Lois Riess indicted in murder of husband in Minnesota
Lois Riess of Blooming Prairie, Minnesota is charged in Florida with the murder her lookalike in Fort Myers earlier this year.
BLOOMING PRAIRIE, Minn. (FOX 9) - A grand jury has indicted Lois Riess, the Minnesota woman who sparked a nationwide manhunt after allegedly killing a woman in Fort Myers, Florida last year to steal her identity, in the murder of her husband.
Riess, 57, was charged with first-degree and second-degree murder. Riess’s husband, David Riess, was found dead of multiple gunshot wounds on March 23, 2018. Authorities began looking for Lois after she withdrew $11,000 from his bank account.
Authorities believe Lois fled to Florida, where she allegedly befriended 59-year-old Pamela Hutchinson, and then allegedly killed her to steal her identity. After a 10-day nationwide manhunt, U.S. Marshals arrested her at a bar in South Padre Island, Texas on April 19.
Earlier this year, the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension completed their testing on the handgun, a .22 caliber semi-automatic, found in Lois’s hotel room when she was arrested and determined it matched the shell casings found at the scene of David’s murder.
In Florida, Riess has already been indicted for first-degree murder in the death of Hutchinson.