Rural Blooming Prairie woman pleads guilty to felony premeditated murder charge in Dodge County District Court

A rural Blooming Prairie woman who was accused of shooting and killing her husband in their home in March of 2018 has pleaded guilty to a premeditated murder charge in Dodge County District Court.   

58-year old Lois Riess entered a guilty plea to one count of felony 1st degree premeditated murder. She was immediately sentenced to life in prison without parole.

Authorities reported that Riess shot and killed her husband, 54-year old David Riess at their rural Blooming Prairie home in March 2018. After that murder, Riess led authorities on a nationwide manhunt, eventually killing another woman in Florida before finally being arrested in South Padre Island, Texas, just 27 miles from the Mexican border.

Riess was returned to Florida to be prosecuted for the fatal shooting of 59-year old Pamela Hutchinson at a Fort Myers Beach condo. Investigators stated that Riess killed Hutchinson in order to assume her identity while on the run.

Riess pleaded guilty in Hutchinson’s death and received a life sentence in Florida.