April 01, 2025
An anaesthesiologist has been charged with the attempted murder of his wife while on a hiking trail in Hawaii last week.
Gerhardt Konig, 46, an anaesthesiologist, and his wife, Arielle Konig, a nuclear engineer, were hiking on Oahu's Pali Lookout trail, A 10km hiking trail that winds through lush bamboo forests and over streams. It was Arielle’s birthday, and the trip was a gift from her husband.
Court documents state that Arielle said Konig asked her to take a selfie with him while the pair were standing close to the edge of a steep drop.
After taking the picture, she expressed that she felt uncomfortable standing so close to the cliffs edge, saying it made her feel dizzy, she then turned to walk away.
This is when, Arielle said, Gerhardt became upset, saying he was so f****** sick of her.
“At first I thought he was joking,” she said, “but I quickly realized he was seriously trying to make me fall off the cliff.”
She said her husband then pursued her, shouting at her, so she threw herself to the ground for her own safety. He then pushed her into the nearby bushes, and according to the victim, attempted to inject her with a substance she was unable to identify.
She said: “I do not know what was in the syringe, but Gerhardt is an anaesthesiologist and has access to several potentially lethal medications as part of his employment.”
She managed to wrestle the syringe away from him and toss it away.
As he searched in his bag for what she assumed to be a second syringe, she bit his arm in a last ditch attempt to escape, it was then that she said he retrieved a rock from the ground and struck her in the head approximately ten times.
Arielle was injured, but she managed to hold on to consciousness.
She alleged Konig also smashed her head into the ground while grabbing on to a fistful of her hair so she could not get away.
The victim said she screamed for help and managed to drag herself back onto the trail where she fortunately found two fellow female hikers.
The hikers, one who is referred to as Amanda in documents, the other, Sarah, had heard the victim screaming for help and ran in the direction of the screams.
According to Amanda, she ran until she found Konig pinning his wife to the ground and striking her repeatedly in the head with a rock. Her face was bloodied with significant lacerations to both the face and head.
The victim screamed: "He's trying to kill me!"
Startled by the audience, Konig fled the scene, while Sarah called 911 for assistance.
Emergency services eventually arrived at the scene and treated the victim’s injuries before transporting her to a local hospital for treatment.
She is currently recovering at her residence in Maui.
Police urged the public to be on the lookout for a man of Konig's description. He was apprehended several hours later after being found near the Pali Highway. A brief chase on foot soon ended in the anaesthetist’s arrest.
His bail has been set at $5 million.
Arielle Konig stated that following the brutal attack, her husband allegedly made a video call to his adult son from his first marriage to Jessica L. Patella.
In the call he was said to have appeared bloodied, and purportedly admitted that he had "just tried to kill Ari" adding that she escaped.
Jessica L. Patella was awarded full custody of their children after she filed for divorce in the fall of 2014.
Media outlets report that the couple once lived on Roycroft Avenue in Mt. Lebanon, a township in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, in a home valued at $1 million.
Konig was a doctor at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center and had received his medical licence in 2022.
The pair were married in 2018, it was Arielle’s first marriage and Gerhardt’s second.
They moved to Hawaii in 2023, where Mr. Konig began working for The Anaesthesia Medical Group and at Maui Memorial Medical Center. A position from which he has since been suspended. They moved into a $1.5 million home in Maui.
In recent years the marriage had gone downhill. In a restraining-order petition, Arielle Konig wrote that Gerhardt Konig had accused her of having an affair, and began to express extreme levels of jealousy thereafter, surveying who she was in contact with on her cell phone, she said.
Although they had tried to work through it by attending couples therapy, Gerhardt had another idea- a vacation away together, alone, without the kids. He presented the trip around various parts of Hawaii as a birthday gift.
She added that she was worried her husband would attempt to murder her, her children who are 2, and 5, and their dog, if he was to get out on bail.
Gerhardt Konig has been charged with second degree attempted murder.
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