- Teresa Sievers was found brutally bludgeoned to death at her home
- The killing was traced to Curtis Wright and Jimmy Ray Rodgers, who staged the crime to look like a burglary
- Teresa’s husband Mark Sievers was revealed as the mastermind, hiring the killers for a share of a life insurance payout
Although petite at just under 152cm tall, Teresa Sievers had the biggest heart.
The pocket rocket of a doctor not only ran a holistic wellness centre but also gave her time volunteering, helping the homeless, orphans and struggling teen mums.
But above all 46-year-old Teresa loved her girls, Josey and Carmi, and her husband, Mark.
The couple had set up the medical practice where Teresa worked and which Mark managed.
Launching her own YouTube channel Teresa brightly told viewers, ‘Getting you healthy is my passion. Being healthy is your choice.’
In June 2015, Teresa took a family break with Mark and their daughters, then aged eight and 11.
Ever busy, Teresa cut her trip short to get back to work, flying home alone on June 28. Around 11pm, she texted Mark saying she’d landed safely.
When Teresa didn’t arrive at work the next day, her colleagues called Mark, who asked a family friend to check on her.
Shockingly he discovered Teresa’s body on the kitchen floor, face down in a pool of blood with a hair covered hammer beside her.
An autopsy determined Teresa had died from blunt-force trauma to the head. She had 17 crescent shaped and irregular lacerations on the front, back and sides of her scalp likely from hammer blows.
Detectives informed Teresa’s family of the brutal killing but were puzzled. Someone had tried to pry open the side door, but there were no fingerprints or DNA at the scene. It had all the hallmarks of a robbery gone tragically wrong, but no valuables were missing and a safe containing more than $44,000 cash was untouched.
Mark gathered with family and friends at Teresa’s funeral on July 6, saying he’d been the ‘luckiest man in the world,’ to be married to Teresa.
‘Mark sobbed during his police interview.’
An emotional Mark sobbed during his police interview, even hitting himself in the face and speaking to his dead wife when left alone in the room. ‘Oh my God, Teresa… if I was with you, this wouldn’t have happened,’ he choked.
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Then a new lead came from a woman named Rose – the wife of Mark’s best friend Curtis Wright. Mark had only just attended their wedding.
She revealed her new husband had left on a last-minute trip to solve an IT emergency for a friend on the same weekend Teresa had been slain. Curtis had left his mobile phone behind and was unreachable all weekend.
With his receding hairline, closely shaved hair, and glasses, Curtis was the spitting image of Mark.
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Police searched Curtis’ rental car for wiped GPS data – it showed a round trip from his home in Missouri, Illinois, to the Sievers’ house in Florida.
The GPS was paired with an email address belonging to Curtis’ friend Jimmy Ray Rodgers. In a shocking twist Jimmy’s girlfriend, Taylor, told police Jimmy had confessed he’d been hired with another man to kill Teresa Sievers. Taylor even led investigators to the discarded bloody jumpsuit and a destroyed burner phone Jimmy had dumped on the highway.
In August, Curtis Wayne Wright, 47, and Jimmy Rodgers, 25, were both arrested, facing murder charges. But who had orchestrated the evil plot?
It was none other than Mark Sievers – Teresa’s supposed loving husband.
Police discovered damning surveillance video from a shopping centre, showing Rodgers and Wright buying wet wipes, large garbage bags, a lock pick set, black shoes, black towels and a black backpack, after being hired to kill Teresa.
‘Mark was charged with first-degree murder.’
After Wright turned on his best mate and accepted a plea deal, Mark Sievers was arrested and charged with first-degree murder and conspiracy to murder in February 2016.
Rodgers went on trial in October 2019. Found guilty of second-degree murder, he was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Wright pleaded guilty to second-degree murder, receiving 25 years’ jail in exchange for his testimony.
Mark Sievers appeared in Lee County Circuit Court, Florida, US, in November 2019. He’d pleaded not guilty.
A prosecutor told the court Sievers had discussed at Curtis Wright’s wedding in May 2015 that Teresa planned to leave him and he was concerned about custody of their children.
He enlisted Wright to help him murder Teresa in exchange for a $100,000 share of the $4.43 million in life insurance that Mark stood to inherit.
‘Mark had given Curtis the alarm code.’
Curtis Wright testified that Mark had given him the alarm code to the Sievers’ home. Around 10.30pm that deadly night, Wright and Rodgers, dressed in overalls and gloves, pried open the unlocked side door to mimic a burglary.
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Teresa arrived home at 11.25pm, parking the car in the garage. Wright followed her, picking up a hammer that was lying on the garage freezer.
As he walked into the kitchen, he stumbled on a dog dish startling Teresa, who turned. Wright then struck her head once and swung two more times while she put up her hands to defend herself. Rodgers attacked her, too, with a different hammer.
‘She was surprised. I actually think she thought I was Mark… She said, “Why?’’’ Curtis recounted, such was his resemblance to Sievers.
The prosecution showed that Sievers and Wright had communicated via burner phones in the weeks leading up to Teresa’s death. Mark Sievers was sentenced to death and is on death row, although he is appealing his conviction and sentence.
‘I’m not 100 per cent sure he’s got blood in his veins,’ Lee County Sheriff Mike Scott told the Naples News. ‘It might be ice.’
