MINNEAPOLIS - After a nationwide search and alleged murders in Minnesota and Florida, US Marshals finally caught up to Lois Riess in South Padre Island Texas.
Perhaps nobody was more relieved than Tess Koster.
"It could have been me," Koster said. "She came to Fort Myers Beach because of us."
Tess and her husband, Rod Koster, are Florida snowbirds who live in Blooming Prairie. She says they became friends with Lois and Dave Riess in 2005, even inviting them to visit them in Florida a few years ago.
"Got along great with them," Tess said. "They were great people."
Which is why they were shocked to learn that Dodge County Police discovered Dave Riess shot and killed in his home last month, and that Lois was a person of interest. But even that couldn't prepare Tess for what came next. She says the white Escalade, investigators were searching for, pulled into their driveway in Fort Myers Beach, Florida.
"I stepped forward and said, 'Can I help you.' And we made eye contact," Tess said. "At that point I was in shock. Lois Riess is in my driveway. She's suspected of murdering her husband and she's in my driveway."
Tess says Riess quickly turned around, got in the SUV and drove away. She and her husband then called the Lee County Sheriff. A short time later she says her daughter called from their Blooming Prairie business, Koster's Car Korner, to tell them that an anonymous woman had called asking for their Florida address.
"They looked back at caller ID and it was the cellphone that Lois had bought after she had ditched the Minnesota cell phone," Tess said. "I was literally sick to my stomach for two days."
That sick feeling turned to panic a few days later when deputies announced Riess was the suspect in another murder, this time in Fort Myers Beach, Florida.
"The murder was actually a block from our house," Tess said.
She says investigators told her that Riess had allegedly befriended and killed 59 year old Pamela Hutchinson and stole her identity.
"(Deputies) said, 'Boy, with your long blonde hair, she might have been after you, or she might have just wanted to move into one of your houses," Tess said.
She says she watched in fear as the search continued through several states in the week that followed. That feeling finally subsided on Thursday, when Marshals caught up with Lois Riess thanks to a tipster.
"So glad that they have her now in custody," Tess said. "I feel so much better. I feel really bad for the family."