All language subtitles for Murder.360.S01E05.Losing.Streak.Lois.720p.AMZN.WEB-DL.DDP5.1.H.264-FLUX

Police say this surveillance
video shows

a cunning killer on the prowl.

She's calm.

She has the appearance
of a grandmother.

The U.S. Marshals Service
today posted a $5,000 reward

for information
about a fugitive grandmother.

Here we have
the grandma killer.

She had a gambling problem,

and things spiraled
out of control.

U.S. Marshals are
actively involved

in a national search
for this dangerous fugitive.

It is surprising
to see somebody

immediately go off
on a gambling jaunt

after they kill two people.

Is she looking
for another person

to befriend, the next victim?

My fear?

Who is this suspect?

Do we have a serial killer
on our hands?

I've had some wild cases
that I have covered,

but I've never seen
one like this before.

She is armed.

She is dangerous.

And she's a killer
on the loose.

And she kept repeating,
"He's going to kill me."

Then he shoots my daughter.

That's about the only time
in my career

that I just wanted
to shoot him.

You can run.

You can't hide.

So what I think is most
important is to understand,

Lee County as a whole,
it's 1,200 square miles

of land and sea.

We dedicate our lives
to making sure these people

and everyone is safe.

So this incident, it rocked us.

I was a detective
in the Homicide Unit.

And I received a call
from my sergeant,

who told me they had a homicide
on Fort Myers Beach,

and he needed me to respond.

He just said
an elderly female was found

deceased inside of
her condo timeshare apartment.

Driving to the scene initially,

my mind was going
from one end of the spectrum

to the other of, okay,
who might have done this?

What could have happened?

What went wrong?

So it was, at that point,
for me, a real whodunit.

Once I arrived on scene,
we did a walkthrough

of the crime scene.

I noticed that a towel was
placed at the bottom

of the bathroom door.

It had been rolled up and
kind of wedged underneath it.

And so that said to me,
you know, initially,

okay, someone's trying to hide
either the sight, the sound,

the smell of the homicide.

Once I entered the bathroom,

I noticed
that there was a pillow.

It appeared to be from the bed
itself that had a defect in it,

consistent with being a gunshot

and being in close contact

with a firearm
as it was fired.

It was from the back.

So, obviously, it was,
to me, taken by surprise.

The fatal .22-caliber
pillow silenced, bam.

Shoots two rounds
into the ceiling,

then into our victim.

It appeared,
after investigating the scene,

that it was, in fact,
a homicide victim

suffering two gunshot wounds.

And our office
was told of this,

and we stood by
to provide any assistance

we could to the Lee County
Sheriff's Office investigators.

We know that she has suffered
from a close gunshot wound

that appeared to be muffled
by a pillow,

and she had been covered up
with some sort

of blanket or cloth.

That killer takes
the victim's driver's license,

credit cards, her identity,
her vehicle.

The first thing
we thought of,

was it a robbery or a theft
gone wrong of a tourist?

She was spreading the ashes

of a friend's deceased husband
on Sanibel.

And, yeah, she had been
divorced herself

fairly recently
and was starting over

down here in Florida

and renting a condo
on Fort Myers Beach

as a more vacation spot.

She was a very trusting,

generous,
gregarious individual

who would take
somebody under her wing

and be very generous with them.

A couple things that I first
noticed when we got there,

the spare bedroom
and the spare bathroom looked

like they had been used.

There's only one person
in a room,

you would think they would
only use one bathroom,

maybe use both.

But then again, the bedroom,

the second guest bedroom was--
also looked like someone

had slept in the bed.

I knew that there was
only one person

that checked into the room.

The Sheriff's Office
immediately goes

to the condominium owners,
the front desk,

and requests
to look for video.

It's the simplest,

most direct,
immediate form of evidence

that they could start working
their investigation from.

Remarkably,
the video is perfect,

perfect clarity.

And what we find through
the video

is our victim

and another white, middle-aged
female going back and forth

from the victim's condominium
room on a number of occasions

over a course of a few days.

We see them leaving,
we see them entering,

and then all of a sudden,
we don't see

our victim leaving
the condominium anymore.

This woman, we see her
back and forth on the videos

numerous times,
in and out of the room.

We see her also at some point
seem to be not distraught,

but certainly
thinking things through.

She's almost pacing
on the landing of the hallway

outside the condo room.

It certainly shows somebody
who's maybe thinking

of many, many things
at one time,

maybe not fully aware that
she may be being recorded.

And that begins, really,
the investigation.

Who is that other woman
with our victim?

The Sheriff's Office checked
other videos

on Fort Myers Beach,
and they were able to detect

the victim
and this woman together

at the Smoking Oyster Brewery,

which is very close by
to the condominium.

When I look
at the video of them,

it looks like they've
been friends forever.

I mean, it looks like
maybe two women that came

to Fort Myers Beach together
to have a good time,

get away, spend a few days
in the beautiful weather,

the fun atmosphere.

They look like they had
been friends forever.

She's somebody that, to me,

would just blend in
with everyone else.

She does not stand out
in any particular way.

The woman became a suspect.

Let's look at our suspect.

You know why she's able
to fly under the radar?

Because she looks like
anyone's family member,

grandmother, whose identity,
at this point in time,

we don't know.

Then it dawned on me.

The night before the homicide,
our agency found a vehicle

related to another
homicide investigation

that was currently underway
in the Minnesota area.

It was located about a mile
away from where our scene was.

And so it dawned on me, okay,

we had that call
a couple days ago.

Let me get a picture

of the person of interest
for that case.

And once I received a picture

from Dodge County Sheriff's
Office up in Minnesota

of who their person
of interest was,

I compared it
to our video surveillance,

and they were the same person.

We were all just
kind of dumbfounded

and speechless for a minute.

We were like, okay,
this appears to be our person.

So that way,
we had good information,

pretty much from the beginning,
of who we might be looking for.

Minnesota is the land
of 10,000 lakes.

My name is Jeffrey Jackson.

I'm the former managing editor

of the
"Owatonna People's Press"

in Owatonna, Minnesota.

Blooming Prairie is
a small, small town,

less than 2,000 people.

I've lived
in this community for...

16 years now.

And I can count on one hand

the number of murders
we have had.

It just doesn't happen here.

The incident occurred right
outside of Blooming Prairie

in Dodge County, Minnesota.

The body had been
there for some time.

Multiple gunshot wounds.

His body had been covered up
with a blanket.

It would have been
a gruesome sight for anybody.

The community was shocked.

Their family, naturally,
when this first started,

it was a shock to them
what had happened.

This was a couple

that could have been any couple
in Blooming Prairie.

They were just
a normal couple.

They had children.

They had grandchildren.

They would go to
their grandchildren's

sporting events,
support them,

support the community.

They were known
in the community,

liked in the community.

There was nothing that would
have made a person guess

that this would have happened.

Beforehand, Lois had sent
texts to people,

saying that David was not well,

that he was under the weather,

and that he would not
be able to go to work

or be able to do
several things like that,

that he was going to be
gone for a while.

When she--when people
would ask her, "Is he okay?"

Yeah, yeah.

He's just--
he's needing to get better.

It was well over a week

that people began
to get a little suspicious.

They wondered, where is he?

They couldn't--
they would call.

They couldn't--
they couldn't reach him.

They couldn't contact him.

And, finally, a friend called

the Blooming Prairie
Police Department

and asked
for a welfare check.

They just wanted
to make sure, is he okay?

And that's when police
discovered his body.

What was being alleged
or being suspected

from the very beginning

was that Lois had killed David
and then taken off.

She kills her husband
in Minnesota.

And where does she end up?

Fort Myers, Florida.

We have a murder
investigation

going on in Minnesota.

At the same exact time now,

we have a murder investigation
going on

in Fort Myers Beach, Florida.

My fear--

do we have a serial killer
on our hands?

We're getting calls
from everywhere,

because people are afraid.

Is there a killer on the loose?

Are the people safe locally?

People are afraid.

It rocked this county.

We want to gather information
as much as we can

from Minnesota
so that we can find

and track down the person
that's responsible

for this horrific crime.

But also we don't
want to release information

that could ruin
their investigation or ours.

We developed a rapport,
started communicating

basically nonstop over
the next couple weeks,

just going over things,

providing them information,
and vice versa.

We actually received photos
of their crime scene up there

and compared it
to what we had down here.

They were very similar
with what happened

up there and down here.

The way she left the body,

the way she stuffed towels
under the door.

That solidified
for us that, okay,

the person who
was responsible up there

was also responsible
for the homicide down here.

Not only does she shoot
the victim,

but then she covers up.

She starts to do her own
cover-up of the crime scene,

puts the towel by the door
so there's no odor coming out.

She was cold.

She was calculated.

She staged that crime scene.

She knew exactly
what she was doing.

It appeared to me,
based upon the information

that we were given
by the Minnesota detectives,

that there was obviously
some family difficulties.

She appeared to
have been struggling

with her mental health,
possibly,

and financial situations
at home.

All the stresses that it
seemed as if it just

kind of came
to a point one day.

And it seemed like
she just snapped.

When the sheriff
of Dodge County

first reported Lois,

that she was
a person of interest,

one of the things
that he mentioned was

the fact that she had
a history

of going to casinos.

And that piqued our interest

because we weren't
quite certain

why he would have said that.

So I remember going
to the courthouse,

and that's when I stumbled
across some documents

concerning an older sister of Lois's.

She was in the court documents
described as having

the cognitive level
of a ten-year-old.

And in 2012,

Lois applied
to become her guardian,

her legal guardian,

because she was
a vulnerable adult.

And by 2015, the Human Services

here in Steele County
and in Dodge County petitioned

the court to try to get
Lois removed as guardian

because they said
there was evidence

that she was taking money
from her sister

and using it to go gambling.

The court determined
that Lois had taken

just over $100,000
of her sister's money.

Wow.

It was amazing.

There was a knowledge
within the community

that Lois had an issue.

And that issue was gambling.

And they were well aware
that she had that problem.

Diamond Jo's Casino,
that Lois frequented a lot,

that's about an hour away.

There was a history
of depression in her family.

This could have been
her way of trying

to find fulfillment
by going out

and gambling the way she did.

She had a gambling problem,

and things spiraled
out of control.

Once she had shot
and killed her husband,

Lois--the very day that
his body was discovered,

Lois had taken money
out of his accounts

and transferred them or wrote
checks on his accounts.

She cashed them,
put them in her account,

and went gambling again.

Even on her way down
to Florida to try to hide out,

she was stopping at casinos
and spending money

that she had taken
from her husband

after she had shot
and killed him.

She was interested
in the money

to feed her need to gamble.

That was her need,
her addiction.

She's at the bar,
and she's smiling,

and she's befriending
our victim.

Now, why is our victim
befriended by the suspect?

And what was that about?

There's a very
general resemblance

as far as age and race
and color of hair,

maybe build somewhat.

And it appears
that Lois Riess took advantage

of a very kind, good-natured,
lovely person.

It looked like she had
done it to assume

a new identity
of the woman that she killed,

because she was on the run.

She had an agenda.

She had a plan.

She wanted to steal
this woman's identity.

Obviously, she had
her husband's car.

And she knew that soon,
that sometime,

that would be discovered.

She had to get rid of it,

get another mode
of transportation,

and get another identity.

She's a wolf
in sheep's clothing.

She walks up.

She smiles.

She's calm.

She has the appearance
of a grandmother.

She's collective.

But make no mistake,
she's calculated.

And I will tell you
that this was unique,

because here we have
the grandma killer.

They had drinks together.

They had fun together.

They talked.
They laughed.

Until Lois killed her.

My cousin went out
helping the world.

She befriended
this woman, probably.

The woman probably gave
her some sob story.

She took her in,
alley cat thing.

She just was--
she's just giving to a fault,

to her death.

Pure evil,
that's really the only thing

that could resonate
with my system,

because it's not
necessarily her or whatever.

It's just evil
that flowed through,

because how can you go
around killing people

for no other good reason

other than to keep
yourself out of prison?

She's driving away right now
after committing two murders.

She's got the victim's vehicle.

This woman had no heart.

She killed in cold blood.

She was calculated,
and she was on the run.

We do not expect
to see somebody who is

a typical suburban mom,
grandmom,

who has been involved in not
only killing their husband,

but assuming the identity of
a completely innocent person

and then killing them
to get that identity.

That was very surprising to us.

We have to get her before
she commits another murder.

We knew what happened
in Minnesota,

we knew what happened here,
and we did not want

there to be a third victim.

We have someone--
someone that's already

killed now twice.

Do we want a third person,
a fourth person?

Of course not.

Let's get this person
off the streets

immediately before
we have major events

and God knows where.

So our detectives are
working so hard

to stopping this person
from killing again.

Is she looking
for another person

to befriend, the next victim?

We have to stop her and put
an end to it immediately.

We knew who we were
looking for.

We had her name,
her date of birth,

and the vehicle that
she was traveling in.

We then disseminated
that information

through our sheriff's office
to other states,

other agencies,
other regions of the country

for where we think
she might be going.

She's got the credit cards,
debit cards of the victim.

She's got
the victim's vehicle.

She's got resources.

Where is she going?
Who knows?

We were following
her financial information

and the victim's
financial information.

We were behind
the eight ball a little bit.

But with the investigation
going forward

and all hands on deck,
we were able to, you know,

make great progress
in it very quickly.

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.

And off she goes in
the victim's car, the Acura,

not to be seen until many,
many hours later,

farther up north
in the state of Florida.

We actually found that
she was in the Ocala area.

She stayed at
the Hilton Hotel in Ocala.

She walks up
to the front desk--

once again, her MO--
smiling, calculated, cool,

the appearance
of anyone's grandmother.

She did the best she could
to conceal herself.

She was wearing a hat.

We have her on video
doing that.

And she uses the victim's--

it's the first time now.

She's taken on
this new persona.

And she's now using
the victim's identification

and credit card
to check into a hotel.

She's on the run
for murdering her husband.

She doesn't want
to be detected,

so she assumes
our victim's identity.

There was some
general similarity

that allowed her
to use the identification

without detection.

She orders room service,

and she checks out
the next morning,

and then she's
on the road again.

She headed north
out of Ocala,

and then she
essentially turned left

and had the rest of
the country in front of her.

And we know this because there
are license plate readers

that are able to identify
the Acura by its license plate

progressively down
the interstates.

She was lighting out
for the territory.

I imagine there was
a bit of a thrill,

a bit of a adrenaline rush--
the road trip of her life.

Well, that's a great way
to describe it.

Where does she go from there?

We know she has
a gambling habit, okay?

She's got resources.

She's in the casino.

And here she is now,
fleeing,

now having committed
two murders,

and still feels the need
to stop and gamble

in broad daylight
at a casino in Louisiana.

Well, she goes to the casino,
and, remarkably,

she calls attention to herself
because she has a bit of luck,

and she wins.

She wins about $1,500
at the slot machines.

And when she presents
to the window to collect,

she shows her Minnesota
driver's license,

Lois Riess,

and her Social Security card
in order to claim the winnings.

And she continues
to head west on the interstate

towards Texas.

It is surprising
to see somebody--and unusual--

immediately go off
on a gambling jaunt

after they've killed
two people.

She heads south
towards the Mexican border,

where she's picked up again
on a license plate reader

in Refugio, Texas,

which is a suburb
of Corpus Christi.

In my belief, she knows
we're on her tail.

It's clear where she's going.

She wants out of the country.

Perhaps she thought
she could escape.

She had so amazingly
eluded...

law enforcement at that time

that they thought she might
make it all the way to Mexico.

She checks into a Motel 6

right in the center
of South Padre Island,

and it appears that she checks
in for a period of two weeks.

She got out there,
and she made friends...

much the same way she made
friends with our victim

in Fort Myers Beach.

She encountered a woman
at the pool at the Motel 6

and started chatting her up.

It amazed me that Lois would
yet befriend another person...

And somehow get invited
to stay in her guest room.

She also had
the murder weapon with her.

Certainly, she had
now committed one murder

with the intention
of concealing her identity.

So it was very important
to try to find her

so that she wouldn't
do that again.

I've had some wild cases

that I have covered
over the years.

But I've never seen
one like this before.

This one was wild.

It eventually captured
the attention

of the entire nation.

Good afternoon.

I'm undersheriff
Carmine Marceno.

I thank you for attending
today's press conference.

There comes a point in time
where we want the media--

we want everyone,
because now we go country-wide.

Riess's mode of operation is
to befriend women

who resemble her
and steal their identity.

U.S. Marshals are actively
involved in a national search

for this dangerous fugitive.

Riess is considered
armed and dangerous

and should not be
approached if located.

We want everyone to help us.

Let's get this information out.

Let's be on the lookout.

Let's put her face
on the billboards everywhere,

because where is she going?

We don't know, but we need
to all work and stop her

before she commits
another murder.

Police say this surveillance
video shows a cunning killer

on the prowl, 56-year-old
grandmother Lois Riess,

targeting 59-year-old Pamela Hutchinson

in a Fort Myers bar.

And now law enforcement
has out

a full-fledged media campaign
to try to catch her.

There's a BOLO, which means
be on the lookout, for her.

And her picture's everywhere.

So that way, hopefully,
someone could come into contact

with her and catch her.

The U.S. Marshals' Service
today posted a $5,000 reward

for information
about a fugitive grandmother.

Lois Riess is suspected

of murdering her husband
in Minnesota

and a lookalike woman
in Florida.

It has been determined
that Riess has

fled southwest Florida

and has traveled through
the Gulf states

and into Corpus Christi,
Texas, area.

And current whereabouts
are unknown.

She's sitting in a bar
in South Padre,

and the bartender
looks at her and says,

oh, that's the woman who's
wanted who I just saw on TV...

And does the, of course,
extremely correct thing

of calling
local law enforcement,

who in turn calls in
the U.S. Marshals.

She got a tap
on the shoulder,

and it was a U.S. Marshal.

And he asked her
to step outside, and she did.

And she was asked to produce
identification, and she did.

And she was arrested.

The story, it gained
a lot of notoriety.

People were using
things like Killer Grandma

or Losing Streak Lois.

A tip-off led to
the arrest of Lois Riess,

a suspected murderer
who had been

on the lam for nearly a month.

When you look at the folks
that she befriended

in South Padre Island--
I don't want to speculate,

but it is certainly something
that has crossed my mind

that had she not been
captured when she was,

perhaps she would have
done the same thing.

Those people should thank
their lucky stars that--

because she had the gun.

She had the gun.

She could have done it again.

Lo and behold, they discovered
that the gun that had been used

on Pamela Hutchinson
was the same gun

that had been used
on David Riess.

She was certainly interested
in casino gambling again,

because she did have
literature that we found

in her hotel room that
showed some sort of interest

in going to a casino
somewhere in Texas.

Obviously, gambling was
going to be part

of her continued life
on the run.

Lois was first taken
back to Florida,

where there was always going
to be the question

of whose jurisdiction--who
would get to try her first.

You committed that murder
on a tourist in my county,

and we are going to get you.

And in the end, I wanted
her to specifically

face the music here.

In this case, in our
opinion, you had a very clear,

premeditated
first-degree murder.

You got a woman
who comes to Florida,

looks like she's looking
for somebody

who looks at least
somewhat like her

to kill and assume
their identity.

To us, that was clear signs
of a premeditated murder.

So we charged her

with first-degree
premeditated murder.

Once you're convicted of
first-degree murder in Florida,

there's only
two possible sentences.

One is a life sentence
without the chance of release,

and the second sentence
is the death penalty.

In this case, we decided
to seek the death penalty.

Our attorneys handling
the case were contacted

by the defense for Lois Riess,
and they said,

she wants to take
responsibility.

She wants to enter
a plea to life

without the possibility
of parole or release

and go back to Minnesota,

where she was also
facing murder charges.

And we determined that because
she still had a case pending

in Minnesota and she needed
to go back to Minnesota,

with the family,
the next of kin's blessing,

we decided that the best
thing to do in this case

would be to take
the life sentence

and let her go on
her way to Minnesota

and stay there and
answer her charges there.

And we knew by that plea
that she would be spending

the rest of her life
in prison on our charges,

regardless of what happened
in Minnesota.

She came out
in her orange jumpsuit,

very matter-of-factly.

She answered
the questions posed to her

by the prosecutors
and by the judge.

Do you understand
why you're here today?

Yes.

To the charge of first-degree
murder with a firearm,

a capital felony, which is
punishable by the death penalty

or life, how do you plead?

Guilty.

Pursuant to the terms
of the agreement, ma'am,

I will adjudicate you guilty.

I will sentence you

to the Florida Department
of Corrections

for a period of life
on Count I.

She understood and accepted
her responsibility,

and she took the plea,

and off she went,
back into the holding cell.

She was extradited
back to Minnesota,

where she was going
to be tried

for the death
of her husband, David.

It was a pretty packed area
when the judge announced,

you know, we've reached
a plea agreement.

And she pleaded guilty that day

and was sentenced that day
to life in prison.

The court determined
that on the night

that David was
shot and killed...

he and Lois had
apparently gone

to see grandkids
in sporting events.

And on the way back
to their home

there in Blooming Prairie,

they started arguing,
probably about money,

probably about
her gambling addiction.

And according to Lois...

while they were arguing
at their home,

he handed her a loaded pistol

and told her basically
to shoot and kill herself.

And instead, she took the gun,
pointed it at him,

and shot him three times.

Where I have my doubts is
his handing her the pistol

and saying, shoot yourself.

I have my doubts.

It's always disturbing
to me as a prosecutor

and as a member
of the community

to see when people
do evil things

and just don't seem to have
any care about what they did.

The way she had
befriended the victim,

who was a loving and obviously
a very trusting person,

and then killed her,
we thought had the marks

of a really evil killer.

The enormity of this case,

geographically as well as
just in terms

of what happened
and how this destroyed

so many families' lives,

I've never seen
anything like before.

And I hope I never see again.

And in the end,
justice is served.

That killer is off the streets.

She's behind bars
where she belongs.

You commit a crime
in my county, you can run.

You can't hide.

Everyone was
looking for Micah.

Where was Micah?

Where would someone have come
by and tried to abduct her?

You add all the
things together,

and something's not right.

It was clear that
they knew about guns.