Free episodes • $5/mo unlocks case files
Available on all major podcast platforms
Complete written investigation summary
On April 10, 2018, Craig Austin Lang and Alex Jared Zwiefelhofer ambushed Serafin “Danny” Lorenzo Jr. and Deana K. Lorenzo in a church parking lot off Corkscrew Road in Estero, Florida. Danny, 53, sent his wife’s sister a text at 10:37 PM — just four words: “I’m at the church.” Eighteen minutes later, investigators would count 63 shell casings and two bodies. Danny had been shot seven times. Deana, 51, had been shot eleven. The motive, according to federal court documents, wasn’t robbery in any normal sense. Lang and Zwiefelhofer killed the Lorenzos to steal roughly $3,000 in cash — money they intended to use to travel to Venezuela and join an armed uprising against the Maduro government. In September 2025, a federal jury convicted Lang on all counts. In December 2025, he was sentenced to two consecutive life sentences.
Danny and Deana Lorenzo were military veterans who lived in Brooksville, Florida. They bought, refurbished, and resold firearms as a shared hobby — a legal, regulated, and common activity in their community. In early 2018, they responded to an Armslist listing posted under the pseudonym “Jeremy Goldstein.” Federal investigators later traced that pseudonym to Zwiefelhofer’s phone and linked it through internet records to Lang. The Lorenzos drove south from Brooksville believing they were meeting ordinary private buyers. Deana’s sister, Angie Crowder, told ABC News in 2022: “We all want answers.”
Lang was born in Pitt County, North Carolina, around 1988. At approximately 12 years old, he witnessed his father attempt to murder his stepmother and spent roughly five years in foster care. He enlisted in the US Army in 2008, deployed to Iraq in 2009–2010, and then to Afghanistan, where his Humvee was hit by an IED — leaving him with a traumatic brain injury, partial deafness, and nerve damage to his left eye. In July 2013, the day after his son was born, Lang went AWOL from Fort Bliss. He drove to North Carolina with night-vision goggles, assault rifles, and claymore mines, threatened his wife’s neighbors, and was arrested following a SWAT standoff. In June 2014, he was dishonorably discharged, losing veterans’ benefits and health insurance.
In 2015, Lang traveled to Ukraine and joined Right Sector, an ultranationalist militia fighting Russian-backed separatists in the Donbas. Over the next two years, he rotated through the Georgian National Legion and the Ukrainian Armed Forces. FBI investigators later examined allegations that during this period Lang participated in the beating of prisoners and possible executions — though no war crimes charges were ultimately filed. In June 2017, Lang and Zwiefelhofer were detained by Kenyan border guards attempting to enter South Sudan and were deported. They returned to the United States and began planning the Venezuela trip.
On April 5, 2018, Lang and Zwiefelhofer checked into a La Quinta Inn near Miami International Airport. Using the “Jeremy Goldstein” alias on Armslist, they arranged the meeting with the Lorenzos. On the night of April 10, the Lorenzos drove to the meeting location — a rural church parking lot off Corkscrew Road. At 10:37 PM, Danny sent his final text: “I’m at the church.” Federal cell site records placed both Lang and Zwiefelhofer in the Estero area that night. Between approximately 10:37 and 10:55 PM, 63 rounds were fired. Both Lorenzos died at the scene. Lang and Zwiefelhofer took roughly $3,000 in cash and fled. Days later, Lang sold components from the murder weapon at a Seattle pawn shop.
In August and September 2018, Lang drove with a Fort Bliss acquaintance named Matt McCloud from St. Louis to Roxboro, North Carolina, where they obtained fraudulent passports using the stolen identity of a man named Dameon Shae Adcock. On September 17, 2018, Lang and McCloud flew one-way from Atlanta to Kyiv. Homeland Security subsequently tracked Lang through Mexico City, Bogotá, Madrid, and back to Ukraine, where he remained from late 2018 until his extradition. In Ukraine, he married, fathered two children, and fought briefly with the Ukrainian Territorial Defense after the February 2022 Russian invasion. He was celebrated in some Ukrainian media as a foreign war hero.
A federal grand jury in the Middle District of Florida returned a superseding indictment on December 4, 2019, charging Lang and Zwiefelhofer with six counts: conspiracy to commit Hobbs Act robbery; discharging a firearm during a violent crime; armed robbery affecting interstate commerce; discharging a firearm resulting in death during a crime of violence; conspiracy to kill persons in a foreign country (targeting the Venezuelan government); and violation of the Neutrality Act (18 U.S.C. § 960). The Neutrality Act, enacted in 1794, is one of the rarest federal charges ever prosecuted — it criminalizes launching armed expeditions against nations with which the United States is at peace.
Lang was detained in Ukraine in August 2019 at the Moldovan border while attempting to extend his residence permit. He fought extradition for nearly five years. His Ukrainian defense attorney, Dmytro Morhun, argued Lang faced a death penalty risk in the United States and filed an application with the European Court of Human Rights (Application No. 49134/20). On November 9, 2023, the ECHR denied his challenge. Lang was returned to US custody in mid-2024 and made his first federal court appearance in Fort Myers that summer.
On September 15, 2025, a federal jury convicted Lang on all counts after trial in the Middle District of Florida. On December 16, 2025, US District Judge John L. Badalamenti sentenced Lang to two consecutive life sentences and ordered $10,886 in restitution. Zwiefelhofer, tried separately, was convicted on March 8, 2024, and sentenced on August 6, 2024, also to two consecutive life sentences. He is currently incarcerated at the United States Penitentiary in Terre Haute, Indiana. The prosecution was led by Assistant US Attorneys Jesus M. Casas and Benjamin S. Winter of the Fort Myers Division.
This episode was built from 566 pages of federal court documents, including the superseding indictment, trial filings, sentencing documents, and extradition records. Paid Substack subscribers received the full document package when this episode was released.
Craig Austin Lang is a former US Army veteran from Pitt County, North Carolina, who was dishonorably discharged in 2014 and later fought as a foreign volunteer in Ukraine with Right Sector, the Georgian National Legion, and the Ukrainian Armed Forces. In September 2025, a federal jury in the Middle District of Florida convicted him of murdering Serafin 'Danny' Lorenzo Jr. and Deana K. Lorenzo in Estero, Florida, in April 2018. He is serving two consecutive life sentences.
Serafin 'Danny' Lorenzo Jr., 53, and Deana K. Lorenzo, 51, were a married couple from Brooksville, Florida. Both were military veterans. They bought, refurbished, and resold firearms as a hobby. On April 10, 2018, they were ambushed and murdered in a church parking lot off Corkscrew Road in Estero after responding to an Armslist listing posted by Alex Zwiefelhofer under the alias 'Jeremy Goldstein.'
According to federal court documents, Lang and his co-defendant Alex Zwiefelhofer killed the Lorenzos to steal approximately $3,000 in cash, which they intended to use to travel to Venezuela and join an armed uprising against the Maduro government. They were charged with conspiracy to kill persons in a foreign country and violation of the Neutrality Act, a rarely prosecuted 1794 statute.
The Neutrality Act (18 U.S.C. § 960), enacted in 1794, makes it a federal crime to launch or fund an armed expedition against a nation with which the United States is at peace. It is one of the rarest charges in federal criminal history. The Lang and Zwiefelhofer prosecutions are among the few modern cases to secure convictions under the statute.
After the April 2018 murders, Lang obtained a fraudulent passport in Roxboro, North Carolina, using the stolen identity of Dameon Shae Adcock. On September 17, 2018, he flew one-way from Atlanta to Kyiv. Homeland Security later tracked his movements through Mexico City, Bogotá, and Madrid. He remained in Ukraine until his extradition in mid-2024, including a period fighting with the Ukrainian Territorial Defense after the February 2022 Russian invasion.
On December 16, 2025, US District Judge John L. Badalamenti sentenced Craig Lang to two consecutive life sentences and ordered him to pay $10,886 in restitution. Co-defendant Alex Zwiefelhofer was convicted in March 2024 and sentenced in August 2024 to two consecutive life sentences. He is currently incarcerated at the United States Penitentiary in Terre Haute, Indiana.
All information verified against official court records and primary documentation
Every fact cited in this investigation is sourced from official court documents, FBI records, or verified news archives. No speculation or unverified claims.
For Researchers: All court documents available to email subscribers. Citations follow Bluebook legal citation format where applicable.
