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Wife Testifies Doctor Husband Tried to Push Her Off Hawaii Cliff | Crime House 24/7
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Hi listeners, it's Vanessa Richardson. Real quick, before today's episode, I want to tell you about another show from Crime House that I know you'll love. America's Most Infamous Crimes. Hosted by Katie Ring. Each week Katie takes on one of the most notorious criminal cases in American history. Serial killers who terrorized cities, unsolved mysteries that keep detectives up at night, and investigations that change the way we think about justice. Listen to and follow America's Most infamous crimes Tuesday through Thursday on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music or wherever you listen to podcasts. This is Crime House. Good morning everyone. We have multiple breaking true crime cases this morning that you need to know about and we're starting with the biggest one. A Hawaii doctor is on trial for the attempted murder of his wife and she recently took the stand to describe the moment she says he tried to push her off a cliff. This is crime house 24 7, your non stop source for the biggest crime cases developing right now. Make sure to subscribe wherever you get your podcast. Podcasts I'm Vanessa Richardson and we have quite a lineup for you today. Here's what you need to know.
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On March 25, nuclear engineer Arielle Koenig took the stand for the third day of her husband's attempted murder trial in Honolulu and the testimony she delivered was devastating. Her husband, Gerhardt Koenig, is a Maui based anesthesiologist charged with second degree attempted murder. Prosecutors allege that on March 24, 2025. Exactly one year before Ariel took the stand, he tried to kill her during a hike on Oahu's Pali Puka Trail. The couple had traveled from their home on Maui to Oahu to celebrate Ariel's birthday. She testified it was meant to be a fresh start and their marriage had been strained after what Arielle described as an emotional affair she had with a married coworker who lives in Washington state. After Geart discovered the messages, she says he was really angry, very upset, calling her a liar and a Before they agreed to go to counseling, she testified in court, quote, I was apologetic. He was obviously hurt, and I was really committed to my marriage and my husband, end quote. She said she believed things had been improving. Quote, on the morning of the hike, Gerhardt gave her a birthday gift, a necklace and a card. She became emotional when asked to read it aloud in court. The card referred to her as angel face and told her she was, quote, the heart of our family. A few hours later, she says, he tried to kill her. Arielle testified that during the hike, she began to feel uncomfortable as the trail narrowed near steep cliff faces. As they made their way back down, she said Gerhardt suggested they take a selfie.
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Standing.
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Standing approximately 10ft from the cliff's edge. That's when she first noticed something felt off. She testified, quote, he was very aware of where I was, where my feet were, where he was and where the trail was. I felt like he was often looking at my feet, just very spatially aware of where I was on the trail, end quote. She held onto a tree, she said, because she was still uncomfortable. After the photo, as Ariel began to move away from the edge, she testified that everything changed. Heart, who was facing the cliff, allegedly grabbed her forcefully by the upper arms and began pushing her back toward the cliff. She said he then searched his backpack with one hand while holding her down with the other, eventually producing a vial. When she started screaming, he covered her mouth with his hand and told her, quote, shut up. Nobody's going to hear you out here. Nobody's coming to save you, end quote. Ariel bit his forearm. She pleaded with him, telling him their kids would be orphans, that he'd go to jail and she'd be dead. She said, quote, it seemed like he took a deep breath and I had this moment where I thought I could get away, end quote. Then he picked up a rock and began hitting her in the head. A physician from Queen's Medical center testified that Ariel suffered crushed tissue down the skull with small pieces of rock embedded in her skin, and that her head was covered in blood. Two hikers, Amanda Morris and Sarah Booksbaum, came upon the couple during the attack and the women called 911. Arielle testified that when she heard their voices, her husband froze, she crawled away and the two women helped her down the trail. The defense has presented a sharply different account. Attorney Thomas Otake argued during opening statements that Ariel started the confrontation herself after Gerhart brought up her affair. Picking up a rock and hitting him first, Otake argued, quote, she picks up a rock and hits him in the face with it and he quickly reacts, grabs the rock, hits her twice and stops, end quote. The defense has characterized the incident as an unplanned, unanticipated scuffle, not a murder attempt. Prosecutors also noted that after the incident, gerhart called his 19 year old son. According to the prosecution, he told his son, quote, I am not going to make it back. I tried to kill Ariel, but she got away, end quote. Arielle Koenig filed for divorce in May 2025 and is seeking full custody of the couple's two young children. Gerhard Koenig has been held without bail since the day of the alleged attack and remains behind bars as the trial continues. It's still unclear whether he will take the stand from a Hawaii courtroom to a Texas cold case. We're covering next a decades old double murder that has finally resulted in arrest nearly 36 years later. On March 25, 64 year old Floyd William Parrott was arrested in Lincoln, Nebraska and charged with capital murder in connection with one of Houston's most haunting unsolved cases, the 1990 lovers lane killings of 22 year old Cheryl Henry and 21 year old Andy Atkinson. After nearly 36 years, investigators say DNA evidence and a tip finally cracked the case. On the night of August 22, 1990, Henry, her sister and Atkinson spent the evening at Bayou Mama's nightclub on Westheimer Road in West Houston. At some point, Henry and Atkinson drove together to a then remote area near Enclave Parkway, a stretch of land that was largely undeveloped at the time and had come to be known locally as Lovers Lane. But they never came home. The next morning, August 23, a security guard conducting a routine patrol noticed a vehicle parked in a culdesac that hadn't moved in hours. When he approached, he found an unresponsive Atkinson tied to a tree. Henry was eventually located approximately 100 yards away. Once officers arrived, both victims were pronounced dead at the scene. According to investigators, both Henry and Atkinson had their hands tied behind their backs and both had sustained injuries to their throats. Henry had also been sexually assaulted. The case drew the attention of multiple agencies over the decades that followed, including the FBI and the Texas Attorney General's cold Case and Missing Persons unit. Investigators pursued hundreds of leads, explored familial DNA techniques, and even developed an age progressed sketch from a description provided by a 1990s sexual assault victim who survived a separate attack. But despite all of it, the case stayed cold until earlier this month. In late 2025, a tip identifying Parrot as a possible suspect landed in the cold case file and a homicide sergeant began investigating it. That investigation turned to DNA. A 1996 police report identified Parrott as a suspect in a sexual assault that year, a case in which he claimed the encounter was consensual. The DNA from that 1996 case had recently been added to CODIS, the national DNA database, which matches across local, state and federal labs. There was a hit. The male DNA profile from the 1996 case matched DNA recovered from Cheryl Henry's sexual assault examination from 1990. A separate sexual assault from June 1990 also produced a DNA match to Parrot. Investigators also noted that at the time of the murders, Parrot was working approximately one mile from the Enclave Parkway crime scene. Court records show he had a prior history in Harris county. Arrested for impersonating a peace officer in 1988, convicted on a weapons charge that same year and arrested again for impersonating a Peace officer in May 1990, just months before the killings. On March 25, Houston Police Department homicide detectives and FBI special agents arrested Parrott at his home. A sergeant interviewed him that same day, and Parrot denied ever knowing Cheryl Henry. He has since refused to waive extradition and requested an attorney. And his case in Lancaster County, Nebraska, has been continued to April 30. Cheryl Henry's sister Shane told KPRC TV that the arrest has been overwhelming for the family. Their mother and Atkinson's father have since passed away. Shane said, quote, it's heartbreaking that they don't get to have this day, but we know they're with them and rejoicing in their own ways. End quote. Harris County District Attorney Shawn Te called the case one of the city's most haunting and infamous col cases, saying his office and investigators never gave up on Cheryl and Andy. From a cold case solved to a crime that unfolded just this week. Our next story is out of Tennessee, where a woman is accused of shooting her housemate. 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On March 25, 57 year old Laura Morgan of Putnam County, Tennessee was taken into custody and charged with first degree murder, abuse of a corpse and fabricating or tampering with evidence in connection with the death of 34 year old Samantha, according to investigators, the events that led to Morgan's arrest began the morning of March 24. Goolsbee was at a home in Cookville, Tennessee with Morgan when the two women got into an argument. Authorities have not disclosed what the dispute was about, and the nature of their relationship has not been publicly confirmed. What investigators do say is this as Goolsbee was walking out the door to leave, Morgan supposedly shot her. What allegedly happened next is deeply disturbing. According to reporting from Crime Online, which cited an affidavit in the case, Morgan left Goolsbee's body on the floor of the home for roughly 24 hours. She did not call for help Instead, the next day, she allegedly moved the body, driving it to a property on Phi Road just north of Cookeville and partially concealing it in the tree line on that property. She then reportedly returned to the home and cleaned the scene using wipes to wipe it down, according to the affidavit. Investigators would later note the tampering with evidence charge reflects exactly that alleged effort to cover her tracks. Meanwhile, Goolsby's family had no idea where she was. Around noon on March 25, a family member contacted the Putnam County Sheriff's Office to report that Goolsbee had failed to come home the night before. Roughly four hours later, at approximately 4:16pm a homeowner owner on fire road called deputies to report something disturbing a partially concealed body in the wood line on their property. Deputies responded and confirmed it matched Goolsby's description. Investigators confronted Morgan and according to Putnam County Sheriff Eddie Ferris, Morgan admitted to the murder. He said, quote, out of whatever disagreement they had, Laura ended up shooting and killing Samantha Goolsby. She confessed to that to my investigators, end quote. In addition to the confession, firearm was recovered from the home. Ferris was clear that the confession was just the beginning of the work ahead. He said, quote, we have the body, we have a person confessing to the crime, but we have to make sure the crime scene corroborates what's being said and what we found, end quote. Morgan was taken into custody at approximately 8:30pm the evening of March 25th. She's currently being held in the Putnam county jail on an $820,000 bond with a court date set for 4-20-20. The investigation remains ongoing. From Tennessee, we go to Washington state where our next case starts with a teenage prank and ends with a man in custody facing attempted murder charges. On Wednesday, March 25, Pierce county prosecutors charged 31 year old Majid Gary of Tacoma, Washington with attempted first degree murder, first degree assault, four counts of first degree robbery, unlawful possession of a firearm and four counts of felony harassment. The charges stem from a February 28 shooting that began with a group of teenagers throwing water balloons at passing cars. According to investigators, the four teens were driving through Tacoma that evening tossing water balloons out of their black Audi at other vehicles. One balloon struck Gary's silver Kia. According to court documents, Gary's girlfriend told detectives she was with Gary on February 28, but said her memory was hazy because she was intoxicated that day. She reportedly said the sunroof was open and Gary's driver's window was down and some water entered through an open window and got them both wet rather than drive on. Prosecutors say Gary pursued the group, chasing them to a dead end gravel lot near Mullen street and blocking them in. What followed, investigators say, was swift and violent. Gary allegedly exited his car armed with a handgun, approaching the front passenger side of the teen's vehicle and demanded money while threatening to kill them. One teen handed over approximately $100 in cash. Prosecutors allege Gary then struck the teen in the front passenger seat in the face with a gun. Investigators believe the same teen who threw the balloon and shot him in the chest from less than a foot away. The bullet entered the teen's chest and exited through his armpit. He survived, but investigators noted the shot narrowly missed a fatal outcome. Detectives used surveillance footage, license plate reader data and cell phone records to link the silver Kia to Gary. Footage from a nearby casino allegedly shows Gary arriving less than an hour after the shooting. He was arrested at a Tacoma apartment on March 20. All four teens identified Gary in separate photo lineups. Gary, who has four prior felony convictions, entered a not guilty plea during his court appearance this week. Prosecutors have noted he poses a danger to the community and faces a substantial prison sentence if convicted, all allegedly because a water balloon got him wet.
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Zootopia 2 has come home to Disney. Let's go get ready for a new case.
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We're the greatest partners of all time. New friends Gary the Snake and your last name the Snake Dream Team New Habitats Zootopia has a secret reptile population.
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You can watch the record breaking phenomenon at home. Zootopia 2 now available on Disney. Rated PG. Right now you can get Disney plus and Hulu for just $4.99 a month for three months with a special limited time offer. Ends March 24th. After three months, Plan Auto renews at $12.99 a month. Terms apply.
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23 year old Elizabeth Plunkett heads off for a night away with friends. It's the summer of 1976, the best
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summer we've had for years.
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Just hours later, she is kidnapped by two men in British Bay.
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These are two career criminals wanted for rape in Britain.
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They are Ireland's first serial killers. While both men confessed to Elizabeth's murder, no one is ever convicted. How could this happen? We're being denied any sort of justice. Listen to Bad Women presents Stolen Sister wherever you get your podcasts.
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Lastly, let me tell you about what else is happening at Crime House today. Serial killers and murderous minds is covering the Unabomber, and the timing is significant. This Thursday marks 30 years since the arrest of Ted Kaczynski, the former mathematics professor who conducted a 17 year bombing campaign that killed three people and injured 23 others before investigators finally closed in. But here's the thing about how that arrest actually happened. It wasn't forensic evidence. It wasn't a surveillance breakthrough. It wasn't an informant inside a criminal network. It was a brother who read a document and recognized the person who wrote it. David Kaczynski had harbored growing unease about his brother for years. When the Unabomber Manifesto was published in 1995, he read it and couldn't shake the feeling that the language, the ideas and the arguments belonged to someone he knew. Eventually, he made one of the most difficult phone calls imaginable. That moment, one person recognizing another, ended one of the most expensive and exhaustive manhunts in FBI history. It's also not as unusual as it might seem. Before you head over to serial killers and murderous minds for the full story, here are five other cases that were broken open not by technology or forensic science, but because someone who knew the perpetrator recognized something the rest of the world couldn't. John List In November 1971, John List murdered his wife, his mother, and his three children inside their New Jersey home. He staged the bodies, left the house lights on and the radio playing, and drove away. He had planned the disappearance carefully. New identity, new life, new city. For nearly two decades, he was never found. In 1989, America's Most Wanted aired a segment on the case featuring. Featuring a forensic sculpture, a clay model depicting what List might look like 18 years older. The technique was relatively new at the time, and investigators weren't certain it would produce anything useful. A woman named Wanda Flannery watched the broadcast from her home in Colorado. She'd been a neighbor of the List family in New Jersey. When she saw the sculpture, something about that face stopped her. The features, the bearing, the way the jaw was set. She recognized something that an age progressed model had preserved. She called in. John List was arrested in Richmond, Virginia, where he'd been living quietly as Robert Clark. He had remarried. He attended church regularly. He was convicted of five counts of murder in 1990 and died in prison in 2008. 18 years of a careful, constructed disappearance came apart because a former neighbor watched television and trusted what she saw. Law number two, Eileen Warnos. Eileen Warnos killed seven men in Florida between 1989 and 1990. As investigators worked to identify a suspect, composite sketches were circulated and two names kept appearing from people who knew the bars and motels along Florida's highways. Eileen and Lee. Lee was Tyra Moore, Warnose's girlfriend and companion. When investigators located Moore, she was in a difficult position. She had not participated in the killings, but she had been aware that something was wrong. She agreed to cooperate. What followed was methodical and, depending on how you look at it, either straightforward or deeply complicated. Moore made a series of recorded phone calls to Warnos from a hotel room. While investigators listened. Over the course of those conversations, a woman talking to someone she had loved. Warnos began to confess. The recordings were later used at trial. The case against Wuornos was built in large part on the cooperation of someone who had shared her life. That proximity, the kind that gives a person knowledge no investigator could develop from the outside, was ultimately what made the difference. Number three, BTK Dennis Raider. Dennis Raider killed 10 people in the Wichita area between 1974 and 1991. He then went silent for more than a decade before resuming contact with police and Media in 2004. That decision to re engage to be known was what eventually ended him. Raider sent investigators a floppy dis containing a document. Metadata embedded in the file pointed to a church. The church was Christ Lutheran in Park City, Kansas. Raider was its congregation president. People in that community had known him for years as a neighbor, as a church official, as a compliance officer for the city. None of that knowledge on its own had produced a tip. What confirmed his ident was biological and it came from his daughter. Without her knowledge, investigators obtained a court order for a medical sample she'd provided to a university health Clinic. The familial DNA match was decisive. Raider was arrested in February 2005. His daughter had no idea. His congregation had no idea. He had lived inside a community for 30 years, visible and unremarkable. And the thread that unraveled him ran through his own family, through DNA she had given for an entirely unrelated reasons, in a clinic she had visited for entirely unrelated purposes. Number four, Whitey Bulger. James Whitey Bulger fled Boston in 1994 after being tipped off that a federal indictment was coming. For 16 years, he was one of the most wanted fugitives in the United States. He and his longtime companion, Katherine Greg, had settled quietly in Santa Monica, California, living under assumed names in a rent control department. In 2011, the FBI FBI shifted strategy. Rather than targeting Bulgar directly, they launched a media campaign specifically focused on Greg, running ads on television programs with audiences likely to recognize her. Entertainment shows, lifestyle programming, daytime television. The logic was that Bulger, then 81, was capable of altering his appearance. Greg, the thinking went, was the more recognizable of the two. A woman named Anna Bjorn, a former Miss Iceland and actress who lived in the Santa Monica area, saw the ad. She had met Greg in passing, a brief, neighborly acquaintance of the kind that leaves only a faint impression. But that impression was enough. She called the tip line. Bulger was arrested within days. He was convicted in 2013 of 11 murders and died in federal custody in 2018. The 16 year fugitive was undone by a single passing social interaction, the kind that neither party would have remembered as significant at the time. Time number five. The Golden State Killer, Joseph James D' Angelo committed at least 13 murders, 50 rapes, and more than a hundred burglaries across California between 1974 and 1986. He then stopped entirely. For decades, investigators had DNA, but no match in any database. In 2017, an investigative genetic genealogist named Barbara Ray Venter began working with law enforcement on a new approach. Rather than searching criminal databases, investigators uploaded the Golden State Killer's DNA to a public genealogy website and began building outward, identifying distant relatives, constructing family trees, and narrowing the field of possible suspects through a combination of age, location, and family history. The process took months. It required dozens of family members who had submitted their own DNA for entirely personal reasons. Ancestry research, medical history, curiosity to unknowingly contribute to an investigation they knew nothing about. Those distant relatives had never met Diangelo. Most had no connection to him beyond shared Genetic material going back generations. But their presence in a database, combined with patient genealogical work was enough to lead investigators to a retired police officer living quietly in suburban Sacramento. D' Angelo was arrested in April 2018. He pleaded guilty to 13 counts of murder and admitted to the rapes. He was sentenced to life in prison. He was identified, ultimately by people who had never known him, people whose only connection was blood and who had no idea they were providing a thread investigators would follow all the way to his door. What strikes me about all these cases and about David Kaczynski's decision that sits behind all of them, is how much we tend to underestimate what it actually takes to make that call. From the outside, it seems like it should be straightforward. You suspect something, you tell someone, the pieces fall into place. But that framing skips over almost everything that makes the situation real. Because the person you suspect is also someone you know, maybe someone you love, someone whose version of events you've heard, whose explanations you've accepted, whose presence in your life you've organized yourself around. Picking up the phone means deciding that what you know outweighs all of that. And doing it without any certainty that you're right. And that fear of being wrong isn't irrational. Reporting a suspicion about someone and having it turn out to be nothing doesn't just damage a relationship. It can end one. It can mark you as the person who made that accusation in that family, in that community for a very long time. There's also the question of whether anyone will believe you, whether your word will be taken seriously, whether the institution you're calling is one you have any reason to trust. None of this is an excuse for staying silent, but it's worth sitting with, because true crime has a way of flattening the moment of recognition into a simple choice. A door that was obviously there just waiting to be opened. In reality, for a lot of people, that door doesn't look obvious at all. All it looks like the most frightening thing they've ever considered walking through. David Kaczynski walked through it, and it cost him something. Even though he did the right thing. That part of the story doesn't always make the headline. For the full story behind the Unabomber and the investigation that finally caught him, head over to our Crime House feed for the latest episode of serial killers and murderous mobs minds, you've been listening to Crime House 247 bringing you breaking crime news. I'm Vanessa Richardson. We'll be back tomorrow morning with more developing stories. Stay safe, and thanks for listening. Thanks for listening to today's episode. Not sure what to listen to next? Check out America's Most Infamous Crimes, hosted by Katie Ring. From serial killers to unsolved mysteries and game changing investigations, each week Katie takes on a notorious criminal case in American history. Listen to and follow America's Most Infamous Crimes now. Wherever you listen to podcasts.