Gerhardt Konig smiled in the Oct. 5, 2018, Facebook photo as his new bride leaned into his side, holding a bouquet against her white dress.
The photogenic couple stood under a garden arbor adorned with white flowers.
“Best. Day. Ever.” Konig wrote.
On Wednesday, some 6½ years later, authorities in Hawaii were preparing to charge the former UPMC anesthesiologist and Mt. Lebanon resident with trying to kill his wife, Arielle Konig.
Honolulu police say Konig struck her multiple times with a rock, then tried to push her off a steep hiking trail into what could have been a 300-foot fall.
Prosecutors in Hawaii filed attempted murder charges against the 46-year-old doctor in the Monday morning attack on his wife, a nuclear scientist 10 years his junior who studied at Penn State University. His bond was set Wednesday at $5 million.
Family members of the victim, several of whom live in Allentown, either did not respond Wednesday to phone calls or declined to speak with TribLive.
“Everyone is looking for privacy,” said Jackie Orcutt, Arielle Konig’s cousin. “It’s a little bit of an overwhelming situation.”
Arielle Konig was taken to a hospital Monday in critical condition. Police said two witnesses called 911 and are working with investigators.
Konig fled the scene and was on the lam for more than eight hours before police chased and arrested him on a nearby road.
The alleged attack started about 10:30 a.m. after Konig’s wife refused to take a picture with him on the scenic Oahu trail, law enforcement sources told reporters in Hawaii. Those sources also said Konig tried to prick his wife with syringes.
Few details have emerged in the two days since the attack.
The Maui hospital where Konig worked has suspended the doctor. But Honolulu police and prosecutors have said little and are not returning phone calls or emails about a story that has gone international.
“No reports or records are being released at this time,” a police spokeswoman said. “This is an active investigation. … No interviews will be conducted for the same reason.”
What is clear, however, is what Konig left behind in Pittsburgh — his first wife and two children, as well as a divorce settlement, a lawsuit and the breadcrumb trails of his medical career.
Million-dollar house
Konig previously was married and raising two children in Mt. Lebanon before he left for Maui less than two years ago, according to Allegheny County court records.
Jessica L. Patella, then Jessica Konig, had filed for divorce from Gerhardt Konig in October 2014, court records show. A judge later granted Patella custody of the couple’s two children, now 19 and 22.
The family 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.
Konig that year was on track to earn more than $255,000 at UPMC, court records show. As part of the breakup, Konig kept the home in Mt. Lebanon while he and Patella split the bank accounts, vehicles and credit cards.
Patella did not return phone calls Wednesday seeking comment.
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.
Konig authored four academic papers, the most recent one in 2021, according to PubMed, which catalogs research online for the National Library of Medicine.
UPMC on Wednesday declined to confirm details of Konig’s employment or to comment on the situation.
“He has not been an employee of UPMC for more than two years,” Gloria Kreps, a UPMC spokeswoman, told TribLive.
A Pitt spokesman did not respond to calls and emails seeking comment.
Konig was active in the courts beyond the legal wrangling over the end of his first marriage.
He sued a Carnegie-based contractor over a problematic window installation in 2019 at his Mt. Lebanon home and sought a $1.2 million settlement. The company, Nello Construction, claimed Konig was trying to “cripple” it.
That September, Nello workers asked Konig to help put in a window on the second floor, Konig’s lawsuit said.
While Konig was guiding the window from the bucket of a cherry picker, “the bucket jolted and pinned (Konig’s) head against the house, causing injury,” the lawsuit said. A tear to Konig’s ear required 20 stitches. He claimed he also suffered head trauma and a concussion.
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The parties settled out of court, records showed.
Worked for Westinghouse
Arielle Konig, whose maiden name was Arielle Worthington, studied nuclear engineering at Penn State University from 2007 to 2011, her LinkedIn profile said.
She received a Master of Business Administration in 2021 from the University of Pittsburgh’s Katz Graduate School of Business.
Konig married her on Sept. 4, 2018, according to the Allegheny County Department of Court Records.
For more than 11 years, Arielle Konig 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.
Life in Hawaii
Since moving to Hawaii in 2023, Gerhardt Konig has worked for The Anesthesia Medical Group and at Maui Memorial Medical Center.
That is no longer the case.
“Dr. Konig’s medical staff privileges at Maui Memorial Medical Center have been suspended pending investigation,” the hospital system said in a prepared statement.
“Maui Health takes these concerns and the safety of its patients very seriously and will cooperate with authorities as appropriate.”
Konig’s physician’s license in Hawaii on Wednesday remained “current, valid and in good standing,” Hawaii Department of Commerce & Consumer Affairs records show.