An upstate woman told cops her fiancé accidentally drowned in the choppy Hudson River during a kayaking trip — but her story didn’t add up and she was arrested for killing him, authorities said Thursday.
Angelika Graswald, 35, was charged with second-degree murder in the April 19 death of Vincent Viafore, 46.
She’s been charged with second-degree murder and held without bail, officials said. Graswald has a Latvian passport.
Cops initially believed she was “the survivor of a tragic accident” when the couple’s kayaks overturned in rough water off Cornwall-on-Hudson, said Orange County prosecutors and State Police.
But investigators soon doubted her tale.
“Some inconsistencies in the accounts that she gave of those last minutes led investigators to be suspicious,” said State Police Maj. Patrick Regan.
“She made statements that implicated herself in the crime,” he added, stopping short of calling it a confession.
The “inconsistencies” in the story she told investigators Wednesday prompted them to make the arrest even though they haven’t found Viafore’s body, officials said.
Graswald was arraigned in New Windsor and is being held without bail at the Orange County Jail.
Viafore, a strong swimmer, wasn’t wearing a life vest when his kayak capsized at around 7 p.m., Graswald told Orange County police in a 911 call she made at around 7:40 p.m.
She told News 12 she had seen her fiancé struggling to paddle through the cold, choppy waters, which flung him out of his kayak.
“He said, ‘I don’t think I’m gonna make it,’ and I said, ‘What are you talking about? Of course, you are,’ ” she told the TV station.
Graswald, who was wearing a life vest, said she was thrown out of her kayak, too, and rescued by a boater who brought her to safety.
Authorities didn’t reveal a possible motive for the alleged murder.
Online, they appeared to be a happy couple.
“The weddings [sic] going to be in Europe on the Baltic Sea, but we plan to do a Hudson River Cruise party,” Viafore wrote to a friend who commented on a photo of the couple kissing in front of a sunset.
The Latvian-born Graswald was active on Facebook in the days after the disappearance, posting several photos of the couple together.
“Miracles ARE possible,” she wrote in one post, adding, “Please, no questions at this point. We’re doing everything we can. We will find him.”
Viafore’s high-school friend Jackie Green Keel said she was in “shock” over the murder charges.
“They seemed so in love,” she told The Post. “I have not seen Vinny since [high school], but he is an amazing man. Always smiling and always wanted to enjoy life.”