On Friday night, NBC’s “Dateline” will cover the 2015 murder of Teresa Sievers. She was found lying in a pool of blood at her home in Bonita Springs, bearing evidence of 17 brutal strikes from a hammer.
Two men were later found guilty of committing the murder, and Sievers’ husband, Mark, was also convicted of murder for the role he played in planning the attack, per Naples Daily News.
Who were the Sievers?
Teresa Sievers (neé Tottenham) had completed her education and was working as a doctor by the time she met Mark Sievers, the brother of a friend, in 2003. She was recently divorced.
In 2006, the couple moved with their two young children to Bonita Springs, Florida, and set up a holistic medical clinic titled Restorative Health and Healing Center, according to The News-Press. Teresa worked as a physician while volunteering and raising her daughters; Mark managed the clinic’s office and acted as primary caretaker for their girls, who were aged 11 and 8 when Teresa was murdered.
From the outside, the family appeared happy, healthy and relatively idyllic, according to various media reports.
The inside story was very different. In 2015, Mark confided to a childhood friend, Curtis Wayne Wright, Jr., that he and Teresa were experiencing marital problems, per The News-Press. Mark expressed his fear that Teresa would fight for custody in the event of a divorce. He did not think he could afford the legal fees.
“The only option, (Mark) said, was to have her die and he needed to have her killed,” Wright later testified in court. “He was asking me to help him, either to do it or facilitate to have it done.”
Wright told the court that Mark promised him $10,000 to murder Teresa.
What happened to Teresa?
On June 27, 2015, Wright, along with Jimmy Ray Rodgers, took a 1,100 mile trip from Missouri to Bonita Springs, Florida. The two had met while in prison, according to The News-Press.
Meanwhile, Teresa Sievers was on her way home from a family gathering in Connecticut, where her husband and daughters had remained. She went home early to catch up on work, according to The News-Press.
As she traveled home, Wright and Rodgers disabled the Sievers’ security alarm and went to Walmart to purchase trash bags, black towels and shoes, wet wipes and a lock-picking kit, according to CBS News.
When Sievers arrived home, Wright and Rodgers killed her.
A week later, Mark, who appeared distraught over the death of his wife, stood up at his wife’s funeral, where he said: “I was, and still am, the luckiest man in the world,” per The News-Press.
Where is Mark Sievers now?
Using tips, GPS evidence and security camera footage, the police gathered enough evidence to arrest Wright and Rodgers. Rodgers was sentenced to life in prison, while Wright testified against both Rodgers and Sievers in exchange for a lesser sentence. In 2016, he was sentenced to prison for 25 years, according to The News-Press.
In January 2020, Sievers told a courtroom that he was “innocent and heartbroken” and that Teresa was his “soulmate.” He claimed innocence. Nevertheless, the judge sentenced Sievers, then aged 51, to the death penalty. According to the Florida Department of Corrections, he still sits on death row in the maximum security Union Correctional Institution.
In 2022, Sievers filed a motion for a rehearing in an effort to reverse his sentence, citing improper conduct in the use of Wright’s testimony by attorneys, according to The News-Press. Sievers’s judgment still stands at the moment.
Mary Ann Groves, Teresa’s mother, has custody of the couple’s daughters, according to The News-Press.
How to watch tonight’s ‘Dateline’
On Friday, NBC’s Dennis Murphy will cover the crime in a “Dateline” episode premiering at 7 p.m. MDT. The episode will later be available to stream on Peacock.