The body of a man found floating in the Hudson River was positively ✃identified Sunday as a missing kayaker believed to have been mu✤rdered by his fiancee, law enforcement sources said.
Officials had not determined what killed Vincent Viafore, who disappeared April 19 after his kayak turned ꦉover about 50 miles n🅘orth of New York City during a boating trip with Angelika Graswald.
Graswald, 35, was arrested several days later and charged with second-degree murder after prosecutors said she admitted to tampering with Viafore’s kayak.
Authorities said she was looking to cash in on Viafore’s $250,000 life insuranc✨e policies.
Sources sa𒆙id the drain plug had been removed fr🍎om Viafore’s kayak.
Viafore held ontඣo his boat for five to 10 minuteꦜs, but Graswald called 911 some 20 minutes after his kayak capsized, prosecutors said at her bail hearing.
According to authorities, witnesses said Graswald intentionally🌠 capsized her own kayak.
She later told investigators that she felt relief and “it felt good knowing he would die,” said Julie Mohl, an Orange Cou꧅nty pros𝓡ecutor.
Deputies from the Orange County Sheriff’s Office found the body as they patrolle🌳d the waters near the US Military Academy at West Point in Highland Fal🎃ls in advance of the military school’s graduation ceremony Saturday, a source said.
“That’s what we thought,” said Graswald’s lawyer, Richard Portale. “It’s not surprising and we’ll move forward.”
Earlier, Portale said that the clothes🦹 on the corpse were similꦏar to the clothes Viafore was wearing on the kayak.
He said Graswald was “doing as well as can be expecte🌠d.”
She is being held on $3 million bail.
Portale said he made a motion for a forensiܫc expert from hisꦅ legal team to observe the autopsy but was denied.
He sa🐭id he might have to request an independent autopsy.
“I’d prefer no🧸t to,” Portale said. “I’d prefer to let the family move forward with their꧑ services.
“We wa𝔍nt to make sure an👍d see how the procedures are followed.”
Sou🦋rces said more toxicology tests needed to be performed before determining the cause of death.