Lois Riess lived in the quiet town of Blooming Prairie, Minnesota, with her husband, David Riess. Their life appeared pretty typical, but no one ever really knows what’s happening behind closed doors. On March 23, 2018, police found the body of 54-year-old David Riess riddled with bullets inside the couple’s home. Lois Riess appeared to be missing, but police later learned she had fled her home in pursuit of a new life.
Lois Riess went to Florida and met 59-year-old Pamela Hutchinson. Sadly, the friendship would be short-lived and ended in Hutchinson’s brutal murder.
Lois Riess befriended Hutchinson because they looked similar and she wanted to steal her identity, according to People. Police found Hutchinson’s body inside a messy hotel room in Fort Myers Beach, Florida. Lois Riess had rented the room, killed her new friend, and took off in her car on April 6, 2018. Police eventually arrested her in South Padre Island, Texas, on April 19, 2018.
In December 2019, a court convicted Lois Riess of murdering Pam Hutchinson and gave her a life sentence, the Fort Myers News-Press reported at the time. To those who loved her, that didn’t seem like enough.
“Oh, my God, I’m so happy. This will give the family some type of closure. I’m just glad she didn’t say she was crazy,” Hutchison’s best friend Judy Wilder said following the ruling. “I’m kinda disappointed, but (you) gotta trust our system. (I) would have liked to see the death penalty.”
Lois Riess pleaded guilty to murdering her husband in August 2020, Fox 9 reported at the time, and accepted a sentence of life without the possibility of parole. During her court appearance, she claimed David Riess handed her the gun and told her to kill herself but to “get it right this time.” After past suicide attempts, she decided to end it all that day.
Lois Riess’ children, Billy Riess and Breanna Riess, gave impact statements in court. Billy Riess said he will never speak to his mother again. “You just left. We had nobody,” the angry son said, per Fox 9. Breanna Riess added that her emotions vary from anger to regret and sadness.
In 2024, Lois Riess told her story for the HBO Documentary I’m Not a Monster: The Lois Riess Murders.
According to a news release, the film’s director, Erin Lee Carr, shares Lois Riess’ story through interviews, introducing a “likeable grandmother” turned killer who has a “deeply troubled past, an extensive gambling addiction, a strained marriage, and a family rocked by mental illness, suicide, and substance abuse. The series explores criminality and accountability through the mystery of a middle-aged woman who couldn’t be further from the typical image of a cold-blooded, multiple murderer.”
We may never understand what made Lois Riess snap and kill her husband. Perhaps there was abuse that got completely out of control. That’s not an excuse, but a bit of an understanding. But taking it a step further and killing an innocent woman to steal her identity is diabolical. Lois Riess will spend the rest of her life where she belongs.
If you or someone you know has been the victim of domestic abuse, you can find help and support at DVIS.org, the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233, or by contacting your local women’s shelter (domesticshelters.org).
