Pamela Hutchinson, a 59-year-old Bradenton resident, had the misfortune of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. What ultimately turned out to be her downfall was her resemblance to a wanted fugitive wanted for the March 2018 murder of her husband, David Riess, in Minnesota.
Within the next two weeks, ID’s See No Evil will revisit the Hutchinson and Riess double murder case, in which Lois Riess, aka the “Killer Granny,” was responsible for both deaths. On January 25, 2023, at 9 p.m. Eastern Time, a brand new episode called “Dual Identity” premieres.
In April, Hutchinson was found dead in her hotel room in Fort Myers Beach, Florida, after someone, possibly her killer, posed as her on the phone and asked to extend her stay for another three days. News reports claim that her decomposing body was discovered a few days after the murder.
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Ultimately, security evidence linked Hutchinson’s murder to the global manhunt for Lois Riess, who was on the run after shooting and killing her husband. An arrest warrant was issued for Riess in late April and he was taken into custody in Texas.
According to multiple reports, on April 3, 2018, 59-year-old Pamela Hutchinson, a resident of Bradenton, left Florida for Fort Myers Beach to attend the scattering of her husband’s ashes on Sanibel by a friend. A hotel worker at Marina Village in Snug Harbor, where she was staying, discovered her body on April 9.
Hotel staff claimed that on April 6, someone calling the front desk posing as Hutchinson asked for an additional three days of accommodation. There was a delay in finding her body because no one entered her room for three days. There is strong evidence that her death occurred on April 5 between 7:46 and 8:34 am.
The responding detectives found Pamela’s body on top of a passed pillow. According to reports, the decomposition process on the body had only just begun. She was shot twice in the torso, once in the back and once in the chest, both bullets penetrating her and damaging her aorta and heart.
Authorities found evidence suggesting someone had been sleeping in the guest bedroom. Pamela’s personal belongings were also disorganized. Things like her wallet, car and bank cards went missing, as well as her jewelry. Security footage of the area surrounding the hotel where Pamela Hutchinson was staying was timestamped so investigators could quickly piece together a timeline of events.
Hutchinson allegedly invited Lois Riess to her hotel room the day after Riess arrived in town. The two ladies left together shortly afterwards and returned around midnight on April 5. CCTV footage shows Riess and Hutchinson having breakfast together at a nearby restaurant after spending the night together. They had dinner together, and then Hutchinson came back to his room at 7:46 that night. Riess eventually left the room alone, after almost an hour had passed.
After reviewing the videos, police say it is clear that Lois Reiss killed Pamela Hutchinson while posing as her girlfriend. She then fled to Texas in the victim’s car after withdrawing $5,000 in cash using her ID. On April 19, she was arrested at a restaurant by U.S. Marshals and local police after receiving a tip.
In December 2019, more than a year after the death of Pamela Hutchinson, Lois pleaded guilty to first degree murder with a firearm, grand larceny of a motor vehicle, grand larceny and illegal use of personal information and identification. She eventually entered a guilty plea to first-degree murder in the death of her husband, Minnesota resident David Riess.
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