Two years pass since Sievers murder

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Teresa Sievers.
Mark Sievers

FORT MYERS, Fla. Thursday marks two years since the victim of one of Southwest Florida’s most gruesome and high-profile killings was found dead in her Bonita Springs home.

Mark Sievers is charged with first-degree murder in what investigators described as a murder-for-hire plot to kill his wife, Dr. Teresa Sievers. He faces the death penalty if convicted.

The story made national headlines and was recently featured on an episode of “48 Hours.”

Investigators believe Mark Sievers, who has pleaded not guilty, planned the killing and promised Wayne Wright, his childhood friend, payment for carrying out the plan.

Mark Sievers planned every detail of the night of the killing, the sheriff’s office said. He had five life insurance policies on his wife, worth a combined total of more than $4 million.

Wright accepted a plea deal and is expected to testify against co-defendant Jimmie Rodgers, who also faces a first-degree murder charge, and Mark Sievers once they reach trial.

Rodgers and Mark Sievers are due in court July 14 for case management. But just when they’ll face trial is unclear.

The case has been a slow-moving process. It wasn’t until August 2015 that Rodgers and Wright were arrested, and Mark Sievers wasn’t arrested until February 2016.

The investigation took Lee County sheriff’s detectives from Southwest Florida to Missouri to Phoenix, and points in between. They stopped at each rest stop and gas station on their route between Lee County and the Panhandle to look at surveillance video and plot every move Rodgers and Wright made before the murder.

“The case is far more complicated than folks realize,” Sheriff Mike Scott said in January 2016.

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