A Minnesota couple who have properties on Fort Myers Beach and a long-standing friendship with Lois Riess spoke to a nationally syndicated television news show Wednesday about their Southwest Florida encounter with the woman suspected in two homicides.
"Inside Edition" aired a 2½-minute segment from Fort Myers Beach with Rodney and Tess Koster, of Blooming Prairie, Minnesota, the same town where Riess lived and where a multistate search for the alleged killer grandma got its start.
Riess had been on the run since March, driving from Minnesota, with a stop at a casino in Iowa, and then arriving in Fort Myers Beach.
Riess is suspected in the killings of her husband, David Riess, 54, at their home in Blooming Prairie and Pamela Hutchinson, 59, who was found shot to death in a Fort Myers Beach timeshare on April 9. David Riess was discovered March 23.
Authorities believe Hutchinson was targeted because of her similar appearance to Riess.
That's one of the main things the "Inside Edition" report said that flashed through the mind of Tess Koster, 57.
"It could have been me," she told "Inside Edition."
The story the Kosters told the TV show was that the two couples were good friends, often stopping to chat at the post office or grocery store in the Blooming Prairie area.
Rodney Koster, 61, told "Inside Edition" that the Riesses were a perfect couple whom he had never seen argue. "They were happy all the time, joking," he said.
But it was Tess Koster having an almost face-to-face encounter with Riess in Fort Myers Beach and then not knowing where the wanted woman was after — as well as a national manhunt — that turned the Kosters' days into a tense waiting game.
Tess Koster told "Inside Edition" that three days before Riess allegedly killed Hutchinson, she drove to one of their Fort Myers Beach homes while Tess Koster was in the open garage.
She said the two women locked eyes and Riess turned her face to the ground, shook her head, uttered, "Wrong house, wrong house" and drove away.
"I was just in shock," she said. "That's the scary thought. So did she want to move into one of our many houses? She knew I was there. So maybe she wanted to steal my identity."
Rodney Koster said the Hutchinson killing took place a block from their house.
The couple told the TV magazine that they had been living in fear.
"I was waiting for her to get caught," Tess Koster said. "I hope she never gets out of jail."
When reached Wednesday night by The News-Press, Tess Koster declined to talk further about Riess.
"I'm tired of it."
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