'I just tried to kill Ari': Records detail ex-UPMC doc's alleged attack on wife in Hawaii

At first, Arielle Konig thought her husband was kidding.

They had just taken a selfie — at his suggestion, she said — by the edge of a cliff with a steep drop along a hiking trail in Hawaii.

She got dizzy and moved away from the drop.

Suddenly, according to an account she provided to authorities, her husband, Dr. Gerhardt Konig, grabbed her arms and pushed her back, yelling that he was sick of her.

“At first I thought he was joking, but I quickly realized he was seriously trying to make me fall off the cliff,” she wrote.

Moments later, according to her petition and Honolulu police, the doctor tried to kill her by clobbering her head with a rock and trying to inject her with an unknown substance in a syringe.

“I was screaming and pleading with him to stop, asking him to think about our children,” Arielle Konig wrote in a court petition for a restraining order against her husband. “If I had fallen off the cliff, I would have likely died.”

The riveting account by Konig, a Penn State University graduate, marks the first time the public has heard her description of what transpired Monday with her husband, a former UPMC anesthesiologist and Mt. Lebanon resident.

Police have charged Gerhardt Konig, 46, with attempted murder in a bizarre case that has drawn international attention.

He remains jailed in Oahu Community Correctional Center. Initially held on $5 million bail, Konig was denied bail after a grand jury indicted him Friday.

A judge Friday also issued an order barring any contact between Konig and his family.

“This indictment reflects the serious nature of crime that is alleged this case,” Prosecuting Attorney Steve Alm told reporters Friday. “Domestic abuse cannot be tolerated.”

Arielle Konig, 36, remained hospitalized Friday with lacerations and a broken thumb, which she said was crushed by her husband with a rock.

Messages left by TribLive with lawyers for the Konigs were not returned Friday.

‘Get back over there’

Konig, a nuclear engineer and mother to two small children, described a fraught relationship with her husband.

They married Sept. 4, 2018, at their million-dollar home on Roycroft Avenue in Mt. Lebanon. Her husband had been married before.

Leading up to the attack, things had soured between the Konigs.

Arielle Konig wrote in her restraining-order petition that in December, her husband accused her of having an affair, leading to “extreme jealousy.”

“Since then,” she wrote, “he has attempted to control and monitor all of my communications.”

They went to couples therapy, and this month, she wrote, her husband suggested a weekend getaway for her birthday.

The couple would travel to a Waikiki hotel on Oahu from their home in Maui, leaving the kids home with a nanny and family.

On Monday — Arielle Konig’s 36th birthday — her husband suggested they take a walk at the Nu’uanu Pali Lookout, whose narrow ridges are bounded on both sides by steep drops, according to her account, which was filed in Family Court in Hawaii.

“During the hike, I became uneasy and informed Gerhardt that I did not want to continue,” Arielle Konig said.

But they kept going.

Konig suggested the pair take a picture near the edge of a cliff, his wife told authorities.

They did, and then Arielle Konig asked him to back up so she could get away from the edge since she felt dizzy.

When he moved, she said she walked down the trail to him. When she got near, she wrote that he grabbed her and pushed her back.

“Get back over there,” Konig yelled, according to his wife. “I’m so (expletive) sick of you!”

Realizing he was serious, Arielle Konig said she threw herself to the ground. Konig then pushed his wife into a bush and a struggle ensued, according to the court papers.

The syringes

Konig got on top of his wife, who was lying in the grass, and struck her with a rock 10 times in the face and head, according to a criminal complaint in the case.

She suffered “multiple large lacerations” but remained conscious.

When Konig tried to block her husband’s attack, he hit her hand with the rock, breaking her left thumb, the document said.

Arielle Konig told police that her husband then tried — unsuccessfully — to inject her with an unknown liquid substance from two different syringes, the complaint said. Police did not elaborate in public records.

“I do not know what was in the syringe, but Gerhardt is an anesthesiologist and has access to several potentially lethal medications as part of his employment,” the petition said.

Konig said she grabbed the syringe and threw it as he combed through his bag for what she thought was another syringe. She bit his forearm.

She said he seemed to calm down, “but then grabbed a nearby rock and began bashing me repeatedly on the head with it,” according to her account.

Just then, two women showed up on the trail.

“We are calling 911,” they shouted, according to the petition.

The witnesses helped Konig while her husband left. Police arrested him hours later.

‘She got away’

The victim also told police that Konig made a video call after the attack with his adult son from his first marriage.

“I just tried to kill Ari but she got away,” he told his son, according to the court documents. Konig appeared to be covered in blood, the court papers said.

Arielle Konig’s relatives either have not responded to phone calls or have declined to speak with TribLive.

“Everyone is looking for privacy,” her cousin, Jackie Orcutt, told TribLive this week. “It’s a little bit of an overwhelming situation.”

Gerhardt Konig’s father — Pieter Konig, a pharmacist living in the San Diego suburb of Poway, Calif. — also declined to talk Friday to a TribLive reporter.

Since moving to Hawaii in 2023, Gerhardt Konig had worked for The Anesthesia Medical Group and at Maui Memorial Medical Center. That Maui hospital this week suspended the doctor.

Multiple anesthesiologists with the medical group have declined to talk with TribLive.

In her petition for the restraining order, Arielle Konig wrote that she fears if he is released from custody, Konig will try to harm or kill her, their children and their dog.

She wrote that she keeps a gun in a home safe and fears he might try to access it.

She also indicated that Gerhardt Konig has abused and assaulted her over the past few months.

Konig, scruffy and unshaven, stared at the floor during a Thursday court appearance, footage obtained by CBS News shows. His attorney has declined to comment.

Police in Honolulu continue to be tight-lipped.

“This remains an active investigation and no reports or videos are being released at this time,” spokeswoman Michelle Yu said Friday afternoon in a prepared statement.

‘Our hearts are with Ari’

The Konigs were raising two children, ages 2 and 5, in a five-bedroom home with mountain views on Maui they purchased in December 2022 for $1.5 million.

Kelly Swanson, the Lahaina, Hawaii-based Realtor who helped the Konigs buy their home, declined to comment on Friday.

Realtor Jo-Ann Aki, the seller’s agent on the $1.5 million deal, said Friday she didn’t remember meeting Konig in person.

“Nothing except the paperwork,” Aki told TribLive.

Gerhardt Konig’s previous wife, Jessica L. Patella, filed for divorce in October 2014, court records show. A judge later granted Patella custody of the couple’s two children, now 19 and 22.

Patella told TribLive in a text message Thursday she is “shocked and saddened by the news.”

“Our hearts are with Ari,” she added. “We ask that you please respect our privacy at this time.”

Konig, Patella and their children had lived in a six-bedroom, five-bathroom house on Mt. Lebanon’s leafy Roycroft Avenue. Konig sold the 4,300-square-foot house and property for $1.3 million in November 2022, Allegheny County real estate records show.

Pennsylvania ties

Konig, who went to college in San Diego, worked as a UPMC staff anesthesiologist from July 2016 to March 2023, according to his LinkedIn profile. He received his medical degree from the University of Pittsburgh, where he also served as an assistant professor at the medical school.

This week, UPMC declined to confirm details of Konig’s employment or to comment on the situation. A University of Pittsburgh spokesman also has declined to comment.

Arielle Konig studied nuclear engineering at Penn State from 2007 to 2011, according to her LinkedIn profile. A Penn State spokesman confirmed a woman with her name received a degree in nuclear engineering.

Arielle Konig then received a Master of Business Administration in 2021 from the University of Pittsburgh’s Katz Graduate School of Business.

For more than 11 years, she worked at Westinghouse Electric Co., most recently in fuel engineering, according to her LinkedIn profile.

In September 2022, she started a job with TerraPower LLC, a Bellevue, Wash.-based company, working on nuclear fuels. The company declined to comment Wednesday.

Konig’s physician’s license in Hawaii on Friday remained “current, valid and in good standing,” Hawaii Department of Commerce & Consumer Affairs records show.

Kevin Worthington, the Westmoreland County mason who Arielle Konig identified as her father on their 2018 marriage license, did not return phone calls Friday seeking comment.