Two charged in slaying of Bonita doctor Teresa Sievers
9:55 PM, Aug 27, 2015 Updated: 12:45 PM, Aug 28, 2015
Two men were jailed Thursday in Missouri in connection with the slaying of Bonita Springs doctor Teresa Sievers, and one of the suspects is an old friend of her husband, Mark Sievers.
Curtis Wayne Wright Jr., 47, and Jimmy Rodgers, 25, face second-degree murder charges.
Wright, who goes by his middle name, Wayne, has been friends with Mark Sievers since their high school days in Hillsboro, Missouri, according to mutual friends.
Lee County Sheriff Mike Scott announced the arrests in two news conferences Thursday.
“Two vicious killers are in custody,” Scott said.
Sievers was found dead in her home at 27034 Jarvis Road in Bonita Springs on the morning of June 29. The circumstances surrounding how Sievers was killed have not been disclosed.
Scott would not answer questions from reporters Thursday, saying the case was active and ongoing. He did not reveal the cause of death, manner of death or a possible motive, but he did say the case was the “most complicated, intricate set of circumstances that most of us have ever seen.”
Kitty Lifka, of St. Louis, said Mark Sievers used to be a frequent visitor to her home because her youngest son attended college with him in Springfield. Sievers treated her like a second mother, she said.
Lifka also knew Wright because he worked for her other son at a home security company several years back. Although she had never met Teresa Sievers, Lifka said she was devastated when the news of the doctor’s death reached her in Missouri.
“The tears,” she said. “Everybody just felt so bad.”
Lifka said she heard Wright had gone to Florida to comfort Mark Sievers shortly after his wife was killed.
“We were thinking, ‘is he that friendly with Mark that he went to offer his condolences not over the phone, but in person?’ ” she said.
Lifka said Wright “just doesn’t have a good name,” saying he’d gotten into drugs a while back. Around that time, Mark Sievers called the Lifkas to caution them about Wright’s drug use.
“Mark did not try to cover for Wayne,” she said.
Lifka described Mark Sievers as “always the most polite, nicest guy.” When her son got married about 13 years ago, she said Sievers paid for the wedding reception for his old college friend.
Cheryl McIntire, who briefly dated Wright at Hillsboro High School, said Wright and Mark Sievers were friends at that time in the 1980s.
Wright had a younger brother, a younger sister and good parents, McIntire said, but he fell into drugs. At some point he had planned to go to college to become a doctor, she said.
Records confirm accounts of Wright’s drug use, showing he was arrested twice in recent years on drug-related charges. In October 2009, Wright pleaded guilty to controlled substance possession and received probation. Nearly two years later, a methamphetamine manufacturing charge resulted in a six-year state prison sentence for Wright. Records showing when Wright was released from prison weren’t available Thursday night.
Wright now lives with his new wife, Angie, in a mobile home in Hillsboro, a rural town about 50 miles southwest of St. Louis.
Mary Benton, who lives next door to Wright, said she saw him traipsing around his yard Thursday morning, offering a wave and asking about the health of her husband, who suffers from Parkinson’s disease.
“They always waved, and if they saw me unloading the car, they would say, ‘Can we help you?’ ” Benton said.
Although she didn’t know the couple personally, Benton said she was invited to and attended the Wrights’ wedding in early May, held in a nearby park.
The news of Wright’s arrest trickled through the small town, Benton said, mostly through rumor.
“It’s just a shock to have someone be accused of something terrible when they just don’t appear to be that kind of people,” Benton said.
It’s unclear how Wright and Rodgers knew each other, or if Rodgers knew the Sievers family. On Facebook, Rodgers uses the nickname "Hammer."
Rodgers was spotted at a Walmart on Six Mile Cypress Parkway in south Fort Myers on June 28, one day before Teresa Sievers’ body was found.
Lee County deputies notified federal officials of the sighting Monday, saying Rodgers was a probationer who was not allowed to leave Missouri.
Rodgers, who was on probation for being a felon in possession of a firearm, was arrested in Missouri for the probation violation Wednesday.
Federal and Missouri state court records show Rodgers pleaded guilty to resisting arrest in 2008, putting him on probation. In October 2009, Rodgers was found with 43 guns and indicted on a charge of possessing a firearm while a felon. He pleaded guilty and received nearly five years in federal prison, getting out in September 2014.
Photo shows suspects in killing of Dr. Teresa Sievers hanging out in weeks before her death
2:17 PM, Aug 28, 2015
Two suspects in the death of Bonita Springs doctor Teresa Sievers were photographed hanging out on at least two occasions in the weeks before she was killed.
Jimmy Rodgers, 25, and Curtis Wayne Wright, 47, appeared together in a photo posted to Facebook on May 30. Rodgers' girlfriend, Taylor Shomaker, posted the photograph to her personal Facebook page, calling it a "pretty good night."
Shomaker also posted a set of photos on June 7 of herself with both Rodgers and Wright, although the two men did not appear in pictures together.
Both Rodgers and Wright were arrested Thursday in Missouri to face charges of second-degree murder in Sievers' death. It remains unclear how the two men knew each other. Friends have said Wright was a close friend of Sievers' husband, Mark Sievers.
Rodgers and Shomaker are expecting a baby boy in March. Shomaker posted about her pregnancy on June 29, the same day Sievers was found dead inside her home in Bonita Springs.
Rodgers was spotted at a Fort Myers Walmart on June 28, according to court documents. His travel to Florida was considered a violation of his probation on gun charges. Rodgers appeared in federal court Friday on the probation violation.
Sievers' sister reacts to arrests in murder
Aug 27, 2015
She said Wright was at her sister's funeral.
"I'm disgusted. I hugged this man so tight, and I cried on his shoulder, and said 'Thank you so much for being such a good friend to Teresa's family," Annie said.
She said Wright seems to have a close connection to Teresa's husband Mark.
"I was told they've been friends since they were kids," Annie said.
(In the video, the reporter comments about remarkable resemblance between MS/CWW in the lead-in to Annie's interview.)
Neighbors react to arrests in Sievers' murder
Aug 28, 2015
In the eight weeks it's been since she passed, neighbors like DC said they've been on edge, but now can rest easy.
"I'm ecstatic. It confirms, yes, they are still working on the case. It kind of puts our mind a little bit at ease what the Sheriff is telling us is we don't have to be worried, and this is a start,"
...
Officials have not said Mark is connected to the killing.
Teresa's sister said she hasn't heard from Mark since the arrests, and neighbors said they haven't seen much of him either.