Former Cincinnati Red charged in Lake Tahoe murder was couple's son-in-law
More details are coming to light following the arrest of former Cincinnati Reds pitcher Danny Serafini and a Nevada woman in connection to the 2021 shooting death of Robert Gary Spohr and attempted murder of his wife, Wendy Wood, in the Lake Tahoe community of Homewood.
Serafini, 49, was arrested in Winnemucca, Nevada, and Samantha Scott, 33, was arrested in Las Vegas on Friday, according to a news release from the Placer County Sheriff's Office.
Spohr and Woods' daughter Adrienne told the Reno Gazette Journal that Serafini is married to her sister, Erin Spohr.
A former Major League Baseball pitcher, Serafini played for the Minnesota Twins, Chicago Cubs, San Diego Padres, Pittsburgh Pirates, Cincinnati Reds and Colorado Rockies between 1996 and 2007.
Scott is a longtime friend of Erin Spohr, Adrienne Spohr said.
On June 5, 2021, deputies responding to a 911 call at a home in North Lake Tahoe found Spohr, 70, dead from a single gunshot wound. Wood, 68, had also been shot in the head but survived. Adrienne Spohr told the San Francisco Chronicle that her mother became depressed and took her own life less than a year later.
After the shooting, Adrienne Spohr offered up to a $150,000 reward to help track down the person who killed her father and attempted to kill her mother. Video surveillance from the home had shown a hooded man wearing a face covering and a backpack walking to the home several hours before the homicide occurred.
"When I learned on October 20th that my sister’s husband Daniel Serafini and sister’s close friend Samantha Scott were arrested for the shooting of my parents, I was shaken to my core," Adrienne Spohr wrote in a statement sent to the RGJ. "This was a heinous, calculated crime. 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."
Adrienne Spohr wrote that the call informing her of the arrests "will forever be etched in my mind — a moment of profound relief and gratitude after two years of fear and uncertainty. 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," she wrote. "Now that justice has been served, my parents can finally rest in peace."
Adrienne Spohr praised the Placer County Sheriff's Office and District Attorney's Office.
"They worked tirelessly for over two years to ensure that this case was solved," she wrote. "They never gave up, and that has meant the world to me and my family."
Placer County, on the California side of Lake Tahoe, is awaiting Serafini and Scott's extradition from Nevada.
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Former Cincinnati Red arrested in 2021 murder was victim's son-in-law
