On a cool evening in April of 2015, two paddlers using recreational, sit-inside kayaks pushed off into the Hudson River near Cornwall, New York. The couple from nearby Poughkeepsie, was paddling back from Bannerman’s Island in the middle of the river, a common paddling destination. But not necessarily an easy one if conditions aren’t ideal. The water was reportedly messy with waves and wind. Around 7:30 p.m., 35-year-old Angelika Graswald made a 911 call that her fiancé, 46-year-old Vincent Viafore, was in distress, having capsized his kayak. He wasn’t wearing a lifejacket.
When authorities arrived, Graswald was swimming and in distress herself and Viafore was nowhere to be found. Search efforts yielded nothing. In May of that year, a body was found near the Cornwall Yacht Club. It was later identified as Viafore’s. But what initially looked like an open and shut tragedy has turned into a murder mystery as Graswald went on trial this week on second degree murder charges.
Police were reportedly initially suspicious of Graswald’s story because she was too “matter of fact,” and emotionless. “Initially, we believed her to be a survivor of a tragic accident,” said New York State Police Maj. Patrick Regan at a news conference following the accident. “Some inconsistencies in the accounts that she gave of those last minutes led investigators to be suspicious.”
The damning interrogation video obviously prompted authorities to press charges. After heavy police questioning, investigators say Graswald admitted to tampering with Viafore’s kayak, removing the drain plug so it would fill up with water. “Yes … I wanted him dead, and now he’s gone,” she said on a video that was played nationally on the CBS show 48 Hours, a television news magazine that profiles criminal cases (above).
Her defense team is moving to have the tape removed from record with an upcoming hearing scheduled to “review the manner in which police obtained statements from the defendant.”
Then there’s the motive: the prosecution is running with the theory that she stood to receive $250,000 form Viafore’s life insurance policy as the primary beneficiary. Neither paddler was reportedly prepared with drysuits, wetsuits or in Viafore’s case, even PFDs, in the event of emergency.
The confession is certainly not a good look, any way you cut it. But one immediate question that arises is why would someone who wants to kill for money leave it up to chance that the person they want dead would die by drowning in a kayak accident? But that’s exactly what happened. Whether it was murder or not, a jury will decide in the coming weeks.
