Kayak killer Angelika Graswald leaves prison after serving six weeks

A woman convicted of tampering with a kayak that led to the drowning death of her fiance is scheduled to be released from prison today, after serving six weeks in a women’s correctional facility.

The Poughkeepsie Journal reports that on Nov. 8, Angelika Graswald was sentenced to anywhere from 1⅓ to 4 years in prison after being convicted of criminally negligent homicide, stemming from a April 19, 2015, kayaking trip, when Vincent Viafore drowned in the Hudson River.

Graswald was the beneficiary of two of Viafore’s life insurance policies, something prosecutors alleged motivated her to pull the plug from his kayak on the fatal Sunday evening he died. According to The New York Times, Graswald previously “talked about what she could do with the money” should Viafore die. Graswald later admitting to tampering with Viafore’s kayak, claiming it “felt good knowing he was going to die.”

Authorities arrested Graswald in April 2015, and in Nov. 2017, was she sentenced to the Bedford Hills Correctional Facility for Women to serve her time. Since she had been behind bars since 2015, the time spent in jail counted towards her total sentence time. Graswald’s upcoming release isn’t unusual, according to her lawyer, Richard Portale, who previously said he expected her out of prison by Dec.

According to  DOCCS spokesperson Thomas Mailey, Graswald’s tentative release date is Saturday, Dec. 23. However, since the prison doesn’t release prisoners over the weekend, the date was changed to Thursday. The department is hoping to enact a law that allows release dates to fall on Thursday, which would “avoid a three-day lag before an initial report with their parole officer on the following Monday.”

Upon her release, Graswald is scheduled to be supervised by the Community Supervision staff in Orange County.

[Feature Photo: Angelika Graswald and Vincent Viafore/Handout]