Speaker 1: Falling in love is the best feeling in the world.
Speaker 1: You see stars, you feel giddy, but sometimes that makes
Speaker 1: you do crazy things, and sometimes that means murder. Just
Speaker 1: because the story starts out with once upon a Time's
Speaker 1: doesn't mean it ends happily ever after. Welcome to Crazy
Speaker 1: and Love, a production of Katie Studios and I Heart Radio.
Speaker 1: Today's guests are true crime producers Stephanie Laijicker and Jeff Shane.
Speaker 1: Episode forty one, The Case of the Lookalike, The Polarizing Doctor,
Speaker 1: and the Hammer. The year was two thousand and three
Speaker 1: and Mark Sievers was on vacation in St. Petersburg, Florida.
Speaker 1: As a traveling nurse, his job could be pretty stressful,
Speaker 1: so little R and R was much needed. In between
Speaker 1: time at the beach and poolside drinks. He met a
Speaker 1: recently divorced doctor named Teresa. For the thirty five year old,
Speaker 1: it was love at first sight. As a holistic doctor,
Speaker 1: Teresa was outspoken and confident to her friends and family.
Speaker 1: She was something special and Mark saw that right away.
Speaker 1: After dating for some time, the pair got engaged to
Speaker 1: honor how they met. Mark and Teresa got married on
Speaker 1: a beach at sunset surrounded by loved ones. Teresa let
Speaker 1: her hair fall curly and wore a stunning white dress.
Speaker 1: She was the epitome of a glowing bride. Six months
Speaker 1: after time the not the couple welcome their first daughter.
Speaker 1: They built a large home around forty five minutes south
Speaker 1: of Fort Myers in a safe community named Bonita Springs.
Speaker 1: In two thousand seven, they had another little girl for
Speaker 1: Mark and Teresa. It seemed like all of their dreams
Speaker 1: were finally coming true. Here's Stephanie. Theresa found success as
Speaker 1: a holistic doctor. She basically combined traditional and alternative medicine,
Speaker 1: which healed people from all over the world who couldn't
Speaker 1: find help elsewhere. She also made motivational speaking videotapes that
Speaker 1: she would sell online, and with multiple sources of income,
Speaker 1: she became the family's breadwinner. Mark helped manage the office
Speaker 1: though when he took care of their two girls. And
Speaker 1: perhaps she was so successful because Teresa was a fighter
Speaker 1: and she would fight for her patients to receive the
Speaker 1: best care possible. A fighter indeed stuff. Teresa was known
Speaker 1: to have a really strong personality. She was considered pretty
Speaker 1: polarizing from the people in her life. He either loved
Speaker 1: her or you hated her. People described her as a dynamo.
Speaker 1: She had a very short fuse, and this probably comes
Speaker 1: from the fact that she really expected perfection from everyone.
Speaker 1: She would even yell at patients who weren't following her orders.
Speaker 1: Despite being a very small woman, she often had the
Speaker 1: biggest personality in every room she stepped into. But what
Speaker 1: really it came down to was it all came from
Speaker 1: a place of wanting to help people. On June twenty nine,
Speaker 1: dispatchers received a call nine one one, When is your emergency? Uh?
Speaker 1: I had a friend's house. Uh, he's out of town
Speaker 1: and I came here to check on his flight. And
Speaker 1: she's down on the floor the sea. Her family had
Speaker 1: been on vacation in Connecticut celebrating Teresa's mother's birthday, while
Speaker 1: Mark stayed behind to continue the fund. Teresa had to
Speaker 1: come home early to get to work Monday morning. When
Speaker 1: she failed to arrive at the office, the staff texted Mark,
Speaker 1: who contacted a friend to check on her. Here's audio
Speaker 1: from the call. My friend. Uh, she's a doctor. I'm
Speaker 1: a doctor. She came home last night. Her husband is
Speaker 1: in Connecticut and she was supposed to go at nine o'clock.
Speaker 1: They called me and I was on my way in
Speaker 1: the work slice one by and she's down on the
Speaker 1: s and there's hammer at the side and she's bashed
Speaker 1: in the back of the head. And then knocked on
Speaker 1: the front door and nobody answered, and the lights were on.
Speaker 1: I could see her persons on the countertop and she
Speaker 1: didn't answer at pound and pounding needed to keep goat
Speaker 1: to get into the glass door. Glass door, and the
Speaker 1: door leading to it was opened. One of the dogs
Speaker 1: ran out. I don't know if he left un and uh,
Speaker 1: and I walked and I just opened up the door,
Speaker 1: walked in the door and you can have on the floor.
Speaker 1: He's doing great, okay, okay. I did then know that
Speaker 1: you're outside? The fire guys are here, okay, go yeah's dad.
Speaker 1: So when the detectives arrived, their first thought was a
Speaker 1: robbery gone wrong. Theresa had just gotten home and perhaps
Speaker 1: a Robert didn't think anyone would be there, and she
Speaker 1: had walked in on a crime being committed. What cops
Speaker 1: noticed that kind of added to this theory was that
Speaker 1: the home's alarm system wasn't on, and this all stemmed
Speaker 1: from the fact that when the family was on vacation,
Speaker 1: Mark had asked his mom to come over and feed
Speaker 1: the family pets. When she arrived at the house, she
Speaker 1: noticed that the alarm was off and had called her
Speaker 1: son Mark to ask him about it, and he told
Speaker 1: her not to worry about it. So perhaps the alarm
Speaker 1: system got left off which allowed a Robert to break in, because,
Speaker 1: as we know later that evening, Teresa was killed by
Speaker 1: someone in the hall. The issue was that nothing was
Speaker 1: missing in the house. Everything was in pristine condition, so
Speaker 1: it didn't even look like a break in. Plus worth
Speaker 1: noting this crime was absolutely brutal. Teresa had been beaten
Speaker 1: to death with a hammer. She sustained severe head trauma,
Speaker 1: and there was a ton of blood. It was clear
Speaker 1: to detectives that this was not a quick and painless death.
Speaker 1: In fact, it looked very personal. While the detectives were
Speaker 1: looking at everyone in Teresa's life, like her office staff,
Speaker 1: her patients, her manicurists, and her landscaper, the online web
Speaker 1: sleuth community also kind of took on the case. Online
Speaker 1: web sleuths are amateur, everyday men and woman who are
Speaker 1: passionate about true crime and really investigate cases from the
Speaker 1: comfort of their own homes. They've been known to have
Speaker 1: a fair amount of success, and so according to this community,
Speaker 1: there had actually been at least five holistic doctors across
Speaker 1: the country who were found dead. Their thought was that
Speaker 1: could someone have been targeting these men and women because
Speaker 1: perhaps they had a cure for cancer or something else
Speaker 1: that a big pharmaceutical company wouldn't want getting out. At
Speaker 1: that time, police did not buy that. They were looking
Speaker 1: at a disgruntled employee by the name of Sandra Hoskins. Now,
Speaker 1: Sandra had been treated harshly by Teresa, apparently telling her
Speaker 1: that she had very bad energy, and Sandra responded to
Speaker 1: Teresa by calling her a bit. The relationship had soured,
Speaker 1: and so much so that Sandra had been planning on
Speaker 1: quitting her job the very Monday that Teresa was actually
Speaker 1: found dead. The police also wanted to talk to the
Speaker 1: person closest to Teresa, her husband Mark. For around three hours,
Speaker 1: he spoke to detectives without an attorney. Let's take a listen,
Speaker 1: appreciate has been something key read and tell her whatever
Speaker 1: you're leaving going in dark at night, always have it
Speaker 1: your finger on it. Your purse is ne any good.
Speaker 1: If you carry a gun, you had your hand on it.
Speaker 1: It doesn't be any good if it's not accessible. I
Speaker 1: spoke to our financial advisor, who's a really good friend.
Speaker 1: It's like a father to Teresa. He's also telling me
Speaker 1: what I need to do. Stop crying, stop doing. We
Speaker 1: have to do all these things, and I know it's
Speaker 1: just I'm doing as much as I can as people
Speaker 1: are telling me. I feel so I guess I feel pathetically,
Speaker 1: but at the same time, there's so much going on.
Speaker 1: It's hard that I could stop this. How do make
Speaker 1: it all? Can you tell me when she died? I
Speaker 1: need to know what she told you was, what happened
Speaker 1: to this stage, we're still working on that. This is hard.
Speaker 1: This is really should be nothing. We should say this
Speaker 1: is because it's gonna help solve. Relaxed, starting yourself, trying
Speaker 1: to focus. Okay, now talking about your relationship. Have you
Speaker 1: guys been contemplating any kind of separation or divorce? Has
Speaker 1: there been any marital problems? How about six months ago?
Speaker 1: How about a year ago? And at one point Mark
Speaker 1: had a moment alone and he completely broke down. Oh
Speaker 1: helping do this pretty harrowing stuff. So really, at this point,
Speaker 1: despite all of his crying and heartbreak. It looked like
Speaker 1: he was one of the two biggest suspects in the case,
Speaker 1: the former employee Sandra, and I suppose by default, the
Speaker 1: husband Mark, which is very common. Typically when anybody has
Speaker 1: murdered the first suspect, there's always their spouse or their
Speaker 1: partner or their significant other. It's just stage one of
Speaker 1: obviously starting an investigation, and you want to start ruling
Speaker 1: people out as quickly as possible. That's a great point. Stuff.
Speaker 1: And because remember Mark had actually been out of town
Speaker 1: in Connecticut with the kids at the time of the murder,
Speaker 1: so it was physically impossible that he would even be
Speaker 1: able to kill his wife, but cops often assumed that
Speaker 1: spouses have information or insight into the frame of mind
Speaker 1: of the victim. In July, nearly a month after the
Speaker 1: doctor was found dead in her home, the police got
Speaker 1: a tip that had them looking in a completely new direction.
Speaker 1: The tiptold investigators to take a closer look at a
Speaker 1: man named Curtis Wainwright in small town, Missouri. According to
Speaker 1: the tip, Curtis had been in Florida at the time
Speaker 1: of the murders. So who was this man thousands of
Speaker 1: miles away? Here's Jeff. As it turned out, Curtis was
Speaker 1: actually Mark's childhood friend. The two men, both bald and
Speaker 1: large in stature, looked more like identical twins than buddies.
Speaker 1: They were also incredibly close. Mark would tell people Curtis
Speaker 1: was his brother from another mother. He was at the
Speaker 1: couple's wedding. Curtis was incredibly smart. He was his class
Speaker 1: president and a whiz with technology. He would come down
Speaker 1: to Florida to work on the Sabers computers in their
Speaker 1: home and office. Two months before his wife's death, Mark
Speaker 1: had traveled all the way to Missouri to be the
Speaker 1: best man at Curtis's wedding. Curtis then had traveled down
Speaker 1: to Florida to attend Teresa's funeral. But he also had
Speaker 1: a bit of a dark side. He was a five
Speaker 1: time convicted felon, and Curtis was also a person of
Speaker 1: interest in missing person case. The tip also said that
Speaker 1: Curtis hadn't been alone on that Florida trip. He was
Speaker 1: allegedly with a friend from prison, a man named Jimmy Rogers.
Speaker 1: Now Jimmy had a pretty interesting and relevant nick thing,
Speaker 1: the Hammer, which of course we know was the weapon
Speaker 1: that ultimately killed her. So the police went to talk
Speaker 1: to both men and they denied every being in Florida.
Speaker 1: This big tip, however, seemed like a dead end until
Speaker 1: police noticed a car and Curtis's driveway. Inside the car
Speaker 1: was a GPS device, which, you know, police were very
Speaker 1: hopeful would shed some light on his whereabouts and that
Speaker 1: that information could be used as potential evidence. But unfortunately
Speaker 1: the GPS had been cleared. But we know how technology works.
Speaker 1: Detectives spent hours recovering data and luckily pulled up all
Speaker 1: of the previous destinations and bingo, sure enough, it seemed that,
Speaker 1: in fact, Curtis had driven one thousand one miles from
Speaker 1: Missouri down to Florida. Yeah, this GPS device really showed
Speaker 1: a true road trip from hell. On the morning of June,
Speaker 1: two days before Teresa was killed, Curtis first stopped at
Speaker 1: Jimmy's house. Next, the pair drove south all the way
Speaker 1: to the Ciba residence and according to the g PS,
Speaker 1: they arrived around six am. Detectives surmised the men probably
Speaker 1: went into the home, turning the alarm system off at
Speaker 1: six o nine am. Remember, Mark's mom was really confused
Speaker 1: why the alarm system was off. When she went to
Speaker 1: the house. Here's what cops told her. I wasn't there
Speaker 1: at six o nine in the morning. He was six nine.
Speaker 1: That's what we're trying to work. Oh my god. After
Speaker 1: getting into the house, Curtis and Jimmy had some time
Speaker 1: to kill literally, so they went to Walmart. The police
Speaker 1: tracked down surveillance footage of the two men at the
Speaker 1: store buying items like a lock pick set, black towels,
Speaker 1: flushable wipes, and garbage bags. After doing this macab shopping,
Speaker 1: the men drove to the beach to enjoy the Florida sun.
Speaker 1: Can you imagine? And by the way, all of this
Speaker 1: is trackable on a GPS system. But that wasn't all
Speaker 1: the police were relying on. Jimmy a k a. The
Speaker 1: Hammer had a girlfriend. Her name was Taylor's shoemaker, and
Speaker 1: she was also talking to police. She told cops that
Speaker 1: Jimmy had confessed to her. Have a listen, and you
Speaker 1: still don't know anything about what happened yet, right? He
Speaker 1: tells you that night, did your mom? Yeah, tells me
Speaker 1: the next night and my mom I told him that
Speaker 1: I knew. I didn't actually know. It was after you
Speaker 1: guys came and I told him that I knew that
Speaker 1: he had something to do with it, okay, and then
Speaker 1: you And then he started asking questions like what I
Speaker 1: know about and I'm like, well, I know you went
Speaker 1: down and kill some night and then he said yeah.
Speaker 1: And then, um, I took a guess at Mark five.
Speaker 1: Let me said yeah, And you said when you said
Speaker 1: Mark some way, we're talking about Teresa Severs, the doctor
Speaker 1: that was killed. Yes, And then um I said did
Speaker 1: you shoot her? And he said no? And I said
Speaker 1: then how how did you kill her? And he made
Speaker 1: his people little chocolate lady does and then said with
Speaker 1: it he said, with a hammer? Yeah, okay. Taylor then
Speaker 1: took the cops to the area where he said Jimmy
Speaker 1: had her dispose of the bloody clothes, and sure enough,
Speaker 1: the clothes were right where she said they would be.
Speaker 1: With all the signs pointing towards Curtis and Jimmy as
Speaker 1: the killers, the cops could close the case, but the
Speaker 1: question remained, why did these two men so far away
Speaker 1: killed Teresa Severs. Curtis Wainwright offered the full story in
Speaker 1: exchange for a lesser sentence. Prosecutors offered him a plea
Speaker 1: of second degree manslaughter with a twenty five year sentence.
Speaker 1: It was a deal he could not refuse. We're going
Speaker 1: to take a break. We'll be back in just a moment.
Speaker 1: At Jimmy's trial, Curtis testified that he and Jimmy killed Teresa.
Speaker 1: He also told the courtroom that he had offered Jimmy
Speaker 1: ten dollars for his part in the murder. After two
Speaker 1: days of deliberating, the jury found Jimmy guilty of second
Speaker 1: degree murder and sends him to life in prison. But
Speaker 1: what Curtis offered to prosecutors wasn't just testimony against Jimmy.
Speaker 1: It was also a story that pointed the blame towards
Speaker 1: his best friend and Teresa's husband, Mark. According to Curtis,
Speaker 1: Mark had offered him a hundred thousand dollars to kill
Speaker 1: his wife Teresa, and it all started two months before
Speaker 1: the murder at Curtis's wedding, the one where Mark was
Speaker 1: the best man. Curtis said that Mark was complaining of
Speaker 1: marriage problems and suggested that Curtis killed Teresa to make
Speaker 1: all of his problems go away. At first, Mark's idea
Speaker 1: was that Curtis shoot her as she was leaving work.
Speaker 1: Now to that. Curtis pointed out that he might accidentally
Speaker 1: hurt someone else in the process, but Mark countered that,
Speaker 1: saying that it would actually maybe work even better if
Speaker 1: someone else died, because then the suspicion would be off
Speaker 1: of him. Well, the cops had figured out Mark and
Speaker 1: Theresa had serious money issues. They also discovered that Teresa
Speaker 1: had a four million dollar life insurance policy against her.
Speaker 1: This backed up everything Curtis had told them about the
Speaker 1: marriage and financial issues that Mark had allegedly told him.
Speaker 1: It's so predictable because an insurance policy with that amount
Speaker 1: of money, I mean four million dollars is a large
Speaker 1: life insurance policy. And sure enough, here we go. That
Speaker 1: seems to be one of the motives. The police also
Speaker 1: discovered one interesting thing. They said that Mark had been
Speaker 1: communicating with Curtis via some kind of a burner phone.
Speaker 1: On their regular phones, they would text like normal, but
Speaker 1: when one of them said the word quote other then
Speaker 1: they would switch to the burner phone. It was kind
Speaker 1: of their code stuff. We've covered a fair amount of
Speaker 1: true crime cases, and criminals always think they can get
Speaker 1: around cops with things like burner phones and code words,
Speaker 1: and they always get found out, no one is smarter
Speaker 1: than the police in these situations, and that's what happened.
Speaker 1: With all this information, the police had enough to arrest
Speaker 1: Mark Severs for murder in February, grossly enough. As he
Speaker 1: was being walked out of his house where his two
Speaker 1: daughters waited for him, he had a noticeable smirk. The
Speaker 1: press became obsessed with the lookalike friends turned murderers who
Speaker 1: would now testify against each other in court. As the
Speaker 1: trial started, Mike appealed jovial, laughing and smiling with his attorney,
Speaker 1: but when Curtis took the stand, his disposition shifted. Here's
Speaker 1: some audio from the trial. I think when we were
Speaker 1: in high school, I think the relationship was it was
Speaker 1: less deep, So the the confiding and part of it
Speaker 1: really probably didn't happen until we got closed after that. Yeah,
Speaker 1: Dr Severs and his daughters. Did you ever spend time
Speaker 1: with them? Did? I didn't spend much time with all
Speaker 1: of them together, but I spent quite a bit of
Speaker 1: time with Mark and and the children. When we kind
Speaker 1: of make exhausted that he told me that really the
Speaker 1: only option that he had was for her to die.
Speaker 1: Um and he said that he needed to have her killed. Okay,
Speaker 1: so on your wedding day, on your drive to pick
Speaker 1: up we meet for your wedding, MS Receivers are telling
Speaker 1: you that he wants to have his wife killed. Yes,
Speaker 1: he asked me to help him. I mean, what kind
Speaker 1: of help was he asking for? Was he asking you
Speaker 1: to do it yourself? Or or what like? What kind
Speaker 1: of help could he be possibly asking his friend for?
Speaker 1: He it was pretty direct. He asked me to if
Speaker 1: I could, I would kill her or take care of it.
Speaker 1: And what did you what was your response when he
Speaker 1: asked you to help him kill his wife? I was
Speaker 1: surprised first, Um, I mean, are the two of you
Speaker 1: that were the two of you that close? Mr? Wright?
Speaker 1: That I mean Mr Sivers could ask you to kill
Speaker 1: his wife and you would actually consider it? And yes,
Speaker 1: I mean definitely the asking part question whether or not
Speaker 1: actually a question whether or not actually doing it was
Speaker 1: should have been part of the friendship. But let's just
Speaker 1: say it shouldn't have been. Let's just say that. During
Speaker 1: the trial, Curtis described in graphic detail the day he
Speaker 1: murdered Theresa Sievers. As he was testifying, his former best
Speaker 1: friend Mark was no longer smiling, but now crying. I
Speaker 1: kicked that stand. The dog dish went fly and water
Speaker 1: went everywhere. She jumped and started to turn towards me
Speaker 1: and um. When she started to turn towards you, what
Speaker 1: did you do? I had her hit her? Damn you
Speaker 1: hit Dr Shivers with the hammer? Yes? Where did you
Speaker 1: hit her in the head? The defense had a plan
Speaker 1: to counter Curtis's story. According to the defense, Curtis was
Speaker 1: gay and he was deeply in love with his best
Speaker 1: friend Mark. He was jealous of Mark's perfect life with
Speaker 1: Teresa and couldn't handle it anymore, so he decided to
Speaker 1: kill Teresa. That way he could hopefully be with Mark.
Speaker 1: Despite the fact that Mark had attended Curtis's wedding and
Speaker 1: that's where the whole thing started. Mark's defense lawyer said
Speaker 1: that he could feel a chemistry between the two men.
Speaker 1: While the defense started to go in this direction, asking
Speaker 1: Curtis if he had ever had sex with Mark, the
Speaker 1: judge was not having any of it and shut down
Speaker 1: the line of questioning pretty much immediately. This meant that
Speaker 1: the defense had just lost their biggest theory. When the
Speaker 1: prosecution and defense rested, the jury took just four hours
Speaker 1: to deliberate and sure enough, Mark was found guilty of
Speaker 1: first degree murder. Did hurry get this recommended death? Let's
Speaker 1: stop here for another break. At the end of the trial,
Speaker 1: Teresa's mother made a harrowing victims statement. The biggest loss
Speaker 1: fought upon her two daughters, whom Teresa loved with all
Speaker 1: her heart. These two girls have been robbed of their
Speaker 1: remarkable mother, their home, their pets, their possessions, their family
Speaker 1: and friends. Teresa will not be able to love and
Speaker 1: guide them. She won't be there when they graduate high school,
Speaker 1: or when they need their mother to kiss away tears
Speaker 1: from their first heartbreak. She won't be able to impact
Speaker 1: her wisdom and in life experiences. Her daughters will miss
Speaker 1: their mother on every birthday and every holiday, On their
Speaker 1: wedding day, and when they have children of their own,
Speaker 1: they will spend the rest of their lives hoping to
Speaker 1: hold on the memories of the mother they once knew
Speaker 1: and trying to forget the nightmare she endured the last
Speaker 1: days moments of her life. But my children have lost
Speaker 1: the mother they want SNeW because a big part of
Speaker 1: me died with her. June fifteen, While the Jerry suggested
Speaker 1: Marc recy at the death sentence, there was one person
Speaker 1: who felt Marks should be spared, his now teenage daughter.
Speaker 1: She wrote a letter to the court saying that while
Speaker 1: she currently wanted no relationship with her father, that if
Speaker 1: in the future she changed her mind, sentencing him to
Speaker 1: death would ensure she would never have the opportunity. Mark
Speaker 1: also made a statement to the court. Here's a partial
Speaker 1: recording of that although a jury found me guilty, I
Speaker 1: am innocent of all charges, as I maintained since his
Speaker 1: Haina's crime took place. I love my wife, Teresa and
Speaker 1: her two daughters, Josie and Karmy, with all my heart.
Speaker 1: Our girls have tragically lost their mommy, and now they're
Speaker 1: about to lose her daddy as well. Therefore, I respectfully
Speaker 1: asked the court for life is not to compound their
Speaker 1: loss and suffering. I am grateful, however, that the court
Speaker 1: can only determine my fate on earth. Well, my soul
Speaker 1: is in God's hands, and God knows the truth. Although
Speaker 1: I cannot feel remorse for something I had absolutely nothing
Speaker 1: to do with, I am deeply saddened and forever heartbroken,
Speaker 1: to say the very least, the Teresa was taken from us.
Speaker 1: Teresa is my soul neat I will miss her and
Speaker 1: chears her memories until we are reunited in heaven. Until then,
Speaker 1: I will fight the s wrongful conviction until I improve
Speaker 1: an innocent and set free to rejoin my family. When
Speaker 1: it came time to decide Mark's faith, the judge hands
Speaker 1: at him the death sentence. Mark Seevers is currently the
Speaker 1: only person on Florida's death row who didn't physically kill anyone.
Speaker 1: In January, he requested a new trial shameless plug. If
Speaker 1: you're enjoying Crazy and Love, leave us a review and
Speaker 1: listen to season three of our hit series The Piked
Speaker 1: and Massacre. New episodes there every Wednesday wherever you get
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Speaker 1: at Katie Underscore Studio us. Crazy in Love is produced
Speaker 1: by Stephanie Lydecker, Jeff Shane, Chris Graves, and me Courtney Armstrong.
Speaker 1: Editing and sound design by Jeff Ba. Crazy in Love
Speaker 1: is a production of I Heart Radio and Katie Studios.
Speaker 1: For more podcasts from I Heart Radio, visit the I
Speaker 1: heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to
Speaker 1: your favorite shows. Stay safe, lovers,