Warning: This article contains details which some readers may find distressing.
A woman whose husband allegedly attempted to kill her on her birthday is describing the terrifying moment.
Anesthesiologist Gerhardt Konig is on trial accused of beating his wife Arielle Konig with a rock while on the Pali Puka Trail on Oahu on March 24, 2025.
Mr. Konig has pleaded not guilty to second-degree attempted murder.
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During the trial, Mrs. Konig recounted the hike and the events leading up to the alleged attack. She said the pair had travelled to Oahu from their Maui home to celebrate her birthday, and had been working to fix issues in their marriage through couples’ therapy and individual therapy.
Arielle Konig, a nuclear engineer, said she felt hopeful that the trip would be a ‘turning point’ for their marriage. Issues allegedly arose after her husband found ‘flirty’ WhatsApp messages she shared with a colleague in December 2024.
“This was going to be a nice trip and kind of started the next chapter for us,” she said.
However, Arielle said that during the hike while she was standing about 10 feet from the cliff to take pictures, her husband ‘grabbed’ her ‘really forcefully by my upper arms’.
She continued: “He said, 'I'm so f------ sick of this s---. Get back over there.' And he starts pushing me back towards the cliff.”
Mrs. Konig recalled feeling ‘surprised’ and said she thought he was kidding at first.
“I was like, 'What are you doing?' But he had grabbed me really hard and was moving me. So we kind of wrestled a little bit, and I threw myself onto the ground because there's a lot of trees and shrubs there, so that I could hold on," she said.
Mrs. Konig testified that her husband was on top of her at this point, ‘trying to get me closer to the cliff’, adding that Mr. Konig had a syringe in his hand.
"He says, 'Hold still,' and I see the syringe, and I just kind of bat it away from us both," she testified.
Mr. Konig allegedly held his wife down with one hand, while using his other hand to look for an object in his backpack.
"He's saying, 'F--- you, you're done. I'm so, so sick of your s---, so done with you,'" she said.
She then saw a vial in his hand.
"I'm screaming, and he's telling me, 'Shut the f--- up. Nobody's gonna hear you out here, nobody's coming to save you,'" she testified.
Mrs. Konig testified she fought back by biting his forearm and pleaded with him. “You can’t do it,” she said. “Our kids will be orphans. You’ll go to jail and I’ll be dead.”
She claimed he said: “Again, he’s saying, 'You're done. We're done with you. We don't need you anymore. You're done. You're done,'"
Konig said it felt like her husband had ‘calmed down,’ but then she added, he ‘just starts hitting my face and my head with a rock."
"I just started screaming, because in my mind, he's trying to knock me unconscious, to be able to drag me over the edge," she testified. "So I'm just screaming then as much as I could."
"I do think I was saying something like, 'Please help, he's trying to kill me,'" she continued. "I'm hoping somebody can kind of hear that. And at some point, I hear a voice say, 'We're here, and we're calling 911.'"
One of the passersby phoned emergency services. Mrs. Konig said her husband ‘froze’ and she was able to crawl away. The two people who found her helped her down the trail. Mr. Konig was eventually found and arrested.
She was taken to the husband for treatment for ‘severe complex scalp lacerations’. Mrs. Konig said her husband hit her as many as 10 times during the alleged attack.
Greg Harris