Datalounge Detectives

You don't have to read far in this article to connect the dots

"Miss, with all due respect, I have my own problems. I have no time to accommodate everyone else's."

Finally got the Tahoe house, bitches!

[quote] Investigators said they have new clues that lead them to think someone may have hired the shooter to kill the couple on June 5, 2021 — and that whoever put up the money for the job or pulled the trigger may be from the Reno area.

Adrienne’s older sister, 38-year-old Erin Spohr, married Major League Baseball pitcher Dan Serafini — whose career spanned 11 years with many teams, including a stint with the San Francisco Giants — and they ran a bar in Sparks, Nev., near Reno. The Bullpen Bar had a surge in popularity after making it on to the “Bar Rescue” TV show in 2015, but it later closed.

“We sold that bar a long time ago, and my husband now works in underground mining here,” Erin Spohr said from her home in Reno. “I miss my parents tremendously, and I wish they could see my kids (sons, ages 2 and 5) grow up.

“I have no idea who did that to my parents. I wish I knew.”

Article is paywalled, so I can’t read it for myself and verify the shitty writing.

Who is Robert Gary Spohr who died of a single gunshot wound, found by deputies June 5, 2023?

Can someone archive this, or paste the entire article? TIA!

Nearly two years after her husband was killed in a case that captivated Lake Tahoe and far beyond, the horror of it finally overwhelmed Wendy Wood. In the worst way possible.

Wood had been shot twice in the head after an intruder broke into the couple’s home on the west shore of the lake and peppered them with what he must have thought was a fatal fusillade of gunfire. Wood’s husband, Robert Spohr, died. Wood survived — but suffered from disability, depression and a longing for the man she’d been with for 50 years.

On March 9, in a senior home where she’d been slowly regaining strength, Wood killed herself. She was 70, the same age as her husband when he died.

Now her daughter Adrienne Spohr, already filled with a hunger for justice, is even more determined than ever to catch the man who killed her father — and, in her mind, killed her mother as well. Deputies responded to a 911 call from a Placer County home in Homewood on June 5, 2023. 70-year-old Robert Gary Spohr was found deceased as a result of a single gun shot wound. Video: Courtesy of Placer County Sheriff's Office

“She couldn’t handle it, the loss,” Spohr said from her Petaluma home. “She missed my dad like crazy. She was just stunned. It was like the killer killed her too. When we bring that person to justice, I certainly hope they are held accountable for both deaths. They are very much responsible for both.”

She said the shots that felled her dad and ruined her mom also left her with emotional scars that still gape wide. Only the capture of those responsible for the savagery can start true healing, she said. More Information If you need help

If you or someone you know is experiencing a mental health crisis, call the free 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline by dialing “988” 24 hours a day or text “HOME” to 741741 to reach a crisis counselor anytime

“It’s awful,” Spohr said. “You can’t really ever go back to normal. There’s this big question mark floating — something horrific happened, and yet it’s like … everyone else goes on with their lives, but there’s this chasm in your life.

“You have your suspicions, but no one has yet been brought to justice.”

She believes the killer knew her parents “directly,” and she stays in close contact with the sheriff’s office in Placer County, where the victims’ towering chalet-style home sat in an upscale neighborhood alongside the lake and the Homewood ski resort.

Investigators said they have new clues that lead them to think someone may have hired the shooter to kill the couple on June 5, 2021 — and that whoever put up the money for the job or pulled the trigger may be from the Reno area.

The killing happened on a sunny Saturday with plenty of people around; the house sits next to the popular Hurricane Bay Beach and a busy bike path. There was no sign of forced entry, detectives said, and no reports that day of anything suspicious in the area.

The main clue into how the shooter got into the house comes from a surveillance video showing what officials believe to be a man loping up the driveway in the afternoon before 5:30 p.m., wearing a hoodie and a white mask over his face.

Once inside, detectives believe the shooter waited for the couple to arrive home. And when they did, sometime before 10 p.m., the killer pounced, shooting both in the head at point-blank range. He then fled, taking nothing from the house with him.

Wood managed to regain consciousness just long enough to dial 911, and though she couldn’t speak, dispatchers could tell something was wrong and sent officers to the home. There, they found Spohr dead near a fireplace on the second floor. Wood was prone in the bathroom. Her daughter thinks their dog, Maggie, licked her out of concern long enough to revive her to make the phone call.

I can't post the rest. Given the execution-style nature of the shootings and the lack of robbery, investigators quickly came to a preliminary conclusion: “We firmly believe this was some sort of planned event. … Targeted,” Placer County sheriff’s Lt. Nelson Resendes said at a news conference a week after the attack.

However, after two years come and gone, police are finding it tough to close in on the people they suspect were involved, according to investigators close to the probe who were not authorized to speak publicly.

“We are looking for multiple suspects who we believe were involved in the murder of Gary Spohr. … We continue to track down all tips and leads,” Placer County sheriff’s spokesperson Angela Musallam said. Beyond that, she said, “We cannot provide any additional details at this time.”

Adrienne Spohr, 33, said she does know some of those leads, though, and she is encouraged.

“Placer County did a good job of refocusing on the case,” she said. “They’ve been working on it every day. That’s been huge. They have a lot to do, and they have some leads.” She didn’t elaborate on what those leads were. Photographs of Adrienne Spohr’s parents are displayed in her home. Investigators said they have new clues that lead them to believe someone hired the shooter to kill the couple in 2021, and that whoever put up the money for the job may be from the Reno area.

Photographs of Adrienne Spohr’s parents are displayed in her home. Investigators said they have new clues that lead them to believe someone hired the shooter to kill the couple in 2021, and that whoever put up the money for the job may be from the Reno area. Ramin Rahimian/Special to The Chronicle

The family kept the house in the small Homewood community, but last summer Spohr finally took the nostalgic photos and heirlooms out of it. Her mother was making progress physically with the help of friends and family at the time, but “struggled with a lot of depression and anxiety,” she said.

Wood had no memory of being shot, Spohr said. But the absence of her beloved husband, with whom she had built a life of managing and developing real estate while living first in Orinda and then Tahoe, was too much.

“My mom just could never move on. This huge thing happened — it’s like you’re reading a novel, and the final pages are missing. Or you’re writing a story, and there’s no ending. … And ultimately it killed her.”

Spohr said that even though her mother didn’t remember the shooting, “she had some feelings in her heart. She thought it was someone she knew.”

The violence and mystery are an unexpectedly shocking end to what had been an almost idyllic story for the Spohr family.

Robert Spohr and Wood moved up to Tahoe 20 years ago, but while living in the wooded enclave of Orinda for many years before that, they built their successful real estate business and raised their two daughters.

They first used the Tahoe home, with its huge windows facing the lake in a bucolic woodsy setting, as a vacation getaway before they finally moved there for good. They were enthusiastic adventurers, jaunting to locales ranging from Hong Kong to Afghanistan, and loved living in the mountains.

Wood played pickleball and was an avid skier. They took walks with floppy-eared Maggie, who loved the lake area. Life was a happy blur of trees, lake and placidity.

Growing up in Orinda, Adrienne was a star on the Miramonte High School volleyball team as it won regional championships. She continued the sport at New York University while studying business with stints in China and London, and became marketing director at the iconic Clover dairy firm in Petaluma. She kept that job until she left to take care of her mother and run the family real estate business.

Adrienne’s older sister, 38-year-old Erin Spohr, married Major League Baseball pitcher Dan Serafini — whose career spanned 11 years with many teams, including a stint with the San Francisco Giants — and they ran a bar in Sparks, Nev., near Reno. The Bullpen Bar had a surge in popularity after making it on to the “Bar Rescue” TV show in 2015, but it later closed.

“

Adrienne’s older sister, 38-year-old Erin Spohr, married Major League Baseball pitcher Dan Serafini — whose career spanned 11 years with many teams, including a stint with the San Francisco Giants — and they ran a bar in Sparks, Nev., near Reno. The Bullpen Bar had a surge in popularity after making it on to the “Bar Rescue” TV show in 2015, but it later closed.

“We sold that bar a long time ago, and my husband now works in underground mining here,” Erin Spohr said from her home in Reno. “I miss my parents tremendously, and I wish they could see my kids (sons, ages 2 and 5) grow up.

“I have no idea who did that to my parents. I wish I knew.”

Adrienne Spohr started a webpage a year ago — www.homewoodhomicide.com — and announced that the family was offering a $150,000 reward for tips leading to the capture of the killer or killers. The page urges anyone with information to contact the Placer County sheriff at 530-889-7853 or at jcmartin@placer.ca.gov.

The End.

So Erin and/or her husband set up the hit?

The killing happened on a sunny Saturday with plenty of people around; the house sits next to the popular Hurricane Bay Beach and a busy bike path. There was no sign of forced entry, detectives said, and no reports that day of anything suspicious in the area.

The main clue into how the shooter got into the house comes from a surveillance video showing what officials believe to be a man loping up the driveway in the afternoon before 5:30 p.m., wearing a hoodie and a white mask over his face.

Once inside, detectives believe the shooter waited for the couple to arrive home. And when they did, sometime before 10 p.m., the killer pounced, shooting both in the head at point-blank range. He then fled, taking nothing from the house with him.

Was the dog unharmed? Was it in the house with the shooter for ever how long before the owners came home? So many questions.

The dog was unharmed. The killer was caught on a security camera going to the house to lie in wait for them. As for the sister I must be missing something because I don't understand why she is suspected of being involved with her parents murder?

Thanks for answering, r16.

This needs to be a Dateline episode!

Dateline is very good for telling a story about unsolved and messy crimes. Reading about this case it seems so obvious to me who done it and why.

They already have the who, the why, and the how. They just need to connect the hit man to the suspect (or get a confession).

The real mystery here is why a beach in Lake Tahoe is named "Hurricane Bay."