‘Kayak Killer’ Awarded Portion of Life Insurance Money From Fiance

Angelika Graswald was convicted in 2015 of criminally negligent homicide in the drowning death of her fiancé, Vincent Viafore. Because the conviction was not reckless or intentional, she still maintain the right to collect 45% of Viafore’s death benefits of his $491,000 life insurance payout as the policy’s primary beneficiary.

Graswald and the family of Viafore have come to an agreement where Grawald will be awarded a confidential financial settlement and drop her appeal in her conviction, and the family will drop their wrongful death lawsuit against her.

Graswald pulled the drain plug on Viafore’s kayak while they were paddling on the Hudson River in 2015 and watched him drown. She later confessed in court to the actions, but claimed that she failed to see her actions would lead to Viafore’s death.

See Katherine Lam, ‘Kayak Killer’ Awarded Portion of Life Insurance Money From Fiance She Killed, Fox News, August 14, 2018.