Paperback: 19 April 2015. It seemed like the perfect romantic getaway: a kayaking trip for two on the Hudson River. But it ended in tragedy when beautiful, blonde Angelika Graswald called 911 to report that her fiancé, the handsome and athletic Vincent Viafore, had drowned in the choppy frigid waters.
Authorities assumed it was an accident but when the bereft bride-to-be posted videos of herself doing cartwheels on social media, shortly after Vincent’s death, suspicions of murder rose to the surface.
After hours of questioning, Angelika made several shocking admissions. She said she felt “trapped” and fed up with Vincent’s “demanding” sexual lifestyle: the nightlife, the strip clubs, the threeways.
“I wanted him dead,” she had said, even though she insisted that she did not kill him.
But as more lurid details emerged, including a $250,000 life insurance policy, a killer question remained: Did Angelika remove the plug of her fiancé's boat and knock away his paddle as he sank?
On 26 May 2015, an Orange County Grand Jury indicted Graswald for murder in the second degree and manslaughter in the second degree.
On 24 July 2017, Graswald reached an agreement with prosecutors to plead guilty to the lesser felony charge of negligent homicide. The agreement was made in consultation with the Viafore family.
On 8 November 2017, Angelika Graswald was sentenced to one and a half to four years in state prison, the maximum allowed, for criminally negligent homicide in Vincent Viafore's death.
On 21 December 2017, Graswald was released from Bedford Hills Correctional Facility for Women after serving just over two and a half years behind bars.
Death on the River is Fanning's latest work released on 30 April 2019.
About the author: Diane Fanning is the author of 15 true crime books, 11 mystery novels and has been featured in 3 anthology collections. She has been a consultant for 48 Hours and been on numerous other television shows including 20/20, the Today Show and Deadly Women. She lives in Bedford, Virginia, with her husband and a Sheltie named Emmitt Otter.
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