Missouri man accused in Florida killing drops bond request

ST. LOUIS -- One of two Missouri men accused of killing a Florida doctor who was married to his childhood friend agreed Tuesday to remain jailed without bond until a hearing to decide whether he will be returned to Florida to face prosecution.

During a five-minute court hearing Tuesday in Jefferson County, south of St. Louis, an attorney for Curtis Wayne Wright Jr. withdrew a request for a judge to set bond, pending Wright's scheduled extradition hearing Sept. 30. Wright is challenging efforts to return him to Florida.

Wright, 47, and 25-year-old Jimmy Ray Rodgers of Cadet, Missouri, are charged in the June killing of Teresa Sievers, a 46-year-old holistic physician and mother of two whose body was found in her Bonita Springs, Florida, home. Wright grew up with Sievers' husband in suburban St. Louis.

Authorities have divulged few details about the killing, including how Sievers died or a possible motive.

Rodgers was sentenced this month to six months in prison for violating probation in a 2011 case in which he pleaded guilty to being a felon in unlawful possession of a firearm.

Authorities say the probation violation put him in the same Florida county where Sievers was killed -- more than 1,100 miles from his eastern Missouri home -- a day before her body was found.

Terms of Rodgers' probation had barred him from leaving Missouri, but his probation officer said he was seen at a Wal-Mart store June 28 in Fort Myers, Florida, about 20 miles from Sievers' home.

Sheriff Mike Scott in Florida's Lee County -- home to Fort Myers and Bonita Springs -- recently has said the investigation of Sievers' death is ongoing, and he didn't rule out additional arrests.

A message left Tuesday with Wright's Missouri attorney, Daris Almond Jr., seeking comment on the allegations against him was not returned.