Trying to explain the life of a murderer is always a telling proposition. They’re by many regards considered the most reprehensible of humans alive and in many cases are ostracized by many in society. But life is a bit more complex than good or bad, right or wrong. For example, the woman who kills her abusive husband is granted more sympathy than the man who ends up in fight and sadly kills his opponent. The complexity of what we think of murderers has always been interesting to me. I mean, a life is a life.

I don’t know if the news is to the blame or I’m just a little off, but I’ve always been fascinated with the story behind those who commit murders and are profiled extensively. As a kid, the JonBénet Ramsey story always stuck with me. All I could ever think was, who killed her? I would make up scenarios piecing together information I had from the numerous news stories about it.

Ramsey wouldn’t be the last case to peak my curiosity. The murder of Laci Peterson by her then husband Scott Peterson was another murder mystery that fascinated me. I wasn’t quite a teenager at the point but I had some idea of how the world worked and all I could remember thinking was, it was horrible what happened to this man’s wife to the “oh shit” feeling when it was shown that hd was responsible for his wife’s death.

I honestly don't know what happened after Scott Peterson but murderers and murder mysteries didn’t peak my attention as much. There were definitely can’t miss national and international murder stories such as Casey Anthony, Amanda Knox and Oscar Pistorius to name a few, but for whatever reason these stories just didn’t move me.

That brings us to the present. While 2020 has been an unprecedented year for all of us as the country was on lockdown beginning in March when Covid-19 became serious to us as a country. One of the crazier stories of the year before then was the disappearance of Lori Valley Daybell two children last seen in Yellowstone National Park while she alleged to not know their whereabouts. The story of Lori Valley Daybell and her families secrets read more like a Hollywood movie than intricate details to a murder participating in the possible abduction of her children, but in the midst of a global pandemic and national civic unrest, child endangerment falls to the backburner it seems.

Daybell, has avoided the news scrutiny that in normal times would come with a case like this, and while we reserve judgment as far as her actual involvement in the murder of her children. Her story reminds me of the latest murder mystery that I find myself fixated with.

This past weekend I found myself doing what I do most weekends, reading a long piece on a random subject I had no prior care for. This time it was the story of Lois Riess, in an article entitled THE PREDATOR, I encourage you read the full version at Atavist. I promise it was amazing.

I had never heard of Lois Riess or Blooming Prairie, Minnesota before reading the story and outside of the great detail given to the the story and the idea that larger issues such as gambling may have been the cause the one thing that struck me was the want or need to humanize a murderer.

The article time and time again wants you to know that people who knew Lois was a “really pleasant person to be around.” or “she was likable, but you always knew she was a click off,” and my personal favorite “She looks like anybody’s mother or grandmother, yet she is a cold-blooded killer,” Carmine Marceno, then Lee County’s undersheriff, said on television.

First, my mother nor grandmother look like Lois Riess. More importantly, murderers come in all shapes sizes and perception levels.

I came away feeling most bad for Lois Riess kids and spoiler alert, the family of the second woman she murdered while evading the police for her first murder. Maybe that’s the point. To make you feel for the others in the story, but sadly that’s not how stories get told. Lois Riess is a murderer. She also may be many other things both good and bad, but ultimately murderer is the thing that should begin and end when you bring her name up.