GUILTY NY - Vincent Viafore, 46, Newburgh, 19 April 2015 - #1

[Inthedetails]

"...Mr. Caplan [executive director of the Bannerman Castle Trust] said, the couple should not have been on the island by themselves. Because of hazardous ruins, access to the island is by guided tour only."

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/14/n...-river-kayaker-accused-of-killing-fiance.html

 

[kimi_SFC]

Heather Yakin: Bail hearing could illuminate Graswald case
By Heather Yakin
May 12, 2015 - 6:28 PM
All homicides are tragedies, heartbreak for the loved ones left behind. Every so often, a homicide case seems really bizarre at the outset. I was away for a few days last week, and there were all sorts of hijinks in the case of missing kayaker Vincent Viafore. The case has been deemed a homicide, and his fiancée, Angelika Graswald, is now in jail on a murder charge.

What's the big media fascination with the case? It began before the murder charge, when rescue personnel were searching the Hudson River for Viafore and police put out Graswald's account of a kayaking accident on choppy waters.
[...]
Very likely, bail will be set, since the purpose of bail is to assure the defendant's return to court. Odds are good that her bail will be lower than the $3.5 million cash or $20 million bond set in another part of Orange County Court for the top guy in the Attorney General's "Operation Iron Horse" interstate heroin-trafficking prosecution. To be fair, that guy has priors for robbery and narcotics distribution, and is looking at a minimum of 15 years to life if convicted.
[...]
The hearing on Wednesday will also require prosecutors to show their hand, to say something about why they believe Graswald killed Viafore and how they came to that conclusion. I suspect they'll say as little as possible, but maybe they'll shed a little light on the mystery.

http://www.recordonline.com/article/20150512/NEWS/150519785


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Lilibet]

I'm not saying this the situation here, but I think most of us know of at least one case (Jodi Arias) where there was odd behavior at the end of several relationships that finally escalated to murder...and no one saw it coming...until it did. JMO

I hope we learn more tomorrow.

BBM

A former boyfriend said she had been known to act rashly when love did not go her way.

After she separated from her second husband, Ms. Graswald moved in with a new boyfriend, Mike Colvin, a D.J. and former radio host in Dutchess County whom she had known for only three weeks. She arrived with scores of items belonging to her former husband, including a television set, wall hangings and even paper towels.

“She had wiped him out,” Mr. Colvin said. (A court later ordered that they be returned.)

When she and Mr. Colvin broke up in early 2010, he said they fought over custody of their cat. Ms. Graswald wanted it; Mr. Colvin resisted. “I didn’t trust her,” he said, calling her irresponsible. So Ms. Graswald lay down behind his car, he said, to keep him from leaving. At that point, he said, “I was like, ‘Take the cat.’” (She returned the animal a few days later.)

Still, Mr. Colvin said he did not think of Ms. Graswald as dangerous. “The two episodes certainly were outlandish,” he said, “but there was nothing else that would raise eyebrows.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/14/n...r-kayaker-accused-of-killing-fiance.html?_r=0

 

[TravelingBug]

Angelika Graswald, who was charged on April 30, also stands accused of falsely reporting the death of Vincent Viafore as being caused by a kayaking accident.

Police believe Viafore is dead, but have yet to release information about a possible motive or alternative cause of death.

Given the bit about falsely reporting his death...

Could something have happened elsewhere and the 'falsely reporting his death' bit could mean she had staged the kayaking part by actually going kayaking after it happened but that it was a male friend who was seen by the eyewitnesses and not actually Vincent? :waitasec:

Like her staging all of that so if anyone saw them in the water that it'd just be assumed by eyewitnesses that it was Vincent once the story hit the news?

And then at some point he "disappeared" so it appeared only one person returned or was alive when rescuers came, when in actuality the "stand-in" snuck away somewhere or even hid on the island, perhaps even staying out there long after she was "saved" but before LE searched the island.

(Cont'd below)

 

[TravelingBug]

Heck, she even could have planted a THIRD kayak on the island at a previous point in time, and THAT would let the "stand-in" get away himself once the initial "rescue" of her left the immediate area.

Unless LE got there almost immediately, which seems highly unlikely since technically no one should be on the island anyway, there could actually have been quite a bit of time.

Obviously weren't hordes of people out on the water as the eyewitnesses that we know of were all on land and we've not heard about any other boaters coming forward except the ones who "saved" her, and so they'd have to have roused aquatic resources to even begin to search.

Plus I'm sure their first instinct would NOT have been the island - initially they'd surely have primarily jumped on searching the actual area in the water where she was found, since surely they didn't automatically assume in those first hour or so that it was anything other than how things really happened.

(Cont'd)

 

[TravelingBug]

I realize that requires that LE's original thought that they believe he's dead and it probably happened on the island possibly wouldn't fit, but I wonder if they really aren't/weren't completely sure WHERE it happened, but just that they have reason to be he's dead.

I suspect there could have been two sets of prints on the island getting out of the water and that's why they assumed there.

But if my scenario could be possible, and there were two sets - hers and a male's - heading onto the island, but then only her set heading back to leave.

In my scenario that it'd be the male prints were the "stand-in" for potential eye witnesses sake and giving her an 'alibi" when only she would be "rescued."

That could lead to them having thought (or perhaps even still thinking) it happened on the island, and then there's whatever else has them really believing he is dead, only being wrong about it happening on the island b/c the prints threw them off initially.

Thoughts?

 

[gitana1]

Thanks Gitana. Just learning from the master. I appreciate all that you contribute to so many threads.

Thank you! That's very kind to say. But I have to say that I'm often quite amazed at how many websleuthers have legal minds. Compared to the general population it's pretty incredible. This is a very sharp bunch.

In other news, I'm very curious about the bail hearing. But I will be in trial myself on my typical pre-trial four hours of sleep. So I won't get to keep up unless my trial gets continued, which I'm trying for!!!

 

[JerseyGirl]

Mr. Viafore grew up along the river, in a tight-knit, middle-class neighborhood in Wappinger, in southern Dutchess County.

Friends say Graswald and Viafore met at either Mahoney’s Irish Pub or the Pickwick Pub, both on Poughkeepsie’s Main Street, in September 2013. They were soon living together in his rental apartment, on the second floor of a modest, tan-brick complex.

The police have asked their neighbors whether they heard the couple fighting. One neighbor, who declined to give her name because of the case’s notoriety, said she had not noticed any quarreling.

Graswald had worked as a bartender at Grand Centro Grill in nearby Fishkill; she left that job last year, and Viafore was supporting her. For the past three years, she had volunteered in the gardens every Wednesday at Bannerman Castle, on an island that is part of the state park system.

When Graswald showed up at a pub in Fishkill five days after Viafore apparently drowned, she was simultaneously supported and scrutinized. Mr. Von Clauss was performing, and the couple’s friends watched as Graswald drank and laughed. Finally, she took the stage to sing the Eagles’s anthem “Hotel California,” which she had crooned at least once before while out with Viafore.

Portale, Graswald’s lawyer, would not address the alleged inconsistencies in her statements to the police. The kayak, he said, had been missing a plug in its stern for some time, which did not affect its buoyancy.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/14/n...r-kayaker-accused-of-killing-fiance.html?_r=0

 

[hot cawfeee]

Many life insurance policies cover funeral and burial costs----I would think that Vincents is the same. He has no children IIRC, so IMO (and from personal experience) it would not be a huge sum of money.

 

[hot cawfeee]

TravellingBug---your post at 404---- Bugsy---read my mind!!!! Thats what I have been thinking---VV was not on the Island at all-----an "accident" was staged. Many times a body doesnt appear as we WS know.

 

[JerseyGirl]

TravellingBug---your post at 404---- Bugsy---read my mind!!!! Thats what I have been thinking---VV was not on the Island at all-----an "accident" was staged. Many times a body doesnt appear as we WS know.

I'm there with you two on that one!

 

[hot cawfeee]

Hey JerseyGirl!!!!!! thanks hon

 

[BunnyHop]

dna...

They lived together, his dna would be everywhere. So IMHO, it's other evidence.
I'm leaning towards witnesses, island, and home stuff.

 

[BunnyHop]

Yep. They have a lot more poop on her, for sure. The island seems to be at center of all of this. She is familiar with it. She gardens there and visits the animal sanctuary.

She volunteers there. Animal sanctuary is elsewhere.
As I stated pages ago, this is an "unfriendly" island. No trespassing.
It's very rocky and loaded with scrub brush. Remember, in April no leaves yet on the trees. (makes for better visibility from river and telescopes)

I posted links about Bannerman's.

 

[BunnyHop]

"Mr. Viafore, a construction manager, had little wealth to pass along: He declared bankruptcy in 2010. Bankruptcy records listed his salary in 2009 as $167,000. But his liabilities outstripped his assets by more than $26,000, and his Jeep Grand Cherokee and Stingray powerboat were repossessed.

In a new conference after Ms. Graswald's arrest, investigators declined to say whether Mr. Viafore had a life insurance policy. But Mr. Portale said Mr. Viafore's sister was the primary beneficiary on his policy."

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/14/n...-river-kayaker-accused-of-killing-fiance.html

Now that's really interesting. He made an excellent salary, lived in a modest home, yet went bankrupt. Money issues? Yet he was able to take expensive trips. I see money as a big issue here.

I pay 2 rents here in the same county, one home, one business $2,300 per month and I make less than half his salary. Looks to me like his rental/condo costs no more than 1,200 month (if that) up in Wappingers. Just saying.

 

[JerseyGirl]

I wonder how she got to the island on the days she did the landscaping and how did she get to the island on the day police were there and she was laying flowers?

 

[BunnyHop]

This would have been the third marriage for both Mr. Viafore and Ms. Graswald, who first came to this country from her native Latvia at age 20 as an au pair for a family in Connecticut.

(first I heard he was married twice, wonder if he has any kids, alimony, child support?)

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/14/n...-river-kayaker-accused-of-killing-fiance.html

After she separated from her second husband, Ms. Graswald moved in with a new boyfriend, Mike Colvin, a D.J. and former radio host in Dutchess County whom she had known for only three weeks. She arrived with scores of items belonging to her former husband, including a television set, wall hangings and even paper towels.

“She had wiped him out,” Mr. Colvin said. (A court later ordered that they be returned.)

:scared:

Mr. Viafore grew up along the river, in a tight-knit, middle-class neighborhood in Wappinger, in southern Dutchess County. One friend, Gena Vanzillotta, also grew up there. “Half the neighborhood was Italian, and the other half was Irish,” she recalled. “It was almost like a little Bronx or Yonkers.”

I can relate.

 

[OldSteve]

Stuck on what could be her motive?
Does not appear she would gain from insurance or other $$
No mention that he was some kind of control-freak she wanted to escape from.
Assisted suicide - far fetched.
Argument and he went into the water and she didn't help?

 

[JerseyGirl]

This would have been the third marriage for both Mr. Viafore and Ms. Graswald, who first came to this country from her native Latvia at age 20 as an au pair for a family in Connecticut.

(first I heard he was married twice, wonder if he has any kids, alimony, child support?)

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/14/n...-river-kayaker-accused-of-killing-fiance.html

After she separated from her second husband, Ms. Graswald moved in with a new boyfriend, Mike Colvin, a D.J. and former radio host in Dutchess County whom she had known for only three weeks. She arrived with scores of items belonging to her former husband, including a television set, wall hangings and even paper towels.

“She had wiped him out,” Mr. Colvin said. (A court later ordered that they be returned.)

:scared:


I can relate.

She returned the cat, too.

 

[BunnyHop]

I wonder how she got to the island on the days she did the landscaping and how did she get to the island on the day police were there and she was laying flowers?

JG, every Wednesday, volunteers left from Beacon according to links.
She was arrested on a Wednesday, I assume she went with her gardening group.
As I said, you cannot just go to this island. It's not as easy as sounds.
There is no trespassing, only by authorization.

So that being said, if they where there UNAUTHORIZED on a chilly Sunday late afternoon in April..... big red flags for me.