Kayak Killer: Is Angelika Graswald Guilty or Not?!
19:35 Share

Amazon One Medical presents Painful Thoughts. I could catch anything sitting in this doctor's waiting room. A kid just wiped his runny nose on my jacket. And the guy next to me, sitting in a pool of perspiration, insists on sharing my armrest. Next time, make an appointment with an Amazon One Medical provider. There's no waiting and no sweaty guy. Amazon One Medical. Healthcare just got less painful. ♪

Hey, it's Ryan Seacrest. Life comes at you fast, which is why it's important to find some time to relax. A little you time. Enter Chumba Casino. With no download required, you can jump on anytime, anywhere for the chance to redeem some serious prizes. So treat yourself with Chumba Casino and play over 100 online casino-style games all...

for free. Go to ChumbaCasino.com to collect your free welcome bonus. Sponsored by Chumba Casino. No purchase necessary. VGW Group. Void where prohibited by law. 18 plus terms and conditions apply. Hey everyone, it's Kendall Ray. I just wanted to jump in here with an editor's note. This is actually an older archive episode, so the production quality is going to sound a bit different from my newer episodes. And since this is an older recording, it's possible that certain updates may not be included. Now, on to the episode. ♪

Hello everyone. Welcome back to my channel. This one is very, very interesting and really different than any other case I've done before. And it's going to be one of those ones that you guys are going to have very mixed opinions on. Um, it's something that I haven't even fully made an opinion on completely. And it's just very, very widely debated whether this person is innocent or guilty. So today we're talking about Angelica and

Angelica was 37 years old and she was originally from Latvia in Europe. She came to the U S in 2000 to work as a nanny. However, she had only planned on staying for a little while while she was working for this family. She ended up not leaving and she actually found love here in America with a man named Vince via for 46 years old and was from Poughkeepsie, New York.

The two started dating in September of 2013. We both loved the river. We both loved being on water. Vince's mother, Mary Ann, says Vince loved a good time. He's the guy who was the life of the party. He had these dance moves that everybody would get around him and cheer him on.

what an awesome guy. And when it came to their relationship, it was very much free spirited. They didn't have kids tying them down. They both didn't have commitments. They were all about having fun and living in the moment. And she specifically said that this is something she really liked about Vince. He liked living on the edge. He was willing to take risks to be really active and to basically be living it up. And she moved in with him like right after they started to date like couple weeks. And then only five months

Five months into their relationship, they got engaged. We were gonna go to my country and get married on the Baltic Sea. On the beach. Yeah. Why there? Why not? And things were going pretty well for them. They were still doing a lot of stuff together, enjoying their time. And the two of them were really active. They did like a bunch of outdoorsy things. And on April 19th of 2015, they decided to go kayaking in the Hudson River.

According to the local news, a storm was brewing. They had a plan to kayak from Plum Point to Bannerman's Island.

where they would take pictures because Bannerman's Island is a really cool island with this kind of like abandoned castle on it. By 4:15, they had successfully made it to Bannerman's Island and they were able to take some awesome pictures of the sunset. And then at 7:15, as the sun began to set, the weather got really bad. Did you normally wear a life jacket when you would go kayaking? No. Normally you didn't? No. He just, he insisted that I wore it that day.

But he himself didn't wear a life jacket. He didn't have one. So Vince went out that day with no life jacket, no wetsuit, no skirt to keep the waves out of his kayak. It can get lonely climbing Mount McKinley. So to entertain myself, I go to ChumbaCasino.com. At Chumba Casino, I can play hundreds of online casino-style games for free, like online slots, bingo, slingo, and more. Plus, I get a daily login bonus. It's just too bad that up here, I don't have anyone to share my excitement with.

Live the Chumba life anytime, anywhere. Play for free now at chumbacasino.com.

At Egg Life, we believe eating better should taste great. That's why we created the Perfect Wrap. Made with egg whites, never flour. Egg Life wraps are packed with 5 grams of protein, less than 1 gram of carbs, and zero compromises. Transform your favorite foods with a simply smarter tortilla. From tacos to sandwiches to sweet treats and more, Egg Life wraps have the fresh taste you love and the nutrition you need. So see ya, tortilla. And hello, Egg Life, the Perfect Wrap.

Find us chillin' in the fridge at Safeway, Whole Foods Market, Sprouts and more. It was really cold that day and honestly these types of kayaks are not even good for rivers. As the storm was brewing above them, it got really, really choppy in the water and hard for them to paddle. And then unfortunately as they were trying to get back,

Vince's kayak flipped over, he fell out and he went into 48 degree water freezing dude. And your body goes into like shock when you go into that type of water. It's really, really, really cold. According to experts, after only the first five minutes of him being in the water, he would start to lose gross motor control.

which would make him lose the ability to grab onto the side of the kayak or to hang onto it. And he would just become weak and fall. He was not wearing a life jacket or a wetsuit. They were not prepared for this at all. And these specific kayaks were not made for rivers. They were really for lakes or ponds. So according to Angelica, Vince called

out to her to call 911 and this was the last thing she would hear him say before he slipped off of his kayak and drowned. And here is that 911 call. Tell me exactly what happened. We are kayaking. My fiancee's lived all week. He's in the water right now. Does he have a life vest on? Yeah, he has something that he's holding onto but it's getting very bad. I don't see him anymore.

Angelica? Angelica, can you hear me? Angelica, are you still with me? Okay, Angelica, can you hear me? Angelica? Can you hear me? Hi, can you hear me now? I can hear you.

I don't see him anymore! Okay, did he have... okay. Alright, we've got help on the way, okay? Did he have a life jacket on when he flipped over? He had a little, like a floating thing. He didn't have a vest. It wasn't a vest, but he had something to hold... something that helped him float? But I don't see him.

Oh my God. Can you make your way over towards the Cornwall Yacht Club where you see all the lights? Yes. Yes, start paddling over towards that way, okay? I'm not worried about myself. I'm worried about you. No, I understand. I understand. Okay, I'm going to flip you around a little bit. Yeah, that's fine. Flip me down. Just keep the phone open. Oh, I see the boat. You see the boat now. Good. Well, you can put the phone down. Just keep it open. Don't hang up on me, okay? Okay. Okay. Okay.

Angelica then fell into water too and rescuers luckily got there in time to save her but by the time they got there they couldn't find Vince's kayak or his body just straight gone. Shortly after this she also posted a video of herself doing cartwheels onto her Facebook and also sang karaoke live at an event and looked completely happy. As time went on after

actually 10 days later in April 29th, Angelica decided to bring flowers to the area where he was drowned. Interestingly enough, a detective joined her, uh,

to the island and he claims that Angelica then confessed to him that she killed Vince, that she wanted him to go down. She even said that she pulled the drain plug on his kayak and that she also removed the ring that holds the paddles together. Now Angelica claims that she did not say this. She said they completely made this up. However, she was arrested

She was taken into custody at the Orange County New York jail and was interrogated for the next 11 hours. Now, if you don't know much about interrogation or crime, there are so, so, so many instances of interrogation abuse, manipulating people, using people, not being ethical about the entire interrogation process. And there have been tons of false confessions. I've definitely talked about it in my videos before. Although Angelica's behavior in this interrogation room, I'm not gonna lie, is

fucking bizarre. Times when she's alone in the interrogation room, unaware there's a camera rolling, Angelica loosens up with yoga, even a little hopscotch. It's super odd, but if you are in a room for 11 hours, you'd probably get bored and need to move around, especially her. Maybe she thought it would help with stress that she was dealing with. So it definitely doesn't prove that she did anything.

Right away in her interrogation, she said that she never told anyone that she purposely killed Vince. That was just straight up not true. She said that the detective made the whole thing up and that she would have done anything to save Vince. - You watched him drown. I know it's difficult. I know that-- - No, I didn't just watch him drown. I tried to do something about it. - Oh, did you really want to save him? - Uh-huh. If he did not say call 911.

- How long before you guys went on your kayaking trip did you take that, right? Was it the same day?

Why would she confess to a detective if she was just going to go in and say she didn't do it? It just doesn't make a lot of sense. So one thing about her that you got to know is that Angelica is just kind of weird. She's just kind of off. And just because people are weird, doesn't make them criminals. So she does have a lot of strange behavior. However, you do have to remember this isn't right after her husband died. It's 10 days, which is still, still weird.

Hey, everyone. It is Ryan Seacrest here. Ready to heat up your summer vacation? Get ready. Things are about to get sizzling at Chumba Casino. Your summer getting a whole lot hotter with a special daily login bonus waiting just for you. So,

Sign up now for reels of fun and reels of prizes right here at Chumba Casino with yours truly. Join me at chumbacasino.com and dive into a summer of social casino fun. Sponsored by Chumba Casino. No purchase necessary. VGW Group. Voidware prohibited by law. 18 plus. Terms and conditions apply.

One thing that's really interesting is that she told investigators that Vince had added her to his life insurance policy six months earlier. That definitely gives us a motive, especially with how fast their marriage moved along. However, the evidence from the actual scene doesn't really make a lot of sense. As the interrogation went on,

She started to claim that her relationship with Vince wasn't very good. She said that he was very demanding of her and expected her to perform many sexual behaviors and favors to which she was not comfortable doing. And that is definitely abusive, if that's true. Yeah.

Angelica says Vince was threatening to call off the wedding. Yeah, of course. Who proposes to somebody who doesn't seem to care about him?

During her interrogation, after hours and hours and hours of being interrogated, she claims that she just told them what she thought they wanted to hear. Which is the most frustrating thing in any case, is when someone confesses something or says something and then later says they didn't mean it or they were forced to say it or they just wanted to get out of there. But she started talking about how when Vince drowned, she felt a sense of freedom and euphoria. - When you watched him in the war, was there part of you that was saying, "My worries are going away now"?

And I'm afraid. And we're almost... Euphoric? Euphoric that he was going to be gone. Oh. You felt that way? Still do. What are your feelings and emotions knowing that this is about to happen? That when you're gone... Like ripping into hops. You know, into the demons. What's the demon side saying? Demon side? Oh, it's not a good side. You guys don't want to see that side of me. Now, that side is telling me... It's just making me feel like a freak. It's a freak.

So when they were interrogating her, they said over and over again, why did you kill Vince? Why did you kill Vince? Why? And which is a technique. If you say it enough times, people start to think, oh my God, maybe I actually did kill this person. And they start saying stupid things. There's all types of interrogation techniques that are just completely unethical.

However, she continuously said that she did not purposely drown him or do anything to make him drown. The only thing that she said was that when it happened, she decided to just let it happen and couldn't have saved him. Obviously she's definitely not strong enough to save him out of that, but was kind of relieved. Like if anything, it seemed like she was in an abusive relationship possibly. It was more just convenient that he died. So Angelica finally said this. You killed Vinny.

No, I'm asking you the question. I want you to tell me the truth. What is the answer to that question? Angelica, what is the true answer to that question? What is it?

So again, she never admits to purposely killing him or, or planning this, but she admits to being happy that he's gone and that she did want him gone. So it's really leaves investigators with a very interesting situation, but let's look at the evidence from the crime.

crime. Since investigators didn't find his body, they started to form a theory that maybe she killed him in a different type of way and just made it seem like he drowned, like just got rid of his body. When investigating, they had found that one of Vincent's guns was missing from his house. So they started to think maybe she shot him off the kayak and he fell in and drowned. However, in May,

The police were actually securing the Hudson River for a graduation ceremony when there were reports that there was a body in it. They obviously went and found this body and determined that it was Vince. His body didn't even go that far from where he fell in. It only traveled about a mile south from the original spot. Vince's body had no bullet holes or any other signs of any other type of death

Other than drowning and it was confirmed that Vince drowned. However, soon after this, a grand jury officially indicted Angelica for this crime and accused her of second degree manslaughter and second degree murder. And the theory was that she purposely removed his drain plug on the kayak, which I'll have to tell you is at the top of the kayak.

So it's actually very hard to get it to fill with water. The problem with this theory is that when they tested this dumped tons of water as in wave water into the side of the boat, which makes sense because there was a storm that day and the boat fills with water very easily from the simulation of waves. However, when they tried to pour these waves onto the drain plug on the top, barely any water got in the kayak. So basically they have realized now that

Removing a drain plug cannot sink a kayak and it doesn't even make sense. It definitely wouldn't be a logical way to kill someone. Like if you're going to kill someone, plan their death. You'd probably want to do it a little more securely than just removing a drain plug that may or may not work. And also you're putting yourself at risk to be out there in this storm. So it just doesn't make a lot of sense for a murderer. That missing drain plug is certainly not the cause of his death.

So in the time that Angelica was waiting for her trial, she spent two years in prison and this trial ended up not even happening. Then they found evidence that Vince knew that the drain plug was open. They found images of his car on the day that they were driving out there where he had secured his kayak to his car

by using a drain plug that was unscrewed. So chances are he knew that it was taken off. There was also other pictures of Vince with his kayak where the drain plug wasn't on it. So it seemed like something he just kind of did. So to me, it seems like there is definitely not enough evidence beyond a reasonable doubt to accuse this person of murder. I mean, this murder doesn't even make sense

It seems like a freak accident. They should not have been on the Hudson river in bad weather on shitty kayaks that are not even made for the river. Uh, it seems like it was just an accident. And it really seems to me that Angelica has been painted so negatively because her behavior was so weird. But the reason I believe her behavior was so weird is because he, they had a

a bad relationship, that he was abusive of her, that he was into all these weird sexual things and forcing her to do things she wasn't comfortable with. And when he did drown, she was like, I'm just gonna, okay, I can't do anything to save him. And this is kind of gonna be good for me in a weird way. And I know that doesn't sound like a good thing to think about people, but maybe that's what she meant. And I think all of that time in the interrogation room, she just wanted to leave. So she was willing to tell them, yes, I am not that sad that he's dead, basically.

You slept through your alarm, missed the train, and your breakfast sandwich, cold. Sounds like you could use some luck. I'm Victoria Cash, and Lucky Land is where people go every day to get lucky. At Lucky Land, you can play over 100 casino-style games for free for your chance to redeem some serious prizes. Go to LuckyLandSlots.com and get lucky today. No purchase necessary. VGW group. Void where prohibited by law. 18 plus. Terms and conditions apply.

But I mean, I could be wrong and there are so, so many people cause the media painted her extremely negatively from the beginning and I've seen straight up lies. I just watched a YouTube video here about this case where it was just straight lying. So I really like to look at these case unbiased and to me, I just personally feel like there's not nearly enough evidence that she did this, but basically she was given the chance to either plead guilty and be out of jail in six weeks for good or

go to trial and possibly get life in prison. So she decided to plead guilty and the plea was different too. It was not agreeing to murdering him or to planning murder. It was agreeing that she could have contributed to it or didn't do enough to help. Judge laid into Angelica Graswald before sentencing her to four years in prison. But with the time she's already served, she could be out before the end of the year. Graswald was charged with intentional murder and set for trial when she surprised the court by pleading guilty.

THE FAMILY AND FRIENDS OF VIAFOR WHO WANTED A HARSHER PUNISHMENT. VINCENT'S MOTHER MARIANNE VIAFOR HAD THIS TO SAY ABOUT GRASWALD AND THE SENTENCE.

and everybody loved him and we miss him very much. I don't ever want to see her again if I don't have to. Angelica Roswell is out of prison tonight after serving just over two and a half years behind bars. VFOR's outraged family says it's not right. Four years for taking someone's life? No way. And now she has a felony on her record, which she decided was better than going to jail, possibly going to jail for the rest of her life. She spent a total of two years and seven months behind bars when she could have

been out and she could be completely innocent. She has to report to a parole officer for 16 months and she could also possibly get deported back to Latvia. Four years for taking someone's life? No way. Smile if you want. It's okay. You can smile. Come on. Walk with me.

Outside New York's Bedford Hills Correctional Facility, freedom and the media are waiting. We're not going to take any questions. Her release sparking headlines. Although for now, Angelica lets her attorney, Rich Portale, do the talking. She's grateful for this day. She's grateful to be able to breathe in the fresh air. But because she pleaded to involuntary homicide, there is still a chance that she could claim half

of Vince's life insurance money. And so his parents are fighting back on that. There's lots of debate on whether or not she should get that. I really want to know your guys' thoughts on this. I am not saying that she didn't murder him because I am not completely sure. However, I really don't think so.

But I am saying that I'm 100% sure there was not enough evidence to convict this girl of murder to go to prison the rest of her life. The whole thing is super, super odd. Angelika is now free. She's enjoying life out of prison. Driving away from prison, she reconnects with her younger sister. While she was locked up, she became an aunt.

I love babies. Angelica enjoys her first taste of freedom with friends. How does it taste? Delicious. Definitely better than jail food. But I mean, this story is not over and yeah, it's very, very interesting.

That is going to be it for me today, guys. Thank you for joining me for another episode. And make sure you follow the show on Spotify and Apple Podcasts. It really does help me out. If you want to watch the video version of this show, you can find it on my YouTube channel, which will be linked, or you can just search Kendall Ray. I will be back with another episode soon, but until then, stay safe out there. Amazon Pharmacy presents Painful Thoughts.

I'm sick. So I took my sick to the doctor. The doctor gave my sick a prescription. Now my sick and I are in line at the pharmacy mingling with all the other sicks on its way to becoming an even worse sick. Next time, keep your sick at home and let Amazon Pharmacy deliver your meds right to your door. Amazon Pharmacy. Healthcare just got less painful.

It is Ryan Seacrest here. Everybody needs some variety in life. That's what I love about Chumba Casino. They know how to keep things fresh and exciting. All their games are free to play. Like spin slots, bingo, and solitaire. You can claim free daily login bonuses too. And they release new games every week. So spice things up with ChumbaCasino.com now for your chance to redeem some serious prizes.

Sponsored by Chumpa Casino. No purchase necessary. VGW Group. Void where prohibited by law. 18 plus terms and conditions apply.