DCF now involved in Sievers murder investigation

FORT MYERS, Fla. – Officials from the state Department of Children and Families announced Wednesday their involvement in the murder case of Dr. Teresa Sievers, less than 24 hours after released court documents show that detectives believe Sievers’ husband planned and helped execute her killing in a murder-for-hire plot.

The couple has two daughters, ages 8 and 11.

“We are involved with the family and are aware of the newly released documents,” the department said in a statement. “At this time, we do not have any information that can be released.”

The documents, released late Tuesday afternoon, detail the evidence investigators with the Lee County Sheriff’s Office collected that led them to charge Curtis Wayne Wright and Jimmy Ray Rodgers in connection with the case.

Text messages between Wright and Mark Sievers, GPS coordinates from the Sievers home to Wright’s Missouri residence and a statement from Rodgers’ girlfriend claiming he and Wright were hired by Mark Sievers to kill his wife were among the evidence collected by authorities.

Wright, 47, is charged with second-degree murder. Rodgers, 25, was arrested in connection with killing and will be charged once completing a six month federal prison sentence for a probation violation in an unrelated gun case.

“This murder was committed in expectation of Wright getting paid an undisclosed amount of money from Mark Sievers and then in turn, he was to pay Rodgers $10,000 for his involvement,” detectives said in court documents.

Teresa Sievers, 46, was found bludgeoned to death inside the kitchen of her Bonita Springs home on June 29.

Mark Sievers has not been charged in his wife’s killing, but investigators searched his condominium in Fenton, MO, believing there was evidence connecting him to her death.

Sheriff Scott speaks

“Just because Mark Sievers is not under arrest does not mean he’s not going to be arrested,” Lee County Sheriff Mike Scott said. “Our timeline is typically different from general curiosity and the general curiosity of the public and certainly any other deadlines assigned by media or otherwise.”

Scott added there’s more to the case than what was presented in court documents.

“Look how patient we’ve been thus far,” he said. “Look at how this thing unfolded and how methodical and patient we’ve been. All the while in the face of the community and media and others saying ‘OMG’ what’s taking so long?”

Mark Sievers has always been in the “envelope of suspicion,” said Scott, who added that the case is not over.

“So it’s an active and ongoing investigation and we’re not bashful about making an arrest,” he said. “We have no problem arresting people, but we do so when the time is right, particularly in a case like this. There’s a great deal at stake and we want to make sure everything is correct.”

Scott Moorey, a local defense attorney not associated with the Sievers case, believes an arrest is imminent.

“My assumption is we’re going to have an arrest very shortly,” he said. “The benefit of waiting is to see if he makes a mistake. What is his reaction going to be to this information that he has not been aware of. He doesn’t know exactly what the sheriff has.”

Family, neighbors react

Annie Lisa, Teresa Sievers’ sister, wants to focus beyond the details in the court documents.

“The information coming out is very very upsetting,” she said. “Understandably, but our goal is to keep the story of Teresa in the forefront and let this investigation unfold, with as much expediency as possible so we can move forward and start to heal. We want to focus on the positive contributions Teresa has made in her life. And will continue to make in her death. ”

Lisa last talked with her nieces right before Wright’s arrest.

She believes the Sievers children have turned against her.

“When I went to talk to the girls on the phone, I could tell that I had lost them, that he had started talking against me,” she said. “They weren’t acting the way they’d normally act.”

Lisa said when Mark Sievers wouldn’t let her have a private conversation with his daughters, “I knew at that moment that I had lost them.”

“We are worried about the girls,” she said. “They have no other contact in this world other than their father. And they are being kept from their mother’s family.”

When Teresa Sievers’ brother visited the children in November, Lisa said he described the girls as “completely controlled.”

“The girls didn’t want to hug the family, didn’t want to hug my mother,” she said. “They had to ask Mark, anything they wanted to say, they had to check with their dad, he would wink at them, or nod at them and let them know it’s okay.”

Those who live near the Sievers’ Jarvis Road home were not shocked by the details in the court documents.

“I don’t comprehend how her husband, supposedly he’s grieving you know, and he’s able to live in the house where his wife was brutally murdered, in and out, you know, like its nothing,” Anna Villareal said. “It’s a very quiet street. Obviously to me it’s an inside job and I think a lot of people feel that way you know.”