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Mantorville, MN (KROC-AM News) - A former Blooming Prairie woman today admitted to murdering her husband in a crime that led to a nationwide manhunt.

58-year-old Lois Riess this afternoon entered a guilty plea to a first-degree murder charge in Dodge County Court. Through a plea agreement, a second-degree murder charge stemming from the March 23, 2018 shooting death of David Riess at the couple’s home in rural Blooming Prairie was dropped. The first-degree murder conviction carries an automatic sentence of life in prison.

Lois Riess is already serving a life sentence in Florida for the murder of 59-year-old Pamela Hutchinson in April 2018. She earlier entered a guilty plea in that case to avoid the possibility of a death sentence. She was accused of killing the Florida woman and then stealing Hutchinson's identity as she tried to elude authorities seeking her for the murder of her husband. Riess was captured in Texas on April 19 in 2018 and was returned to Florida for prosecution.

Dodge County authorities began the process of having Riess brought to Minnesota to face trial last December. Her arrival was apparently delayed by the pandemic and she was booked into the Steele County jail in early July and was arraigned on the charges contained in an indictment handed down by the Dodge County Grand Jury in May of last year.

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