The daughter of a slain Lake Tahoe-area couple suspected for months that former MLB player Dan Serafini was their killer, well before he was arrested Friday in the case.
Adrienne Spohr, 33, filed a lawsuit on June 5 claiming that Serafini and his wife, Erin Spohr, “caused, conspired to cause, or otherwise participated in causing” the deaths of Robert Gary Spohr and Wendy Wood in 2021, the San Francisco Chronicle reported Tuesday.
Serafini, 49, was arrested Friday and charged in the shootings of Spohr and Wood. Though Wood survived the initial attack, she died by suicide in March of this year.
Erin Spohr, Adrienne’s older sister, has not been arrested or formally accused in the case. Instead, Serafini’s alleged accomplice was identified by police as Samantha Scott, 33, who was also arrested Friday. Scott was a longtime friend of Erin Spohr, police sources told the Chronicle.
On June 5, 2021, 70-year-old Robert Gary Spohr was found dead from execution-style gunshot wounds at his home in North Lake Tahoe, Calif. Wendy Wood, who was 68 years old at the time, was wounded in the attack by two bullets to the head.
Surveillance video from the house showed a man wearing a hood, face covering and a backpack entering their home before the murder. However, police were unable to identify him for years.
Exactly two years after the killing, Adrienne Spohr sued her sister and Serafini in civil court, blaming them for her parents’ deaths and seeking to deny them any access to inheritance money, according to the Chronicle.
More than four months after that suit was filed, authorities arrested Serafini and charged him in the case. Both Serafini and Scott were detained in Nevada and are still awaiting extradition to Placer County, Calif., the Chronicle reported.
Adrienne Spohr did not comment Tuesday on the lawsuit. After the arrests, she released a statement saying police had provided “a moment of profound relief and gratitude after two years of fear and uncertainty.”
