More: LCSO: Lois Ann Riess killed husband in Minnesota before killing woman at Fort Myers Beachįor a while, she seemed to be nowhere. More: Surveillance video released of Fort Myers Beach homicide suspect Lois Ann Riess Marshal Service to find the woman they’d dubbed “Losing Streak Lois.” Soon, there was a “wanted” poster, a $6,000 reward on her head and a multistate billboard campaign by the U.S. Later that night, the Acura was spotted by a license plate-reading camera in Texas. That may have been Riess’ last stroke of good luck. I’m going to go to jail … Hell, I might as well enjoy myself on the ride.”Īfter Ocala, it was on to Louisiana, with a stop at the Coushatta Casino Resort in Kinder where she won a $1,500 jackpot, which she collected using her own name April 8. “My belief is she was like, ‘You know what? I’ve got nothing to lose. This year, they planned a two-day stop in Bradenton to have dinner with Pamela Hutchinson, Watts' cousin.īy this point, FGCU’s Thomas thinks Riess was going for broke.

Leaving their North Carolina home, they drove through the South toward their ultimate goal: the Florida Keys. Map: The path of Lois Riess “He just looked at me and said, ‘Pam is dead.’”Įllen Britt Watts and her husband had embarked on their annual trip to Florida. 'People just don't think of a grandmother being a cold-blooded murderer.'

She doesn't portray that image,' said Fort Myers-based Deputy U.S. Striped cardigan swinging open over pale sweats, the silver-haired woman doesn't look or sound like someone who'd left her husband shot to death before heading out to spend the day gambling, as authorities allege. 'Just keep going on down to the next state?” “If you want to start heading south, would you take 35 south?' she asks in a classic 'Fargo' accent. Almost as an afterthought, she asks the clerk how to get out of Iowa. Suddenly Riess appears, sandwich in one hand, cash in the other, strolling to the counter.

The audacity of heartbreak