A man allegedly involved in a Estero shooting that left a Florida couple dead in April 2018 is being extradited from Ukraine to the United States to stand trial on federal charges.
Craig Austin Lang, 34, Surprise, Arizona, along with co-defendant Alex Jared Zwiefelhofer, 27, Bloomer, Wisconsin, was charged in 2019 in a conspiracy to commit robbery and discharging a firearm during and in relation to a crime of violence, robbery interfering in commerce, and discharging a firearm during and in relation to a crime of violence, which resulted in the death of of Brooksville, Florida, residents Serafin "Danny" Lorenzo, 53, and Deana K. Lorenzo, 51.
The fatal Estero shootings took place off Corkscrew Road in a parking lot of an complex called the Galleria.
Lang is also charged with conspiring to kill, kidnap, or maim persons in a foreign country and a violation of the Neutrality Act. If convicted on all counts, Lang faces a maximum sentence of life in federal prison. Zwiefelhofer was convicted as charged at trial on March 8, 2024, and is scheduled for sentencing on August 6, 2024.
According to court documents, on April 10, 2018, two individuals, S.L., Jr. and D.L., were found dead in Estero, from multiple gunshot wounds to the head and body.
Further investigation revealed that the couple had traveled to Estero from Brooksville to complete the purchase of several firearms from an individual who had listed them for sale on a website known as Armslist.
On the night of April 9, 2018, the Lee County Sheriff’s Office received 911 calls reporting gunfire in the community of Estero. Deputies searched the area but didn’t find any sign of a shooting.
Eight hours later — the next day — deputies responding to another 911 call found a red truck riddled with bullet holes. Serafin “Danny” Lorenzo Jr., was shot seven times. Deana Lorenzo had 11 bullet wounds.
Investigators determined the Lorenzos withdrew $3,000 in cash and drove more than two hours from their Brooksville, Florida, home to buy guns from somebody listing them for sale on a website called Armslist. The seller, “Jeremy,” told them to meet at a church in Estero. “I’m at the church,” Serafin Lorenzo wrote in his last text message.
Investigators used cellphone records and social media messages to link the suspects to the killings.
Google records showed Zwiefelhofer’s online searches included the phrase “How to Smuggle Myself to South America,” an FBI agent said in an affidavit. Zwiefelhofer also searched for video of a movie scene that depicted shooters ambushing a vehicle using the same tactics employed by the gunmen who attacked the Lorenzos’ truck, the agent said.
An unidentified “associate” of Lang’s told detectives that they had traveled to Bogota, Colombia, several months after the Florida shootings, according to the FBI agent’s affidavit. Lang joined a Venezuelan resistance group that had a safe house in the mountains of Cucuta, Colombia, near the Venezuelan border, said the associate, who told investigators he left Lang in Bogota.
As a result of the investigation, Zwiefelhofer and Lang were identified as the individuals who were believed to have murdered the couple during an armed robbery of the $3,000 the couple had intended to use to purchase the firearms.
The superseding indictment further alleges that Zwiefelhofer and Lang formed and pursued a plan to fight the Venezuelan government and committed the robbery of S.L., Jr. and D.L. to obtain money to fund their travel to Venezuela for that purpose.
Both Lang and Zwiefelhofer were formerly in the U.S. military before traveling overseas to Ukraine to engage in fighting, where they met. They then traveled to Kenya to fight in South Sudan before they were arrested and deported back to the United States.
After being in the United States for a short time, both Lang and Zwiefelhofer planned to travel to Venezuela to fight alongside others. Lang and Zwiefelhofer met in Florida in April 2018, where they allegedly planned to take a boat to Venezuela, but their plan fell through.
Lang’s extradition from Ukraine occurred after the European Court of Human Rights recently rejected his claim challenging extradition from Ukraine under the European Convention on Human Rights.
The FBI escorted Lang from Ukraine to the United States. The Justice Department’s Office of International Affairs and the FBI Tampa Field Office Fort Myers Resident Agency provided significant assistance in securing the arrest, extradition, and removal of Lang to the United States. The United States also thanks Ukrainian authorities for their valuable assistance.
Prior to extradition, authorities portrayed Lang and Zwiefelhofer as cold-blooded killers. In Ukraine, a defense lawyer blames the U.S. government for not doing more to help Lang and other veterans adapt to life off the battlefield.
“The man was just searching for a spot on the world map to catch a bullet and die,” Lang’s attorney, Dmytro Morhun, told The Associated Press. “But he has found a new life, a new love, a new family” in Ukraine, Morhun said.
The fighting attracted thousands of volunteers from the U.S. and Europe. Some foreign combatants were driven by white supremacist ideology, but soldiers who served with Lang in Ukraine said they never heard him express any racist or extremist views.
A woman who fought alongside Lang in Ukraine described him as “calm and reasonable” but said he had personal problems connected to a divorce and child custody battle. “He went to fight in Ukraine because he had no other place to go,” said the woman, who asked to be identified only by her first name, Elena, for security reasons.
In 2017, Zwiefelhofer and Lang traveled to Africa but were detained by Kenyan authorities when they tried to enter South Sudan. They eventually were deported to the U.S.
Brian Boyenger, a veteran of the U.S. Army’s 101st Airborne Division, said he spent a few months with Lang on the front lines in Ukraine.
“He conducted himself as a disciplined and professional soldier,” Boyenger wrote in a Facebook message. “The things he is accused of were a surprise to me.”
Lang, a North Carolina native, was discharged from the Army in 2014. Zwiefelhofer, a Wisconsin native, was discharged in 2018 after going absent without leave in September 2016.
The two met in Ukraine in 2016. Zwiefelhofer told authorities that he and Lang joined Right Sector, an ultranationalist group fighting Russia-backed separatists. Right-wing volunteer battalions played a key role in the separatist conflict that erupted in 2014 in eastern Ukraine after Russia’s annexation of Crimea.
WGCU is your trusted source for news and information in Southwest Florida. We are a nonprofit public service, and your support is more critical than ever. Keep public media strong and donate now. Thank you. The Associated Press contributed to this report.