Angelika Graswald confessed to deliberately sabotaging her fiance’s kayak knowing he would drown in the icy waters below, according to chilling new testimony.
A New York police investigator has publicly described for the first time a 45-minute walk he took with 36-year-old Graswald that led her to be charged with killing her fiance Vincent Viafore.
Viafore, 46, disappeared in the Hudson River’s rough, cold waters on April 19, 2015, while visiting Bannerman Island with his then future bride. The couple had paddled to the island where they spent the day drinking beer and taking photos before Viafore vanished on the return trip.
Investigator Donald DeQuarto testified Graswald removed the plug from Viafore’s kayak, ensuring it would capsize, and snatched away his paddle, New York Times reports.
DeQuarto said that Viafore begged Graswald to call 911 as he floundered in the choppy waters without a life vest, but she “kind of reached over and took his paddle from him and strapped it onto her kayak.”
Asked if she removed the plug so he would drown, she allegedly paused before admitting, “I guess I did”.
His testimony comes on the fourth day of a pre-trial hearing to assess how investigators obtained their evidence against Graswald.
Graswald was treated as a mourning fiancee for 10 days while divers searched for Viafore's body until detectives took her to the island and DeQuarto had a lengthy, one-on-one conversation with her. The next day, she was interrogated by police for 11 hours.
When DeQuarto asked how she felt about Viafore's death, she allegedly said: "Fine. Over It."
"She felt like herself. She felt free," he said.
He told the court he discovered Viafore had postponed their wedding and made unwanted sexual demands, forcing her to have sex when he wanted to and pressing her to have threesomes.
Graswald allegedly said Viafore even had a third partner in mind, named Tina.
“‘Why can’t you do a threesome with Tina? Tina would do this, Tina would do that.’ It made her upset,” DeQuarto said.
DeQuarto testified that Graswald told him she felt Viafore had "trapped" her, People reports.
"I just wanted to be free. I wanted him gone, I wanted to be myself," he recalled her telling him.
DeQuarto said he had asked Graswald why she didn’t just break up with Viafore.
He claimed “she said she’s a very spiritual person, she knew he would never be gone” if she only dumped him.
DeQuarto said Graswald suggested she could have pictured herself remaining with Viafore if things had been different.
“She wanted a normal life with Vincent, she wanted to get married, she wanted to have children,” he said.
DeQuarto didn't take notes nor did he record the conversation he had with Graswald on the island. He only wrote down his memory of the talk 15 hours later. He also did not tell Graswald she had a right to remain silent.
Graswald's defence lawyer is challenging how police obtained statements leading to her arrest and is seeking to suppress an 11-hour interrogation video, which shows an alleged confession.
Graswald is rejecting her charge of second-degree murder, maintaining Viafore died accidentally when his kayak capsized and he fell into the water.
Prosecutors say Graswald stood to collect US$250,000 in life insurance benefits from Viafore's death. His body was recovered in mid-May last year.
Top Comments
I love how neutral in tone / lack of judgment these articles are when it is a male victim / female murderer. It is straight up outrage whenever a male murders a woman... Here there was a lot of focus on the police investigation methods and justifying her actions... Seriously wtf...
well for one she may not be a murderer. two, people are pretty much over men killing these days, it happens so much. And the way society for eons have put much of the blame onto the female victims of men and subsequently given male killers light sentences which gave them an opportunity to go and kill other women and men, has made it really hard for anyone to take a measured approach to male murderers. I think this woman did not committ premeditated murder, if she did murder him she saw an opportunity to rid herself of an abuser and took it. By all means if that's the case she needs to be jailed for a long time.
Here is where you show your bias. This is not proven that a murder happened. Have you seen the evidence, because I have seen the information coming through the US (not relying on this article). There are many concerns about the death whether it was an unlawful killing or an accidental death. Perhaps that is why people are not ready to hunt down and stone this woman. It is not as clear as the title puts it. Which you would know if you researched this case. I don't know who is justifying her actions. Do you have any specific comments?
I am not making a judgment at all on this case - it does look like this woman is shifty yet it's an unusual way to murder someone and accidents like this happen all the time. But in my work I meet people who have just losta loved one often and a lot of the time these people are not particularly upset about the death, especially spouses. It always surprises me. I would say about 20 percent of my clients whose spouses have just died are not particularly sad and they even say so. They often say thing's like oh well that's life!