A former UPMC doctor beat his wife with a rock 10 times and smashed her face into the ground on a Hawaii hiking trail after she refused to take a selfie with him, documents released during his first court appearance Thursday show.
Gerhardt Konig, 46, an anesthesiologist who previously lived in Mt. Lebanon, remained in jail in Honolulu this week on second-degree attempted murder charges after the Monday morning attack on his wife, Arielle Konig, 36.
Arielle Konig was hospitalized in serious but stable condition. The nuclear scientist, who is 10 years her husband’s junior, studied at Penn State University.
Konig is being held in Hawaii on $5 million bail.
Konig was standing “close to the edge” of an Oahu hiking trail when he asked his wife to take a selfie with him, the complaint said.
Parts of the rigorous trail where the pair was walking pass along steep slopes 300 feet above the valley below.
Arielle Konig declined to take the photo, the complaint said.
Konig then pushed his wife into a bush and a struggle ensued, the complaint said. Arielle Konig began to scream for help, which drew witnesses to the area.
Konig then got on top of his wife, who was laying in the grass, and struck her with a rock 10 times in the face and head, the complaint said. She suffered “multiple large lacerations” but remained conscious.
Arielle Konig later told police that her husband tried — unsuccessfully — to inject her with unknown liquids from two syringes, the complaint said. Police did not elaborate in public records.
Family members of the victim either have not responded to phone calls or have declined to speak with TribLive.
“Everyone is looking for privacy,” Jackie Orcutt, Arielle Konig’s cousin, told TribLive earlier this week. “It’s a little bit of an overwhelming situation.”
Since moving to Hawaii in 2023, Gerhardt Konig had worked for The Anesthesia Medical Group and at Maui Memorial Medical Center. That Maui hospital earlier this week suspended the doctor.
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.
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.
Patella said 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.”
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, 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.
UPMC on Wednesday 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, whose maiden name was Arielle Worthington, studied nuclear engineering at Penn State University from 2007 to 2011, her LinkedIn profile said. A Penn State spokesman confirmed a woman with the same name studied there during that time and received a degree in nuclear engineering.
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.
Konig’s physician’s license in Hawaii on Friday remained “current, valid and in good standing,” Hawaii Department of Commerce & Consumer Affairs records show.