Adrienne Spohr, the daughter of Gary Spohr and Wendy Wood, has spoken out after disgraced former MLB player Daniel Serafini gunned down her parents.
Serafini, 51, was found guilty in July of murdering his father-in-law and attempting to kill his mother-in-law.
The former Minnesota Twins and Chicago Cubs pitcher broke into Spohr and Wood’s Lake Tahoe-area home in 2021 and shot dead Spohr at close range before firing at Wood, 69.
Wood, who suffered brain damage as a result of the shooting, killed herself in 2023 at an assisted-living facility.
Now, Adrienne, the 35-year-old sister of Serafini’s wife Erin, paid an emotional tribute to her parents as she opened up on their tragic deaths.
‘My parents were forces of nature. They were strong, adventurous, generous and they loved deeply,’ Adrienne told People. ‘That’s how I want people to remember them — not as victims but as the incredible people they were.’
Disgraced former MLB player Daniel Serafini was found guilty in July of murdering his father-in-law and attempting to kill his mother-in-law last month
Retired businessman Gary Spohr, 70, and his wife Wendy Wood, then 69, were shot at their luxury Lake Tahoe home in 2021. He died and she miraculously survived only to hang herself two years later
Prosecutors claimed that Spohr was ‘executed’ with a bullet to the back of his head, while Wood was struck by gunfire, vomited and bled on the couch before she crawled to a bathroom, where she managed to call 911.
She was so badly injured that she could only gasp for air. Still, emergency responders rushed to the scene, where they found Spohr’s body along with bullet shell casings and bloodstains splattered around the luxury home.
Medics found Wood in the bathroom, and flew her to the hospital in Reno, where she spent the next month in intensive care.
Adrienne said that in the following weeks her mother ‘relearned how to walk and write and even went hiking.’ However, Wood suffered with depression and anxiety, ultimately taking her life in 2023.
‘The heartbreak of losing my dad — and knowing who was responsible [for his death] — became too much,’ Adrienne said. ‘She said it felt like she had lost her right arm.’
Last month, a California jury declared that Serafini was guilty of first-degree murder for his father-in-law’s death, as well as the attempted murder of his mother-in-law and burglary, CBS News reported.
The jury also found Serafini was guilty of charge enhancements, including discharging of a firearm to cause great bodily injury, lying in wait and that the attack was woeful, willful and premeditated, according to KCRA.
However, the 10-woman, two-man jury found Serafini was not guilty of child endangerment as his children were not at the house at the time of the deadly shooting.
Adrienne Spohr, the sister of Serafini’s wife Erin (pictured) has spoken out on her parents
The Lake Tahoe home where Gary Spohr and Wendy Wood were killed in 2021
Serafini was said to be having an affair with his children’s nanny Samantha Scott (pictured)
Prosecutors have claimed throughout the months-long trial that Serafini had been in desperate need of cash following an acrimonious divorce and a failed bar venture for which he lost $14 million in earnings from his baseball career.
They also argued that the former baseball star hated his wealthy in-laws and even told others that he wanted them dead, as he continued his affair with the nanny, Samantha Scott, 35.
Serafini, they said, ultimately devised a plan to sneak into his wealthy in-laws home on June 5, 2021 when he knew they were spending time out on the lake with his wife and children.
He then waited with a .22-caliber gun for his wife and children to return to their Reno, Nevada home, and when Spohr and Wood were watching television shortly before 9am, Serafini opened fire, Assistant Chief Deputy District Attorney Richard Miller told jurors.
She ultimately hanged herself in 2023, and her will is now the subject of a contentious legal battle between Serafini’s wife, Erin, and Adrienne.
The two sisters are fighting to get custody of the couple’s estate – which they estimate to be worth $10 million.
It now seems that Serafini’s relationship with his in-laws had been fraught from the beginning – and tensions only grew worse as the former pitcher and his wife found themselves partially reliant on handouts from her wealthy parents.
Making matters worse, her parents forced Serafini to sign a post-nuptial agreement one year after their wedding – meaning he would not get any of her money if their marriage were to end, Erin testified in court, according to the Sacramento Bee.
Police caught a masked intruder entering the Spohrs’ Hurricane Bay home on surveillance footage the night of June 5, 2021
Wearing a backpack and black hoodie, the man thought to be the killer carried a concealed .22-caliber gun as he strolled around Lake Tahoe on the day of the murder
As the investigation into the shooting continued, authorities also discovered Serafini once said he would pay to have his in-laws killed.
”I’ll pay $20,000 to have them killed. They’re wealthy pieces of s***.’ That’s what he said about his in-laws,’ Miller told jurors back in May.
He said Serafini made the comment in 2012, the same year he married their daughter, Erin, now 36.
Then, just three months before the murder, Serafini was also overheard by a mine foreman saying he wanted to kill them in a furious phone call.
Transcripts of angry emails and text messages between Serafini and his wife’s parents further showed a heated, ongoing dispute over a $1.3 million loan from his in-laws to help fund Erin’s fledgling horse ranch business.
Yet the in-laws continued to help out their daughter – even providing her a check for $90,0000 on the day of the grisly murder.
Erin and Serafini’s two young children had visited the Lake Tahoe compound that day, and as they spent hours boating on the lake, a masked man was caught on camera sneaking into Spohr’s Tahoe City shortly after 5pm.
Prosecutors say Spohr was ‘executed’ with a bullet to the back of his head, while Wood was struck by gunfire, vomited and bled on the couch before she crawled to a bathroom where she managed to call 911
Serafini played for six Major League Baseball teams including the Minnesota Twins, the Chicago Cubs and the Cincinnati Reds
Just over an hour later, five gunshots were heard in rapid succession from inside the property with the masked killer caught leaving the home a few minutes before 9pm.
The former baseball star is now due to be sentenced on August 18, when he faces the possibility of life behind bars.
Serafini was an MLB pitcher who was drafted in 1992 and whose career spanned 11 years with multiple teams.
He played for the Cincinnati Reds, San Diego Padres, Chicago Cubs and finished his career with the Colorado Rockies back in 2007.
