Daughters traded accusations in lawsuits before break in parents’ Tahoe homicide, assault

On the two-year anniversary of her father’s slaying and mother’s assault, Adrienne Spohr filed a lawsuit in Placer Superior Court alleging she knew who did it.

Two months later, Erin Spohr filed a lawsuit against Adrienne, alleging her younger sister manipulated their mother into disinheriting her from a $10 million estate and facilitating their mother’s suicide.

Nearly five months later, Placer County detectives took a step in solving the cold case by arresting two suspects, including Erin Spohr’s husband, Daniel Serafini, in Nevada.

Samantha Scott, a friend of the Serafinis, was the other suspect arrested. Erin Spohr has not been arrested or charged.

In the civil complaint filed in June, Adrienne Spohr alleged her sister and her husband Serafini, a former Major League Baseball player, were responsible for the wrongful death of her parents in their Lake Tahoe home. The complaint seeks damages of over $25,000 for the wrongful deaths.

“Plaintiffs are informed and believe, and thereon allege, that defendants ... caused, conspired to cause, or otherwise participated in causing, the premeditated and planned June 5, 2021, murder of Robert Gary Spohr and attempted murder of Wendy Wood, eventually leading to Wood’s death,” according to the civil complaint.

Adrienne Spohr’s attorney, Jason Schaff, declined to comment on the case.

In a statement last week, Adrienne Spohr said she was “shaken to her core” by the arrest of Serafini and Scott.

“This was a heinous, calculated crime,” she said. “My parents had been incredibly generous to Daniel Serafini and Erin Spohr throughout their marriage. Despite being pressed for my opinion, I cannot comment on my sister’s level of involvement at this time.”

Erin Spohr and her attorney could not be reached for comment.

Were parents ‘targeted’ for money?

In the civil complaint, Adrienne Spohr alleges her sister and brother-in-law “targeted” her parents.

Serafini was believed to be in financial straits following the end of his major league career.

In 2015, he and his wife appeared in an episode of Paramount Network’s “Bar Rescue” in which he told producers he had lost $14 million in “bad investments and a bitter divorce settlement.”

He purchased a bar called the Bullpen in Sparks and, according to the show, Serafini was $300,000 in debt and at risk of losing his home and his parents’ house.

After their death their parents, Adrienne and Erin Spohr shared property that was “gifted” to them by their parents, “including real property located in Placer County,” the complaint said.

The property includes the Tahoe home, according to public records. Zillow.com values the home at more than $3 million. The property is currently listed in Adrienne Spohr’s name, according to public records.

Robert Gary Spohr and Wendy Wood were attacked in that Homewood residence.

At the time, investigators from the Placer County Sheriff’s Office released surveillance video of the suspected assailant walking on the bike path along West Lake Boulevard. Wearing a gray hoodie, white neck gaiter and backpack, he is seen walking casually down the west shore, his hands in his pockets.

The same man is captured by a surveillance camera minutes later walking up the driveway of Spohr and Wood’s home.

The suspect waited inside the home for four hours before attacking Spohr and his wife, shooting him in the head at point-blank range and shooting Wood in the head twice, Adrienne Spohr told The Bee in February.

Wood survived the attack, calling 911 when she regained consciousness. She spent over a month in the intensive care unit and underwent significant rehabilitation before she died a year later of an apparent suicide, according to Erin Spohr’s suit. Wood never regained her memory of the attack, the complaint said.

In a separate lawsuit filed against Adrienne Spohr, Erin Spohr alleges her sister exercised “undue influence” over their mother while she was in a vulnerable physical and mental state following the attack. She accuses her sister of isolating their mother, abusing her and “divert(ing) all family assets for her own selfish benefit.”

According to the civil complaint, Erin Spohr accuses Adrienne Spohr of quitting her job to manage their parents’ sizable estate, and then scheming to exclude her older sister and her two children from any piece of the inheritance.

“Thus, Adrienne successfully carried out her plan to unduly influence Wendy and cause herself to be the sole beneficiary of her parents’ entire estate, something Wendy while mentally healthy would never have wanted,” Erin Spohr’s civil complaint said.

Spohr and Wood’s estate is valued at $10 million, according to Erin Spohr’s lawsuit.

Erin Spohr’s case, which was filed Aug. 18, seeks to invalidate her disinheritance and reinstate her parents’ 1999 trust in which their assets were split between their two daughters.

Suspects to be extradited

For a time, the homicide case seemingly went cold. In February 2022, Adrienne Spohr offered a reward of $150,000 for information leading to a conviction in her parents’ case.

“For me, everyday living with the uncertainty of who did this and why, has been the most agonizing thing,” she said at the time.

But in April 2023, something changed. According to the civil complaint, investigators at the Placer County Sheriff’s Office “confirmed new developments in the ‘cold case.’”

On April 21, the Sheriff’s Office published a post on its Facebook page, saying the suspects may reside in the Reno area.

The Placer County Sheriff’s Office and prosecutors said Monday they would not release further information about the investigation as they awaited the extradition of Serafini and Scott to Placer County.

Adrienne’s Spohr’s case seeks more than $25,000 in damages from her sister and brother-in-law.

“The call I received on October 20, 2023, will forever be etched in my mind — a moment of profound relief and gratitude after two years of fear and uncertainty,” Adrienne Spohr said in a statement. “I feel an immense weight lifted off my shoulders. I have held onto my parents’ ashes as I never felt right scattering them without the justice they deserved.”

“Now that justice has been served, my parents can finally rest in peace,” she said.