Last night, while I wasn't watching much of the Academy Awards, I ended up channel surfing when I landed on Dateline on NBC. The featured case this week? Lois Riess from Blooming Prairie murdered her husband and then another woman in Florida back in 2018. Her run from law enforcement sparked at the time national attention, and when she was caught it was like a scene from a movie.

The episode, which I realize was a repeat, was titled The Woman at the Bar. It followed Lois from Blooming Prairie to Florida, then on to Texas where she was apprehended.

At the time this happened in 2018, I was living in Southern Minnesota, and worked about 15 miles from Blooming Prairie. It was honestly one of the most surreal things that have ever happened, seeing on national television familiar places from a small town in Minnesota flashing across the screen followed by the picture of a wanted woman.

Lois while on the run from Minnesota law enforcement ended up killing a Florida woman for her identity. That woman, Pamela Hutchinson, was simply being kind to a new 'friend' only to be killed.

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What stood out the most to me with the Dateline episode was the bartender from South Padre Island, who remembers what Lois ordered and was behind the bar when law enforcement entered and dramatically took Riess away in handcuffs. I commented to my wife, 'How does someone remember the order?', to which her response was 'Well it's probably not every day a wanted murderer gets arrested basically in front of you.'

If you missed it, you can check it out online (there is a paywall/cable provider wall associated with this link), or else I included the NBC promo below.

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