A Hawaii doctor who allegedly tried to murder his nuclear engineer wife has a complicated background that includes a troubled first marriage.
Gerhardt Konig, 46, was arrested Monday after he tried to push his 36-year-old wife Arielle off a hiking trail and beat her with a rock, leaving her in critical condition, according to police.
Police say Konig, a prominent anesthesiologist, tried to use two syringes containing an unknown substance in the horrifying attack against his second wife at the Pali Lookout in Oahu.
The alleged attempted murder has rocked those who knew the wealthy couple, who married in 2018 and had relocated from Pennsylvania to a $1.5million home in Maui in recent years.
Konig was previously married to sex worker Jessica Patella; The two married when they we both just 20 and stayed married for over 15 years, sharing two children.
One of their children, a trans man who goes by Kieren, shared details from his difficult childhood in an essay published online and written in second person.
‘You don’t remember much of your childhood except for that one Christmas morning your brother came into your room and you hid under the covers for an hour, waiting for your parents to stop fighting. They got a divorce the next year.
Kieren wrote about being admitted to psychiatrist hospitals and seeing his mother ‘losing blood like trees lose leaves in the fall’ as she went through two miscarriages.
Gerhardt Konig, a doctor accused of trying to kill his wife in Hawaii, had a troubled relationship with his trans son Kieren before the alleged attempted murder on Monday. They are seen in 2017 with Evanescence singer Amy Lee
Konig, 46, was arrested on Monday after he allegedly pushed his 36-year-old wife, Arielle Konig, off a hiking trail in Hawaii
Konig’s first wife is a sex worker who goes by Jessie Sage. She shares two children with him
He also mentioned his stepmother Arielle positively, writing: ‘She calls you by the name you want to be called by.’
Kieren said that he started talking to his dad again after a period of no contact.
‘He’s not screaming at you. He’s calm,’ Kieren wrote about Konig.
In 2017, Konig shared a picture with Kieran alongside the band Evanescence, writing: ‘Evanescence Synthesis Orchestral Tour 2017. What an amazing night with my son!’
By then Konig was already in a relationship with Arielle; the two seem to have moved from the Pittsburgh area to Hawaii sometime after 2020.
His Venmo transactions point to the couple hosting whiskey nights with friends – most of his last payments, from last year, are people sending him funds for whiskey, scotch or bourbon.
Meanwhile, Patella now goes by the name Jessie Sage and writes a sex column for Pittsburgh City Paper and a podcast where she talks about sex and nontraditional relationships.
‘I met my first husband at 17 and fell in love so hard that — for the first couple of years of our relationship — I had to remind myself to breathe when he walked into the room,’ Patella wrote in one of her columns, where she announced her split from her second husband, who is gender nonbinary.
‘We married when we were 20, had two kids before age 30, and stayed together until we were 36. It was an intense and all-consuming relationship — first love energy that lasted nearly two decades.’
Konig’s ex-wife goes by Jessie Sage and has a sex column and podcast
The couple has been married since 2018
According to his most recent Venmo transactions, the doctor hosted whiskey nights at his $1.5million Maui home
Konig was arrested on Monday after a six-hour manhunt following the alleged attack at the beauty spot.
He faces a second-degree attempted murder charge, pending review from the prosecutor’s office.
Police responded to the beauty spot around 10.30am Monday after witnesses called 911 to report that a man was beating a woman at the Pali Puka hiking trail.
Arielle then told police her husband attacked her after she refused to take a photo with him.
Maui Health has suspended Konig’s employment following news of his arrest.
‘Maui Health is committed to patient safety and upholding the highest standards of care,’ Maui Health told KHON2 a statement.
‘We have been made aware of the allegations against Gerhardt Konig, MD. Dr. Konig has been suspended from the Medical Staff pending investigation.’
Konig previously worked as an Assistant Professor of Anesthesiology and Bioengineering at the University of Pittsburgh Schools of Medicine and Engineering.
He then took a partner role at the Anesthesia Medical Group in Maui.
Arielle is in critical condition after she was allegedly attacked by her husband on Monday
A view from the Pali Lookout in Oahu is seen above. Arielle said the doctor tried to push her off before beating her in the head with a rock
Police say Konig, a prominent anesthesiologist, tried to use two syringes containing an unknown substance in the horrifying attack against his wife
His employment with the medical center has been suspended pending investigation.
Arielle earned a bachelor’s degree in nuclear engineering from Penn State University and an MBA from the University of Pittsburgh, her LinkedIn account showed.
She is currently employed as a project manager at nuclear reactor design and development engineering company TerraPower.
Konig’s colleagues at Maui Memorial Medical Center – the island’s main hospital – told KITV that they were surprised by the reports that the ‘friendly’ and ‘quiet’ doctor allegedly tried to kill his wife.
A similar sentiment was echoed by the couple’s former friends and neighbors in Pittsburgh’s Mt. Lebanon neighborhood, KDKA reports.
Ben Brown, who lived near door to Konig for several years until the doctor relocated to Maui in pursuit of his alleged ‘dream job’, described the family as ‘friendly’ and said they were ‘good neighbors’.
While those who personally knew Konig and his wife were shocked by the allegations, advocates for domestic violence victims say the case highlights just how ‘prevalent’ partner abuse is.
