A New York woman admits to pulling the drain plug from her fiancé’s kayak before he drowned, according to authorities. A New York State Police investigator says she told him she not only removed a plug from his kayak, but she admitted to also manipulating his paddle. Police say Angelika Graswald pulled a drain plug from her fiancé Vincent Viafore’s kayak and pushed a floating paddle away from him after his kayak capsized in April 2015.
Fox News reported that a Cornwall police officer testified this week that the woman appeared calm and lacking emotion after she was rescued on that fateful day. Aniello Moscato, a senior investigator with the New York State Police, also testified that Graswald told another investigator that she had pulled a plug on the kayak and manipulated the ring on Viafore’s paddle. No one from the prosecutor’s team at the district attorney’s office or the defense team can comment on the case due to a gag order that was issued.
Graswald denies murder and manslaughter charges, and her lawyer is arguing that Viafore’s death was an accident, that he had a few beers before he fell into the cold water and drowned. His drowning death was ruled a homicide by the medical examiner. According to the New York Times, the medical examiner wrote in his autopsy report that the man’s death was the result of a “kayak drain plug intentionally being removed by other.”
The couple went kayaking last April and, due to someone pulling the plug, the kayak began taking on water. Viafore was tossed off the boat and struggled desperately to get back on board. His fiancée, Angelika Graswald, told police that trouble started when a three- to five-foot wave crashed into their kayak. In an article previously published by the Inquisitr, she said her fiancé attempted to swim back to the boat but couldn’t reach it, and he ultimately disappeared under the water. Police weren’t able to locate and recover the body until May, at which time the investigation led to the determination of homicide as the cause of death. Graswald’s attorney, Richard Portale, said the medical examiner’s ruling was “ill-informed and lacked medical evidence.” Graswald said last November that she loved her fiancé and “wouldn’t have done anything to kill him.” She said she’s a “good person, not a killer.”
Angelika Graswald has been charged with second-degree murder as well as second-degree manslaughter, both of which she has pleaded not guilty. Her defense attorney has stated he believed ruling Viafore’s death as anything but an accident was a “rush to judgment.” The woman still proclaims her innocence, even though she admits to pulling the plug from her fiancé’s kayak before he drowned. In the pretrial hearing today, another officer who took the stand was Stephen Pedetti, who told the defense attorney that Graswald was calm after she was rescued, that she seemed “very matter-of-fact,” and didn’t seem concerned. He called her “emotionless.”
The judge has issued a gag order, which means we won’t be hearing any comments about the case from the prosecution or the defense outside of court. Viafore’s family members were in court today, but they declined to give any comments. The hearing will continue on Tuesday. As of now, there’s a very uncertain outcome, since the woman fully admits to pulling the plug on her fiancé’s kayak before he drowned.
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