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'Fugitive Granny' Who Murdered Doppleganger In Order To Steal Her Identity Also Admits To Killing Husband
Lori Riess was previously sentenced to life in prison for the murder of Pamela Hutchinson in Florida, but was given another life term for killing her husband, David Riess.
The "fugitive granny" convicted of killing a lookalike in Florida has received a second life sentence for the murder of her husband.
On Tuesday, Lois Riess, 58, pleaded guilty to first-degree murder in the 2018 death of her husband David Riess, local outlet KAAL reported.
A spokesperson for Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison confirmed that Riess was sentenced to life in prison following her plea, the Star Tribune reported.
Riess's attorney stated that she shot her husband in the heart after he handed her a gun and told her to "kill herself." The couple had been arguing about leaving Riess' grandson's basketball game, according to KAAL.
After killing her husband in 2018, Riess became a fugitive. She fled to Florida, where she met and killed Pamela Hutchinson in April 2018 in order to steal her identity, after which she fled to Texas. Before she was apprehended at the beach resort community of South Padre Island by the U.S. Marshal Service later that month, authorities suspected she had set her sights on another potential victim: Bernadette Mathis.
"I had no idea. I thought she was a new best friend. I didn't think she was going to do anything to me," Mathis previously told WINK-TV. "We sat in my hot tub, she stayed in my guest bedroom, and the next morning I took her to breakfast."
Officials have alleged Riess had a pattern of befriending women before going on to victimize them — fatally, in Hutchinson's case.
“She was in Texas befriending another unknown female in what appeared to be the same pattern in which would have determined that she would have killed again,” Florida Sheriff Carmine Marceno previously stated.
After being extradited from Florida to face charges earlier this summer, Lois pleaded not guilty to killing David.
Due to an agreement with Florida officials, she will serve her life sentence in Minnesota. She is currently incarcerated at a facility in Minnesota, according to a review of online jail records.
