A former professional baseball player is accused of murdering his father-in-law and attempting to kill his mother-in-law at their home on the shores of Lake Tahoe in 2021, CBS News reports.
On Friday, police arrested 49-year-old Danny Serafini in connection with the attacks. Police also took into custody 33-year-old Samantha Scott, who was reportedly close to the family and may have been a nanny, according to KCRA-TV.
The arrests come after police were called to a home on June 5, 2021, in North Lake Tahoe, where they found 70-year-old Robert Gary Spohr dead from a single gunshot wound.
His wife, Wendy Wood Spohr, had been shot twice and survived the shooting, but she died the following year from suicide as she dealt with depression and disability, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.
A security camera at the home recorded a male wearing a hood and face covering walking up the driveway of the residence hours before the incident.
Police arrested Serafini on Friday morning in Winnemucca, Nevada, while Scott was arrested at Harry Reid International Airport in Las Vegas. Both are detained and awaiting extradition to California.
“Today, justice was served,” Placer County Sheriff Wayne Woo said in a written statement. “The apprehension of those responsible for the tragic events that unfolded in Homewood, North Lake Tahoe in 2021 stands as a testament to the unwavering dedication of our detectives, law enforcement partners, and the persistence of our pursuit of truth.”
Serafini is reportedly married to a daughter of one of the victims. He is also facing charges of child abuse and endangerment, KCRA-TV reports; details on those allegations were not immediately available.
Following the shootings in 2021, the victims’ daughter, Adrienne Spohr, spoke with CBS Sacramento about the attack.
“We still don’t completely understand the motive of the killer, and, at the end of the day, he came here to kill my mom and my dad,” Spohr said at the time.
Serafini played for seven seasons as a pitcher in the MLB. He was a first-round draft pick in 1992 for the Minnesota Twins and later played for the Chicago Cubs, San Diego Padres, Pittsburgh Pirates, Cincinnati Reds and Colorado Rockies, according to MLB.com.
In 2007, Serafini was suspended for 50 games after testing for performance-enhancing drugs. He asserted that the steroid found in his system had been prescribed by a Japanese doctor while he recovered from a torn tendon.
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[Feature Photo: Danny Serafini and Samantha Scott/Placer County Sheriff’s Office]
