HOT PURSUIT

The long-awaited documentary about Blooming Prairie area killer Lois Riess is finally coming to the screen next week. HBO will air a three-hour special over two nights, Tuesday and Wednesday, at 8 p.m.

You may recall when we first told you about a crew from HBO coming to Blooming Prairie in December 2021. At the time, our office in Blooming Prairie was crammed with more cameras, lights and sound equipment than I’ve seen in many years. In addition to all the equipment, there were 10 directors, producers, camera operators and others nearly falling on each other in our tight quarters.

While Kay Fate and possibly this writer may be featured in the documentary, all eyes will be fixed on the center of the unfortunate tragedy—Lois Riess. She is the woman who killed her husband in their rural Blooming Prairie home before taking the life of a woman she befriended while on the run in Florida.

This isn’t the first time the infamous killer from Blooming Prairie has been featured nationally. The story was heavily covered in the media, both on the state and national levels, as it unfolded in March and April 2018. In January 2021, Dateline NBC showcased the Riess murders in a two-hour special.

But something will be drastically different in HBO’s documentary than anything that has ever been covered before. It will highlight a one-on-one interview with Lois Riess from the state women’s prison in Shakopee. She has never spoken to the media before about this tragedy that gripped the country for several weeks as she was on the run before finally getting caught in Texas.

If you’re wondering how we got tangled up into the Riess tragedy, national media outlets often reach out to local journalists who usually are on the story from the time it begins unraveling. Our website and social media exploded when we broke the story after David Riess’ body was discovered in their home by Blooming Prairie police officers. We had tens of thousands of views of what turned out to be limited information because police weren’t saying much.

I haven’t seen the documentary other than the trailer that was released late last week by WarnerMedia Studios, the company that owns HBO network. I can’t really remember exactly what I told HBO in the extensive interviews I did back in 2021. Kay Fate of our staff was also interviewed. So it will be interesting even for me to see what was used and how the entire documentary is woven together.

I do know how incredibly sad this story was and still is today. It devastated a family and left a town in shock wondering how something so evil could happen in small town America of all places. Perhaps Lois will shed some light on what caused her to snap. It’s by far the most horrifying story I have covered in my journalistic career that spans 35 years.

It should prove to be an interesting two nights of watching a real-life crime drama involving someone who at one time had just been a normal everyday social fixture around the area.

While HBO has been in hot pursuit of the Lois Riess story for years, it’s now our chance to go in hot pursuit of finding out what Lois has to say about the horrible acts she committed.