being a gunshot
and being in close contact
00:21:42
with a-- a firearm
as it was fired. MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG
(VOICEOVER): At this point,
00:21:47
Florida investigators
already know there's a manhunt
underway for a suspect in the murder of David Riess.
00:21:53
We have an investigation,
a death investigation, maybe a murder investigation
going on in Minnesota.
00:22:01
At the same exact
time, now, we have a murder investigation going on
in Fort Myers Beach, Florida.
00:22:08
That creates a very unique
set of circumstances. We then got into
direct communication
00:22:16
with the detectives
up in Dodge County, and they were very helpful. We developed a rapport, started
communicating, basically,
00:22:24
non-stop over the
next couple of weeks, just going over
things providing them information and vice versa.
00:22:31
We actually received photos
of their crime scene up there and compared it to with
what we had down here.
00:22:37
And, again, they were very
similar with what happened up there and down here. So, again, that
solidified for us
00:22:45
that, OK, the person
who was responsible up there was also responsible
for the homicide down here.
00:22:51
MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG
(VOICEOVER): Both teams of investigators are
now getting a clearer picture
00:22:56
of Lois Riess and her MO. The way she had
befriended the victim, who was a loving, wonderful person,
and obviously, a very trusting
00:23:03
person, the way she
had befriended her and then killed her was highly
disturbing, and we thought
00:23:09
had the marks of a
really evil killer. After committing two murders,
she's got the victim's vehicle,
00:23:16
she's calculated. We have to get her before
she commits another murder. MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG
(VOICEOVER):
00:23:22
But now, with two crime
scenes 1,500 miles apart, and a murderer walking
around with a new identity,
00:23:29
police have to find a new
way to track her down. Lead prosecutor Rich Montecalvo.
00:23:35
So many places have video,
whether it's a private business, government
office, a highway,
00:23:44
that it's almost the first
place law enforcement looks now, especially when they have
a-- a suspect on the run.
00:23:52
Remarkably, the video is
perfect, perfect clarity. Perfect-- the dates
align and everything.
00:23:59
And what we find
through the video is our victim and another white
middle-aged female going back
00:24:07
and forth from the
victim's condominium room on a number of occasions
over a course of a few days.
00:24:13
MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG
(VOICEOVER): The other woman is Lois
Riess, or, as the media starts
00:24:19
referring to her, as
the fugitive grandma. She takes the victim's
driver's license, credit
00:24:24
cards, her identity,
her vehicle, and what does that do for her? It gives her more time.
00:24:34
It's clear where she's going. She wants out of the country. In my belief, she knows
we're on her tail.
00:24:40
Everybody presumed, because
of-- of the way they were following her path, that
she was headed to Texas,
00:24:49
and then, probably, to Mexico. MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG
(VOICEOVER): As Lois races toward
the southern border,
00:24:54
she unwittingly
leaves behind a trail of clues giving investigators
her exact location.
00:25:00
She goes to an ATM or to a
bank on Fort Myers Beach, where Lois Riess withdraws $5,000
from the victim's bank account,
00:25:09
and off she goes, in the
victim's car, the Acura, not to be seen until
many, many hours
00:25:15
later farther up north
in the state of Florida. Police launch a nationwide
manhunt for what they're
00:25:23
calling the fugitive grandma. Let's get this
information out. Let's be on the lookout.
00:25:29
Let's put her face on the
billboards everywhere. Because where is she going?
00:25:32
We don't know. But we need to all
work and stop her before she commits
another murder.
00:25:36
I don't know if she
knows she's wanted, but she knows that she's trying
to get as far away from Fort
00:25:41
Myers Beach as she can. The trail continues,
the journey continues. She ends up in a hotel
in north Florida.
00:25:49
She walks up to the
front desk, once again, her MO, smiling,
calculated, cool, the appearance of
anyone's grandmother.
00:25:58
She checks into
a Hilton in Ocala, and she uses the victim's-- it's the first time now.
00:26:06
She's taken on this new
persona, and she's now using the victim's
identification and credit
00:26:10
card to check into a hotel. DAVID FORAKER: She did the best
she could to conceal herself.
00:26:16
She was wearing a hat. We have her on video doing that. She pulled in with
the victim's vehicle
00:26:20
and she actually rented a
room there for the night and got room service. To then check
into a hotel using
00:26:25
the actual identification,
the picture identification, that's unusual, and that is a
great trail for law enforcement
00:26:32
to follow up on. MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG
(VOICEOVER): But hotel and credit card
bills are not the only clues
00:26:37
Lois is leaving behind. She also stops to indulge in
her favorite pastime, gambling.
00:26:44
And here she is
now fleeing, now having committed two
murders, and still feels the need to stop gamble
in broad daylight.
00:26:52
As she leaves Florida,
she stops in a casino and she wins $1,500. And at the time
she wins, she uses
00:27:01
her own identification
and social security number to claim the winnings. If she wouldn't have
stopped at-- at this casino
00:27:10
to spend money, to
gamble some more, she might have made it to Mexico. She very, very possibly
could've-- could've escaped,
00:27:20
and then just not
been heard of again. MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG
(VOICEOVER): Lois's little gambling detour
amazes even the state attorney.
00:27:27
Unfortunately, when
we're dealing with people who are evil and who are
willing to kill, and kill
00:27:33
two times quickly, back to
back of each other, nothing they do surprises me. However, in this
particular case,
00:27:42
it is surprising to see
somebody and-- and unusual immediately go off
on a gambling jaunt
00:27:48
after they've killed two people. MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG
(VOICEOVER): Lois then drives on through
Louisiana toward Texas.
00:27:52
She knows, as time passes,
the investigation keeps moving, and we're going to be hot on
her trail at some point in time.
00:28:00
I imagine there was
a bit of a thrill, a bit of an adrenaline
rush, which that, you know, that's part and
parcel of-- of gambling
00:28:12
addiction as well. But I'm-- I'm certain that
her main objective was, I gotta get out of here.
00:28:20
MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG
(VOICEOVER): Eventually, Lois crosses the
state line into Texas, one step
00:28:25
closer to the Mexican border. She makes her way
along the Gulf Coast to Corpus Christi, Texas.
00:28:32
She has with her directions
to get to South Padre Island, and she checks into a Motel 6
on South Padre Island in Texas.
00:28:40
We know she has
a gambling habit. OK, she's got resources. She's in the casinos.
00:28:46
Is she looking for another
person to befriend? Is she looking for
the next vehicle
00:28:51
to take, the next victim,
the next driver's license? We have to stop her and put
an end to it immediately.
00:28:58
MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG
(VOICEOVER): Lois Riess murdered her husband,
killed an innocent woman
00:29:03
to steal her identity, and
now, in South Padre Island, she targets her next victim,
another look alike whose
00:29:11
identity she wanted to steal. Remarkably, she looks
somewhat like Lois, about the same height,
about the same age,
00:29:19
the head full of white hair. MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG
(VOICEOVER): In her frantic attempt
to avoid justice
00:29:24
for her two previous
murders, is Lois about to try for her third? There's a trail of evidence
that she's building but her
00:29:31
plan is that she's-- she's going
to make it across the country and leave the country.
00:29:36
I don't think anybody would
have thought that this was actually be-- going to be
headed in the direction
00:29:40
of multiple murders. We already know Lois
Riess wasn't the best wife. I mean, kind of obvious
when you murder her husband.
00:29:51
But she's about to prove she's
even more lethal as a friend. [music playing]
00:30:16
After murdering two people,
her husband of 35 years, David, and Pamela Hutchinson,
the woman whose identity she
00:30:24
has now assumed, Lois Riess
is getting ready to continue her killing spree. Let's look at our
suspect, Lois Riess.
00:30:33
You know why she's able
to fly under the radar? Because she looks like anyone's
family member, grandmother.
00:30:40
It's always disturbing
to me, as a prosecutor, and as a member
of the community,
00:30:44
to see when people
do evil things and just don't seem to have
any care about what they did.
00:30:51
She's a wolf in
sheep's clothing. She walks up, she
smiles, she's calm,
00:30:57
she has the appearance
of a grandmother, she's collective, but make
no mistake, she's calculated.
00:31:03
MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG
(VOICEOVER): On South Padre Island, Lois's
new friend, Bernadette Mathis,
00:31:08
takes her to dinner
before inviting her home to spend the night. They spend time having drinks
and hanging out in her hot tub.
00:31:16
It amazed me that
that Lois would yet befriend another person
and somehow get invited
00:31:23
to stay in her guest room. Those people should think
their lucky stars that-- that--
00:31:31
that-- because she had the gun. She had the gun. She could have done it again. MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG
(VOICEOVER):
00:31:39
By now, the nationwide manhunt
for Lois was in full swing. At this time, law
enforcement has figured out
00:31:45
through video
surveillance what she was up to in the days leading up
to the murder and a little bit
00:31:52
afterward. They figured out that
she switched cars, put out the license
plate reader,
00:31:56
and now, law enforcement has out
a full-fledged media campaign to try to catch her.
00:32:02
There's a BOLO, which means
be on the lookout for her, and her picture is everywhere.
00:32:08
We were behind the
eight ball a little bit, but with the investigation going
forward and all hands on deck,
00:32:15
we were able to, you know,
make great progress on it very quickly. And so that way, we were
able to get that information
00:32:23
and the suspect information
out so that way, hopefully, someone could come into
contact with her and catch her.
00:32:28
MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG
(VOICEOVER): Police start offering a reward. The reward posted was $6,000
for any information leading
00:32:35
to the capture of Lois Riess. We knew what
happened in Minnesota. We knew what happened
here, and we did not want
00:32:42
there to be a third victim. MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG
(VOICEOVER): The police didn't,
but Lois did, and she
00:32:48
would have if not for the
eagle eyes of a good Samaritan on April 19, 2018. She's sitting in a
bar in South Padre,
00:32:59
and the bartender
looks at her and says, oh, that's the woman who's
wanted who I just saw on TV.
00:33:07
And he reported
her, and probably saved Bernadette Mathis's life. It is certainly something
that has crossed my mind,
00:33:14
that had she not been
captured when she was, perhaps she would have
done the same thing.
00:33:18
MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG
(VOICEOVER): Officers move quickly to apprehend Lois. She got a tap on the shoulder,
and it was a US marshal,
00:33:26
and he asked her to step
outside, and she did. And she was asked to
produce identification,
00:33:32
and she did, and
she was arrested. [music playing] Law enforcement
officers commented
00:33:41
that she didn't appear to be
too startled or even worried about being arrested.
00:33:46
And the thought was maybe
she was just tired and tired of playing this game. MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG
(VOICEOVER):
00:33:52
Lois's Thelma without Louise
interstate chase is finally over, but even now that she's in
custody, the hunt for evidence
00:33:58
continues. The marshals go to Lois's
room there at the resort, and they find a
.22 caliber pistol.
00:34:06
Lo and behold, they discovered
that that the gun that had been used on Pamela Hutchinson
was the same gun that
00:34:13
had been used on David Riess. MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG
(VOICEOVER): With Lois facing
charges in two states
00:34:19
for murdering her husband
and Pamela Hutchinson, prosecutors have to
decide in which state
00:34:24
she should stand trial. It was ultimately agreed that
Florida would take her first
00:34:30
and do what we needed to do
through the judicial system to go forward. As the sheriff, it's
a personal thing for me.
00:34:38
You committed that murder
on a tourist in my county. You can run. You're not going to hide.
00:34:46
And we are going to get you. And in the end, I wanted
her to specifically face the music here.
00:34:54
CAROLYN CANVILLE: June
6, 2018 Lois Riess is indicted by a
grand jury in Florida
00:34:59
for the murder of
Pamela Hutchinson. MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG
(VOICEOVER): Right from the get-go,
Lois denies she
00:35:07
committed premeditated murder. Once you're convicted of
first degree murder in Florida,
00:35:13
there's only two
possible sentences. One is a life sentence
without the chance of release,
00:35:19
and the second sentence
is the death penalty. In this case, we decided
to seek the death penalty.
00:35:26
MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG
(VOICEOVER): As the Pamela Hutchinson murder
case is about to go to trial,
00:35:30
Lois suddenly changes her plea. In December of
2019, Lois Riess changes her plea in the
murder of Pamela Hutchinson
00:35:40
to guilty in order to
escape the death penalty. She's sentenced to
life without parole.
00:35:45
JUDGE: Do you understand
why you're here today? LOIS RIESS: Yes. JUDGE: To the charge of first
degree murder with a firearm,
00:35:53
a capital felony which is
punishable by the death penalty or life, how do you plead?
00:35:59
LOIS RIESS: Guilty. She made a plea bargain with--
with the authorities in Florida
00:36:04
that she would admit
to first degree murder charges against her
in exchange for her
00:36:11
being given a life sentence. MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG
(VOICEOVER): Justice may have been served
in the Pamela Hutchinson case,
00:36:17
but there was still one other
teeny tiny unresolved matter facing Lois Riess, the
murder of her husband, David.
00:36:24
She's extradited to Minnesota
to face the music there. MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG
(VOICEOVER):
00:36:29
Minnesota prosecutors could
have simply let Lois serve out her life sentence in Florida
for the murder of Pamela
00:36:35
Hutchinson, but the calls in
her home state for justice in the murder of her
husband of 35 years
00:36:41
were too strong to ignore. On August 11, 2020, now,
it's two years after Lois
00:36:48
has killed her husband, David. MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG
(VOICEOVER): Eight months after
being convicted
00:36:52
in the murder of
Pamela Hutchinson, Lois Riess finally confessed to
killing her husband David too.
00:36:57
She changes her plea. She enters a plea of
guilty to the murder of her husband, David.
00:37:04
MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG
(VOICEOVER): The fugitive grandma
who had murdered her husband of 35
years in cold blood
00:37:10
had finally been
brought to justice. The enormity of this
case, geographically, as well as-- as just in terms
of-- of what happened and how
00:37:23
this destroyed so many
families' lives, I've never seen anything like before.
00:37:31
And I hope I never see again. Who would have
ever suspected this-- this woman from
Minnesota to have come
00:37:38
down here to do what she did. Certainly, it's
not the image that I have when I think of my
grandparents or my parents.
00:37:44
But, again, we-- we
don't know, you know, why people do things sometimes. MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG
(VOICEOVER): In the end,
00:37:51
Lois Riess received another
life sentence for murdering her husband, David. She'll spend her remaining
days behind bars.
00:37:58
She looked like a-- a grandmother that-- that may
have been a little quirky, but I don't think anyone
suspected she would be violent.
00:38:06
When you look at
her path into murder, you can see that it
was really motivated by money, first and foremost.
00:38:12
Really, all she saw
was dollar signs, and it was whatever
she could do to get as much money as possible
to amass wealth for herself.
00:38:20
MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG: When
David Riess married the woman who would murder
him 35 years later,
00:38:25
he had no idea her
innocent love of gambling would eventually turn deadly. But that's the way it is
when you first meet someone.
00:38:35
You have no idea who they
will become decades later. They might even become a killer.
00:38:42
In the end, justice is served. That killer's off the streets. She's behind bars
where she belongs.
00:38:49
Hopefully, it
brings some sense of resolution, conclusion,
justice for the family.
00:38:56
I'm Michelle Trachtenberg,
and I'll see you next time, on "Meet, Marry, Murder."
00:39:03
[music playing]