DCF aware of Sievers accusations

UPDATE:

The Department of Children and Families responded to an inquiry from The News-Press about the safety of the two pre-teen Sievers daughters.

Natalie Harrell, DCF spokeswoman, said: "We are involved with the family and are aware of the newly released documents. At this time, we do not have any information that can be released."

Original story:

Taylor Shomaker’s suspicions grew too large to contain.

There was the frantic phone call from Curtis Wayne Wright Jr. to Shomaker’s boyfriend Jimmy Rodgers about a warrant served to search his home. There was the questioning of Rodgers by investigators.

There was Rodgers destroying his phone in a water fountain. There was Rodgers tossing in the garbage items he brought back from Florida and tossing others along a Missouri highway.

Shomaker finally confronted Rodgers as they lay in bed. She said she knew he had gone to Florida on June 27, despite what he told  detectives. Rodgers admitted he went to make money.

The Sievers murder: 9 things to know

She then bluffed and said she knew he went there to kill someone.  Rodgers confirmed her comment.

Shomaker asked who and Rodgers said Mark Sievers hired Wright to drive to Florida to kill his wife for insurance money. What Sievers didn’t know was Wright offered Rodgers $10,000 to help.

Shomaker asked how they killed her and she guessed she was shot. Rodgers laughed and said he had killed her with a hammer.

The answer put an end to the conversation.

Shomaker’s statement is part of the 33-page probable cause affidavit outlining why Wright and Rodgers were charged with the killing of  Dr. Teresa Sievers on Sunday, June 28.

The evidence outlines two men desperate for money, who left a trail of surveillance video, GPS clues and phone calls and text messages.

The probable cause statement also is damning to Mark Sievers, though he has never been charged in the crime.

“The evidence also shows that Teresa’s husband Mark Sievers was involved in the planning and subsequent execution of her murder,” according to the section of the affidavit under Establishment of Timeline/Motive.

The narrative below is based on the probable cause statement and thousands of pages of documents released Tuesday by the state attorney's office.

The Sievers murder: GPS outlines Wright, Rodgers' trip to Florida

The gruesome findings

The body of Teresa, 46, was found shortly after 9:30 a.m. on June 29 by Mark Petrites, a physician and friend since 1995.

Mark Sievers called Petrites around 9:30 a.m. and asked him to check on his wife because she did not show for work. Her absence from work was not “like her,” Sievers said.

Petrites said he was running an errand at the post office and would then check. He knocked on the door of the home at 27034 Jarvis Road in Bonita Springs but there was no answer. He entered through the garage, using a code and keypad Mark Sievers gave him, and found Teresa in the kitchen facedown, "bashed in the back of the head", and obviously dead.

Petrites said he shook Teresa Sievers and felt her back, noting the Estero physician was cold to the touch and beyond help.

Concerned that a possible assailant remained in the home, Petrites went outside and called 911 at 9:43 for emergency assistance.

Petrites later told detectives he had no idea who could have harmed Teresa Sievers and said he had not noted anything in her lifestyle that would cause concern and described the Sievers’ marriage as “good.”

An autopsy by the Lee County Medical Examiner’s Office said she died from blunt force trauma. The autopsy showed “17 crescent-shaped and irregular” indentations on the front, rear and both sides of Teresa’s head as well as skull fractures, extruded brain fragments and a fracture at the base of her skull.

A well-known doctor

Teresa was well-known in Southwest Florida for writing about women's health issues. She wrote for several publications, including The News-Press, and appeared on local television.

Besides her husband, who was listed as manager of her practice in official records, she had two daughters, ages 8 and 11.

Teresa, who was particularly interested in helping people avoid age-related disorders, operated the Restorative Health & Healing Center in the Estero Medical Center off Three Oaks Parkway and Corkscrew Road in Estero.

The murder took on national prominence during the first month when it was noted in media reports that several other doctors who had practices similar to hers had been found dead within a short time frame.

No credible links to any of those deaths with the Sievers case have been developed.

Teresa, her husband and two children flew to Connecticut on Friday, June 26, for a family celebration but she returned home alone on Sunday, June 28.

The arrest affidavit says that her husband’s last contact was with her shortly before 11 p.m. Mark Sievers said his wife texted him she had landed safely, gotten a bite to eat and was headed home.

The last verbal contact between the two had been when Mark Sievers dropped his wife off at LaGuardia Airport in New York City the afternoon of June 28.

In an initial statement to the Lee County detectives on Monday, June 29, Mark Sievers said that he and his wife had a good marriage but that they often “got on each other’s nerves.”

He denied suspicions and allegations of infidelity and said the two were making an effort to “rekindle” their relationship.

However, in a second interview on Wednesday, July 1, Mark Sievers told investigators that the couple had experimented with other partners and swinging but was adamant that his wife had never secretly cheated on him.

The Sievers murder: 11 things to know about Mark

He could not offer information on any partner who might wish to hurt his wife or him, stating that they had all parted on good terms.

During this second interview, he voluntarily gave up his cell phone to allow investigators to download the contents, which included “numerous photos, videos and Face Time chats … that show he has had numerous extra marital affairs with multiple women.”

At least one close family friend said that Teresa confided that she was considering divorcing her husband.

Interviewing neighbors yielded “minimal information regarding anything of evidentiary value.”

However, several neighbors did say they had heard the couple argue, loudly, but had never noted any violence.

IRS files lien on Sievers' Bonita Springs home

One neighbor said that Teresa Sievers had been the aggressor in at least one argument.

During that July 1 interview, Mark Sievers told detectives that there were two life insurance policies, one on him and another on his wife, both worth $2.5 million. He also said the couple had about $40,000 in four safes in the home and, despite that amount, the couple lived month-to-month with little financial stability.

That would be the last time Sievers would talk to investigators. Attorney Lee Hollander, a criminal defense attorney, contacted investigators when they attempted to set up another interview on July 7.

Hollander advised the detectives that all inquiries were to be made through him. He later advised detectives that Sievers would no longer be assisting in their investigation and that a list of requests for information made by them would not be fulfilled.

That list included a request for specific palm prints, DNA swabs from the Sievers daughters, and information on who called Mark about Teresa not showing for work.

Now that investigators were unable to question Sievers, they used subpoenas and found that there were five insurance policies on his wife totaling $4.433 million. An Aug. 31 letter from Prudential Insurance said because Sievers was a person of interest in the homicide that proceeds would be withheld until he was cleared or charged.

Hollander couldn't comment Tuesday because he hadn't seen the paperwork.

Hollander added that he called his client to advise him about the release, "He's not happy," the lawyer said.

Who deactivated the alarm?

One of the questions brought up in the affidavit is who deactivated the house alarm system at 6:09 a.m. Sunday, June 28.

Bonnie Sievers, Mark’s mom, was in charge of feeding the family pets. Detectives found that she had visited the home on the afternoon of June 26, and twice on the 27 and 28 to give the two dogs and one cat food and water.

During her visits she used a garage door code as well as a security alarm deactivation code, both previously given her by her son.

Statewide Security, the company responsible for the alarm system, found that the alarm had been deactivated with the code Bonnie Sievers was given at 6:09 a.m. Bonnie Sievers told detectives she did not get to the home until 7:45 a.m. and didn’t know how the alarm could have been deactivated earlier using her code and how the residence remained secured.

She told detectives she reactivated the alarm at 8:01 a.m.

She returned to the home later that day. She told investigators she never reactivated the alarm because she could not get it to set properly. She said that when she called her son for advice he told her to leave it deactivated because Teresa was due home that night.

Witness provides key break

A break in the case came 11 days after the homicide, on the evening of July 9, when a law enforcement official in Illinois contacted Lee sheriff’s detectives.

Chief Jeff Hamilton with the Southern Illinois Airport Authority told detectives that an acquaintance of his had overheard information about Curtis Wright being in Florida at the time of the murder and felt he might be involved somehow.

Lee detective Michael Downs and Sgt. David Lebid flew to Illinois and spoke with the person, who is listed in the affidavit as a cooperating testifying witness or CTW.

In an interview at the Jefferson County Jail in Mount Vernon, Illinois, the witness said she was at a home in Ballwin, Missouri, on Saturday, June 27, and heard a visibly upset Angela Wright, wife of Curtis Wright, complain that her husband had left on a unplanned and short-notice trip to Florida to repair a computer at the home of Mark Sievers.

The witness said Angela Wright said she found out about the trip on Friday, June 26 and that her husband left early the next day. Because his car was being fixed, he had to rent a vehicle. He also told his wife because she needed to work and make money she could not accompany him.

Furthermore, the witness said that she complained that Wright left his cellphone at home and could not understand how he could do that because they were newlyweds just two months married and because her husband “lives” on his phone.

Sheriff talked about Sievers case on "Nancy Grace"

The witness kept contact through Angela Wright’s mother, Kathy Moran, and was able to learn that Wright returned home on the evening of Monday, June 29. The witness said Kathy Moran told her that the Wrights received notice of Teresa’s death on Tuesday, June 30, and left for Florida.

Kathy Moran also told the witness that her daughter became angry when she asked her if Wright had fixed Sievers' home computer. Angela corrected her, saying the computer was at Sievers’ medical office.

Moran expressed concern that Curtis Wright was involved in the doctor’s death because the couple is destitute and had no money for back-to-back trips to Florida. Moran told the witness that her daughter is a waitress and that Curtis is disabled and that they have to routinely buy groceries for them.

What cellphone records revealed

Mark Sievers’ cellphone revealed more than just some extra marital affairs. It also showed a link between Curtis Wright and him through a series of texts found on the phone.

Sievers and Wright stayed in touch almost daily since 2011.

Sievers sent Wright his Jarvis Road address in February on the premise of having Wright send him a wedding invitation for his May 2015 marriage.

On April 29, Sievers sent Wright a text: “hopefully we can talk privately tomorrow, nothing about you and Angie, but it’s personal.”

Sievers flew to Missouri on April 30. A series of texts between the two friends from May 3 until May 17 referred to mail, gifts, envelopes, cards, a condo Mark Sievers has in Missouri, whether Wright’s mail was secure at his home and references to “other” and “check other.”

The texting between the two stopped at 11:03 p.m. June 25 and resumed at 2:17 p.m. June 27 when Sievers texted Wright “no need to call me. Hope ur having a nice day.”

They didn’t text again until June 30 when Wright texted Sievers saying he had heard about the murder and that he and Angela were en route to Florida.

On July 15, authorities went to court seeking permission to install a tap on Sievers' phone.

The request outlined similar information provided in the probable cause statement. However, one detail not in the statement was how Sievers was seen on Monday, July 6, the same day as his wife's funeral, throwing computers and computer-related items into a Dumpster outside her office. Detectives collected those items and are reviewing them.

The request ends with:

"Your affiant believes and is confident that Mark Sievers is conducting himself in such a manner as to further cover-up his criminal act of enlisting his long time friend Curtis Wayne Wright to murder his wife Teresa Sievers," the request read.

Trip motives investigated

Angela Wright’s story to Lee investigators on July 12 was different than the one told by the cooperating testifying witness and by her mother, Kathy Moran.

She told Sgt. Lebid that her husband had rented a white Hyundai Elantra and planned to drive to Titusville, Florida, to assist a friend with his auction business.  She told Lebid he left on June 27, accidentally left his only cellphone at home, and called her on June 28. She did not hear from him again until 7:30 p.m. on June 29 when she found he was at their Missouri home.

Angela Wright denied she told anyone she was upset about her husband driving to Florida without her and his phone.

But her mother told Lee detectives on July 14 that Angela tried to convince her that Wright never left their home and there had been a misunderstanding.

Kathy Moran said that her daughter contradicted everything she had told her previously, even the fact that she had stayed at her home while Wright was supposedly in Florida.

Moran told detectives that her daughter would say and do anything that Wright tells her to.

Intricate investigation of Sievers murder explained by Sheriff

Curtis Wright on July 12, told Lebid that he was home from June 27 to June 29 and that he was not feeling well after he had helped his landlord work on a car.

He also said he had not been to Florida since January or February 2015 to do work on Teresa Sievers’ work computer and that, except for after her funeral, it had been a year or year-and-a-half since he had been at their home.

Wright said he only owned a black and orange Samsung phone when questioned by investigators, but when confronted with evidence about his trip provided by his wife and evidence of secret phones, Wright said he wanted to stop talking.

Checking their stories

Jerry Lubinski, the man in the auction business, also disputed Angela Wright’s story about her husband going to Titusville. He said Wright had conducted no business with him between June 26 and 29 and there was no reason for Angela Wright to say otherwise.

Lubinski told detectives that he knew Wright for seven years and had attended his wedding. He said he and his girlfriend were at their home in St. Louis, Mo., with the Wrights on June 25.

Curtis Wright told him he was about to take a trip to work on a friend’s computer in Fort Myers. Lubinski indentified Mark and Teresa Sievers as the friends.

Furthermore, Angela Wright confided to Lubinski’s girlfriend that she was not happy about her husband was taking a “vacation” while she had to work.

Lubinski  said he had loaned Curtis Wright a camera and Garmin GPS unit, which had not been returned. A GPS unit similar to Lubinski’s was recovered from a rental car used by Wright when he drove to Florida for the funeral.

The information gathered from the GPS was found in a deleted information area stored within the unit.

That Garmin GPS outlines Wright’s trip from Missouri to Florida and back between June 27 and 29, with searches made for Sievers’ Jarvis Road home and the Six Mile Cypress Wal-Mart.

Video surveillance from the Wal-Mart shows Wright and Rodgers walking into the store.

The duo purchased a four-piece lock pick set, men’s water shoes, wet wipes, package of 20-gallon garbage bags, backpack, black bath towels, T-shirts and men’s shoes.

The men are seen on video surveillance walking out of the store and a white Hyundai matching Wright’s rental car is seen leaving the parking lot.

The GPS shows two more local searches before the time of the homicide and then nothing more until 12:44 a.m. Monday, June 29 when the vehicle is headed back toward Missouri.

The GPS records show return trip stops in Bushnell, where Wright is caught on camera at a gas station appearing to remove a front license plate from the white Hyundai.

Rodgers paid for gas with a $100 bill and the two men left the station.

The final GPS information was recorded near Wright’s Hillsboro, Missouri, home.

Conflicting stories

Wright and Rodgers denied ever being in Florida at the time of the homicide.

Wright said he was working on a friend’s car. He later said he was home sick the entire weekend. Comments from the friend contradicted his alibi.

Wright’s answer when detectives told him they had evidence that he was seen in Fort Myers? That person seen in the surveillance was someone else.

Rodgers said he had not spoken with Wright for weeks. Evidence said otherwise, and he was charged with violating parole because he had been ordered to have no contact with Wright. He is now in a federal correctional facility in Illinois.

Wright’s frantic phone call about being served a search warrant shook up Rodgers. He gathered items purchased at the Fort Myers Wal-Mart – Shomaker’s Fort Myers Beach shirt and the shoes – wrapped them in a towel and tossed them in a Dumpster in Cadet, Missouri. He then soaked his cellphone in water, broke it into pieces and a short-time later had his girlfriend toss it out the car window.

Rodgers wasn’t done littering the highway with evidence, according to the investigation. Five-tenths of a mile west of Highway 47 East and Old Cadet Road Rodgers instructed his girlfriend to toss the gloves out the window and a few minutes later the jumpsuit.

Shomaker was able to lead investigators back to the jumpsuit, but the gloves were never found.

In a Sept. 10 interview with Rodgers at a federal detention facility in Missouri, before he was moved to Illinois, Rodgers was told of the murder charges he faced.

Rodgers responded: “In the state of Missouri, second degree murder is punishable by 15 to 20 years and I’m OK with that.”

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TUESDAY NIGHT

Mark Sievers, husband of Teresa Sievers, who is implicated in her death in documents released by the state attorney's office, left his Jarvis Road home before 7 p.m. Tuesday.

He drove off in a white Mercedes-Benz as a reporter approached his vehicle to ask questions.

Neighbors in the quiet community say they are not surprised by the turn of events.

Anthony Clark, who used to live in a home behind the Sievers family, said he knew this would be the ultimate outcome.

"It was obvious from the time it happened," the 36-year-old said. "She came home without him," Clark said referring to Teresa Sievers' return from Connecticut.

He said that would have been too much of a coincidence.

"Everybody here on the street hopes he gets arrested in order to feel safe again," Clark said. 

— Melissa Montoya

Timeline:

June 28: Teresa Sievers killed after flying back from a family gathering in Connecticut.

June 29: Teresa Sievers' body is found in her home after she didn't show up for work.

July 6: Hundreds of friends, family and former patients pack United Church in Naples to celebrate her life.

July 9: Lee detectives get a tip when a person in Illinois said she might have some information about the crime.

July 10: The investigators fly to Missouri to interview the witness. Her information leads them to Curtis Wayne Wright and Jimmy Rodgers as suspects. 

Aug. 25: Rodgers arrested on a warrant by Washington County (Missouri) Sheriff’s Office.

Aug. 27: Wright arrested in Hillsboro, Missouri.