Dr. Teresa Sievers was last seen alive at Southwest Florida International Airport on her way back to work after vacationing with her husband and two daughters.

The next day, Sievers was supposed to visit his doctor, but he never showed up. Sievers’ husband called a neighbour over to check on her, and the neighbour discovered her dead a few hours later. She had been battered to death with a hammer and had been lying on the kitchen floor.

Mark Sievers Curtis Wayne Wright Wedding

Listeners can hear a panicked Dr. Mark Petrites tell a 911 operator, “She’s bashed in the back of the skull,” on an episode of A&E’s Killer Cases about Dr. Sievers’ murder.

Petrites adds, “And she’s frigid.” We can safely say, “She’s frozen to the bone.”

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The Sievers Investigation Begins Icy

For a while, nobody could figure out what had happened. The home had not been broken into, and a safe containing over $40,000 in cash had been left undamaged, indicating that theft was not the primary purpose for the murders. Dr. Sievers’ husband Mark Sievers was also not a suspect because he was out of town with the couple’s girls when the murder occurred.

A few early clues turned out to be false. Local media speculated about a possible holistic medicine serial killer after online conspiracy theorists pointed out the deaths of two other Florida-based holistic doctors in the same month as Dr. Sievers’.

The police duly pursued that line of inquiry, only to run into a brick wall very soon afterward.

Prosecutor Cynthia Ross stated on Killer Cases, “there was absolutely no trace evidence.” To paraphrase, “This was very close to being the ideal crime.”

The Killers Have Been Captured

Detectives finally had a respite after two weeks of searching. Curtis Wayne Wright, a career criminal with a long rap sheet, was reported to authorities after a tip from a concerned citizen in Missouri.

Though initially focused on Wright, detectives soon broadened their inquiries to include Jimmy Ray Rodgers, another lifelong criminal.

Both men denied any participation when first questioned, but authorities were able to use GPS data from a rental car both men had rented to show that they had driven from Missouri to Bonita Springs in the hours before the incident.

Surveillance footage from a Florida Walmart corroborated the men’s story by showing them buying a number of unusual goods, including all-black attire, lock-picking tools, and even towels.

After speaking with Taylor Shomaker, Rodgers’ alleged lover, investigators learned that Rodgers had confessed the crime to her. She then led them to the place where Rodgers had dumped his bloodied clothes at the scene of the crime.

The jury found Jimmy Ray Rodgers guilty of second-degree murder, and he was given a life sentence.

As a result of his cooperation, Curtis Wayne Wright received a reduced sentence of 25 years for his second-degree murder conviction.

Wright claims that his best buddy from high school, Mark Sievers, the doctor’s husband, was behind the murder.

Accusations Against Mark Sievers

The detectives weren’t shocked when evidence piled up against Mark Sievers. Sievers’ display of sorrow during questioning had been exaggerated.

“We’ve met a lot of folks who have lost a loved one, and he appeared false,” Lieutenant David Lebid said to Killer Cases. As an observer, I witnessed an abundance of faked favour. It just didn’t seem possible.

Wright testified that Sievers enlisted the help of the two men in his plot to have his wife murdered due to marital strife and worry about losing custody of their two children.

Defense counsel for Sievers argued that the prosecution’s star witness, Wright, was untrustworthy since he was a killer who had lied to police.

However, other evidence was produced by the prosecution at Sievers’ trial. In the weeks leading up to Dr. Sievers’ killing, Sievers and Wright had been communicating via burner phones (disposable cell phones), and on the morning of Dr. Sievers’ murder, Wright’s phone had pinged near the Sievers’ home.

In the end, the jury agreed with the prosecution’s account of events, and after only four hours of deliberation, they found Sievers guilty of first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder.

True Justice Obtained

The jury that found Mark Sievers guilty of his crimes recommended that he be sentenced to death, but Lee County Judge Bruce Kyle had the last say in Mark’s punishment.

One of Sievers’ daughters wrote in and begged the judge to have mercy on her father, which clouded his judgement. As reported by Killer Cases, the youngster said that it would be too much to lose her father as well after she had already experienced the loss of her mother.

Sievers gave a prepared statement at his sentencing hearing in which he claimed innocence and asked for his life.

Our girls lost their mommy, and now they’re going to lose their dad. So, I beg the court for life without parole so that I can spare them further pain and anguish,” Sievers added.

Even after hearing his arguments, Judge Kyle steadfastly imposed the death penalty on January 3, 2020.

I am a judge of character. “I don’t pass moral judgement on anybody,” Kyle declared. But if I am incorrect, may God have pity on us both.

Does Anyone Know Where Mark Sievers Is?

On February 10, 2020, counsel for Sievers submitted an appeals notice. Mark Sievers is one of the inmates on death row at the Florida State Prison in Raiford.

Mark Sievers’ appeal was heard in court on October 5, 2021. His legal representatives have requested a new trial. In court, Sievers’ attorney Kary Kinney contended, among other things, that the state missed a deadline to add aggravating elements to the murder case, which would have eliminated the death penalty.