‘Stone-cold killer’ grandmother captured in Texas

April 20 (UPI) — A woman police believe killed her husband in Minnesota — and a lookalike in Florida — was captured in Texas late Thursday, authorities said.

Police said Lois Riess, who authorities described as a “stone-cold killer” last week, was captured not far from the U.S.-Mexico border.

Authorities found Riess, 56, after they received a tip she was seen at a restaurant in the resort area of South Padre Island, just north of the Rio Grande. She was arrested about 25 minutes later.

“I promised all along that Lois Riess would end up in a pair of handcuffs,” Lee County Undersheriff Carmine Marceno said in a statement late Thursday. “Tonight, she sits in a jail cell in Texas. We are working as expeditiously as possible to bring her back to Lee County to face murder charges.”

Riess is charged with murder, grand theft of a motor vehicle and criminal use of personal identification in Florida.

She also faces second-degree murder charges in Dodge County, Minn., after police say she transferred nearly $10,000 from her husband’s business into his personal account and then forged his signature on three checks for thousands more.

Police said Riess, known to some acquaintances as “Losing Streak Lois,” has a gambling addiction and often visited casinos.

Investigators said the fugitive grandmother went on the run after killing her husband David in Minnesota — and attempted to steal the identity of Pamela Hutchinson in Florida after killing her. Police said she targeted Hutchinson because the two resembled one another.

“This is the first time in my career that I’ve seen someone steal someone’s identity and target them for the way they look, in order to murder them,” Marceno said.

Riess later used Hutchinson’s credit card to pay for a hotel room in Ocala, Fla., withdrew $5,000 from her bank account and tried to make a purchase in Louisiana. She was later spotted 50 miles from Corpus Christi, Texas,