The Attempted Murder of Arielle Konig

In this episode Melissa discusses the attempted murder of Arielle Konig by Gerhardt Konig. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:27

Hi, everybody. Welcome to another episode of Live with Murder. I'm Melissa. You know that if you've been here before. If not, welcome. Thank you for joining and listening today. It has been a holy hot second since I last recorded. Not going to make any excuses. It's I think it's just part of my thing now. We've had spring break with my kids, moved my daughter back from college, ended hockey season. That's a whole other story. So just trying to get back in the swing of things. I've actually been trying to record for some time now, and if any of you have a busy schedule or andor kids or just life in general, you know you can sometimes plan for things and then you gotta pivot real hard and it doesn't happen. I hope you can't hear my dogs barking because we have yard work that's happening, and I tried to move. I'm actually in my son's room recording right now because it seems possibly the farthest away from them. I don't know, we'll see. So yeah, we are. I don't know if I should just jump right in. I don't really have all that much to report. Let's see. It's actually, I should probably talk about a lot, but I don't really have much. So I'm gonna dive right in. Um the case I want to talk about today, it's no revolutionary case. Sadly, it's just another case in in the mix of all the other domestic violence cases that run rampant throughout the world, not just in this country, but it's one that's been in the spotlight pretty heavily over the last year or so. And it's I'll get into the the part that really just infuriates me. So why I wanted to talk about it. Oh, I'm sure everybody's already aware of this. The um Gilgo Beach murderer. He um pleaded guilty to eight murders. I they keep saying murder, but they don't mention the dismemberment that he did, and I don't know why. Um, but he's gonna be working with the FBI, the profilers of the FBI, to get some more information on him, which I think is good. But I I can't help but be pissed that he's getting so much notoriety, and I know that they want to like study him and understand why he did the things that he did, and I think it's really good for for advancements and finding more people like this and understanding if we possibly even can. But I are you this fucking guy, he does look so scary. He does look I if anybody watched the documentary that they did on it, he does look like an ogre. Like a big fucking ogre. I just can't even imagine coming in contact with him in like a general setting, much less a setting where he's doing the things that he was doing.

SPEAKER_00 4:16

So I'm happy that he is going to burn in hell in jail for the next uh for the rest of his life. It gives some sort of solace.

SPEAKER_01 4:28

But I don't know. I don't like that he's like I don't want to say he's getting deals, but he's kind of getting deals. Like, I mean, thankfully he's put he's not putting the families and his family through the trial process. Um but anyway, yeah, fuck that guy. Um, okay. So the case I want sorry, sorry, talk about pivot. Um, so the case I wanted to talk about was the attempted murder of Ariel Koenig by her husband, Dr. Gerhardt Koenig. Just let that sit with you for a second. He okay. So Ariel Koenig and Gerhart met on eHarmony and married in 2018. Um they're both super smart individuals. She is a nuclear engineer, which, you know, is clearly next level to anything that I could possibly understand. Um, she went to College of Penn State and got her MPA from the University of Pittsburgh, Katz Graduate School of Business, and he's an anesthesiologist and studied at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, and they had two children together, and Gerhardt has two children from a previous marriage. I think that's wonderful that they you know blended together. I think that's great. I I think this isn't gonna match with a lot of people. I know a lot of people who have exes can't really like be in the same room with them, but personally, if I ever was out in the dating world again, which God help me, I hope that never happens, and I started dating somebody and they were divorced, I would want to know what happened. Like, I'd want to actually talk to the spouse, the ex-spouse, and just be like, so what happened? Where did things go wrong? Like, what am I in for basically? Which I'm sure they're not gonna have like nice things to say, but I would like to know if it was like he put his hands on me, he was disrespectful, and like you know, had sadistic ten, you know, like I'd like a little more insight than the shiny, happy picture that you're putting on some sort of dating app. And I know it's totally different now. A friend of mine was telling me she's divorced and she's doing dating apps, and she's like, there's all these rules now, you don't ask anybody their last name until like the third date. I'm like, what? You can't like I I don't know. I'm from the day of no cell phones, you meet people out and about in the world, most likely in a bar. At least that's how I know. That's how Bert and I met and many other people that I know were in school or something like that. Like it was just a very I don't understand the online dating world, much less the intricacies of the rules. So anyway, I don't know where I was going with that, other than I would just like to have known if the ex had any experience with him, or he was a selfish conniving dipshit. Okay, so in his let me over. Okay, so they have they have two children together. Um in 2023 they decided to move to Maui. Beautiful. Why is gorgeous? Why not? You're both smart and sure there's lots of work for nuclear engineering and you know anesthesiologists there. Why not live in a beautiful place? Okay, so apparently things in their relationship started to get tense, and they started arguing over finances and life insurance, which I didn't understand that part, and obviously trust, which you know. Um so yeah, the life insurance part just keeps I keep going back. I'm like, what do you argue about life insurance? Although Bert and I have argued about life insurance because I have it and he doesn't, and he won't get it because I think he thinks if he gets it, he's gonna die. And I'm like, no, that's that's not how it works. So he got hopefully hopefully I go before him, then my family will be set. If he goes before me, then we're all screwed, but that's beside the point. That's a that's a whole other podcast. So my understanding is that in this story, in this case, um they were having arguments, and Ariel started having what she termed an emotional affair with a colleague who lived on the mainland of America, not not in um not in Hawaii at all, to my understanding. Um they just sent flirty texts back and forth to each other. It was they, you know, obviously they worked together, so and they came up with a code word. I'm trying to remember see what it I'm trying to remember what it was if I wrote it down. Um but they came up with some, you know, nuclear engineering code word so that if Garrett Gerhard Gerhardt, I his I can't get his name to like roll off the tongue because it just no shame to anybody else who has this name. But you know, when people have like a certain name and then you hate it because a person, that's where I am with this guy's name. Um most people like when you name your child or whatever, if you have to name something, you're like, you don't want to tell anybody till you get it, and you name that person or animal or whatever because you don't want somebody to be like, oh my god, I had knew this girl in school and she was such a bitch, and her name was blah blah blah. So anyway, I'm struggling with his name, and I feel like it's stupid, but moving on. Okay, so they came up with a code word. So if he was around, I guess they could change their conversation. She had he had found on her WhatsApp that um again, he found these flirty texts and just could not handle it, and saw that some were deleted, and then he couldn't stand the idea that his you know wife was sending messages back and forth, which I completely understand, and it is not okay that she's sending flirty messages, but I mean, I I'd like to know what they said. I'd like to know nobody should be like, I don't know what the rules of their relationship were, or it does it does break trust when you know that your your spouse or your partner or whatever is talking to somebody else and talking intimately if that's what they were doing about the couple's relationship. So he demanded that she quit her job, and she was like, nah, that's okay. And then from what she said, he needed basically a lot of reassurance because his pride was, you know, I'm putting in that part. I don't really know if that's I'm sure it was. Um, but he demanded she quit her job, and then he he needed a lot of physical touching and a lot of I read somewhere that he was like demanding sex from her. I'm I didn't see that in like her testimony necessarily. He just said he needed a lot of physical closeness and touch, and if she didn't comply, he would see her as withdrawing, and then he would you know use a whole guilt strategy, like you know, about the WhatsApp messages and how could you do that to us, like just guilting her into wanting to you know to like show affection to him, which I just had this conversation with my mother-in-law because she has a friend of hers who's uh an older older than me. Um she's in her mid-sixties, she's beautiful, gorgeous, looks like a beer a Barbie doll. And uh she is divorced, her ex-husband cheated on her like years ago. Um, she's rebuilt her life, like she she handles her stuff, she has a good job, she, you know, she hand like like most women, you know, we get kicked down, we pick ourselves back up, and we keep going because that's what you have to do. So she started dating this guy, they've met on I don't know, some dating app. She's met a few other guys, hasn't worked out, and then she met this guy, and you know, they both really like each other, they want to get off the apps together, they want to like see where this is going. I think that's great, it's wonderful. And then my mother-in-law was saying that she was talking to her, and she had mentioned that she thinks he might be a little jealous because she was out of town one day and he couldn't get in touch with her, so he called the hotel because she, I guess, was in the shower or whatever, so he um and I'm like, no, like I get it. Yes, if if if you can't get in touch with somebody for you know an unusual amount of time, yes, become concerned to get like jealous that your new partner or your new person that you're dating is now like who has not learned lost trust with you, has not done anything to cause you to wonder where their intentions are, to be jealous. I'm like, no, that's not good. They've literally been dating for like a month. Okay, so I don't I think of how many things could be eliminated if people weren't jealous of someone else, something that they had, of a partner that they had, of like a lifestyle that they think they should have. Like, if you're jealous of something, look, in my opinion, which again I say all the time means nothing to anybody, but I don't think jealousy pays off ever. Like, if you want something, if you admire something somebody has, then you strive to personally figure out a way to get it for yourself, not take something from somebody, or be worried that someone is gonna take what you have from you in this situation. If he's concerned at all that she's cheating on him, like no amount of like jealousy or like control or whatever is gonna make that person like you can manipulate them into being in under control, but it's not a true stance in your relationship. They're not there because they want to be, they're there because you're manipulating them and making them stay in the relationship, which is like I guess people get off on the control. I don't know. I don't think it's I think it's stupid. I'm like, let people be who they are if you want to be a part of their life. If you work on yourself so that you're the person you want to be, and whoever you're with is gonna want to be with you, and they're not gonna put your relationship at dare at jeopardy because the idea of losing you is too much for them. Again, in a perfect world, and that's my two cents. Anyway, so he's like at the point this Gerhard dipshit is at the point where he's insecure, he's worried about the relationship. Rather than working on himself, he's focusing on what like controlling her and keeping her home. So for the next couple of months, they agree to give their marriage two more years of commitment and see if they can get back on track. They took a family vacation in February with their kids, and as Ariel's birthday was approaching in March, he asked what she wanted, which was is a lovely thing to do. She said she'd like to visit the island of Oahu, and but not like right now for her birthday, but he went ahead and booked a trip, which, you know, that's a lovely gesture. Um, if the story didn't turn out the way it does, it would have been seen as a lovely gesture. Um, on the morning of March 24th, 2025, Ariel's actual birthday. They s they had he had taken her on the trip. That morning they seemed to have, you know, started off on the right foot. They're taking this wonderful trip. He gave her a necklace and then a car and a card, and in it he wrote, Happy birthday, angel face. There isn't an obstacle in the world too hard for me to not fight through for you. You're the con you're the heart of our family, and that heart is strong. You're a terrific mom. The kids and I hit the jackpot with you. Love always G. Aw right. We all did a simultaneous Oh, that's so sweet. If this part was if this is part of the true crime that gets me. He wrote all of this for what, an alibi? So if he succeeded in what he wanted to do, he could look like he was the sad victim of like his poor wife falling to her death. And so you're not only like setting up your wife's potential murder, you're setting up yourself to look like a fucking victim. Eat a dick, Gerhard. So after this loving gesture, the couple decide to go on a hike at the Pali Puka Trail, which has narrow ledges to like steep drop-offs on either side. Um, if I'm thinking of the right one, we had gone to Hawaii a year last summer, this past summer? Was it this past? I think it was this past summer. We we we went through a tour uh tsunami. I think it was this past summer I I talked about it. Okay. Um, and we looked at this hike, but we didn't do it because of like the steep ledges that you would be walking on, and I get a little um like vertigo on heights. I'm not the most balanced person on standing ground, so when heights are involved, I just I'm like, no, no, thank you. So I'm curious if this hike was his idea or hers. Like, I have questions. Did they like to hike? Did they do it all the time? Um was it, you know, are they hike a hiking family? Um, so anyway, so during their hike, Ariel said Karehart they were gonna take a picture by a ledge, and she felt uncomfortable being that close, and she went to walk around to him, and he grabbed her by the upper arms and began pushing her toward the edge of the ridge. Um, and she obviously got scared because why the fuck would you be pushing somebody back toward the edge of a ledge? Um, so she threw herself on the ground and she was grabbing like the roots and the shrubs so that she didn't fall. And Ariel claims that Gerhardt then straddled her and produced a syringe. In my head, he's wearing like a fanny pack because he just I don't know. Just look at him. Look at the pictures of him if you haven't. He just looks like a douche canoe. Um so she said he straddled her and produced a syringe and telling her to hold still. Who the fuck would hold still? Hold still while I'm holding you down and I'm gonna stab you with a syringe. Oh, oh, yes, okay, hold on. What can I angle my neck or wherever you're gonna put it so that you can you can jab me with it? Hold still. God. So she was trying to like obviously bat it away, and then he gripped the vial in his cloak. She says he gripped the vial in his closed fist and started reaching into his backpack with the other hand. Um, and she felt like he was trying to load a second syringe, like she was trying, he was trying to get a second one because maybe she he dropped the first one. Um, and then she started screaming, and he covered her mouth and said, Nobody's going to hear you out here, nobody's coming to save you. Okay. So she's obviously pleading with him, like telling him his family and their kids and you know, the consequences of what he's doing, and like just trying to get through to him to sort of like snap him out of it, like, what the fuck are you doing? You know. Um, at one point he stopped fighting with her, she said, and and took a deep breath, and she was like, Okay, I'm I'm getting through. Like, she has hope that hopefully he's just gonna be like kind of come out of whatever he was in, until he picks up a rock and starts hitting her in the head with it. So they have pictures of the rock, and it's not like in my head, I was like, Oh, a rock, like a palm-sized rock. No, this is like a fucking volcanic, rugged gi it's not it's it's a rock, but it's a big fucking rock. It wasn't, I don't know. So she just starts screaming again because what can you do? Um, she says, quote, in my mind, he was trying to knock me unconscious so he could drag me over the edge. Fair enough. Fair enough. Like, what else are you thinking? Why else what is he trying to do? Um, the attack ended when two hikers came upon the scene and with Gerhard on top of Ariel bashing her in the head with a rock. And he took off running, and the hikers called 911 saying they needed help after witnessing a man trying to kill a woman. And then he takes the stand in his own trial, which anybody who follows true crime, or any sort of, you know, crime the person, the defendant, defendant, yes. Is not the one that you don't take the stand. Anyway, okay. So in his his defense is that she tried to kill him. She tried to harm him by hitting him in the head with a rock, and then she like wrestled him to the ground and was grabbing at his testicles. And so I okay. So I hadn't initially heard of this case, and my sister was the one who told me about it. I love true crime. There's obviously an abundance of it, it's not hard to keep up or find a case, but I obviously doing this, and this is just like a side thing that I do. I've I've told people many times, I'm like, even if nobody listened to this podcast, which a lot of people have, and I really appreciate it, and I thank you for listening to whatever nonsense I'm talking about. But I I would still do it even if no one listened to it, if it went out into the abyss and no one heard it. Um so she was telling me about this. I'm like, what? I have I haven't heard this, and so being I was probably taking a break because I was researching something else, and I started to, you know, look into it. I'm like, oh my god. Uh it's just okay, so I want to thank my sister for the recommendation of this case, um, which it just obviously prompted me to dig in and read more. And a man attempting to murder his wife because he's a tiny man with a bruised ego is, you know, isn't all, you know, unfortunately, it's it's like, oh yeah, okay. Um it get in line with the tens of thousands of men and women who, you know, can't handle the idea of their partner speaking with somebody else. Um but watching him during the trial and his account of what happened, I was like, are you fucking kidding me? Who who allowed him to get on the stand? I'm sure he was like, put me on the stand, they're gonna believe me. Because why wouldn't they? He's an anesthesiologist, has a you know, theoretically a great reputation. I'm sure he has nothing in his background. Like, you know, why why wouldn't they? I'm gonna paint her as a crazy woman who tried to kill me. Yeah, okay. So, yes, women women can be abusive to their spouses and partners. I mean, we discussed Catherine Mary Knight, who was next level abusive, and I stand by my impression of her that she was she was a crazy bitch. Like, but this whole story was like, oh, okay, so now you're the victim. You're the victim. Okay. So let's I forgot to mention, so he it was brought up in trial that after he took off running, because that's what you do when people come upon you and you're the victim of something, you take off running because you don't want help from somebody else. So he apparently called his son from his first marriage and told her, you know, your stepmom was cheating on me, and I tried to kill her. Okay. That's I mean, his son got on the stand and said that. Not her, not their son that they have together. His son from another marriage got on the stand and told them that's what he said. Then he tries to take it back and say, That's not how I meant it. Okay. Alright. Hold on, I have to drink my coffee, hold on. I also I side note, this is not a plug for anything, anyway, but I started drinking that rise coffee with my coffee because my Facebook feed, all my feeds just it keeps coming up, it keeps coming up. And Bert bought it years ago and drank like one of them. I don't think, because he was trying to cut out drinking coffee. But he's a man with ADHD, so he tries all these things and then loses interest in them. So anyway, it was in my cabinet for arguably too long, and so I had to throw it out. But I keep hearing all these benefits of it. I'm like, let me try it. Um, it's not bad. It tastes like coffee, it tastes like weak coffee. If anybody's interested in this, I'm sure you're not, but um, I love coffee, I drink a lot of it. Not too too much, but I like my coffee strong. It tastes like weak coffee, so I have to throw in like almost a shot of espresso into it with my creamer, and it tastes good. We'll see. I've only been doing it for like five days, so I'll see if I reap any of the benefits of it. Anyway, back to our regular regularly scheduled programming. So I was like, okay, I'm watching him say he's the victim now. He's the one, you know, she hit him. Okay. Let's, as my therapist would say, let's tease this out a bit. Let's say she did try to push him off the cliff, and he's the helpless yet heroic victim that was able to wrestle her to the ground and courageously, because he had no other choice, hit her in the head with a rock to, I guess, like get her, you know, next level rage, you know, so he could get away from her. I don't know. But when the women come upon you, wouldn't I in my mind, okay, we never know what we're gonna do in any situation until you're in it, correct? Okay, but theoretically, if nothing else, like you jump off of her and you like run off to the side and start explaining your story, not just run away into the woods, and then it becomes a manhunt looking for you. I I his his reactions again, you don't know what you're gonna do in a situation until you're in it. I get it, but I none of it was handled correctly, and I clearly because and I don't have to use my fucking air quotes to say alleged because he was found guilty, because he's a you know, okay. So he he's he ran away, he called his son, and you know, told her that he tried to kill her, and then he's gonna cry self-defense. Get the fuck out of here. And then he's crying on the stand. I didn't mean to hurt her, I felt so ashamed. I did I'm get shame on you. Shame the fuck on you. You you're just pissed because your plan didn't work and you didn't get to look like the sad pathetic well, you do look like a sad pathetic man, but and I understand that he's the father of other children, and the families have to go through this, but yeah. So he was crying on the stand, and he just looked like a pathetic psycho who thinks he can get away with it all because he what he's smarter than everybody else. He just looks like an ass clown. So no one believed. I'm not saying I'm not saying it's right that she was she was sharing flirty messages, but what exactly is flirty in his eyes? Was it just like flirty messages, even downright cheating, doesn't constitute murdering your partner or spouse? You want to avoid an expensive divorce? But how much did you what did you save? Trying to kill her? Now now you're in jail, you've ruined your family, you've ruined your reputation, you're no longer a doctor. And how much did you have to pay your attorneys? Now you're appealing your case, so that's more money. Did you save anything? I mean, you can't work, you're gonna rot away in a jail cell for the rest of your life. Well, it's attempted murder, so unfortunately it's not treated like murder, so he didn't get as much time as he should have, but what are you gonna be able to do when you get out? Fuck all, that's what. I mean, trust me, a divorce was a cheaper best option. If you were so butthurt that she was, you know, cheating on you. Get a divorce. Success is the best revenge. Not killing somebody, you dumbass. Anyway, so that is the story of the attempted murder of Ariel Koenig by her douche canoe. Uh huh. Now he's she filed for divorce. Um Gerhardt Koenig. And they're in their like mid-40s, they had so much of their life to live. I don't know. It just seems foolish to me. I know people become blind and in love and all those things, and that's great. Whatever. But if your thought is, if ever you're like, hmm, my life would be easier if I just got rid of this person, and you think, hmm, murder's the way it's gonna happen. Maybe take a drive. Go, I don't know, read a book, take a walk. Really? Go see a therapist, maybe? Look at your life and your choices, start from within, make better choices for yourself. I don't know. It just doesn't seem like I mean it's never the right option. But really. I just I don't know. I could go on and on and on. Anyway, I am. It's beautiful here, but it is still freaking cold. And I mean it's breezy. Oh, and another thing, Bert just planted 20 Christmas trees, like little Christmas trees, in our yard. And he's like, we're starting a Christmas tree farm. Yeah, it's kind of a joke, but what the fuck am I gonna do with? I'm like, they're all gonna get to the same height at the same time, potentially. So what am I gonna do with 20 fucking Christmas trees? We're gonna give them out, and then that's the end of the Christmas tree farm. Uh I'll send pictures. Or I'll put pictures up on my Instagram. If you'd like to follow. It's live with murder. All the all the messages. Send all the messages. And yeah, I think that's all I have for now. I do have another story that I'm working on, so I'm hoping that I can get another one up in the next week or so. But yeah, let me know your thoughts.com. Until then. Fair thee well. I heard that in a bob Dylan's on like, ooh, that really needs to come back. Although it doesn't really fit in a lot. But stay safe out there and keep it together until next time.