When Gerhardt Konig asked to take a picture with his wife, 36-year-old Arielle Konig, near the edge of a cliff in Hawaii, she refused. When we first heard her story, we assumed she had a good reason, and she did. Gerhardt reportedly tried to push his wife off the side of the cliff, bashed her face into the ground, repeatedly struck her with a rock, and attempted to inject her with a syringe.
Now, as more details have emerged in the story, it’s clear that Arielle, a nuclear engineer, has been suffering for some time. In a new report, Arielle accused her husband of sexually abusing her for months before he reportedly attempted to take her life.
Arielle filed a restraining order against her husband.
The restraining order didn’t specify how long the abuse had been going on, but she did assert that in December 2024, Gerhardt, 46, accused her of having an affair, People reports. She accused her husband of having “extreme jealousy” and said “he has attempted to control and monitor all my communications.” Arielle also stated that the couple had been attending individual and couple therapy sessions.
Gerhardt allegedly confessed to the attempted murder.
In the petition for the restraining order, Arielle provided more updates about Gerhardt’s alleged attack on her at the cliff. She said he became enraged after she told him she was “uncomfortable” taking the picture at Pali Lookout in Oahu, Hawaii, over a 1,200-foot drop.
Arielle said he tried to push her back toward the cliff and screamed, “Go back over there, I’m so f—ing sick of you.” Initially, she thought he was joking. “I quickly realized he was seriously trying to make me fall off the cliff,” she wrote in the petition.
In an affidavit for a restraining order, Arielle claims that Gerhardt called his adult son on FaceTime and admitted to the crime, People reports. She was reportedly still bloody from the attack when Gerhardt called his son.
On the call to his son, Gerhardt reportedly said, “I just tried to kill Ari but she got away.” He then allegedly said that he planned to jump off the cliff and die by suicide. Arielle didn’t cite the source of the information, but said she learned it during the investigation.
Arielle doesn’t know what was in the syringes.
The couple traveled to Oahu to celebrate Arielle’s birthday without their two children, 5 and 2. But apparently, Gerhardt was planning something more nefarious as he had syringes in his possession on the day of the attack.
“I do not know what was in the syringe,” Arielle noted in the restraining order petition, according to the New York Post. “…but Gerhardt is an anesthesiologist and has access to several potentially lethal medications as part of his employment.”
Arielle said she still fears for her safety.
Police detained Gerhardt after he tried to flee on foot. Authorities charged him with second-degree attempted murder.
The Oahu Community Correctional Center is holding him on a $5 million bond. Initially, a judge set Gerhardt’s bail at $5 million. Afterward, Arielle wrote to the court stating that she feared that if her husband were free, the lives of her, her children, and her family would be at risk. A judge ordered him to be held without bail.
