Video Shows Suspected Killer Chatting Up Her Lookalike

Police on the hunt for Lois Riess, who allegedly murdered her husband, woman who looked like her
By Kate Seamons,  Newser Staff
Posted Apr 17, 2018 6:03 AM CDT

"She may look like anyone's grandmother or mother but behind that smile is a cold-blooded murderer." So says Undersheriff Carmine Marceno of the Lee County Sheriff's Office in Florida of Lois Riess, the 56-year-old who is accused of murdering her husband in Blooming Prairie, Minn., last month and then traveling to Fort Myers, Fla. There, police believe she killed Pamela Hutchinson, who bore a resemblance to her, then took off with her identification. Now, ABC News reports Florida officials have released surveillance footage that apparently shows Riess cheerfully talking to Hutchinson, 59, at the Smokin' Oyster Brewery during happy hour on April 5. The Star Tribune reports the video is just seven seconds long, but shows Riess "wooing a new friend who had only a short time to live."

Hutchinson was found dead with a gunshot wound to the heart on April 9. Though ABC News notes Riess had no prior criminal record, the Star Tribune reports it has emerged via court records that Riess was accused of siphoning more than $78,000 from her sister, who is disabled, during the 2012 to 2016 period that Riess served as her guardian and conservator. As for Riess' current whereabouts, police say Hutchinson's white 2005 Acura TL with Florida license plate Y37TAA was seen in Corpus Christi, Texas, in the wake of Hutchinson's death, but the trail has since gone cold. Marceno says it's possible Riess is now in Mexico and says "our main fear is ... she will commit another act of violence." Authorities caution she is armed and dangerous. (More murder stories.)

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