BLOOMING PRAIRIE, Minn. — Up until she became the subject of a nationwide manhunt, was known around the town of Blooming Prairie, Minnesota, for everything she seemed to be — sweet and nice, bubbly and grandmotherly.
No one saw the qualities that would later earn her the nickname the “Killer Grandma.†In March 2018, Riess, grandmother of five, in their Blooming Prairie home. Weeks later, she killed Pamela Hutchinson in a Fort Myers Beach, Florida, hotel room, in an attempt to
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Riess was on the run for weeks. And it was confusion over who Riess was and had become that allowed her to hide in plain sight for as long as she did, even as she left a of her whereabouts. She was videotaped and pictured at casinos, hotels and banks.
If the first murder was born of impulse, the second was one of cold-hearted calculation.
“One of the most bizarre cases I’ve ever dealt with,†said Fort Myers Chief State Attorney Rich Montecalvo in an interview last year with WINK News, a southwest Florida news program.
Six years after her murderous crime spree, a raft of documentaries and still grapple with how this cute, regular gal from Blooming Prairie did what she did.
According to authorities, Riess was a no-holds-bar gambling addict. No one outside her immediate family was aware of the hold it had on her. After gunning down her husband, Riess made casino stops even as she made her way south near the Mexican border.
She had stolen $100,000 from her sister to support her habit while serving as her guardian. After killing husband, Riess withdrew $11,000 from her dead husband’s bank account.
One theory is that Riess simply snapped. In a June 15, 2018, story for the Fort Myers News-Press, Dave Thomas, a forensic psychologist, theorized that Riess had become so addicted to gambling that it became an all-consuming preoccupation. Broke and with no way to sate her addiction, she was “fiending,†a term commonly used for drug addicts. She was desperate for a fix.
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“When you get into serious financial trouble like that and there is no way out, at some point, your significant other’s got to go, â€کYou know what? There’s nothing I can do for you,’ so you’re left on your own,†Thomas told the Fort Myers paper.
Tess Koster, a Blooming Prairie resident and a friend of the Riesses, described Lois Riess as having a “split personality†that switched from decency to darkness.
“She went from being a really nice person to being a monster,†she told Oxygen True Crime.
Riess later told a Minnesota court that she had a worm farmer, during a fight on March 11, 2018.
He handed her a loaded firearm and told her to go kill herself and to “get it right this time,†according to Paul Blume of Fox9 news in the Twin Cities. Lois had tried to take her own life in the past, she told the court. Instead, she turned the gun on her husband and fired at his heart.
Later, she laid down beside him, closed his eyes and covered him in a blanket.
She had killed her husband with .22-caliber pistol. She left his body in a bathroom where towels were positioned to contain the smell of decomposition.
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David didn’t show up for work for two weeks. His business partner asked for assistance from authorities. He became more suspicious when Lois sent him a bizarre text message, claiming that her husband became sick while on a fishing trip and was not to be disturbed.
Authorities found his body during a welfare check. Lois and his car were gone.
In killing Hutchinson, a look-alike stranger whose identity Riess hoped to take, Riess used similar tactics: The same gun, a pillow to silence the sound, towels positioned around the bathroom to hide the smell.
If the murder of her husband was incomprehensible, the killing of Hutchinson may have been preventable with less red tape and more communication between statewide jurisdictions, legal theorists suggest.
The reason: Authorities were made aware of where Riess was after she killed her husband but before she took Hutchinson's life. Koster spotted Riess outside one of their Fort Myers Beach, Florida, rental properties. Riess knew about the rental units because the Kosters had once invited the couple to stay with them.
Koster noticed a woman with a notebook in her hand, scanning house addresses. When Koster stepped forward to ask if she could help, Koster realized that the woman with the platinum white-blond hair was Riess.
Koster's heart skipped a beat. Keeping her head down and shaking it, Riess muttered “wrong house, wrong house.†Riess leaped in her Cadillac Escalade and drove off. Koster suspects that Riess was looking for a hideaway.
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The Kosters called 911, but Lee County Sheriff authorities didn’t consider the matter urgent. Deputies told the couple that Riess was probably no longer on the island. And since Riess was facing theft and forgery charges, she was a person of interest, not a murder suspect.
A week later, the body of her second victim, Hutchinson, was found in a rented condo near where Koster had encountered Riess. Staff had gone door-to-door because of a water issue in the building. A stench coming from inside the unit led them to Hutchinson's body.
Riess attempted to assume her identity. Riess stole Hutchinson’s car and withdrew $5,000 from the dead woman’s bank account.
Surveillance video captured Riess with Hutchinson. The two were seen during a happy hour at a Fort Myers brewery.
It was then that authorities sprang into action. A murder warrant was issued. The joined the hunt. A $6,000 reward was offered for help in tracking Riess down. Wanted posters with Riess’s picture on them were tacked up, including at casinos.
She was captured and arrested at a restaurant in the resort town of South Padre Island, Texas. Authorities speculate that Riess was scoping the area for another victim. She had met a new acquaintance in South Padre. Days before her arrest, she had dinner with Bernadette Mathis, a 65-year-old woman she met in Texas.
Pleading guilty to the killing of Hutchinson, Riess was sentenced to life in prison. Extradited to Minnesota, Riess also pleaded guilty to first-degree murder of her husband. Riess is serving both life sentences at a women’s prison in Shakopee. There is no possibility of parole for her.
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“I cycle between anger, regret and sadness,†said daughter Breanna Riess in a victim impact statement. “March 11, 2018 was the last time I hugged my dad and told him I loved him. I miss my dad more than words can describe.â€
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