Crime Stories with Nancy Grace - Killers Amongst Us: Murder on the Waxworm Farm (part 2)

Episode Date: September 8, 2020

By all accounts, David and Lois Riess were a well liked couple in their Blooming Prairie, Minnesota community. When David Riess doesn't show up for work after two weeks, his employees knew something was wrong. On March 23, 2018, investigators find the body of 54-year-old David in the bathroom of his home, shot multiple times. His wife Lois is missing. Where is Lois Riess? Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. Hi guys, Nancy Grace here. Welcome back to Killers Amongst Us, a production of iHeartMedia and Crime Online. Blooming Prairie, Minnesota. A loving dad and husband is found dead in his own home, in his own bathroom. Multiple gunshots throughout the torso and body. How did that happen? And his wife apparently kidnapped. Wife Lois is missing.

Husband Dave dead. I'm Nancy Grace. This is Killers Amongst Us. After a couple of weeks, Dave's co-workers finally decided to call the police to report him missing. He hadn't been seen or heard from, and his wife no longer appeared to be in town. One of Dave's friends told the police that they received an odd text message from Dave. The content of the message wasn't what seemed off. What was striking to the friend was the fact that the message used punctuation.

Dave never used punctuation, not even a period whenever he wrote a text message or an email. On March 23, 2018, after receiving the missing persons report, the police discovered Dave's body in the bathroom of his home. The investigator and coroner weren't able to pinpoint the exact time or date that Dave died. His cell phone was found on the kitchen counter. Police believed that Dave probably had been dead when his friend received the text message, which meant someone else had undoubtedly sent the text message. You are hearing our friend Aaron Bluey. In this little town of 2,000 people, a murder was unheard of. Well, law enforcement swarmed the Prairie Wax Worm Farm. Listen. Deputies were at the Prairie Wax Worm Farm.

Listen. Deputies were at the Prairie Wax Worm Farm Saturday night. I'm told Reese lives where Dodge County authorities are investigating. Just right outside of town. Is it next to that Prairie Wax Worm Farm? Yes. Yeah, the house is located on the same property. Many versions of the story of what people think happened are

going around town. But one thing is for certain. It's a situation affecting the entire community of Blooming Prairie. I had gone to bed Saturday night thinking about what a wonderful community this is because we had

our Blooming Prairie Education Foundation auction. And then the next thing I know I hear this and it's just, yeah, it just seems unreal for our little community. Unreal. It seemed like a nightmare. Joining me right now, Ashley Wilcott, judge, trial lawyer, anchor court TV at Ashley Wilcott.com. Dr. Bethany Marshall, psychoanalyst from Beverly Hills at Drbethanymarshall.com. Cloyd Steiger, 36 years Seattle PD author, Seattle's Forgotten Serial Killer, Gary Jean Grant at cloydsteiger.com. Joseph Scott Morgan, professor of forensics, Jacksonville State University and author of

Blood Beneath My Feet on Amazon. Tess Koster, longtime friend of Lois Reese from Minnesota. Also with me, Kaylin Thompson, KIMT News 3, Rochester, Minnesota, crack reporter. At this point, nobody knows what to think. And I guess, Kaylin Thompson, this was the first murder in a really long time. You're absolutely right. I think, I mean, it was definitely not a run- the mill crime that they, these authorities would deal with every day. You know, they're looking for Lois Reese and typically to you, Cloyd Steiger, 36 years Seattle PD, where do you start? I guess with the vehicle, there was a vehicle missing, Cadillac Escalade. Yeah, the first thing you're going to do is you're going to put bulletins out across, you know, at least in the state of Minnesota, maybe across for the car and for her as a missing endangered person and hoping someone sees her.

You might look for automated license plate readers in your region to see if they picked up that car anywhere. But those are the first steps you're going to take. You know, Floyd Steiger, I also noticed that Dave Reese is killed in the bathroom. You know what? Maybe this is more for a shrink. Dr. Bethany Marshall, our now psychoanalyst, joining me out of Beverly Hills. I see that over and over and over, that people are hacked up, stabbed, shot in the bathroom. Why? Nancy, this is such an up close and personal crime.

This is not somebody who's driving down the street and shoots into a house or shoots into a crowded mall. This is somebody who knew the family, who was familiar with the layout of the house. Think about it. He was in the bathroom. If you're going to go into somebody's house and shoot them in the bathroom, you're probably going to have access through the front door. Maybe you could break him through a window, but this is somebody who knew the layout, caught him in the bathroom, and was incredibly angry. We've been talking about grudges. Who could have had a grudge against Dave in this small town? Did he owe somebody money? Was he having an affair with somebody?

But, you know, wait a minute, though. Haven't you found, Ashley Wilcott, the grudge murders, or a better fit for a mystery novel or TV? You don't really see a lot of grudge murders are a better fit for a mystery novel or TV. You don't really see a lot of grudge murders where they not only shoot the person that, let's just say, owes them money, but then they take the wife to and rape and kill her. That's more of a murder mystery novel or a movie than in reality. Well, I definitely don't think it's a grudge, but I will say this. I could see it happening if it was an emotional crime, meaning if one of them was having an affair.

That's immediately where my mind goes to, which, yes, is a romance novel or a mystery novel, I should rather say. But that's when I could see him being killed and then her being kidnapped. You know what? You're right. To you, Jessica and Morgan,

I want to circle back based on what Ashley and Dr. Bethany just said. Why the bathroom? So often you and I are analyzing cases and the murder goes down and the bathroom, is it something instinctive? You know what I think it is, Nancy? This is the deal. That's an intimate space. That's something that very few people in our lives actually have access to, particularly when it comes to our own personal space.

It also facilitates containment. You know, bathrooms tend to be, in my case at least, small in homes. Others are large. But it's also an area where you can clean up quite readily. You know what this makes me think of? It makes me think of, and here's her name, Jodi Arias and Travis Alexander. Where did this begin? Well, it began in his bathroom. Think about it, how defenseless he was. He was nude. He was in the shower.

It's an area that you could potentially clean up and you could see this coming. When are we the most vulnerable? Well, we're using the facilities in there one way or another. And that's what this implies to me. Somebody that's within his intimate zone. Well, this is what I know. He shot dead multiple gunshot wounds across his body, each shot in itself deadly. The thinking behind someone shooting him, Dr. Bethany Marshall, killing him many times over, back to what Ashley said, does seem like an emotional killing. This is somebody who had been thinking about Dave for a long, long time. We think about homicides as being like crimes of passion or something that, as you say, is just formed in a moment. But actually, in my field, we think that homicidal feelings foment over months or years. So it makes me think again,

did he owe somebody money? Was he having an affair with somebody? Had he cheated somebody? Was somebody envious or jealous of his success? He had just started the Waxworks Farms, and he was extremely successful at that. So there were people in this town that maybe would look at him and say, hey, you're successful. I tried to start a bait shop, and mine didn't work out, and yours has worked out. Why are you more successful than me? And back to the bathroom containment thing, Joe Scott Morgan pointed out that it's a contained area where you can easily clean up. A predominance of suicides occur in bathrooms too. The very same reason is that it is a contained space and there's running water, there's usually tile. The paint on the walls is usually like a

smooth finish. So it is a place where if you're going to suicide or to shoot somebody to death, you could actually clean up the space fairly easily. Guys, we're talking about the murder of David Reese, gunned down in his own bathroom and then his wife kidnapped. Where is Lois Reese? You know, to you, Kielin Thompson, joining me, KIMT News 3, Rochester, Minnesota. This is a really small town. I find it hard to believe that an affair is going on and nobody knows about it. Right.

I mean, in these kinds of communities where everybody knows everybody, you would know what's going on by word of mouth. Or, I mean, people I spoke to knew where the Reese's lived. So it's like everyone knows everybody and everyone kind of knows what's going on. OK, guys, you're going to laugh at me, but I feel like I know all about Minnesota. And you know why? Because of John Sanford. He writes all the prey books. And he writes about a guy named Lucas Davenport and Virgil, his sidekick, and they solve crimes all over Minnesota, especially the Twin Cities. So I actually have heard of Blooming Prairie.

But in that context, it was of a sleepy little town where nothing ever really happens. Well, not so this time. Take a listen. There was a Dodge County Sheriff's Office patrol car guarding the Prairie Wax Worm Farm location today. It's located on Highway 218, just outside of Blooming Prairie. And that's where they say a suspicious death took place over

the weekend. The nearly 2,000 people in Blooming Prairie are trying to piece together what happened just outside of town at the Prairie Wax Worm Farm over the weekend. All I've heard is what is on Facebook so far. Those are the hands of one local business owner who didn't want to be identified. She tells me 56-year-old Lois Reese is someone she's seen before. Authorities are looking for this Lois Reese. Is that a familiar name to you? Yes.

Authorities say Reese may have information for what they're calling a suspicious death in rural Dodge County. There was a Dodge County Sheriff's Office patrol car guarding the Prairie Wax Worm Farm location today. It's located on Highway 218 just outside of Blooming Prairie. And that's where they say a suspicious death took place over the weekend The nearly 2,000 people in Blooming Prairie are trying to piece together What happened just outside of town at the Prairie Wax worm farm over the weekend? All I've heard is what is On Facebook so far those are the hands of one local business owner who didn't want to be identified. She tells me 56-year-old Lois Reese is someone she's seen before. Authorities are

looking for this Lois Reese. Is that a familiar name to you? Yes. Authorities say Reese may have information for what they're calling a suspicious death in rural Dodge County. And Reese herself missing. That was our friend joining us right now, Kaylin Thompson, KIMT News 3 Rochester. You know, to Tess Koster, longtime friend of the Reese family, had them over many, many times, spent weekends together, day fun to be around, lowest bring steaks for everybody and cooks up breakfast on a lake weekend did you see talking about adultery i mean hold on hold on test first to dr bethany marshall come on in a small town you want to tell me everybody doesn't know who's sleeping with who

okay nancy i went to a college where there were only 453 students We knew everybody's business. It was a fishbowl in a very small town. You're going to ask somebody out on a date and go to the local diner and even pretend that you're just friends. Like the energy is not going to be picked up by everybody else in the diner. Everybody else is going to know. So an affair would have to have been with somebody out of town, somebody online, somebody on the internet. Yeah. Or something where there was a clandestine relationship between Dave and somebody in the town and a lover, a spouse, somebody had begun to become very angry and upset about it. But this is a powder keg. You know, it's funny, Ashley Wilcott, joining me, judge and trial lawyer,

my dad, who is really my soulmate, taught a Sunday school class forever. And he taught it with one of my friends' mother, Miss Jeanette. And sometime over the weekend or during the week, they would get together for about one hour for coffee. And they'd always go to the same diner. I think it was in Byron, Georgia, sit in the window, have coffee and go through the Sunday school notes. We had a field day with my father about meeting Miss Jeanette every week for coffee, and he would turn blood red. They would have their notes. I think they were teaching us from teaching out of bird life in Wington, and it's really about people and all of their horrible traits and but they used birds

like mr crow and mr owl and mr crow was jealous of mr owl blah blah blah my point is everybody knows when you even have a cup of coffee much less doing it you're so right my grandparents lived in a tiny little town in south te, right on the border of Mexico, Texas. And it was the same way. He had coffee with his guy friends every single morning of his life, I think. And you are right. Within 10 minutes, his wife, my grandmother, knew exactly what was going on, where they were meeting, the coffee they were drinking, the kind of coffee they were drinking. I mean, it's crazy. So I do agree if it's a small community like this one was, even if it's not accurate, people are talking about it and saying what they want.

And people would have had an idea. I do agree with that. I mean, come on, Kaylin Thompson, K-I-M-T, tells us she drove up. She goes, hey, where's the waxworm farm? And they all pointed. They told her exactly where it was. She didn't need her Google Maps or her what's the other thing, Waze. But back to you, Tess Koster joining me, longtime friend of Lois Reese and Dave Reese.

Tess, I just don't see adultery or everybody would have known about it. Did you ever see any hint of a problem between the two? No, never. They seem to get along just fine. By the time all of this was starting to take place, we were in Florida, we're snowbirds, so we weren't around. And according to some of the waxworm employees, they were starting to fight and argue about money because she was starting to gamble a lot. Did he know she was gambling or was she doing it in secret? He knew she was gambling, yes. She had also stolen money from her sister, who she was her guardian, guardian elitum and from her mother. Oh, the old saying money, not money itself, but the love of money is the root of all evil.

Is money developing into a motive? But wait a minute. In the middle of Minnesota, where is there? Tess Koster, where is there in Minnesota to gamble? The Indians have casinos. So her favorite one was Diamond Joe's, which is just across on the Iowa border, Minnesota-Iowa border. She was known as losing lowest there. Apparently she lost a lot.

Oh, that's a big sign. You know what's interesting, Tess, is that gambling is an addiction addiction just like drugs or alcohol or porn. I mean, remember we would read about, you remember Ben Affleck was a big gambler and just like hundreds of thousands of dollars down the crapper gambling. And I guess the gambler always thinks they can win it back somehow and get out of the hole they've dug for themselves. Did she ever, was she open with you about her gambling problem? No, she didn't talk about it to anyone in town. Her husband, Dave, would talk about it to other people, but she did not.

What would he say? That her gambling was getting out of line and, you know, they were starting to argue about it. Wow. You know, that's you just told me something I didn't know, Tess Koster, because to you, Dr. Bethany Marshall, psychoanalyst joining me out of Beverly Hills. As I was saying to Tess, gambling is just as much an addiction as, you know, alcohol or drugs or or it it gets a hold of you and you always for some reason gamblers always think they can win the money back always nancy so the dynamic of compulsive gambling is some future reward is going to compensate for everything that's going wrong in my life right now. I don't have to think about the present. Even if I'm just scrounging through my sofa for old dimes

and coins and things like that to drop in the slot machine, I'm not going to think about my current poverty or my life situation or my fights with my husband because this future huge reward is going to compensate for everything. So therefore, I'm not even responsible for what's going on in my life right now. I have a pot at the end of the rainbow, and I don't have to think about myself. I don't have to act on my own behalf. I don't have to be decent. I don't have to show up for the people in my life. That future reward is going to fix

everything. So I think losing Lois was so obsessed with getting money. She didn't really perhaps realize that she had family, friends, community, beautiful people all around her. The present really didn't matter. You know, to you, Joseph Scott Morgan, professor of forensic at Jacksonville State University and author, the state, of course, never has to prove the motive. But now we've got the husband dead and the wife is missing. Typically, when I hear about,

well, it's on TV and in movies, the mob comes and kills you or breaks your knees because you owe them money. Have you ever in real life had a murder where the mob comes and kills you or breaks your knees because you owe them money. Have you ever in real life had a murder where the mob kills you because you haven't paid your gambling debts? Have you ever had that in real life in your practice, Joe Scott? No, not not relative to gambling. No, I have not. What do you mean not relative to gambling?

Have you had a mob hit? Yeah, I've had at least three, particularly in New Orleans. I had two or three that were connected with organized crime. I've had a lot of murders that were drug related, but actually tied into the mob drug business. What about it? Cloyde Steiger, have you ever, neither Joe Scott Morgan or myself have had a murder that was over a gambling debt? Have you? I have never had a murder that was over a gambling debt. Have you? I have never had a murder over gambling debt.

No. Drug debts and things, sure, but not gambling. I mean, I could see someone coming after Lois Reese if she owed a ton of money. But why kill the husband and then take her? Curious. Actually, Wilcott, judge and trial lawyer, Court TV anchor, have you ever had a murder over a gambling debt? I know you've had plenty of murders, but over a gambling debt? You know, I have to be honest.

I have not. I cannot think of one. And I'm not just talking gambling debt, though. I'm talking debt because I have seen crimes as a result of somebody owing somebody else. And I'm going to tell you, I've seen one where it was as little as about $10,000 that one person owed another person and that other person didn't pay it back. So the one person did shoot that person, but did not kill the person. So I haven't seen it, but I don't think it's that unfeasible. You know, I don't understand

why even when you're down so much money, you keep going back to the crap table. But now we're learning there was more money involved than just the gambling losses. Take a listen to our friend Iris Perez at Fox 9 Minneapolis. Reese was named her sister's guardian in 2012. Three years later, Reese moved Sanchez to an assisted living facility. Around the same time, Minnesota Prairie County Alliance reported Reese transferred funds from the guardianship account to her own, only to withdraw the funds at a local casino. That's when the Steele County Sheriff investigated Reese for financial exploitation. The investigator reported Reese wrote more than 30 grand worth of checks from her sister's

account without permission. The withdrawals were made at the same time court documents show Reese's sister inherited $200,000. An audit later revealed the mishandling of her sister's money. In one instance, Reese made a $14,000 debt payment to William Witte, Sanchez's dead father. In another, Reese paid herself $8,500 in guardian fees and then paid out $15,000 worth of gifts to a niece and nephews. But all that came to an end after a social worker filed an emergency petition in September 2015.

Reese's guardianship has since been revoked. Reese was named her sister's guardian in 2012. Three years later, Reese moved Sanchez to an assisted living facility. Around the same time, Minnesota Prairie County Alliance reported Reese transferred funds from the guardianship account to her own, only to withdraw the funds at a local casino. That's when the Steele County Sheriff investigated Reese for financial exploitation. The investigator reported Reese wrote more than 30 grand worth of checks from her sister's account without permission. The withdrawals were made at the same time court documents show Reese's sister inherited $200,000.

An audit later revealed the mishandling of her sister's money. In one instance, Reese made a $14,000 debt payment to William Witte, Sanchez's dead father. In another, Reese paid herself $8,500 in guardian fees and then paid out $15,000 worth of gifts to a niece and nephews. But all that came to an end after a social worker filed an emergency petition in September 2015. Reese's guardianship has since been revoked. Ouch. The reality is stealing from her disabled sister to you, Kaylin Thompson, KIMT News 3 Rochester. Kaylin, she was stealing from the disabled sister. She was the guardian for the sister. Was she using all that money to gamble? As far as I know, yes. It sounds like she had those lump sums amount as what you just heard, and she was heading over to the casinos to use it.

So she was in so over her head regarding her debt. I'm talking by now it had to be hundreds of thousands of dollars, the price tag getting higher and higher and higher to Lois Reese's gambling debts. So where is there around there to go, Kiel and Thompson, KIMT? Tess Koster told me of a Diamond Jacks or Diamond Joes. I had no idea that Minnesota had so many gambling casinos. Right. This Diamond Joe casino is just across the Iowa-Minnesota border in a little town called Northwood, Iowa. And it's right next to the top of the Iowa Travel Center where there is a come-and-go gas station. You know, to Dr. Bethany Marshall, psychoanalyst, joining me out of Beverly Hills, when I have

been in gambling territory, you can even gamble at gas stations. I forgot. Where were we? Oh, I know. We were on our first RV trip, and we had gone from Tucson to Vegas, and we were heading toward Death Valley. And we went to a gas station. It wasn't a Waffle House, but it was something like a pancake house you'd have to go through a mini casino to get to the pancakes you'd go through like a casino den

to get back to the where the pancakes were i mean that is such a temptation and nancy think about all these shining lights and the music that plays and the tinkling sounds. That's like music to a gambler's ear. And think about it. Lois had taken money from her disabled sister. And what gamblers do is they'll take money from one source and then they'll think that they can pay it back. It's like going into the grocery store and you steal, I don't know, you steal a six pack of Pepsi. And you think, I didn't do anything wrong because tomorrow I'm just going to go back and I'll bring it back. I'll replace it.

So she kept getting in deeper and deeper because she was robbing Peter to pay Paul. She was taking from her disabled sister. She was giving gifts to her nephews and nieces. And then every time she went in through the casino section of the gas station, she would think, oh, I'll just make a right back and I'll just, I'll pay it back. But thank God that there was a social worker who noticed this pattern of malfeasance and began to investigate her. Stealing tens of thousands of dollars from her disabled sister. So David Reese is dead. The search is on for Lois Reese. Is she dead? Whoever she owed all that money to, had they come for revenge? Then the case cracked wide open in the search for Lois Reese. Take a listen to our friends at KARE 11.

If you want to start heading south, would you take 35 south? Just to keep going on down to the next state? Is that the way to go, you think? I think so. Because I think that goes, 35 goes through, it goes down to Omaha and like past Omaha and all that. Okay, well, thank you. Yep.

Oh, wait a minute. Kaylin Thompson, KIMT, News 3, Rochester. Who's that asking for directions at the come and go? That's Lois Reese. She stopped at the come and go that's right across the street from Diamond Joe Casino and I think had to grab lunch and grab directions where she was going to next. And this video captured at the Come and Go gas station in Northwood, Iowa, is the same day cops find the body of David Reese riddled with bullets in the bathroom of his Blooming Prairie home. Wouldn't you say, Joe Scott Morgan, that changes the nature of the investigation?

Yes, absolutely it does. It certainly narrows down our field, doesn't it? You know, in all these kind of cases like this, Nancy, I say over and over again, you're in more danger with those that are in your intimate sphere. You always look at the intimates, those individuals that surround your world. Hey, hey, hey, thanks for all the philosophy preacher. But what I'm saying is her husband's dead in the bathtub. And she said the come and go asking for directions. And she sounds pretty chipper to me. Guys, listen to Erin Bluey.

The family vehicle, a 2005 Cadillac Escalade, was also missing. Lois didn't waste time getting out of town. She was on the run, driving the family Cadillac, and had no thought of returning to Blooming Prairie. She headed south with the hopes that it wouldn't be discovered for a long time what happened to her husband. It didn't take long for the police to realize that Lois had skipped town, and they soon had her face plastered all over the media with a label naming her Fugitive Grandma. One of Lois' first stops was at the Diamond Joe Casino, which was just across the Iowa border. The employees at the casino knew who she was and knew that blackjack was her game of choice. Diamond Joe was only about a 45-minute drive from Dave and Lois' home, and she visited there often. At the casino and all throughout her drive south,

Lois used her husband's debit card and checkbook to write herself checks and transfer funds to her bank account, totaling over $11,000. And you think that's the end of the story? Somehow Lois Reese has to not only feed herself, but her gambling addiction. Other victims are yet to be targeted. Nancy Grace, Killers Amongst Us, signing off. Goodbye, friend. This is an iHeart Podcast.