In a near two-minute long excerpt, obtained by “48 Hours,” Angelika Graswald is heard screaming as she claims to search for 46-year-old Vincent Viafore in the opaque Hudson River. “I’m anxious about him”, she responds with a calmer tone.
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On April 19, Viafore and Graswald left in separate kayaks from Plum Point, near the shore of Cornwall-On-Hudson, and traveled across the Hudson River to Bannerman Island.
But an interrogation expert told 48 Hours that Graswald’s confession is troubling because detectives asked her leading questions and manipulated her into giving the answers they wanted.
Angelika Graswald, 35, was charged with murder after her fiance Vincent Viafore, 46, of Poughkeepsie, drowned in April when his kayak capsized about 80km north of New York City, USA. Graswald continues when asked if he had a life jacket on.
“I’m in the Hudson River, my fiancé fell in the water, can you please call anybody”, Graswald told a 911 dispatcher in a recording of the call obtained by 48 HOURS. It is rather windy and the waves are coming in and I cannot paddle to him. “That is an accident that made right into a felony offense due to their intestine feeling”.
Then, before the call ends, Graswald says, “I think he drowned, I need him to be rescued”.
“Why did you want him to die?”
Viafore’s physique was recovered from the Hudson greater than a month after he disappeared on Might 24, 2015.
But located on the get back cruise, Mr Viafore’s kayak commenced having clean water and…
But prosecutors said she removed a drain plug from Viafore’s kayak, then delayed calling for help and pushed a floating paddle away from him as he struggled in the 40-degree water. “Oh my god”, she cries after several long pauses. Graswald’s attorney HAS disputed these findings, saying it was based on investigators’ speculation. “I don’t see that as being plausible at all”, Ladd said.
Portale says Graswald still has trouble with English and cultural differences, and that prosecutors’ accusations against her have led to an unfair portrayal of his client.
But experts say the medical examiner may have gone too far-homicide can be accidental, but the medical examiner’s report seems to suggest murder.
“A confession would be her saying, ‘I did it, I killed him.’ An incriminating statement is, ‘I’m relieved that he’s gone.’ Those are two very different things”, Abrams said. Police noted at the time of the incident that Graswald was treated for hypothermia at a local hospital and released.
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By then, Graswald was in Orange County Jail on a $3 million cash bail.
