Expat Wife kills Banker Husband

Posted by Anonymous 20 yrs ago

HONG KONG --An American woman accused of killing her husband asked maintenance workers at her Hong Kong luxury apartment complex to help her haul away a roll of carpet that contained the man's body, a prosecutor said Wednesday.

Prosecutor Peter Chapman alleged that 41-year-old Nancy Ann Kissel killed husband Robert Kissel on Nov. 2, 2003 -- the same day the Merrill Lynch investment banker planned to discuss the couple's divorce with his wife.

Nancy Kissel is accused of drugging her husband with a milkshake laced with sedatives before fatally beating him on the head with a metal ornament. The woman, who has pleaded innocent, faces a mandatory life prison term if convicted.

The prosecution alleged that the wife had a lover in the United States and that her husband, a New York native, had hired a private detective to investigate the affair.

Chapman, speaking on the second day of the trial's opening statements, said that the day after the alleged killing, Nancy Kissel went on a shopping spree, buying a bed, sheets and a carpet. She also told her Filipino maid not to clean the master bedroom, the prosecutor said.

Three days after the alleged killing, the wife asked maintenance workers at her apartment complex to help her haul a thick roll of carpet to a storage area, Chapman said. When the maid noted that the roll seemed unusually bulky, the wife said it contained pillows and blankets, the prosecutor said.

The workers who moved the carpet said it smelled like rotting fish, Chapman said.

The prosecutor said one of Robert Kissel's colleagues was the first to report the man was missing. The colleague called the wife and she said the couple had a dispute, her husband had left and she didn't know where he was.

Police found the body on Nov. 6, 2003.

She later went to the police and said her husband pushed her against a wall and beat her on Nov. 2, Chapman said. The prosecutor said a doctor examined her and reported that she was tearful, visibly in pain and slow to move.

More -

The fingerprints of Nancy Kissel, accused of murdering her husband, Robert, were found on the sticky side of tape used to seal boxes containing blood-stained items, the High Court was told Wednesday.

Senior assistant director of public prosecutions Peter Chapman told the seven-member jury that when police officers conducted a thorough search of the Kissel apartment in Parkview on November 8, they found four boxes containing bedding, tissues, pillows and the clothing belonging to both Robert and Nancy Kissel - all of which were stained with blood.

Forensic scientists later confirmed the DNA of the blood matched that of Robert Kissel, a former Merrill Lynch banker, and that his wife's left thumb print had been found on the tape used to seal the boxes, Chapman said.

Nancy Kissel denies the murder charge.

The prosecution also said the post mortem confirmed that Kissel had been drugged and was probably defenseless when bludgeoned to death with a heavy metal ornament.

In outlining how the police came to suspect the wife, Chapman used graphic photos to reveal the extent of the injuries inflicted on the banker.

When storeroom 15112 in block 15 of Parkview was opened, there was ``a strong smell of a decomposing body,'' Chapman said.

Inside the room, police found a rolled-up carpet which, from its wrapping and packaging, aroused suspicion. The carpet was sent to forensics.

A managing director at Merrill Lynch, Anthony Hung, confirmed the corpse found in the carpet was that of Robert Kissel.

When the body was unwrapped from the rug and the sleeping bag, the deceased was wearing a white T-shirt and underpants - clothes which the family's domestic helpers said he normally wore in bed.

According to the prosecution, the pathologist confirmed there were severe lacerations to the right side of the head which resulted in ``massive spillage of brain substance.''

Lab tests found five types of hypnotics and anti-depressants in Kissel's stomach and liver, which would have impaired consciousness during the attack, Chapman said. No sign of defensive injury was found on the body, and the chemist found ``insignificantly low'' amounts of alcohol, he said.

Police searching the residence found blood stains and specks on items in the master bedroom, where the defendant is accused of inflicting the fatal blows.

Among the blood-stained items found in the sealed boxes was a metal ornament comprising of two figurines on a metal base, believed to have been the murder weapon.

The two figurines had been detached from the base ``as a result of the force required'' to bludgeon the victim, Chapman said. When attached, the ornament could be used ``like a hammer head.''

Nancy Kissel was arrested at 2.41am on November 7 after having been taken to Ruttonjee Hospital for a check up. She was diagnosed to be suffering from emotional distress and was trembling, crying and unable to talk.

Doctors found abrasions on her lip, chest and knees. Her palms were red and there was bruising on her forearms and shoulders.

Blood samples revealed she was suffering from muscle injuries, the result of vigorous exercise.

The prosecution alleges this was due to ``the considerable effort in wrapping the body with the carpet - and placing the body in the rug.''

Mrs Kissel said that she had been assaulted by her drunken husband on November 2 when she had refused to have sex with him.

Mr Kissel's sister, Jane Clayton, was the first to give evidence Wednesday and confirmed that Nancy Kissel is named as the primary beneficiary in her brother's will.

When asked to confirm that the woman in the dock and in the pictures was Nancy Kissel, she was visibly distressed and close to tears.

She estimated the value of Robert Kissel's estate to be around US$18 million (HK$140.4 million), including stocks, cash, life insurance and real estate.

Clayton said she had been aware of the marital deterioration but ``Robbie thought if he tried harder he could fix things up and make everything better.''

The trial continues today.

Nancy's photo - http://www.thestandard.com.hk/stdn/std/Front_Page/GF08Aa01.html

rubycat 20 yrs ago

gosh, people's stupidity is unmeasureable. what on earth was this woman thinking? Even if she thought slaughter was the only way to solve her marital problems, this is hardly the way to go about it. She should have searched the Internet for "how to kill husband"

balzac 20 yrs ago

temporary insanity. We'd never understand until we experience it?

rubycat 20 yrs ago

does not seem very temporary - a few months of planning at least

Vulvic 20 yrs ago

There are some in HK who know the family well, there is far more going on here than reported in the papers. although what Nancy did was utterly wrong, her husband was no angel. It is a very sad situation.

rubycat 20 yrs ago

if every non-angelic husband was dispatched with a blow to his head and kitted out in a carpet Afghanistan would be the next Brunei and it would not be because of oil

Vulvic 20 yrs ago

I know it is not a laughing matter but I did find your post funny. I agree though, there are better ways to get what you want other than killing people. However I don't believe her motivation was financial or about her fears for custody. What is clear is that she is a very unhinged woman.

rubycat 20 yrs ago

sure, I agree with that. I feel for the kids and can't understand a mother who would sign off their future away in this way

Anonymous 20 yrs ago

Vulvic why cant you tell us what the circumstances are behind all of this? What possibly could have driven this woman to plot to kill her husband in this way? What was he doing, fooling around in Wanchai? Please tell me he beat her regularly causing this outrageous hatred for him.

Come now, if others in HK know then why cant we know the circumstances because the way it stands now this woman comes across as the devil from hell. Please offer some defence

Vulvic 20 yrs ago

Exactly, follow the evidence of the trial. I only commented that there are 2 sides to every story. I am sure her side of the story will come out in the defence.

sunwaterandsky 20 yrs ago

I am sure that there are two sides, but she still committed a rather heinous crime - if she did it.

Vulvic 20 yrs ago

I agree. There is no excuse for what she did and she does deserve to go to jail. However, the newspaper reports are pretty one-sided at the moment.

rubycat 20 yrs ago

her husband had better turn out to be a monster supreme otherwise it will be hard to sympathise with her

Vulvic 20 yrs ago

I doubt that's the case. My quarrel is with the press, talk about 'unbiased journalism'. I guess I am pretty naive to expect anything else.

rubycat 20 yrs ago

is it possible somebody else did it, based purely on evidence they are presenting now?

milk shakes and TV repairmen aside, she did buy extra carpets and did hire workmen to remove an obtrusive tubular item from her flat.....where exactly is the press sexing it up?

Vulvic 20 yrs ago

It is unlikely that anyone else did it. Sorry, my earlier post wasn't very clear. It is the emotive language used in the press coverage that jars. The press is supposed to present the facts in a dispassionate manner.

sunwaterandsky 20 yrs ago

Hype sells, truth doesn't.

Vulvic 20 yrs ago

That is true SWAS

balzac 20 yrs ago

strange. If I had a body to dispose of I wouldnt ask workers to put in the store room where I live. She must be nuts or have a low IQ.

sunwaterandsky 20 yrs ago

Sounds like she was panicked. I don't think that I would drug my neighbor and my husband if I planned to kill my husband. Sounds like a poorly planned, panick driven act. Doesn't justify it, but might explain her poor choices in the delivery of the act.

Claire 20 yrs ago

We've only read the prosecution's case. It will be interesting to hear the defence's case, considering she pleaded not guilty. She may not be able to go with temporary insanity as she, apparently, planned some aspects of the killing.

Life 20 yrs ago

yep,not very smart planning.. on her part. then she kept the dead body in a place that she could be traced to? She will claim temporoary insanity. There is nothing pre-mediated when you think about her stupidity.

Claire 20 yrs ago

looking at the charge, which is murder, it means the prosecution is not going for manslaughter, murder with diminished capacity.

sunwaterandsky 20 yrs ago

Yes, but was she the only one who had access to that computer?

Vulvic 20 yrs ago

I did hear about the physical abuse too. Apparently she had been admitted to hospital on numerous occasions. This has not been mentioned in the press. Strange.

Claire 20 yrs ago

Vulvic, battered wife syndrome is not such a compelling story as brain matter on the apparent murder weapon. could the editor be male?

Vulvic 20 yrs ago

You may be right. I think a lot of hubbies hid their golf clubs after the Kissel incident.

rubycat 20 yrs ago

it just occurred to me - how will they prove it was her who typed into google "drug overdose" and not her husband to incriminate her?

this seems to be a small technicality in view of the other stuff tho

The_Donald 20 yrs ago

Only read about this case in the Press, but it seems as Clear-as-Cluedo that she is guilty of full-blown Murder, though we await to see the Defense in all fairness?

Claire 20 yrs ago

rubycat> if the husband did the googling, how did he know she would use those particular drugs on him? And if he did somehow know, why did he drink the milkshake?

Vulvic 20 yrs ago

It is not easy to defend this kind of thing no matter how bad the alleged abuse is. If I tried any of this stuff my folks back home would disown me. Makes me wonder how her kids will treat her when they are old enough to realise what she has done. Poor things.

A 20 yrs ago

This story makes me very sad and I cant imagine why one would do this to another human being, especially one you have had children with.

A 20 yrs ago

Must be excessive hatred and anger for the other!

A 20 yrs ago

She should have just reported him to the police if there was physicall abuse involved. Maybe he felt angry because he knew she had an affair with the TV repair man and took that anger out on her.

Vulvic 20 yrs ago

Me too. How bad must things be to kill the man you once loved.

sunwaterandsky 20 yrs ago

Have you read the papers in Hong Kong - it doesn't do much good to report abuse to the police. How many murder suicides have we seen this year where the police have already been involved?

balzac 20 yrs ago

goggling for it-perhaps you could check the date and time of the day as well. If he was away or at work.

A 20 yrs ago

It is really tragic and I feel very bad for the children to have to go through life knowing this. I hope it has a positive effect on them meaning they learn from their mother's mistake and turn out to be good successful people.

Claire 20 yrs ago

which sets of grandparents are the children with? does anyone know?

balzac 20 yrs ago

There was a case several years back in my home country where the woman slashed her husband's neck in his sleep. They were very well-to-do and live in a big bungalow/mansion. Since most of the evidence were circumstantial she was proven not guilty. The couple had 2 children.

During the trial the children lived with their grandparents. Not sure what happened after that.

I still get to see the old mansion when I go back as it is near a friend's place. It's now abandoned and has broken glass/cobwebs hanging around.Very eerie.

freddy 20 yrs ago

If they want to know what went on in that house bring the maids in to testify, I met one of them some months ago and she certainly has a story to tell but I believe she is back in the Philipinnes now

rubycat 20 yrs ago

what a weird family - husband beats her up and yet names HER father the executor of his will?? Stops speaking to his own father for months because his father insulted her?

And a weird trial - accusations/evidence that she left a skiing holiday in 2002 early are countered that it was him who did it first - in Bali a few years earlier. Seems important to sit out your family hols in full - never know when it is gonna come back to haunt you if you decide to leave early.

sunwaterandsky 20 yrs ago

If the kids passports were in the office, how did she manage to get them out of the country before all of the sh** hit the fan?

Life 20 yrs ago

ohh please, my mother held my sisters passport, so my sister reported it lost and had a new one issued. Holding a persons passport is a piss poor excuse.

rubycat 20 yrs ago

this saga is so black and white that it's unreal. find it really hard to believe that the woman was suuuuuch a dumbo but so far everything suggests that she was. she could have googled "how get new passport" if she really lived such a sheltered life that she did not know how

sunwaterandsky 20 yrs ago

This is true, but if she really was a battered wife, she would have had difficulty seeing beyond her husband's threats and her own fear.

rubycat 20 yrs ago

you mean she demonized the guy and decided that "exorcising" him off this planet would be the best way out? does not square.

I assume she was educated to some degree and was certainly not without means (financial at least) to seek help or advice.

rubycat 20 yrs ago

great! the prices will come down so I can move in. can't wait

A 20 yrs ago

Personally I think she had been watching too many movies. This whole thing is very much like the movie with Richard Gere called "Unfaithful". Uncanny but true, perhaps this is where she got the idea from!!! Anyone seen it.

A 20 yrs ago

Oh and the movie also starred Diane Lane. "Unfaithful" centers on Diane Lane and Richard Gere as a couple living in the New York city suburbs whose marriage goes dangerously awry when the wife (Lane) indulges in an adulterous fling

A 20 yrs ago

It's bollocks! There's always a way out. Seek help from family and friends! That's what they are there for.

A 20 yrs ago

In "Unfaithful"-Connie Sumner has a loving husband, a beautiful home, and a wonderful son, but she wants more. When she's approached one day by a handsome stranger while trying to hail a taxi, she becomes obsessed with him and eventually starts an affair. But her selfish actions soon catch up with her...

She also kills her husband using a heavy metal ornament and rolls him up in a carpet and stores him away.

rubycat 20 yrs ago

The "storing away" bit also bothers me - what was she trying to achieve putting a corpse in a closet especially in this climate

A 20 yrs ago

dumb dumb dumb

A 20 yrs ago

I'm not saying he was a saint but her stupidity with the whole things is unbelievable. What was she thinking or should I say not thinking!!!????

A 20 yrs ago

I just find it quite disturbing!

rubycat 20 yrs ago

it is interesting - the most extreme example of human stupidity I have come across for a long time (assuming she was sane)

sunwaterandsky 20 yrs ago

I think that she stored him away to give herself some time to think and get support. If I remember correctly, her father flew in from the states and hustled the kids out of town really fast.

rubycat 20 yrs ago

"storing" him inside Hong Kong's vast aquatic expanse would have been a bit more efficient and given her more time. They must have had a car....

sunwaterandsky 20 yrs ago

Maybe she knew that she would get caught and was just buying time to protect her kids.

rubycat 20 yrs ago

maybe she knew?

I think this case could serve as a base for housewife training courses in "how NOT to kill you husband".

the facts so far imply an element of planning but it seems to end at the act as if she has forgotten that afterwards she will be left with about 180 pounds of flesh etc

bay_willow 20 yrs ago

The lover was supposed to help with the body and never showed up?

rubycat 20 yrs ago

will he be called to testify?

he must be really chaffed - the woman ruined the lives of so many people just for him

rubycat 20 yrs ago

yeah, impressive, what enduring love - since 2003. and another fallout from SARS - should apply for government compensation, eh?

bay_willow 20 yrs ago

Who said so? Investigation? ok

Another lover? local? hired people for the job that let her down in the last minute?

Anyway, if she planned the poisoning she surely had some plan that failed.

rubycat 20 yrs ago

is that a pattern re: murderer with a low IQ, geographical area etc?

are you a policeman RockStar? tell us more

rubycat 20 yrs ago

from the Telegraph:

A private investigator hired by Mr Kissel's family after the murder told The Sunday Telegraph: "Robert came from an extremely wealthy New York Jewish family and they never entirely approved of the marriage. Nancy came from a relatively humble background."

Dressed in black, her blonde hair dyed dark brown, the petite mother-of-three, a former investment banker, sat impassively through four days of lurid testimony last week.

Wealthy female friends have rallied round, providing accommodation and helping to meet Mrs Kissel's legal fees and £700,000 bail.

rubycat 20 yrs ago

she is a former investment banker with a low IQ? hmmm ... perhaps I should rethink how I invest my money

Thanks RockStar - very interesting!

P.S. No, I am not trying to get insider knowledge in preparation for my partner's dispatch.

stgeorge 20 yrs ago

After 16 years of marriage, i cannot understand how a human being could possibly do this. Perhaps if he was messing around with the kids once could claim she was temporary insane...

cyan 20 yrs ago

Is there any chance that she has been in some way abused or feeling so miserable, depressed to reach a point of insanity where she would plan the poisoning, just in case, then it took her two months to finally in a more desperate day poison him? and the rest just happened?

What I mean is... like a suicidal atempt, but instead, she just decided that she had to exterminate the evil (her husband), she evaluated all, going to jail, kids living with grandparents and all, but she just (insanely) decided that all would be worth if he just died? Better life in prison then the rest of her life with him? Better kill him then herself and let him(the evil) free with her kids?

From what I read about it, I really believe there's something missing. And I don't think it's a low IQ. I'd go more for a long term depression or something. No excuses anyway to take a life of a person.

rubycat 20 yrs ago

I totally agree with your low IQ theory - the stupidity of it, that's what struck me from the start. Creating potential witnesses at every turn (spiking friend's drink, calling workmen to move smelly carpet...)

BTW, how long can "temporary insanity" last? a few people suggested that but given she was planning this perfect crime over a period of time, can she claim it was "temporary"? I do not question the "insanity" bit - the whole thing is insane

sunwaterandsky 20 yrs ago

She could easily claim that she contemplated suicide and that was why she was researching, or she could claim that she had been drugged herself and did research to try and find out what had happened.

rubycat 20 yrs ago

there are a simpler ways to achieve life away from your evil husband.

Say he beat her - get the bruises photographed, get a doc's statement and file for divorce. depression maybe, but low IQ definitely as well.

Do you think she contemplated being in prison? Why would she attempt to hide his body? If she just wanted to purge the evil husband, she could have surrendered to the police after she achieved her goal.

sunwaterandsky 20 yrs ago

We often hide the evidence of our wrong doings - no matter how big or small. Hoping, against all odds, that they won't get noticed.

rubycat 20 yrs ago

is the manner in which she killed going to be considered in sentencing?

if, as you say, there are traits of vindictive qualities, that surely will not be working in her favour

stgeorge 20 yrs ago

RockStar,

How do you quantify temporary insanity? It doesn't appear to be 30 mins but a matter of months if not a year. I don't think a court will be sympathetic with her potential claim of 'temporary insanity'.

I think it is all premature for now as we really need to hear her defence. If there are a number of mothers helping her with bail money and accomodation, there must be some big convincing card up her sleeve.

sunwaterandsky 20 yrs ago

Is temporary insanity a plea in Hong Kong? and if it was, wouldn't she have had to say that when she pled not guilty? don't know enough about the local system.

rubycat 20 yrs ago

RockStar - can you speculate why on earth would she drug an acquintance with her milkshake as well as her husband? this one really beats me

rubycat 20 yrs ago

why not to give him a drink later, when the friend left? why to get an unncesessary witness

rubycat 20 yrs ago

depression - yes, but isolation?? she has friends chipping in to pay her expenses and she felt isolated? does that mean that confessions of a troubled wife would be too much of a blotch on perfect lives of Parkview taitais?

Anonymous 20 yrs ago

There is no excuse for what she did. If you are unhappy you leave. You dont murder your husband in a cold and calculated fashion no matter how much of a bastard he is because this act makes you far more evil than him

expat hk 20 yrs ago

Why didn't she just leave or get a divorce, what was she thinking,what about the poor kids no father and a mother who killed their dad.

rubycat 20 yrs ago

appears she was not thinking - at least not about anybody else but herself

rubycat 20 yrs ago

ask for a discount

Anonymous 20 yrs ago

Does anyone know Mr Kissel? Was he a monster? Someone who reads this forum must know something about him because everyone in Hong Kong knows someone who knows someone.

Whats the scoop on this man?

Corby 20 yrs ago

I knew Robert Kissel and he is most definately NOT a monster. At the risk of sounding biased, I believe anyone who could do such a horrific thing is obviously mentally ill.

Corby 20 yrs ago

Let me just add, how many people get murdered by their spouse without provocation? There are many sick people in this world and unfortunately it happens all the time. She obviously was ticked off and something drove her to snap and commit such an act, but sick people can snap pretty easily. Not insane mind you...sick!

rubycat 20 yrs ago

Corby, are you implying that this was her way with dealing with life - remove obstacles at any cost - because she was "sick"? But first you say to do something like that one would have to mentally ill - that is insane. So was she a cold-blooded born murderess or mentally ill victim of abuse?

Anonymous 20 yrs ago

I am not obsessed but I am interested to understand why this happened. Doesnt it seem odd that a women who from all accounts was a good person, kind, and relatively normal turns on her husband and kills him in a gruesome manner.

I bet that Mr Kissell was a nasty piece of work, cold and calculating and cruel. There is too much evidence of this including him keeping her passport. Remember you dont have to beat someone to cause them anguish, mental manipulation is a far more destructive tool.

Anonymous 20 yrs ago

The latest information on the trial -

Robert Kissel, the Hong Kong-based American banker who was allegedly poisoned and later clubbed to death by his wife, sounded incoherent hours before he died, one of his best friends told a high court on Wednesday.

Prosecutors told the court earlier in June that Nancy Kissel had fed her husband a glass of strawberry milkshake laced with hypnotic and anti-depressant drugs in the early afternoon of Nov. 2, 2003, before she clubbed him to death that night.

Testifying on the 12th day of the trial, David Noh, a confidante and colleague of Robert Kissel, said he spoke with Kissel on the telephone around 5 p.m. (0900 gmt) on Nov. 2.

Both men, employees of U.S. banking giant Merrill Lynch, needed to talk to prepare for a business telephone conference that was to take place at 7.30 p.m. (1130 gmt) that evening.

"He was off the tangent ... he sounded very sleepy and tired. He started talking about export growth instead of real estate prices. It was bizarre," Noh told the court.

"I found him strange. He was not responding to my questions. He sounded slurred in his speech and very mellow."

That was the last time that Noh spoke to Kissel. Kissel, a managing director at Merrill Lynch, never called into that business telephone conference, Noh said.

CONCERNED ABOUT KIDS

Kissel had planned that night to tell his wife that he was divorcing her after discovering she was having an affair with a TV repairman in the United States and fearing that she was plotting to harm him, prosecutors said earlier.

Police have accused Nancy of clubbing her husband to death with a heavy metallic figurine in their bedroom after poisoning him -- charges which she has denied.

Police found Kissel's body on Nov.6, 2003, in a storeroom that the couple rented in the luxury residential estate where they lived with their three children.

Prosecutors said she disposed of the body by wrapping it in a carpet bought the day after the murder and then asking workmen on the estate to take it to the storeroom.

Kissel's murder and his wife's arrest shocked Hong Kong's expatriate community and the case has riveted the city since the trial opened earlier this month.

In his testimony, Noh said Kissel had consulted divorce lawyers on how he might gain custody of his children or be assured of access to them in the weeks before he died.

Noh said Kissel confided in him about his marital problems almost on a daily basis and had told him he was prepared to give Nancy as much money as she needed.

"He was prepared to let Nancy bring her boyfriend to Hong Kong if that meant he could see his kids," Noh said.

Kissel had become suspicious of his wife in August 2003 after installing spy software on their home laptop. Using the software, Kissel traced his wife's email correspondence with her lover.

Kissel also found that she had searched the Internet using key words such as "drug overdose." Prosecutors said he told a private detective and a friend in the United States that he was concerned his wife might be trying to harm him.

Prosecutors said she apparently met the repairman when she returned to the United States with their three children to escape the SARS epidemic earlier in 2003.

Anonymous 20 yrs ago

See from this Mrs Kissel seems to be a very nice person, what could he have done to make her kill him? From the other article he even agreed to pay her as much money as she needed to keep her lifestyle, this man must be a monster!

Accused murderer Nancy Kissel broke down in tears after a close friend gave evidence for the prosecution Wednesday.

Samantha Kriegel, a member of the same United Jewish Congregation on Robinson Road as Kissel and her murdered husband Robert, said the accused was a devoted mother whose life revolved around her three children.

Kissel, 40, is on trial for drugging and murdering her husband in 2003.

Kriegel called her friend creative, intelligent and an accomplished photographer, who was dedicated to volunteering at the children's school and took ``beautiful photos of her kids.''

As Kriegel left the courtroom, she mouthed some words of comfort and gave a supportive wave to her friend. For the first time, Kissel broke down in tears.

Kriegel had known the accused for more than a year when Merrill Lynch banker Robert Kissel's decomposing body was found wrapped in plastic film and rolled in a rug in the family storeroom at their luxury Parkview home.

The two women were involved in organizing a black-tie fundraising gala for the United Jewish Congregation scheduled for December 2003. Kriegel praised the accused 's enthusiasm.

On Saturday, November 1, 2003, a day before the alleged murder, the accused was hired to take pictures of Kriegel's children in the Parkview garden area. Kriegel said ``she was talking to the kids, keeping them in good humor as the morning went on,'' and showed great patience. The kids liked her, she added.

The prosecution alleges that the following day, Kissel served her husband a c*cktail of drugs in a pink milkshake which left him unconscious as she bludgeoned him to death with a heavy metal figurine.

The following Thursday, Kriegel said she received a call from Kissel, who was very upset and said she could not continue her work on the gala because ``she was dealing with issues about Rob's health.''

At mid-morning, Kriegel went to collect the invitations for the gala, which were still at the Kissel residence. When the accused answered the door, she was wearing dark glasses and ``looked terrible,'' said Kriegel, who noticed relocation boxes, which the prosecution alleges were used to pack away incriminating evidence.

Kriegel asked if she was planning to return to the United States because of her husband's health. Kissel cried in response. Realizing there was a crisis, Kriegel said she did not inquire any further.

But even then, Kissel was trying to think about the gala and worrying that the RSVPs were still addressed to the Kissel residence, said Kriegel.

Under cross-examination by senior counsel Gary Plowman, Kriegel confirmed Kissel's work at the children's Hong Kong International School was a very important part of her life.

``Did she ever mention to you that her husband had forbidden her to be further involved at HKIS?'' asked Plowman. ``No'' replied Kriegel.

A former neighbor of the Kissels, Kazuko Ouchi, also completed her testimony Wednesday.

On Tuesday, Ouchi's husband, Andrew Tanzer, testified that he had visited the victim on the day he died and shared the spiked milkshake with him before returning home. Ouchi said her husband could barely recall the events that followed his consumption of the milkshake.

Another former neighbor told the jury he had seen the victim playing with his son at the Parkview clubhouse between 4.30pm and 5pm Sunday, November 2, at least half an hour after Robert Kissel drank his milkshake.

When questioned by Plowman, David Friedland said they chatted and when he left, ``Rob was in a chair with his feet up on the phone,'' he said. The banker then signaled ``OK'' as a parting gesture, said Friedland.

Also Wednesday, Maximina Macaraeg, a domestic helper for the Kissels, confirmed she was told not to tidy up the main bedroom in the days following Kissell's death.

She also said she had noticed an injury to Nancy Kissel's right hand between the thumb and forefinger and that the accused had said she had hurt herself while using the oven.

The day after the alleged murder, Kissel told her she had had an argument with the victim and that he had gone to stay at a hotel, said Macaraeg.

Prosecutor Peter Chapman asked Macaraeg to look at photos taken from the Parkview security cameras at 2am on Monday, November 3.

Chapman then asked whose image was on the photos. Macaraeg replied ``that's Mrs Kissel.'' The prosecution has said the photos were taken in the car park but has not offered a theory about what she was doing.

sunwaterandsky 20 yrs ago

Interesting - a woman kills a man and we all assume that he must have been a real nasty piece of work. A man kills a woman, and he is a real nasty piece of work. Why do we always assume that men are to blame? Even for their own murders?

We all need to seriously examin our personal prejudices here and wonder why we are so reluctant to see her in the villain's role.

Anonymous 20 yrs ago

Statistics speak for themselves women are very seldom involved in violent crime so its not a prejudice its a fact of life, so we will assume that if a woman kills that theyve usually been driven past the edge of reason by someone, when a woman kills her husband he must have done something to make her hate him so much. Wonder what Mr Kissell did to make his wife hate him so much that she murdered him, from all accounts she was a nice woman so he must have done something as far as I am concerned.

sunwaterandsky 20 yrs ago

GB, what's the big deal? Innocence can comment on the case, but not ask personal questions? Get over it. Personal flew out the window when they got into affairs, spyware and murder.

Jane S 20 yrs ago

The paper reported the maid was noncommital on lots of issues. She also said that the police had not given her time to read the statement she was asked to sign originally.

Talk about chinese whispers!

Vulvic 20 yrs ago

That may be true GB but this is a public forum for poeple to talk openly about the topic of their choosing. If Innocence wants to use that Forum to gleen information then so be it. He/she cannot force people into disclosing information.

This is obviously a sensitive topic for you so perhaps it would be best for you to disregard this thread.

Anonymous 20 yrs ago

So what if I am asking for the dirt on Mr Kissell, as someone said the maid earlier signed a statement that he was bad guy now she is recanting, whats with that? I read what I read and I also saw where it said Kissel abused drugs, where there is smoke there is fire and this fellow certainly is close to the edge of dodgby from what I see. I put those tips of the iceberg together with the obvious extreme hatred of the wife and I assume that he must have been a monster to have driven her to that act.

All Ive heard from others who discuss her was that she was a very nice person, all I hear about Mr K is that he was a druggie, hit his children, was controlling, bugged his wifes computer, kept her passport and on and on and on.

Were not stupid, something is up with this man that has not been told and I would like to know the story, nobody just ups and bashes their husbands head in for no good reason.

Jane S 20 yrs ago

Well, I'm glad I'm not on trial and you're on the jury!

Actually, wives have been known to kill thier husbands for purely selfish reasons.

rubycat 20 yrs ago

Are you implying Innocence that she had a good reason to kill him cause he was a druggie, hit his children (wow!), was controlling, bugged his wife's computer (for no apparent reason, right?) and kept her passport?

I had a neighbour who kept his wife's and kid's passport in his office so she would not leave him. That was a few years ago - he is still alive and they are divorced. Maybe she had not heavy metal objects at hand...........

Jane S 20 yrs ago

Maybe she's implying that the woman killed him because she was having an affair with someone else and didn't fancy living on a TV repairman's wages.

If he was THAT bad why did she come back to HK after leaving all over the SARS period?

rubycat 20 yrs ago

The question is why did she leave during SARS - Parkview is no Amoy Gardens - and why did he (being an alleged monster) let her leave while staying behind himself?

rubycat 20 yrs ago

Ming Pao: "Parkview supervisor Edwin Chow referred to the smell from the carpet as like "salted fish" (鹹魚味), it should be noted that the term "salted fish" has the connotation of a "corpse" in Cantonese. More generally, if you use the term "salted fish" these days, it will be taken to refer to "corpse" rather than the food, which is getting less popular by the day because it is a known causal agent for oral and throat cancer."

Corby 20 yrs ago

Speculation on Robert Kissel from testimony or gossip that you get from "friends" who do not live within the family, is interesting, but not always accurate. I know the family first hand! Not just Mr. Kissel but his whole family. I have known them since I was a child and I can tell you that if Robert Kissel was a so called "monster" or controlling or abusive to his children then someone in the family would have known about it. They were and always have been a very close knit family. Mr. Kissel did not pretend his marriage appear great, he had confided in close friends and family apparently that there were problems. But he confided in them for advice, etc. and from what I understand, he was trying to make it work. How long would you let your spouse have an affair without confronting that person? When he realized that once she came back to Hong Kong that she was still corresponding with the "lover" then he looked into divorce. Who wouldn't? Lets see when defense has their chance what she might have confided in her friends or family. She had an affair. He was aware of it. He was trying to find a way to divorce her and still see the kids. Even if he was looking for full custody, so what, he had suspicions she was poisoning him and going to cause HIM harm. Why would he want his children, whom he adored, be with a mother who was poisoning or going to cause harm to him? He had proof that she was looking for drugs, and how to overdose, etc. In my earlier reply I referred to her being sick, not insane. I do not think that one has to be insane to kill. Some are. But she knew exactly what she was doing, premeditated all the way. She not insane, she is a sociopath, there is a difference. Sociopaths can be very charming, but inside, calculating and sick. She fooled people "not family" into thinking she was nice, caring, kind, etc. but "behind closed doors" she was not all she appeared.

Corby 20 yrs ago

Rubycate - I understand she and the children went to the States during the SARS as an abundance of caution. Mr. Kissel had to stay in HK to work. They probably felt there might have not been an absolute need for her to take the children there, but on the other hand, just to be safe. He let her go because he wanted his family protected.

rubycat 20 yrs ago

That's my point - he was not an uncaring and abusive monster if he let her run from SARS, even though it was an overreaction but it seems expats of that caliber are prone to freaking out at a drop of a hat.

marypoppins 20 yrs ago

Pink Tulip, wheather ir not she had a bad childhood, that is no excuse for killing your husband. She is totally guilty and totally crazy.

Anonymous 20 yrs ago

Why if he was such a good guy would she kill him? What is the motive? Cant be money, she would have had plenty if she divorced him, says he was worth USD18,000,000. Did he drive her over the bend by doing something to her? Says he abused cocaine, what sort of life did he live outside of the home?

I am not condoning what she did, unless a women is being beaten and is in fear for her life then striking back is not acceptable, from the evidence so far this is not the case and she deserves to go in for some serious time. What I would like to get to the bottom of is what would have made her do this? Maybe she was crazy in the head but maybe he did things to make her crazy in the head. Thats all I want to understand. He could not have been an angel.

Jane S 20 yrs ago

The point is - she killed him.

She drugged him (and another man which is also a crime)

She battered him to death so hard there was 'grey matter' all over the place.

She rolled him up in a carpet and reported him as 'missing'.

She did not own up until the police came investigating and asked for the key to the store room (when she had denied she had a store room)

During the time he was 'drugged' if she was in fear of her life she could have 'got away'.

She murdered her children's father.

They will now be virtual orphans due to her behaviour and she has wrecked their lives too.

Those are the facts.

Anything else is pure conjecture on your part Innocence. You are 'guessing' - which is neither here nor there.

Anonymous 20 yrs ago

You are missing my point. I agree that based on the evidence she is guilty as sin and should go to jail. She planned this well in advance, but not a very good plan as we can see, and she has not even claimed that it was self defence, so unless something comes out that we dont know then she deserves harsh punhishment.

My question is not about guilt or innocence it is about what drove her to do this. No matter what Mr Kissell did does not justify what she did to him but he must have done something to cause her to do this. Now I think we will all agree that unless you are off your rocker you dont plan to drug and bash your husbands head in. This smacks of revenge for something, if she wanted him dead only all she had to do was put more drugs in the milkshake, instead she chose and extremely violent method, he was probably conscious when she was smashing him which it seems how she wanted it.

So, what can it be that made her take such violent action?

It must have been something or a group of things that he did to her to make her lose her mind and do this, that is all I am trying to say on this, no matter how bad he was to her she cannot kill him.

sunwaterandsky 20 yrs ago

Or maybe it was frustrated desperation. She drugged him and expected him to die and he didn't. Who knows the truth, probably not even her.

Anonymous 20 yrs ago

I dont think so it says she also gave the milkshake to the neighbour so she must have known it would not kill, I think she wanted him helpless so she could take revenge on him for somethign or things he had done to her. Even if it was a poisoning gone wrong for someone to bash the brains out of their husband would have to mean they very much hated him so much.

sunwaterandsky 20 yrs ago

Yes probably true Innocence, but not all hate is based on reality.

Jane S 20 yrs ago

....and the affair she was having? What was all that about?

Why did she come back to HK if she found a man to fall in love with....she kept calling him, so something was going on.

parkavenue 20 yrs ago

To innocence

What makes you think that Mr. Kissel did something bad to her that made her go so violent?

That's like saying that all those battered wives must have done something bad to drive their husbands to beat them all the time....

rubycat 20 yrs ago

It was mentioned that his family was against the marriage and considered her far below his station. If he also held this view or allowed his family to treat her badly she may have resented or even hated him but still hard to fathom that it would be enough to push her over the edge.

Verdict: evil incarnate or psychopath, or both.

Jane S 20 yrs ago

Good point parkavenue!

Everyone is always so quick to believe it was the man's fault.

sunwaterandsky 20 yrs ago

Well, we don't know the whole story yet, do we?

rubycat 20 yrs ago

maybe it was the TV guy who did it....

sunwaterandsky 20 yrs ago

Or the butler!

Jane S 20 yrs ago

Or Professor Plum with the candlestick in the library?

But, one thing I heard...if she had committed the crime in the US she would be looking at the electric chair..?

Maybe why she did it here?

rubycat 20 yrs ago

what is she looking at here? lifetime in Stanley? Or some reform-through-labour camp in China (that would be nice)?

Vulvic 20 yrs ago

Pansy Brit Govt??? A bit of a xenophobe Radiodoc?

rubycat 20 yrs ago

hm..

out at 55, I guess never too late to party, eh?

will the TV guy wait though?

Anonymous 20 yrs ago

parkav, your analogy is not up to snuff, wife or husband beating (yes there is such a thing as husband beating, I have seen many wives slap their husband in the face for the slightest infraction and it is as humliating and painful as a husband hitting his wife) is abhorrent but it is far different from bashing someones head in mercilessly.

I think for someone to do what she did would take a great deal of hatred. Once more I think she deserves many years in jail for this but still I am interested in the motive.

Jane S 20 yrs ago

Money? Another lover?

Two very GREAT motives.

You just keep ignoring them!

Anonymous 20 yrs ago

Money doesnt work, if she would have divorced him she would have been a millionaire.

Another lover? Why kill your husband, from the evidence he had already brought up the topic of divorce.

I would like to hear more about the cocaine, was he heavily into drugs? If so who knows how bad a SOB this man was, maybe he was screwing prossies in wanchai, maybe going on business trips and maybe she ranted on him and he would hit her and tell her to shut up, maybe he mentally browbeat her for years and she exploded. Again this is no excuse for killing someone, if this was what happened to her then she should have left, not killed.

Was this the situation? Was he a coke-head, party maniac playing with other women and abusing his wife?

Jane S 20 yrs ago

In the positions he held with Goldman Sachs and Meryl Lynch it's very doubtful he was a 'cokehead'etc etc. Do you realise the hours they work and pressure these people are under?

You're starting to sound like a woman obsessed.

If he had divorced her and was able to prove she had drugged him it's doubtful she would have been awarded the kids. A judge would view such matters as very serious.

Maybe she's just a greedy woman who plotted and planned to kill her husband. She wouldn't be the first.

Jane S 20 yrs ago

He was the Managing Director, no I don't believe someone in that position would be tolerated for 6 years if he was off his face on coke as Innocence seemed to think.

Corby 20 yrs ago

Jane S, I totally agree, no judge would award a mother custody if it could proven that she was trying to cause harm to her husband. Maybe he confronted her, maybe he told her he wanted a divorce but also threatened to take the kids. Maybe that is what caused her to get so upset. She could have been planning on just poisoning him and then possibly killing him in a less violent manner, but if they had a big fight over the kids that could have made her snap and cause such a brutal killing. Seems like she planned the poisoning part but not the blugeoning.

rubycat 20 yrs ago

so out of love for her kids she screwed their lives for good. what a nice mom!

rubycat 20 yrs ago

Her line is that he beat her up cause she refused to have sex with him on the day they were to discuss their divorce. I can just imagine him saying: "honey, before we go our separate ways let's just have that one last bonk, ok?"

parkavenue 20 yrs ago

But she also gave the drugged milkshake to the neighbour.

What does this say about her? Maybe she really lost it.

Jane S 20 yrs ago

So she drugged him , then claimed he wanted sex with her, then beat her up? The neighbour who also had the milkshake went home and fell asleep, his wife said she couldnt wake him up.

Corby 20 yrs ago

Her story doesn't add up. She's a liar! I know for a fact she wasn't what she appeared to be to people outside the family. She has a history. Just noone knew she was this nuts.

rubycat 20 yrs ago

That's right - he beat her up after drinking the stuff that made the neighbour almost unconscious for hours???

Corby, fill us in, what is her history?

By the way, shouldn't you be testifying?

MadMaxxx 20 yrs ago

just goes to show you that money does not necessarily bring happiness.

Corby 20 yrs ago

No Rubycat, I only know some stuff second handedly from a sibling. I'm sorry if I am giving an impression of knowing "the whole truth", I don't mean to misrepresent myself. The sibling is a very good friend of mine whom I have known since childhood, I also knew the victim since he was a child. My source is reliable and I can just say that the defendant wasn't as sweet and innocent to those who knew her well, as she appeared to others in public. I think everybody has a mean streak, everybody gets angry and intolerant at times. But most people can control it, and even if they can't control it and they have to vent or lash out, its not normally in such a violent act as this. She was obviously unstable and people in the family knew she was, just not to such an extreme. Nobody in the family knew she was capable of this act of violence. They might have feared her temper, mood swings, etc., but nobody ever thought that she was capable of this crime. Her husband had suspicions, but you can't blame him for feeling guilty for having them, she is the mother of his children afterall. He was married to her for so many years, nobody wants to believe that your spouse whom you loved and had children with could be capable of such hatred and violence. Unfortunately, because of his denial of what she was doing to him, (poisoning) it cost him his life.

rubycat 20 yrs ago

I think this is a bit more than a mean streak. I also think it is very revealing that the defence are concentrating on technicalities such as the way police took their notes rather than presenting evidence that would prove her claims -his beatings, abuse etc. Seems like they are clutching at straws and very weak straws at that.

It is a real shame Mr. Kissel did not act on his suspicions - if he did he would have been alive.

Anonymous 20 yrs ago

Months before he was drugged and beaten to death, Merrill Lynch banker Robert Kissel told a private investigator he feared for his life and suspected his wife of poisoning his Scotch whisky, the High Court has been told in a new twist to the high-profile milkshake murder trial.

When Kissel called in late August 2003, ``he was quite upset,'' private investigator Frank Shea told the court Monday, referring to a phone call with the deceased executive. ``He expressed concern that his wife was trying to kill him.''

Nancy Kissel, 40, who has pleaded not guilty and is out on bail, is accused of serving her husband a c*cktail of drugs in a pink milkshake, leaving him unconscious as she bludgeoned him to death with a heavy metal figurine on the night of November 2, 2003.

Robert Kissel's decomposing body was found around midnight November 6, packed in plastic film and wrapped in an old carpet in a storeroom of the luxury Parkview apartment building.

Nancy Kissel told police at the time that on November 2, her husband had beaten her after she refused to have sex.

Shea, the owner of Alpha Group Investigations, the firm hired to spy on Nancy Kissel in Vermont, United States, while she was allegedly having an affair, told the High Court that Robert Kissel had concerns about his life months before he was drugged and murdered.

Shea told the court that while he was not officially employed by Kissel after the July 2003 surveillance, he maintained contact with Kissel because he was concerned about his well-being.

Shea said that Kissel told him that when he returned home and sipped Scotch, the drink tasted unusual and ``the effects of the Scotch were quite remarkable.''

Kissel would feel ``whoozy and disoriented,'' said Shea.

Shea said he was worried and advised Kissel to contact the police and his lawyers and to gather samples of hair, blood, urine and a vial of the Scotch.

But Kissel never went through with the advice because ``he felt guilty about his suspicions,'' said Shea.

Gary Plowman, senior counsel for Nancy Kissel, asked Shea whether he had been advised that the samples would reveal the presence of dangerous drugs. ``By dangerous drugs, I mean drugs such as cocaine?''

Plowman also pointed out that a ``second opinion'' was sought after further discussion about what might show up if hair samples were provided for a drugs test.

Shea said that cocaine was never mentioned in their discussions and that a ``second opinion'' had been sought only because Kissel was bald and could not provide enough hair for the samples.

Referring to an e-mail sent September 17, Plowman suggested that Shea was telling Kissel ``that the hair will test for illegal drugs and arsenic.''

Shea also said Michael del Priore, Nancy Kissel's alleged lover, was a television repairman living in a trailer park and in his late-twenties to mid-thirties.

He said the place where del Priore lived was ``extremely close'' to the Kissels' multimillion dollar home on Stratton Mountain, Vermont, and that he was physically fit and well-built.

But Shea's employee conducting the surveillance never himself saw del Priore.

Plowman said a lot of information had been provided by Kissel and that Shea's company was often forewarned of possible activities in Vermont.

``Did he tell you where he was getting that information from?'' asked Plowman. ``No,'' replied Shea.

Plowman also pointed out that Shea was later aware of the e-mails gathered by ``E-Blaster'' spyware installed on Nancy Kissel's computer to track her activities and that he and Robert Kissel seemed to be discussing issues of admissibility of evidence in a court trial.

Shea said they discussed possible legal proceedings.

Shea said he was only aware of the spyware after the surveillance had been conducted in Vermont.

Robert Kissel paid a little under US$25,000 (HK$195,000) for two sessions of surveillance on his wife in Vermont in June and July 2003.

Shea said he met Kissel in September in the latter's office with two other ``general counsels'' of Merrill Lynch on the possibility of selling his services to the bank.

Shea said it was not the sole purpose of his visit to Hong Kong.

Moris Chan, Kissel's secretary at Merrill Lynch, said she was instructed by Kissel's colleague and friend, David Noh, to ask CSL for Nancy Kissel's telephone records with a billing address of the Hong Kong International School where she worked as a volunteer.

The prosecution alleges that she used this phone to keep in touch with del Priore without Kissel's knowledge.

Under cross-examination by Plowman, Chan confirmed she was instructed to do the phone inquiries, and then fax the results to the police, by Noh, another top banker at Merrill Lynch.

``Did [Noh] tell you where he got that number from?'' asked Plowman. Chan replied, ``No.''

Chan also confirmed that the banker's office was left unlocked for six months and that she was not present when the police conducted their search.

Plowman informed her that Kissel had kept a pre-packed travel bag for emergency visits and a suitcase in his office, and also carried a Palm Pilot.

``Did you find [those items] when you tidied his office [six months later]?'' he asked.

``No,'' replied Chan.

Anonymous 20 yrs ago

Nancy Kissel's defense challenged police Tuesday, suggesting that notes made during their murder investigation show she was arrested more than three hours earlier than police had said, and before there was any mention of lawyers or her right to remain silent.

Several police officers have testified during Kissel's murder trial that she was arrested in the Ruttonjee Hospital at 2:40am on November 7 after the body of her husband, Robert Kissel, was found in a storeroom.

In the High Court Tuesday, senior counsel Alexander King pointed out a reference in a police notebook which read, ``I guard the Nancy - AP'' on November 6, at 11:29pm.

``What does the `AP' stand for in police terms?'' asked King. ``Arrested person,'' was the reply.

The officer who made the notes said the entry was a mistake.

Kissel, 40, is accused of serving her husband a c*cktail of drugs in a pink milkshake which left former Merrill Lynch banker Robert Kissel unconscious as she beat him to death on November 2, 2003.

Kissel told doctors and the police that her husband was drunk on November 2 and had assaulted her after she refused to have sex. She has pleaded not guilty and is out on bail.

On November 6, around 4pm, police officer Ng Yuk-ying drafted the witness statement of David Noh, a friend and colleague of the banker, when he filed the missing-person report and informed the police of a ``large stinky carpet,'' which was removed from the Kissel residence into a storeroom.

Ng testified Tuesday that she was assigned to take notes when officers interviewed the accused at her Parkview home in Tai Tam. Ng said when the accused began to show officers how she was assaulted in the master bedroom, Ng remained outside the doorway and could not hear what was being said, except when another senior inspector asked about the storeroom.

After returning from the master bedroom, she saw the accused in conversation with her father, Ira Keeshin, in the dining room, but could not hear what they were saying, except when the father walked towards the police officers saying loudly ``My God, I don't believe it.''

Ng said Keeshin said this four to five times but, because she was so surprised, she forgot to note it down. Before Ng, two other officers testified to hearing the same words, but none of them made a note of it. For the defense, King suggested that Kissel's father had actually said, ``Oh my god, it can't be.''

Before the accused was made aware of the search warrants, Kissel asked for a lawyer and denied having keys to the storeroom, but eventually delivered the keys without a word, according to Ng.

When police officers discovered the banker's decomposing body in the storeroom, Ng was attending to the accused, she said.

Under cross-examination, Ng admitted that none of her three written records state that she was instructed to investigate an assault, but only a missing persons report. King pointed out that she did, however, testify in court that she went to Parkview to assist in an assault claim as well.

``Where did that recollection [that the investigation was also for an assault claim] come from?'' asked King. Ng said that her superior had told her orally when the arrived at Parkview. She said it was her mistake for failing to record this fact in her official notebooks.

Referring to her notes, King pointed out that there was a note of ``house search,'' and the next entry reads ``N requested to talk to her father alone,'' showing that the accused had spoken with officers in the master bedroom for five to six minutes without Ng making a record.

King also noted that Ng had testified Kissel requested a lawyer before she delivered the keys to the storeroom, but this was not mentioned in her notebooks. Ng said, ``Actually, I do not write down each and every word.''

At 11:29pm, Ng recorded that she was guarding an ``arrested person.'' Ng said this was a mistake. King pointed out she wrote again that other officers then came in and ``also guarded AP.''

``Is that also a mistake?'' asked King. Ng said she wanted to write ``accompanied her'' but made a mistake.

While other officers were discovering the corpse and Ng was guarding Kissel, King suggested that the accused had said to her repeatedly, ``He wouldn't stop, he wouldn't stop,'' which was not recorded by Ng. Ng said she didn't hear such words.

``And I suggest to you,'' said King ``she just kept repeating that over and over again. She also said, `make sure the children are OK', again, repeatedly. And, of course, there's no record of that in your notepad, because you've already agreed that there are many other things not recorded down.''

rubycat 20 yrs ago

"Nancy Kissel's defense challenged police Tuesday, suggesting that notes made during their murder investigation show she was arrested more than three hours earlier than police had said"

- does it matter?

"Kissel's father walked towards the police officers saying loudly ``My God, I don't believe it.'' For the defense, King suggested that Kissel's father had actually said, ``Oh my god, it can't be.'' - does the exact wording matter? what if he had said "cor blimey!" Would that make Nancy K. less or more guilty?

Corby 20 yrs ago

She has no defense and that is why they are getting technical. In the US, a case can go down the tubes if a defendant isn't read their miranda rights etc. I don't know how the justice system works in HK. Could she get off simply because investigators and police didn't take some notes or there is some variation in the wording? What the father said after their conversation is irrelevant I think. The facts speak for themselves. When the defense has their chance I'd put money on it, there won't be any solid proof of any abuse. Whatever abuse she claims will be made up BS and they will have to rely on the police not taking detailed notes, etc. I hope the jury can see through the BS and she never gets to see her children again. Robert Kissel will never see them again, she made sure of that.

rubycat 20 yrs ago

Maybe that's what they are hoping for - the case going down the tubes. She certainly does not look concerned on the pictures - strange for someone who is on trial for hacking husband to death.

rubycat 20 yrs ago

so the argument will be - yeah, she did hack her husband to death but since Hong Kong police did not bother to write down what her father said exactly when he emerged from the room, she should not be punished as severely as she would be if they did jot down his right words? interesting

Jane S 20 yrs ago

But this isn't an American court of law, isn't it based on British law? The judge won't be American.

I don't think the merry go round that exists in American courts happens in the British Justice System, which HK laws are based upon.

Corby 20 yrs ago

What is the British law? Are they more strict about procedure than American court of law?

Corby 20 yrs ago

Isn't it obvious though that it was premeditated? When they have evidence off her computer that she was researching "overdosing, and drugs"? That she poisoned the neighbor (and Robert Kissel) just hours before the murder. Colleagues testifying that he had suspicions months before the murder happened that he thought his wife might be poisoning him/causing him harm. Isn't that evidence of premeditation? As for him being controlling, well, she did do a lot of volunteer work at her children's school, and she went off to the States without her husband. It also appears she had her own friends (the ones who gave money to post her bail). Usually when a husband is controlling, the wife doesn't get to have friends, money, work, or go anywhere without the husband. I don't think he was that controlling. She could have been depressed just because people get depressed. It doesn't have to be anything he did to make her depressed. If she was so depressed too, there should be lots of friends, family who will testify to this when defense has their turn. Still doesn't condone what she did, she still should go to prison for life, or at the very least, not be able to ever see her children again.

Jane S 20 yrs ago

My point was, that I have never heard of a person being able to walk out of court free because no-one read them their 'bill of rights' -in England.It seems to be something that happens frequently in the US?

If the defence's idea is to sway the jury with these 'allegations' then it seems they don't have much of a case. I wonder if they'll bring in 'depression' experts next.

Jane S 20 yrs ago

I don't think their qualifications are specific to a system, their training is, though I'm not sure.

Have a relative who is a magistrate at the Old Bailey, he was invited to 'sit in' on the Michael Jackson trial and described it as a 'circus of the like I have never seen'.

Eddy 20 yrs ago

silly question.. but if she's found guilty, does she can still cash in insurance?

Corby 20 yrs ago

Pretty sure if she is found guilty she doesn't see a dime of the insurance $, nor the estate.

jaykay 20 yrs ago

Even if she is a named beneficiary on her husbands life insurance policies she will not get a thing. No life insurance policy pays out if the beneficiary is found guilty of murdering the policy holder. It's law in most places and written into insurance clauses elsewhere.

canadian girl 20 yrs ago

Do you think that the kids could get the money in the end?? They're left without a mom or a dad, I know that insurance company are pretty stiff but.... I think the kids deserve it after what they're being put thru.

Corby 20 yrs ago

Hopefully money will be put in a trust for the kids to inheret when they are older.

balzac 20 yrs ago

how's the court case going?

Life 20 yrs ago

you usually name more than one person as a beneficiary.

Anonymous 20 yrs ago

Someone familiar with the case said to me to wait until the defence gets their chance to present Mrs Kissels side of the story that there will be some bombshells about the husband, I was reading the latest on the newsaper and the comments about cocaine from the defence make it look like the husband was certainly a drug abuser of cocaine, I suspect we will probably here more about this later too

Months before he was drugged and beaten to death, Merrill Lynch banker Robert Kissel told a private investigator he feared for his life and suspected his wife of poisoning his Scotch whisky, the High Court has been told in a new twist to the high-profile milkshake murder trial.

When Kissel called in late August 2003, ``he was quite upset,'' private investigator Frank Shea told the court Monday, referring to a phone call with the deceased executive. ``He expressed concern that his wife was trying to kill him.''

Nancy Kissel, 40, who has pleaded not guilty and is out on bail, is accused of serving her husband a c*cktail of drugs in a pink milkshake, leaving him unconscious as she bludgeoned him to death with a heavy metal figurine on the night of November 2, 2003.

Robert Kissel's decomposing body was found around midnight November 6, packed in plastic film and wrapped in an old carpet in a storeroom of the luxury Parkview apartment building.

Nancy Kissel told police at the time that on November 2, her husband had beaten her after she refused to have sex.

Shea, the owner of Alpha Group Investigations, the firm hired to spy on Nancy Kissel in Vermont, United States, while she was allegedly having an affair, told the High Court that Robert Kissel had concerns about his life months before he was drugged and murdered.

Shea told the court that while he was not officially employed by Kissel after the July 2003 surveillance, he maintained contact with Kissel because he was concerned about his well-being.

Shea said that Kissel told him that when he returned home and sipped Scotch, the drink tasted unusual and ``the effects of the Scotch were quite remarkable.''

Kissel would feel ``whoozy and disoriented,'' said Shea.

Shea said he was worried and advised Kissel to contact the police and his lawyers and to gather samples of hair, blood, urine and a vial of the Scotch.

But Kissel never went through with the advice because ``he felt guilty about his suspicions,'' said Shea.

Gary Plowman, senior counsel for Nancy Kissel, asked Shea whether he had been advised that the samples would reveal the presence of dangerous drugs. ``By dangerous drugs, I mean drugs such as cocaine?''

Plowman also pointed out that a ``second opinion'' was sought after further discussion about what might show up if hair samples were provided for a drugs test.

Shea said that cocaine was never mentioned in their discussions and that a ``second opinion'' had been sought only because Kissel was bald and could not provide enough hair for the samples.

Referring to an e-mail sent September 17, Plowman suggested that Shea was telling Kissel ``that the hair will test for illegal drugs and arsenic.''

Shea also said Michael del Priore, Nancy Kissel's alleged lover, was a television repairman living in a trailer park and in his late-twenties to mid-thirties.

He said the place where del Priore lived was ``extremely close'' to the Kissels' multimillion dollar home on Stratton Mountain, Vermont, and that he was physically fit and well-built.

But Shea's employee conducting the surveillance never himself saw del Priore.

Plowman said a lot of information had been provided by Kissel and that Shea's company was often forewarned of possible activities in Vermont.

``Did he tell you where he was getting that information from?'' asked Plowman. ``No,'' replied Shea.

Plowman also pointed out that Shea was later aware of the e-mails gathered by ``E-Blaster'' spyware installed on Nancy Kissel's computer to track her activities and that he and Robert Kissel seemed to be discussing issues of admissibility of evidence in a court trial.

Shea said they discussed possible legal proceedings.

Shea said he was only aware of the spyware after the surveillance had been conducted in Vermont.

Robert Kissel paid a little under US$25,000 (HK$195,000) for two sessions of surveillance on his wife in Vermont in June and July 2003.

Shea said he met Kissel in September in the latter's office with two other ``general counsels'' of Merrill Lynch on the possibility of selling his services to the bank.

Shea said it was not the sole purpose of his visit to Hong Kong.

Moris Chan, Kissel's secretary at Merrill Lynch, said she was instructed by Kissel's colleague and friend, David Noh, to ask CSL for Nancy Kissel's telephone records with a billing address of the Hong Kong International School where she worked as a volunteer.

The prosecution alleges that she used this phone to keep in touch with del Priore without Kissel's knowledge.

Under cross-examination by Plowman, Chan confirmed she was instructed to do the phone inquiries, and then fax the results to the police, by Noh, another top banker at Merrill Lynch.

``Did [Noh] tell you where he got that number from?'' asked Plowman. Chan replied, ``No.''

Chan also confirmed that the banker's office was left unlocked for six months and that she was not present when the police conducted their search.

Plowman informed her that Kissel had kept a pre-packed travel bag for emergency visits and a suitcase in his office, and also carried a Palm Pilot.

``Did you find [those items] when you tidied his office [six months later]?'' he asked.

``No,'' replied Chan.

Anonymous 20 yrs ago

A television set and a chest of drawers that had been at the foot of the bed and alleged to have been splashed with spots of blood were displayed to the judge and jury as the Kissel murder trial continued at the High Court Wednesday.

As well as identifying the two items, police officer Chan Kin-wah also confirmed he had helped remove from the Kissel residence on November 12, 2003, a green rug, tablets and other items from around the house and from Nancy Kissel's handbag.

Kissel, 41, is accused of serving her husband a pink milkshake laced with sedatives, which left Robert Kissel unconscious at the foot of their bed as she beat him to death with a heavy metal ornament on November 2, 2003.

The accused told a doctor and police at the time that her husband was drunk and had assaulted her after she refused him sex, and then disappeared.

She denies the murder charge and is on bail.

The banker's decomposing body, wrapped in a carpet, was discovered in a storeroom in the Parkview residential complex in Tai Tam in the early hours of November 7.

Blood-stained items were examined on November 7 and 8, and Chan first visited the premises to remove further items on November 12 and 13.

Counsel, jurors and the judge gathered around the television set to see if they could identify blood spots.

Five police officers were called in to carry the chest of drawers on which the television once stood.

Jurors pointed out to each other areas allegedly stained by the blood.

Chan also said that a green rug which he had seized on November 12 appeared to be the same as the one the accused was pictured carrying in closed-circuit TV footage.

The tag on the rug, with its identification details, tallied with the details on a receipt from furniture store Tequila Kola, which showed that the accused had bought and taken a four by six-foot green rug.

The rug was passed around the jury so they could feel its weight.

On November 12, 2003, Chan also seized a white handbag belonging to the accused and a bottle of tablets with the label ``Dextropropoxyphene Kissel, Nancy.'' There were 15 tablets left in the bottle, whose

label stated ``Tab-20.''

Another bottle of tablets with similar spelling was seized from a wardrobe. This was dated October 28, 2003. It contained 11 tablets and had a label stating ``Tab-20.''

Chan said he also collected some white powder from two corners of the bed.

On November 13, Chan said one of the domestic helpers directed him to more plastic bags which, had not yet been seized, containing a black glove, a bottle of grease cleaner and blackened tissue paper.

In cross-examining the witness, senior counsel Alexander King for the accused pointed out that there seemed to be dried white powder around some of the handles on the chest of drawers.

After getting up to examine the piece of furniture more closely, Chan agreed with the assertion.

Chan also said Senior Inspector See Kwong-tak was responsible for deciding which items were to be seized on November 12. Drawing Chan's attention to a picture of the television set sitting on a white towel on the chest of drawers, King asked: ``Were you instructed by See to seize that white fabric?''

Chan replied: ``I did not seize it.''

Chan also said See had told him there was no need to search the room of the youngest son since he did not think such ``vulgar'' exhibits would be left there.

When Chan returned to the Kissel residence on November 13, and the domestic helper notified him about items he had failed to seize, she told him that she found them in the room of the youngest son, Chan said.

Corby 20 yrs ago

I agree, cocaine use is hardly a bombshell and I hope that if that comes up, it doesn't have much influence on the jury. That is most definately not a justification for murder. I can't think of anything that would justify this situation. But, if that's all they can come up with, digging up dirt about Robert and trying to twist things to make it look worse than it is, then they are going to try. I just hope to god that it doesn't work.

Anonymous 20 yrs ago

A small bird told me that Mr K was "like any other expat man living in Hong Kong" as far as shagging around.

balzac 20 yrs ago

if shagging alone justifies murder, a lot of HK men would be in trouble.

butch 20 yrs ago

If she really wanted to kill Mr.K for whatever reason then she should have really thought about it.Pre-meditated murder!Maybe she should have watched some of those murder mysteries on Discovery Channel and got a few smart ideas of how to murder her husband without getting caught!

Corby 20 yrs ago

I bet if one of you or someone you love had been bludgeoned to death, none of you would be so flip.

swws 20 yrs ago

That is right. Nobody who has ever experienced a scenario like this would be so flippant. Also look at Nancy Kissle herself. She is a smart woman. What smart woman who killed her husband would act that way? What knd of people would put up bailfor Nacy Kissel if there were no extenuating circumstances? It is pretty obvious to all that she PROBABLY has committed this BUT what pressure she must have been under. I mean she is smart, yet she did some dumb things. Her husband does not appear at work and he is wrapped in a rug in a storeroom....and she still says she is not guilty. Not guilty why? WHY? Because there were many other things happening that we do not know about.

Listen to Kissel's sister. Apparently she was never accepted in the VERY rich NY Jewish family. This is not a slur on anything except the extremities some people in some kinds of families do to torment outsiders like Nancy Kissel....

There has to be something a lot more, and my guess is that there was so much pressure over the years. I am sure Robert Kissel was also a very difficult man....

It is hard to judge what happens in a relationship when you are outside it. In fact it often difficult when you are directly involved.

Corby 20 yrs ago

swws - I agree with you about not being able to understand a relationship on the outside (and sometimes even when you are directly involved). People can be very complicated, you think you know who you are living with and then you wake up one day and its like...your not who I thought you were, etc. However, don't rush to speculation that just because Nancy Kissel committed this horrific murder (the hell with innocent till proven guilty, she's guilty), that it must have been her husband, family who drove her to get so crazy that she did it. I knew Robert Kissel, I know his family, and I am telling you that yes they are wealthy, but they are really very generous down to earth people. I'm not saying he was perfect. I didn't know the insides of his family, I knew him before he was married. But honestly, if she was so unhappy, like many married people are, you get divorced. Many "in-laws" don't get along with each other, the family doesn't approve of a certain family member, or you just don't like one another. I am married, that goes on in our family too. But, believe me they did not make her feel unwanted or make her life miserable or make her feel like she didn't belong. Maybe they really did feel like she wasn't "good enough" for Robert, but I never heard anyone actually say it until after this incident. She may have had feelings over the years like she wasn't well recieved, but from what I understand, she was difficult to get along with inside the family. I don't know any family that doesn't fight sometimes. Someone can definately do something like this without being driven to it. There was a case in California where the husband killed his pregnant wife on Christmas eve and threw her remains in the bay. To EVERYONE, he was charming, kind, dedicated it seemed to his wife and very well liked by friends, etc. They had testimony from teachers and friends, over all his years that he was funny, charming, kind, etc. Yet, he killed his wife one day. He was living this whole secret double life. He pleaded not guilty of course. There was no evidence of any kind of abuse whatsoever. But, it was very obvious from the testimony etc. that he killed her. The whole family thought he was this loving husband expecting his first child, they couldn't believe that he actually did this at first. So I am just pointing out that someone doesn't have to be driven to commit murder in ever case, the person who committed the murder can snap. Doesn't have to be beause they were driven to snap. But really, the point is that it doesn't matter if he wasn't perfect or their marriage wasn't perfect, she did this and she should get what she deserves. She took away her children's father! She took away a son, a brother, an uncle... Whatever, if anything drove her to this, she should be punished in the most severe way possible. Robert Kissel provided a very good life for his family. A life that some of us can only dream about. If she was so unhappy, she could have gotten a divorce. He was more than willing to go that route, and continue to provide her with the lifestyle she had grown accustomed to. He just wanted to be in his children's life. I feel so bad for his family. Nobody should have to go through something like this. I don't feel an ounce of sympathy for Nancy Kissel. She could rot in jail for all I care.

Corby 20 yrs ago

Sorry. I guess I got a little carried away.

shropshiregirl 20 yrs ago

I heard that the reason it was done here in HK was because she would get a lesser sentence. If it was done in US then would get a longer sentence and also not be put in to solitary and life would mean life while here it usually means less for good behaviour. Also depending what state the crime was done in you would have the death sentence being sought by the prosecution.

shropshiregirl 20 yrs ago

Sorry you did not understand.

I was told the reason the murder was here in HK was because it would give her a less harsher sentence and living conditions.

But if she did it in the USA she would have a harsher penalty and possible Death sentence depending what state the crime happened. Plus if it was pre planned all goes against her.

Put it this way if you wanted to murder someone and you knew in America you could get the death penalty for it, spend years on Death row, or get life which I am told is 20 or more years in an American prison. You could do it here in HK go to a smaller prison , behave yourself and get a reduced sentence so get out in half the time.

Of course this was not the only reason for the Murder. But as they are saying it was pre planned by her why not work out where is best to do it!

Corby 20 yrs ago

Baoyusi, I knew him well growing up and continue to be good friends with his sibling. The family was like my second and I spent a lot of time with them. Robert was always nice, decent, smart, I looked up to him. When I heard his marriage was in trouble I heard that he was worried that she was going to try to keep the kids from him (out of spite) and he would have been devastated because all he wanted was to be with the kids. He was a very loving, patient father. I'm not going to comment on his sexual preference or practices. I have no idea and I don't care. That kind of trash just makes for good gossip and really in my opinion has no relevance to the murder. In the midst of some dirt that will no doubt be brought up about Robert by the defense, don't loose sight that it was Nancy Kissel having the affair.

Corby 20 yrs ago

I know Baoyusi, your right. I'm being biased towards Robert because I knew him and his family, I own up to that. I probably shouldn't be on here and read some of this stuff. For me, when I heard what had happened and then read it for myself online, it was like reading a bad novel or a script for some movie. This kind of thing doesn't happen to someone you know. It hit home because of my relationship with the family and It could have been my own brother who was brutally murdered by his wife. It still feels very unbelievable that this happened. I feel compelled to go to his defense because there are so many unanswered questions as to how it could happen and why, and it seems like people just want to hear and believe the juicy stuff like he was a kinky, abusive, coke induced monster who drove his wife to do this. I do think things happen in relationships to cause one or the other to become vunerable to the temptations out there. For instance, if Nancy was lonely and had been for years, etc. she might be inclined to seek affection and attention from someone else. In reflection, I take back my comment about don't forget she was the one who was having the affair. I try to be an minded person and try not to judge. Besides, it doesn't matter. Maybe she needed someone. And if he was looking elsewhere for the same thing, again, doesn't matter. I still think that aside from any of that, the fact remains that he was murdered. Brutally blugeoned to death. Nothing justifies it. There won't be anything said about him that will make me feel differently. If it did, think how many people would then have a license to murder their spouse? OOps...forgot those paragraphs again.

F100 20 yrs ago

This is a question for Corby.

How are the children doing?

The children have lost a father.

They have probably lost their mother as well.

The last thing the kids need is all this "dirty laundry" about Robert's supposedly sexual habits which in my opinion is really nobody's business.

As long as someone is of the age of consent and is not doing anything illegal what they do in their own private bedroom is their own business.

My deepest sympathies are with the family.

I hope that they find the courage and strength to pull through this. I hope they have supportive friends and family members to help the children with this god awful ordeal.

Corby 20 yrs ago

F100, thanks for asking that question, because the children do seem to get put on the backburner within the whole scheme of this.

The children are doing well. As well as can be expected. The youngest won't remember any of this. The middle child, not too much, the oldest is comprehending this situation more. They are being very very well taken care of and are staying with Robert's brother. However, I know that the other sibling really wants them and might be in a better situation to love, care, support, etc. so the sister is trying really hard to get them. The whole Kissel family is very loving and caring and they are all visiting, and just taking care of Robert's kids. They absolutely have a wonderfully strong support system. You know eventually they will have to know and deal with the truth of what happened to both of their parents. The children are even now dealing with it with professionals. But kids are very resilient and they are going to get whatever help they need to be healty, happy, successful adults. I am not kidding when I say they are...besides the obvious unfortunate loss, they are fortunate children to be brought up with such a loving family around.

I agree with you wholeheartedly that after what they've been through already, the last thing the kids need is to hear the dirt about their dad. All that kind of dirt doesn't make him a bad man or a bad father. Everyone has some kind of "dirt" in their lives I think. You could dig up stuff like that about almost anyone. That's why I don't care what they come up with on Robert, it just doesn't make a difference. Man I wish I was on that jury.

Corby 20 yrs ago

F100 - I forgot to add that I am sorry you had to go through something like that as well with your sister. You may not know the Kissels but you can relate to this better than I. It must be very hard.

Corby 20 yrs ago

My apologies Baoyusi, for getting it mixed up.

The children will have to deal with this ordeal for the rest of their lives, but I want to believe that with all the love and support they will somehow cope. Things like this, along with all kinds of abuse kids go through, many do pull through ok, if they have the help they need.

The good thing is, this happened in HK but the kids are now being raised in the US. As they grow, other families, friends won't have to know the truth if they aren't familiar with the case. I know the kids will know. Lots of families have secrets and children just drown it out as they get older. They can go on to lead healthy happy lives.

Anonymous 20 yrs ago

Corby have you read this about the loving Mr Kissel? Waiting to hear more about this MR nice guy, allegations of coke abuse dont seem so far fetched now do they? Who knows what sort of monster this man was?

Kissel murder trial focus stays on gay porn surfing

As the Nancy Kissel murder trial enters its eighth week, prosecution scientist Cheung Chun-kit is expected to continue to question defense methods used to trace gay pornographic Web sites on the IBM laptop used by Kissel's murdered husband, Robert.

Over the past several weeks, the defense team has increasingly sought to impugn the late Merrill Lynch investment banker's character before Justice Michael Lunn, canvassing during cross examination possibilities of cocaine use, drinking and violence towards his children and wife.

Last Thursday, the court heard that the family computer was used to search for ``gay ... sex in Taiwan'' and other Web sites offering sexual services at a time when the deceased was the only member of the family in Hong Kong, and a few days before he took a trip to Taiwan.

Friday, Cheung confirmed that Internet records found on both the family's Dell desktop and the IBM laptop could be converted back into the original Web page using the software EnCase. In a live demonstration, the defense proceeded to display on computer screens around the courtroom the type of Web pages that had been visited, without the pictures but containing pornographic text.

When Cheung expressed doubt that the user of the Dell desktop had searched for gay sites, saying only the letters ``g'' ``a'' and ``y'' had been searched for, Mrs Kissel's lawyer, Alexander King, referred to the list of Web sites involved, which include ``www.boysgaypicnude.com, free black gay porn, black gay male pictures, gay black men, black males, ebony men.''

Cheung agreed they seemed to cater to homosexual tastes.

Nancy Kissel, 41, is charged with murdering her husband, Robert, after serving him a milkshake laced with sedatives, which left him unconscious as she beat him to death with a heavy metal ornament on November 2, 2003.

The accused told a doctor and police that her drunken husband had assaulted her after she refused him sex and then disappeared. She denies the charge and is out on bail.

The banker's decomposing body was found wrapped in a carpet in a storeroom in a Parkview residential complex on November 7.

Last Monday, government forensic scientist Wong Koon-hung testified that the curved base of the suspected murder weapon, the metal ornament, could have been caused by a hard, elongated object such as a baseball bat, striking the ornament.

swws 20 yrs ago

I am sorry to say this, but the children, although children are resilient, will never recover as optimistically expressed by Corby.

It is the children who will suffer greatly.

F100 20 yrs ago

This message is for Corby, family members and friends of the children.

The children are fortunate that they can be raised outside Hong Kong so that they can make the best out of this tragic situation.

I hope that they don't "drown", repress or ignore their feelings and questions. I hope that they have a family member who has received counselling on how to tell the children what happened to their father when they are at an appropriate age.

It is much better to learn about the facts from a trusted family member than to find out about it through gossip.

The best way to deal with this situation is through counselling.

I think the most important thing for the children to know is that Both of their parents loved them.

As long as the children know that they are loved by many family members (including their mother) and their friends - they will be able to overcome most obstacles in life - no matter how difficult or great these obstacles may seem.

Corby 20 yrs ago

Innocense, you really do want to believe that he was a monster don't you? Maybe you have something against wealthy New York Jews.

F100, you are absolutely right, the children will need life long therapy. They are getting it as we type. It was told to me that they will have therapy their whole life. It is sad.

I didn't mean that their feelings and memories, etc. should be repressed. They will someday need to know the whole truth. I just meant that as far as their dealings with other people as they grow up, they won't have to tell people what "really" happend to their parents. By the time they grow up, especially being in a different country than where the incident happened, people won't know about it. Other people don't need to know your whole business and if people don't know, then that might at least make it easier on the children growing up because they won't have to deal with people shunning them or critizing their parents, etc.

Look, the whole thing is so tragic, I can't pretend to relate and know what these kids are going through, and will continue to have to deal with for the rest of their lives. But I do think the children have the have the benefit of being raised in a loving, supportive enviorment. Its the best anyone can hope for.

Bayoyusi is right too. Money doesn't fix everything, especially something like this. All the money will do is help pay for the therapy and education and just help in the raising of the children. Its not cheap raising and caring for 3 children, especially if you have a couple of your own.

Mr. Cynical - I just don't agree that because he might have been looking at some unconventional sex sites that that makes him a bad father. I don't agree at all. I am married, I have children, I consider myself a very loving and nurturing parent. Yet I myself have been curious about certain things (I mean the internet is so interesting) and have viewed things that others might feel are strange or weird. Whatever. So what. Doesn't mean a thing. Maybe he was curious, it doesn't even mean that he was into it, maybe just curious. Who knows. We'll probably never know. Like I've said before, it makes for interesting gossip, we are all alittle morbid, but at the end of the day, it just isn't relevant. He didn't deserve to be murdered because he might have been into men. He didn't deserve to be murdered because he might have used cocaine. I know that he wasn't abusive to the children. I am most definetly not a violent person, but I'm pretty sure that if I suspected by spouse was poisoning me and maybe trying to take my children out of the country, I'd be alittle pissed too. There would be some kind of hell to pay for that. I'm not saying he abused her. Just saying that if I were in his shoes, there would be a lot of yelling and screaming, I wouldn't put up with that. I don't think that he deserved to be murdered. Divorced? Sure, but not murdered.

Corby 20 yrs ago

Money isn't going to solve anything at all. It will help raise the children (.) Doesn't matter how wealthy these kids might be when they grow up, they'll still have a mother who killed their father. The money won't make them less F@$#ed up, it could just help them get more help for their problems. Ultimately though, they will learn to cope at their own pace. Other people who went through terrible childhoods and upbringings learn to cope.

F100 20 yrs ago

The trial now seems to be focusing on the websites that Robert has visited.

The main point is that the sites that he visited is not illegal and against the law.

Everyone should have the freedom to read/view whatever they want. Isn't that what we value? FREEDOM OF INFORMATION.

Would you like our government or certain groups dictating to us what we should or should not read or view just because they think it is bad or not appropriate?

Is that what we want? Censorship? I don't think so.

Having said that, the main point is that what Robert viewed is his own business unless he did something illegal.

Even if he did something illegal - does that give someone the right to murder you?

I sure hope not.

balzac 20 yrs ago

they just need extra fodder for the tabloids.

Corby 20 yrs ago

Pedophilia is illegal, that's children. Looking at porn sites, male or female is not illegal. Drugging people, and blugeoning them...hum...I think that's illegal too.

swws 20 yrs ago

It may be illegal, but in many cases people get away with it.

Corby 20 yrs ago

Yes some do get away with it. But the point I believe some of us were trying to make is that his sexual history is irrelavant to the fact that he was murdered. The defenses job is to make their client a victim and gain sympathy from the jury so that she won't be convicted of this crime. Therefore they have to try to make Robert Kissel look like he was a mean, terrible sex addict, the bad guy. That's their job, so its not surprising to me that this kind of stuff is going to brought into the case. I still think its irrelevant.

rubycat 20 yrs ago

I really do not get the defence's line? Are we supposed to believe that he was trashing her with a baseball bat and she was protecting herself with the metal ornament? So where the impression of the ornament in his skull came from?

Corby 20 yrs ago

No, first he wanted sex after being fed 5 different drugs, then he tried to beat her. It is a CROCK! Meanwhile, the neighbor couldn't even pull himself off the couch.

I love how her best friend is now testifying for the prosecution. That should have some impact on the jury.

dbrongie 20 yrs ago

I guessed I missed this part...did they find his "cruising" on the internet on his work computer which she did not have access to or their "home" computer, which she could have easily set up and done herself?

Also, did they show pictures of what she really looks like before she changed her look for the courtroom? The "saucy" blonde verus the nun look?

Maybe they should call in her previous hairdresser!

Not to mention that she certainly knows how to make c*cktails, since she was a professional bartender before marrying.

rubycat 20 yrs ago

saucy blonde? hard to fathom looking at her current pictures - what a successful transformation.

F100 20 yrs ago

I heard from a friend that "she looks nothing like she does now."

She had blonde hair before.

rubycat 20 yrs ago

There was a picture of her on the net with caption "Nancy Kissel lits a candle in front of the US Consulate in memory of the victims of 9/11 attacks, while her husband looks on" - but it was removed. Wonder how she looked like before - and who advised on the image change....

Anonymous 20 yrs ago

I have heard from a person who would know that there will be some shocking relevations about about Docteor Jeckel / Mr Kissle. Wait until the defence takes over

Corby 20 yrs ago

When I saw Nancy Kissel, she was very pretty, with blonde hair. When I saw pics of her in the paper after all this, she looked like a different person.

swws 20 yrs ago

Apparently five years ago she used to have a short blonde bob...my hairstyle always changes too. The defence cannot not have made her grow her hair that much in a few years, and I hear that she is a natural brunette.

Everyone has worked in bars when they are students, is that the normal thing to do. Oh, God forbid, Nancy wasn't from a extremely wealthy background when she married Robert and her sister seems to think that was a crime as well.

xfriend 20 yrs ago

she was not a natural blond, and was never a bartender..She was in restaurant management..the fact that she has long dark hair now just shows that its tough to do your roots when you are confined in prison or a hospital..Now she looks less fashionable and more drab...which I'm sure is what the defense wants..God forbid she wore her diamond rings or her Cartier watch in court..The jurors would be less sympathetic...

Corby 20 yrs ago

The bartending carreer obviously came in handy and helped in her successful mixing of the "ingredients" for those milkshakes, so as not to be tasted. Other than that I don't see what the big deal is.

swws 20 yrs ago

Is she confined? I thought her friends put up bail for her at three quarters of a million...

Anyone can mix a c*cktail, whether good or bad is a different matter...

My mother used to try to disguise Aspirin when I was sick as a child and she soon realised the vomiting was because I was allergic to aspirin. Then she, thank goodness, stopped making those c*cktails.

rubycat 20 yrs ago

she is not confined in prison so she should have no problems doing her roots. Apparently she has enough friends who could lend a hand (and money) so she could do it at home too.

Anonymous 20 yrs ago

Mr Kissel Exposed as a Coke Snorting, buggering, possibly gay Son of a Bitch!

But still nothing to justify killing but remember he was surging gay porn sites in cities before going on trips there buggering his wife taking drugs, maybe he gave her a disease???? Imagine if she had gave her AIDS, still not ok to kill someone but I think we could understand if she had couldnt we?

Read about the Monster Man!

In the most dramatic day in the Kissel murder trial, accused murderer Nancy Kissel took the stand to call her dead husband power-crazed, drug-dependent, sexually abusive and violent.

The accused told the court Monday that a combination of cocaine, alcohol, stress, power, money and a relentless push for success, led banker Robert Kissel to develop a nightly routine of aggressive sodomy, hair-pulling and humiliating sex games.

She alleged her husband hit her the first time in 1999 when she refused to induce labor for the delivery of their third child. He wanted the baby born earlier as he would otherwise be in South Korea for work.

The accused began her testimony by painting a picture of Kissel as violent and controlling - a stark contrast to the family man and model professional previously described by his former Merrill Lynch colleagues.

She said Kissel developed an insistence that she engage in sodomy after putting on weight during her first pregnancy. She came to believe she was no longer attractive to him.

An already difficult situation took a turn for the worse, she said, when the family moved to Hong Kong. ``The hours [of Kissel's stressful but successful job] took their toll,'' she said.

Sex became a routine of ``oral sex for him and anal sex for me,'' said the accused, adding the banker began to indulge himself in power games with her. ``He'd start this game, toying with me, and he would say things to me, so that we would do what he wanted.''

She would find herself trapped between his legs as he pulled her hair and tried to force her to perfom sex acts, she said. That was just the start.

``He would throw me on to the bed to finish. It would always be a struggle,'' she said.

He would force her to lie on her stomach, she said, so he could do as he pleased. ``[Once] he tried flipping me over. I didn't want it. He grabbed me by the hips, just twisting. I felt something pop,'' said Kissel, adding she later went to the hospital with a fractured rib.

``[During the act] he was just so angry. It was like I wasn't even there. It was just something he did. He never even had to look at my face.''

Afterwards, she said, ``That's it. Everybody goes to sleep. And it's over.'' The next morning, ``Everything's normal.'' When asked why she did not tell anybody, Kissel replied, ``You just don't. You just don't. It's humiliating.''

Kissel, 41, is accused of serving her husband a pink milkshake, which left him unconscious at the foot of their bed as she bludgeoned him to death with a heavy metal ornament on November 2, 2003.

She told police and doctors at the time her husband assaulted her when she refused him sex. She denies the charges and is out on bail.

On Monday, the accused testified about her time in New York City juggling three jobs waiting on tables, to pay for food, rent and Robert Kissel's MBA studies.

The couple's early married life in New York was ``exciting,'' she said, but arguments were already developing because of her husband's use of cocaine. As a hard-working student, he relied upon cocaine, ``to get through the hours,'' she said. Her husband had a drug-dealing friend who would come round to their apartment and ``money would exchange'' across the dining table.

``I had tons of arguments about it and I was working three jobs to pay [for] tuition, not drugs,'' she said.

At the time, the victim was a social drinker, taking wine, beer, and vodka tonics, but ``eventually, he came to love single malt scotch. It became his drink,'' she said.

In 1997, Robert Kissel was delighted when he landed a job at Goldman Sachs.

``It was the biggest firm in the industry, everyone wanted to work with Goldman Sachs,'' the accused told the court. ``[It gave him a higher position] and a lot of money.''

But the new job, and preparations for the move to Hong Kong the following year, demonstrated the accumulated nightmare of stress, alcohol and cocaine, which the banker relied upon to stay awake as he worked both US and Hong Kong stock markets.

``It's literally 24 hours of having to be awake,'' said the accused.

On the flight to Hong Kong from New York, ``he passed out for 15, 20 minutes, probably from drugs, alcohol, altitude and jet-lag,'' she said. After that incident, instead of shying away from the stress, ``he thrived on it.

``It's what made him tick - the power of it all, succeeding.''

Asked why her husband switched from Goldman Sachs to Merrill Lynch in 2000, Kissel replied, ``Money.'' It was also a ``move to a more controlling position.'' By then, ``everything was based around money,'' said Kissel.

In Hong Kong, the drinking and cocaine use continued, she said, with the consumption determined by how long her husband worked at night.

Anonymous 20 yrs ago

This weirdo husband of hers was surfing on gay Taipei porn sites before travelling there for business, he was probably a coke addict from what wife says, did they test his body for AIDS? Lets see maybe it will come out that he gave her sordid diseases and she was distraught, afterall she did have doctors reports for injuries to her plus his broken hand trying to punch her, this man looks like a monster doesnt he, and this is just the start of the defence you can think the best is yet to come

Life 20 yrs ago

So he probably was a lot of things that she said he was, but then she got carried away and started making things up.

What man, is going to detest you so much, and then hit you, because you do not want to induce labour. If his only reason for labour inducement was so that he could be present at the birth of the child?

Give me a break, he would have gone on the trip and found out later about the birth.

@@ 20 yrs ago

Er, how about waiting for ALL the facts to come out before making any judgements either way?

Life 20 yrs ago

She killed him. What other judgement is to be made? Regardless of any of her stories, she killed him, and not in self defense.. now she is coping a "burning bed" excuse.

@@ 20 yrs ago

Yes I agree she did it, I just think she deserves her day in court. I think it's only fair she can give some explanation as to her actions. Of course I do not condone murder but I think it is ignorant to say, "why didn't she just leave". Women who suffer long term physical and verbal abuse are often left feeling worthless and don't believe they can survive without their abusive partner.

If in fact Mrs Kissel has suffered such abuse perhaps it will shed some light on why she did believe her only option was the very brutal murder of her husband. I don't feel I'm in a position to make a judgement on this women "burning in hell" as some have put it until I hear more of her story.

Corby 20 yrs ago

Oh please, this is such BS. She didn't want her children to deal with the trauma of her committing suicide and that is why she didn't go through with that, yet its ok for the children to deal with their father being murdered at their mother's hand? I don't believe she was searching the internet for drug overdose for herself for a second. She wasn't taking any drugs. She was using the drugs she got to poison her husband and even the neighbor.

Why isn't the fact that his body was found in the storage room wrapped in the carpet which she had put there by hiring help being explained?

Maybe because they can't explain it. She is a liar, she killed him and there is no doubt about it.

@@ 20 yrs ago

This is what I don't understand......

It seems pretty clear she did it (and I don't really buy what's in todays paper) so is she trying to get a lighter sentance, like for say, manslaughter?

I realise it would have been premeditated but if she can win the arguement that she had been a victim of domestic violence can she have go for a lesser charge? - or can she do that on appeal?

rubycat 20 yrs ago

She says he was a monster cause:

- did not let her get a tattoo

- did not let her finish to decorate X-mas tree

- wanted her to ski while she wanted to look after a sick child

- wanted her to induce labour to be at the birth

- showed their eldest daughter pictures of malnourished children when she refused to eat her dinner

The first two - is she mental age of a 7 year old?

The mid- two - find it hard to believe that a guy who, as everybody says, loved his kids would do that.

The last one - and what on earth is wrong with that? Will do it myself if need arises.

rubycat 20 yrs ago

no, I did not miss it - that part is obvious but put together with other accusations she mustered it kind of sounds strange. Anyway, she keeps repeating that she was determined to stay Mrs. Kissel - the banker's wife. So it was her conscious choice to stay with the guy that does not allow tattoos (and who rapes, supposedly, even when he is stuffed with drugs that make his friend semi-conscious and immobile).

Corby 20 yrs ago

I don't understand how she can claim that she didn't kill him when they found boxes in their home with bloody tape and bloody clothes and linens inside. I don't get how she can say he left and didn't see him after when they found his body wrapped in a carpet which SHE had moved to the storage. Not to mention, she initially told authorities that she didn't know anything about a rented storage facility. I would love to hear all of that explained. How on earth can she say she didn't kill him. That is the biggest obvious lie in this whole story. So how could anyone believe anything she has to say after denying the obvious!

livewire 20 yrs ago

The papers yesterday did make me sympathise her.I am not condoning murder.But here is what may have happened.

Abusive coke head comes home, She gives him a milkshake laced with sedatives- so he calms down and doesnt ask for "sex plays".

They get into an argument,maybe physical.She loses it and hits out at him with the mettalic object.Since he is on drugs etc he is not a strong match as he might have usually been.She does not realise that , and frustrations vent and she continues hitting him, before she realises it -he' dead.

She panics- and rolls him in the carpet etc.She was not thinking.

And she does not appear to be so stupid as to have a rolled up dead body in a garage as a part of a premeditated plan.....

rubycat 20 yrs ago

true, she did not deny she killed him. She is just saying that she had reasons to kill him - he was controlling her (no tattoos etc).

jem 20 yrs ago

I agree with Livewire. She's not so stupid as to have no plan in terms of dealing with his body. The drugs to make him stop attacking her every night would certainly make some sort of weird sense. I think the delay in terms of calling the police was to get her family over from the states to look after her children.

Cafe 20 yrs ago

Taken from Hemlocks Blog.

Tue, 2 Aug

Should someone remind Nancy Kissel’s defence lawyers that we no longer have the death penalty in Hong Kong? That might assuage their determination to send their client to the gallows. If they are to be believed, she saw Robert Kissel walk out of their flat on 2 November 2003 after drinking a milkshake laced with enough sedatives to knock out a rhinoceros. Unobserved by her, he then sneaked back in and entered their bedroom, where he bludgeoned himself with a heavy metal ornament, rolling himself up in a carpet before the effects of his crushed skull took their deadly toll. A few days later in the blood-spattered room, Ms Kissel thought, “Gee, there’s a rolled-up carpet smelling of rotting flesh – I guess I’ll put it into that storage room I rented recently.” Alternatively, a person or persons unknown might have performed the bludgeoning and carpet-rolling bit. The key point is, Nancy could not in any way have done it. How do we know? We’re not going to tell you – you’ll just have to trust us on that. Oh by the way, like most people at Merrill Lynch, Robert Kissel was a violent, drug-crazed sex fiend. How does that prove that she did not wield the murder weapon? We’ll get back to you on that. Meanwhile, will members of the jury please stop giggling and running their fingers across their throats?

Life 20 yrs ago

Clear case of when rich people can't get their own way and don't want to walk away because they will lose to much.

Why didn't she return to the US and file for a divorce based on abuse? She would have taken him to the cleaners and would have been given custody of the kids. The fact that he worked, and would have had to have a nanny to take care of them, would have made it easier for her to get custody.

He probably confronted her on the affair, told her she was not getting a dime out of him and so she decided that if she couldn't have their money, then neither would he.

rubycat 20 yrs ago

....and then Nancy found a man that truly understood her. TV repairman Mike was also a fan of tattoos....

Anonymous 20 yrs ago

Lets see more about the monster from todays news.

August 3, 2005

Trapped in a marriage in which she was sexually abused by her drug-fueled, obsessive banker husband - and feeling there was no way out, accused murderer Nancy Kissel testified in the High Court she tried to commit suicide.

She also admitted to having an adulterous affair with a television repairman in the United States.

Kissel said she had searched the Internet for ways to kill herself. In explaining why spyware installed on her laptop had picked up that she had typed, ``Sleeping pills ... overdose medication causing heart attack ... drug overdose,'' at the end of August, 2003, the accused said it had been research for ways of taking her own life.

Kissel, 41, is accused of serving her former Merrill Lynch banker husband, Robert Kissel, a pink milkshake laced with sedatives, which left him unconscious at the foot of their bed as she bludgeoned him to death with a heavy metal ornament on November 2, 2003.

She told a doctor and the police at the time she was assaulted by her husband when she refused him sex.

His decomposing body was found November 7, wrapped in a rug at the couple's Parkview residential complex.

``I was feeling not great about myself. I typed this information for me about `sleeping pills, overdose.' It was something I considered. I was pretty desperate,'' she said, ``and, with everything that had happened, not wanting to face what was going on in my marriage.

``The `causing heart attack' was something I thought about. If I was going to do something like this, of taking pills, I wouldn't want my children to be affected - of going through the knowledge of their mother committing suicide. To feel the loss of their mother caused by a heart attack was something I wanted to do for their protection.

``It was an out for me from being humiliated.''

Earlier that year, while escaping the SARS epidemic with her children, she had sat in her car in Vermont with her garage doors closed and the engine running, crying, ``but then got scared'' of leaving her children, she said.

At that moment, she said, she understood what her cousin had meant when she said in a note that she always wanted to commit suicide in the peaceful surroundings of Vermont.

Her cousin was found dead in a car outside their previous Vermont home, said the accused.

According to Kissel's testimony, a little over two months after that incident in the garage, she entered into a relationship with television repairman Michael Del Priore which she said was based on communication, in contrast to one based on physical and sexual abuse.

Del Priore wired the house with entertainment and security systems, said the accused. She met him in 2000, but it was not until 2003, when she stayed longer in Vermont with her children, that she really came to know him, she said.

In mid-June, they spoke about tattoos, something she always wanted, but her husband had thought ``corporate bankers' wives'' should not have.

Del Priore took her to a tattoo parlor, she said, and at dinner after, she opened up to him about the stress of trying to lead a perfect life as a banker's wife.

``He was very open and honest to me about his childhood,'' she said.

Del Priore claimed his mother was abused by his father and that he had alcoholics in the family. He noticed that ``this summer you look like s...'' compared with previous years and had ``the same look as his mother did'' which concerned him, said the accused.

``I broke down and cried,'' she said. ``It was the first time anybody ever stepped forward and confronted me on an issue that scares a lot of people. People look at you and see change, and they don't really want to know.''

She felt she could finally open up to someone about the ``little expatriate world'' where people are ``more interested in what you're wearing and how big your diamond ring is and your car.''

From Del Priore, there were ``no questions, no `do this, do that.' It was just basically letting me talk,'' she said.

The relationship continued mostly through phone calls and letters. It involved three sexual encounters, she said.

Tuesday, the accused took to the witness box for the second day in a packed courtroom, saying how she thought ``giving in'' to the sodomy, the violence and the restrictive lifestyle was easier than resisting.

She spoke of making ``sacrifices,'' subjecting herself to her husband's obsessive control and aggressive sexual whims, because she wanted to remain ``Mrs Kissel,'' mother of her children.

During a skiing holiday in Whistler, Canada in 2002, the accused said her husband was ``embarrassed'' that she would not ski, despite the fact that she thought looking after their sick two-year-old son was more important.

On Christmas Eve, her husband thought she was fussing over the Christmas tree for too long.

``He grabbed me from downstairs and pulled me upstairs, because he wanted what he wanted. And I let him.

``And then I went back downstairs and finished with the presents,'' she said, which angered him more because he had told her not to.

``You're not ... listening to me. I told you not to ... touch the tree and you did,'' he said through clenched teeth, slamming her against the wall, said the accused.

A day or two later, a similar argument erupted about her failing to listen to him, resulting in the accused waving her finger at him. ``So he hit me. And I fell down the flight of steps and hit my head on the bottom,'' said Kissel.

When the victim visited his family in Vermont in May 2003, the sexual violence grew worse as the banker had to work around the clock, using cocaine to accommodate different time zones.

The sex was at ``an instant'' whenever it suited his work and his mood swings. The accused said she would just walk by his desk, ``and he'd grab me.''

tellmetellme 20 yrs ago

Not trying to stir the pot, so to speak, but I'm a bit confused here. For those of you who think that Mrs. Kissell is not denying that she killed her husband (ueberempfindlich, rubycat) I'm curious to know what you think a "not guilty" plead means?

Am I missing something about the Hong Kong judicial system? In the States, a not-guilty plead means that you are saying that you are NOT GUILTY of committing the crime -- in other words, you are saying that you did not do it.

Explain, please.

Corby 20 yrs ago

You took the question right out of my mouth tellmetellme. That's where my confusion lies right now. I had to look back to make sure I was reading the news reports correctly and sure enough, I was. Doesn't a plea of Not Guilty mean that she is denying the charges? Which are in fact that she laced his milkshake with sedatives and then blugeoned him to death. What are we missing ueberempfindlick and rubycat? Therefore isn't she saying she did not do it?

tellmetellme 20 yrs ago

How could Mrs. Kissel have fed her husband a drug-laced milkshake and scattered his brain matter about their bedroom without *intending* to do so? I can't see how she could be found guilty of anything less than murder, considering the circumstances. Is not guilty by way of insanity a valid plea in Hong Kong?

Corby 20 yrs ago

Ok, I do understand that and that makes sense. But NK said they had a fight, he left and doesn't know what happened to him after that. Now we hear about the fight...she admits she hit him with the statue. But, she claimed earlier that after the fight he left. So, she isn't admitting to killing him (even without intent). She has denied killing him right? Maybe I am being really thick but she is denying "killing" her husband. They have said that over and over again.

rubycat 20 yrs ago

that's right - from what I have read she is not explicitly denying he died as a result of her actions, she is denying she murdered him. I believe that leaves the door open to admitting that she did kill him. It is obvious she lied at the begginning saying he left, she does not know about the storeroom etc. Now she is saying her last recollection is of him hitting her with a bat. The woman is now digging her own grave and I can see why her late husband would become exasperated with someone so unstable. She said he always complained about her "not listening" to him. Maybe she should have listened to begin with.

rubycat 20 yrs ago

"She recalled looking at her husband standing at the doorway of the master bedroom with a baseball bat which he told her was for'protection' in case she got 'mad'".

So she seems to have a history of getting "mad", otherwise why would he take the bat.

Or is it that every spouse arm themselves with a baseball bat when they are having a difficult marital discussion?

Corby 20 yrs ago

I can't help but chuckle when I read that he needed a bat to fend her off if she got mad. He was a tall man of average height. She was small, petite. I find it hard to believe that he would need a bat to fend her off if she got "mad". Her story just seems so nutty.

Corby 20 yrs ago

I meant to say a tall man of average weight.

dbrongie 20 yrs ago

So, did they do an exam on her? If she was "raped" by her husband especially with all the anal sex she claimed her rear end would be pretty messed up...I would think. I'm assuming that they examined her???

Also, with this "beating" she had and or "beatings" that she claims she had...don't you think you would have called the police and or even told your best friend and or taken pictures? There doesn't seem to be a "real" track record.

The sad part is that her poor children are now in another bad situation in the US in a bad marriage and with another legal battle looming over them with their uncle.

that's the sadness of it all...hopefully their is someone in their life who can help them out and work with them over all this turmoil in their life.

She wanted it all...the money, the lifestyle, the romance of another man...well she will have a whole new lifestyle to adjust to. maybe she will get "dolled" up once again for her new friends in jail.

livewire 20 yrs ago

Question---- In the spiritual / moral world , not bound by legal man made rules,would NK's actions be justified ?Premeditated or not.

Think about it.Say whatever she says about the deceased is true.

I'd say yes.

Anonymous 20 yrs ago

The drugs found in the stomach of the decomposing body of former Merrill Lynch banker Robert Kissel were prescribed for his wife, Nancy, who was struggling to sleep for fear of his violent sexual whims, the High Court heard Wednesday.

The court was told that Nancy Kissel had searched for Rohypnol on the Internet October 23, 2003, because she was prescribed it earlier that morning and did not know what it was.

Nancy Kissel, 41, said that she went to see a ``Dr Fung,'' a psychiatrist, at the end of August because she was physically and mentally exhausted due to the ``inconsistency of not knowing'' when the sexual abuse would occur and having an ``on-guard feeling all the time.''

She said she was prescribed Lorivan, Stilnox and Amitryptaline - three of the five sedatives found in her husband's body.

In October, she said she saw Dr Annabel Dythin, a friend, and one of the first people she met in Hong Kong when she needed a doctor for her children.

``I just wanted to talk to her as a woman,'' Kissel said.

She told Dythin ``what Rob was doing, physically and sexually. And that, altogether, my life was pretty miserable.''

Glancing over her shoulder to see her notes, the accused saw that the doctor had written ``alleged assault,'' Kissel said.

She was prescribed Rohypnol, which the accused looked up on the Internet when she returned home because she did not know what it was.

Kissel is accused of murdering her husband on November 2, 2003. She denies the charge.

The accused spoke of marriage-counseling sessions, after which the banker blamed her for wasting time and money by ``not listening,'' and then violently sodomizing her to encourage her to ``show more respect.''

He told her how much the sessions were costing and asked what she was contributing to the marriage, before sexually abusing her again.

On the second occasion at counseling, she told the court that she had told him: ``I'm done. I want a divorce.'' The banker stormed out of the session, she said, and returned home around two o'clock the next morning, drunk and angry.

``He came in (to the bedroom) and started yelling at me. He said: `Who do you think you are, asking for a divorce like that? You'll never divorce me. If anyone's doing the divorcing around here, it'll be me.'

``He wanted to make sure I was listening properly. He made the money. He called the shots. Not me. He wanted to make it understood.''

Then, it was the same sexual abuse, ``over and over again,'' with her husband saying ``how I needed to show respect and that he was in control. He did what he wanted.''

rubycat 20 yrs ago

seems like she is living in her own world where there was there was this omnipotent bogey man RK who controlled everything and kept her enslaved until she killed him.

Didn't RK say she was sick - he may have had a point.

Livewire - what sort of universal moral world are you referring to? According to my moral code pre-mediated murder is not justified. Even less so in this case.

Claire 20 yrs ago

Read the report in the Standard. According to Kissel, her husband was swinging a baseball bat and hitting her with it that evening. This was around the same time the neighbour, who also drank the milkshake, was 'relieving' himself on the sofa. Strikes me as a little odd.

Claire 20 yrs ago

The "I forget" defence worked for Reagan with the Iran-contra affair. Anyway, all the defence needs is 'reasonable doubt'.

Claire 20 yrs ago

This morning Kissel admitted she killed her husband and that she bludgeoned him to death...

kenzah 20 yrs ago

I find it rather hard to believe that this lady killed her husband alone, there is more into this story, you may find a long list of guys involved, consider his position all the wages mentioned, offcourse the wife becomes the first suspect but more officials are involved. Investigations should be carried out carefully.

Corby 20 yrs ago

Why Kenzah do you think there are more people involved? There has been no one elses finger prints on anything, no known enemies. He was highly regarded in their community. She wouldn't need help..accept to transport the body to the storage which 4 people already testified to doing. She admitted killing him, case closed. Now for the sentence. Life I hope.

Corby 20 yrs ago

I'm just hoping she gets life. I know its possible she may get off a lot easier, but I can hope and pray she doesn't is all.

rubycat 20 yrs ago

Hang on - he came from a very wealthy family and she had to support him through school by having 3 jobs? On top of that she paid for his drug habit and bought a loft in NYC, that she can't remember how it was paid for?

She had almost 2 years to make a nice and coherent story .....

rubycat 20 yrs ago

"When her lawyer asked Kissel if she drugged her husband's drink, she said, "It was a milkshake that I made for my children and someone else's child. I wouldn't harm my own children. I wouldn't harm someone else's child."

in other words - I do not mind harming my husband or his friend

rubycat 20 yrs ago

no, JC, she has so far not said she drugged him - only that she killed him and with a metal object.

She does not remember druggin, neither buying a loft in NYC

rubycat 20 yrs ago

Yes, she did. But she said she does not remember where the money for it came from.

Corby 20 yrs ago

So that's her defense about the drugging...that she wouldn't harm her child or the neighbors. We don't know for sure that her child and the neighbors drank any of that milkshake. When the neighbor testified, he just said it was the children who brough the milkshake out to them. Now she says that her child and the neighbor's child had some too. Well who saw them drink any...HER. Don't think so

rubycat 20 yrs ago

NYT about RK's brother

Lawyer's Hunch Fueled Inquiry That Grounded a High-Flying Real Estate Investor

By ALISON LEIGH COWAN August 7, 2005

GREENWICH, Conn., Aug. 6 - It was supposed to be an ordinary real estate transaction, one of many being conducted for the benefit of Andrew M. Kissel, a wealthy Greenwich developer. Bankers and lawyers all over the country had been jostling for his business for some time. This time, a California bank stood ready to lend him $6 million against one of several apartment complexes he owned in Connecticut.

Caleb Kenna for The New York Times Andrew M. Kissel, left, and his lawyer, Philip Russell. Mr. Kissel is accused of using his properties as collateral for loans from several lenders at the same time. But midway through the closing on June 17, Nancy L. Walkley, the lawyer for the title company that was insuring the deal against fraud, had enough qualms that she called it off.

Her case of cold feet left Mr. Kissel scrambling to come up with other ways to raise money. Within days, banks were freezing his business's accounts and he left town on June 28 for points unknown. On July 26, federal authorities found him at his vacation home in Stratton, Vt., and arrested him on charges of engineering an elaborate fraud. Among the allegations were that Mr. Kissel had built his real estate empire using sham appraisals, bogus mortgage releases and forged consents to sales of jointly owned property. Now the man who appeared to have it all is sitting at home with an electronic ankle bracelet, awaiting his next court date. His business partner and his estranged wife have joined the swarm of potential creditors reaching for his assets as fast as they can. Mr. Kissel's own lawyer has promised that every effort will be made to make amends, suggesting that Mr. Kissel's nearly complete dream house in Greenwich, his collection of Porsches and his $3.65 million yacht, the Special K's, may soon have new owners.

"The criminal case has a certain inevitable quality to it," the lawyer, Philip Russell, said. "But again, what we're trying to do is to minimize the harm to Andrew's family and his creditors."

Mr. Kissel declined to comment, Mr. Russell said.

While the full extent of the alleged fraud is still unknown, prosecutors have described it as extensive. In Federal District Court in White Plains, Cathy Seibel, an assistant United States attorney, pointed out more than $40 million in fraudulent real estate transactions in Connecticut that left banks or their title companies holding the bag and another $24 million of questionable transactions in New Jersey. There, she said, Mr. Kissel sold properties out from under his own limited partners. She also said in court that he was likely to be "facing the music" soon from the Manhattan district attorney for having taken more than $3 million from his own neighbors when he and his wife, Hayley, lived in a co-op at 200 East 74th Street in Manhattan. Mr. Kissel, who was treasurer of the co-op when the money disappeared, paid it $4.7 million in restitution, interest and professional fees after other residents raised questions.

The district attorney's office, which learned of the matter at least 18 months ago, confirmed that the investigation was still open.

In hindsight, there are those who say that the sheer audacity of Mr. Kissel's alleged schemes may have shielded him from detection. As someone who seemed to borrow $1 million to $6 million as casually as other people withdraw $20 from an automated teller machine, Mr. Kissel had banks and lawyers tripping over themselves to serve him. Irregularities in documents or troubling coincidences that might have exposed him sooner somehow escaped their scrutiny.

According to information drawn from four civil lawsuits and the criminal case, Mr. Kissel developed other ways of dodging scrutiny as well. He changed lawyers frequently, which kept their familiarity with his dealings to a minimum. He was often out of town for closings, so people rarely saw him sign documents and had to make do with e-mail messages, faxes and powers of attorney. And he was methodical, if not maniacal, about keeping current on all obligations, which kept debtors from checking up on him.

Fraser Seitel, a public relations executive who invested in one of Mr. Kissel's apartment complexes in Union City, N.J., said he learned only recently that Mr. Kissel had sold the buildings for many millions of dollars without telling him or the other limited partners. According to Mr. Seitel and other investors, he did it by producing forged consents, and did not share the proceeds with them.

for more:

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/07/nyregion/07fraud.html?ex=1124078400&en=b9f61fa4b0811522&ei=5070&emc=eta1

rubycat 20 yrs ago

page 2 of this story says that Andrew Kissel claimed all the alleged omissions were a direct result of him being upset at the murder of his brother in Hong Kong in 2003.

Starhawk 20 yrs ago

Just because she admitted to killing her husband doesn't mean that she's guilty of murder. You need to discern the difference between murder, and killing.

Remmy 20 yrs ago

It sounds to me like that Kissel women is an evil nasty cold calculated killer. If she is found guilty I hope she is given a very harsh punishment for what she did, and that no mitigating circumstances are accepted by the Court to reduce her sentence. Taking another man's life is the most evil crimes one can commit.

Not only did this women appear to kill her husband, but she admits to having drugged him, and to having sex with at least one other man while married to Mr Kissel. There is no evidence on the other hand that he was ever unfaithful.

But what I find particularly nasty is the stories she is now telling about him, tarnishing his name and reputation while he is dead and unable to defend himself from her allegations.

She claims he regularly sodomised her. I doubt that very much. Just take a look at her! She looks hidious and I can't imagine any man in his right mind get any pleasure out of even having sex with her let alone committing an act of sodomy on her. And even if he did, maybe she actually enjoyed it (otherwise why would she not make any complaint to the police, after the first, second, or third time this happened.

Secondly, the she has made allegations that he was looking at gay websites. I doubt he would do something like that, and in any case, whilst most people find gay acts quite disguisting, they are not illegal, and in any case, certainly do not qualify as a defence for killing someone.

Finally, she accused him of being a cocaine user, stating she saw "several bottle of cocaine around the apartment". Any one in the banking community who uses coke or who has seen people use coke know its does not come in bottles, but rather in little plastic bags (any police officer in HK could also confirm this). I have never in my life heard of coke being sold in bottle. So again, I suspect she is lying about this. In any case, would a blood test on the victim not confirm whether he was a "coke addict" as she has claimed? And again, even if he was, this does not justify killing him.

Starhawk 20 yrs ago

If he attacked her with a baseball back, she killed him in self defence. None of this matters. She will still get off.

Remmy 20 yrs ago

Hmmm - if she had killed him in self defence, is this not a little inconsistent with he admission that she drugging him PRIOR to the alleged attack on her with a baseball bat? Further there is not a single shred of proof that he attacked her. No witnesses, no bruises on her or injuries consistent with such an attack. Given all the other stories that she has told that seem to have no basis, I suspect that the allegation of a baseball bat attack is also simply a lie, and I doubt it will be sufficient to raise a reasonable doubt as to this woman's guilt of the evil crime the is alleged to have committed.

Anonymous 20 yrs ago

No evidence of him playing around? Maybe not but there is evidence that he was looking at gay escort sites for Taiwan before he made business trips there, no not evidence of having carried through but for me thats evidence enough that hes a filthy, coke addict, power hungry monster.

Remmy 20 yrs ago

What evidence (apart) from statements from the accused murder, do you have that he was either "filthy", a "coke addict", "power hungry" or "a monster"? The only proof of any of these claims are statements made by the accused. A women who has admitted having an affair, who admits to drugging him, and how admits to killing him (in self defence). Unless there is some real evidence of any of these claims, I think any person (dead or alive) deserves to be given the benefit of doubt, and basically should be considered to be a decent human being. How would you like it if you were killed, and then on top of that the murder was tarnishing your name without you being able to stand up for yourself?

rubycat 20 yrs ago

yeah, no connection to the murder case but an interesting aside. This family certainly has a colorful life.

jem 20 yrs ago

The brother's situation uust goes to further illustrate that what we might perceive to be a perfect family can be as fragile as the rest of us.

Those poor children - now they're presumably facing the upheaval of the brother's problems ...

Remmy 20 yrs ago

What is the evidence the milkshake was drugged? Well, if you followed the trail, you would know that Mrs Kissel admitted to doing this herself. You can't get much better evidence than that, can you?

Remmy 20 yrs ago

She admitted doing this last week. She claimed to be doing it on a regular basis to "calm him down".

Starhawk 20 yrs ago

Remmy whether she drugged him or not is not really relevant. If he attacked her with a baseball bat (the figurine was broken in such a way as to suggest a baseball bat had been used), then that doesn't matter. She could have drugged him to get some peace from his aggression.

Starhawk 20 yrs ago

Pumpkin no it does not. Simply because it does not make one iota of sense.

@@ 20 yrs ago

It's very sad for the children who have been living with the Uncle mentioned above, not only does he have the fraud investigation but his wife filed for divorce in March....... poor kids.

norbert88 20 yrs ago

remmy -You posted a fairly reasonable analysis , however you omitted the worst part of it all; she went off and got a tatoo and then complains that he's giving it to her up the Gary Glitter - what quite did she expect?

norbert88 20 yrs ago

GB- You are right not just the husband but anyone else who maybe intrested

Anonymous 20 yrs ago

I still love him, says Kissel

August 9, 2005

Despite earlier claims of intense physical and emotional abuse, a shaking and choking Nancy Kissel declared Monday that she still loves her husband Robert, who she is accused of murdering.

''I still love him,'' she said during cross-examination at the High Court.

''He was my husband.''

When prosecutor Peter Chapman began his questioning about her husband's alleged ``abusive behavior'' towards their children, Kissel replied in her most emotional state yet: ``I'm not trying to paint a bad picture of him, because I loved him and he was not a bad husband, and I still love him. He was my husband, he was my husband,'' she repeated.

At this point, Justice Michael Lunn suggested a short recess.

During cross-examination, the prosecution attempted to press home the point that Kissel did not tell her family or friends about the alleged history of sexual abuse she had suffered.

The prosecution also suggested that the accused had not mentioned her husband's alleged acts of sodomy and cocaine use when she spoke to doctors and counselors because ``there was nothing to tell'' or ``because it wasn't happening.''

Kissel's chief psychiatrist, Dr Henry Yuen - who had previously reported that the accused was mentally stable with no suicidal tendencies and who had made no mention of memory loss - was not granted permission by the defendant to testify at the trial.

Kissel, in her fifth day in the witness box, was subjected to another grilling about her alleged memory loss and her failure to make concrete reports to friends, family, doctors or the police during the five years she said she was abused.

Since the beginning of her testimony last week, the crowds have swelled to an extent that, Monday, two crowd-control marshals were employed to ensure no more than 10 people were standing in the courtroom. There was also a note saying those who left their seats might have to queue for re-entry into the courtroom.

In replying to the prosecution's questions, Kissel said her husband's confidante, Bryna O'Shea, would not listen to anything bad about him and that members of the expatriate community in Hong Kong did not like to hear about such issues.

``The alternative, Mrs Kissel, is that there was nothing to tell,'' said Peter Chapman, senior assistant director of public prosecutions.

When asked by Chapman to elaborate on her husband's ``abusive behavior'' towards their children, the defendant said she only noted isolated incidents of violence.

She then said she still loved him.

Kissel is accused of serving her husband a pink milkshake laced with sedatives, which left him unconscious at the foot of the bed as she bludgeoned him to death with a heavy metal ornament on November 2, 2003.

His decomposing body was found wrapped in a rug in a locked storeroom at their Parkview residential complex in the early hours of November 7.

Kissel testified last week that she thought her husband was going to kill her on the night in question while they were having a furious argument about divorce and during which he attempted to have sex with her.

In resisting the sex, she knocked him on the head, which resulted in him swinging a baseball bat at her while repeatedly saying: ``I'm going to kill you, you bitch.''

She later accepted that she had inflicted the fatal wounds, but said she could not remember further details about the fight or her consequent actions.

Chapman pointed out Monday that, during her bail application in November 2004, her instructing solicitor, her close friends and her chief psychiatrist, Dr Yuen, had made affirmations that they thought she did not suffer from any psychiatric illness.

Using the transcripts of that bail hearing, Chapman noted there was no suggestion by anyone that she suffered from memory loss.

He also quoted from her then-senior counsel, John Griffiths, who said: ``She is visited monthly by a psychiatrist and there has been no suggestion by him that she is in need of any help.

``So, a person with dissociative amnesia doesn't need help?'' asked Chapman.

Kissel replied she was not in a position to comment on psychiatric terms.

``I suggest to you, Mrs Kissel, that the reason for that [not allowing Dr Yuen to testify], as disclosed in the transcript by your counsel, Mr Griffiths, is there is absolutely no psychiatric problem with you. Do you agree?'' asked Chapman.

``Yes,'' replied the accused, adding that the psychiatrist's report was given in the context of whether she was psychiatrically fit enough to be granted bail and that, indeed, she did not suffer from schizophrenia or any other disorder covered by the Mental Health Ordinance that would prohibit bail.

``Did you tell Dr Yuen about the cocaine, the sodomy, the suicide attempt?'' the prosecutor asked.

``No, he was mostly interested in my medication and my day-to-day life in Siu Lam [psychiatric center],'' she said, at which point she became emotionally excited.

``They have no idea, they have no idea of what you've been through in your life and you just can't go in there and say, `Hey this is what happened to me','' Kissel said, choking on her words.

She said there were many factors that affected her, such as the language barrier between her and others at Siu Lam and the isolation and loss of her children, but she was only asked specific questions about medication.

``There's nothing psychiatrically wrong with me. I'm not suffering from a mental illness. Depression - yes. Feeling sad, feeling remorseful - yes. Suffering from something tragic - yes,'' she said.

Chapman also noted that, in Dr Yuen's first report - made on Kissel's first day in Siu Lam, November 19, 2003 - he had said that she was conscious and alert, spoke relevantly and coherently and that she had denied she had suicidal ideas. Kissel said she could not be sure what she said on the very first day of admission to Siu Lam.

Pointing out that she had said she was a prominent figure in the Hong Kong International School community and was frequently exposed to public occasions as an ``ambassador'' for the school, Chapman asked why she did not tell about - and why no-one had noticed - the injuries that had allegedly been inflicted during forceful sex.

``I didn't think about approaching anyone,'' she said.

``Because it wasn't happening, Mrs Kissel?'' interrupted Chapman.

Finishing her sentence, she said it was something she was ashamed of and not something a person talked about at the dinner table or during social gatherings.

When Chapman began questioning her husband's alleged ``abusive behavior'' towards the children, Kissel became extremely emotional, saying she was not trying to paint a bad picture of her husband, and that she still loved him.

She said it was during the isolated instances of violence that she became scared.

In relation to one such incident, during a holiday in Phuket, Chapman said: ``Your evidence was that Robert Kissel treated her [younger of two daughters] so forcefully that he broke her arm.''

But according to her domestic helper, also present at the time: ``Her version of events is a whole lot different from yours. Who's making up the story, you or Connie?'' asked Chapman.

``Connie,''she replied.

Conchita Pee Macaraeg [``Connie''] had testified that the arm was broken when the two daughters were playing on the floor and the elder daughter jumped onto the elbow of the younger girl.

Kissel said she believed the arm was broken when her husband became irritated with their playing while he was making a business call.

``We both recall the girls running around everywhere,'' but Connie had said it happened during the day, and Kissel said it was unlikely the children would remain indoors during the day while on holiday.

Chapman then asked why - if Robert Kissel's behavior towards the children had unsettled her - did she allow him to take the two daughters skiing over Christmas 2001, and later left him alone with the children over Christmas 2002.

Kissel replied that, on those occasions, it was not her choice to leave him alone with the daughters.

Earlier, the accused said she only realised after ``putting it together now,'' that her husband ``had a fascination for gay sex.''

Chapman asked: ``This shocking and horrific revelation - has that triggered you to seek medical advice - [an] AIDS test, have you had one [now]?''

``No,'' she replied.

``Because you don't believe it yourself, do you Mrs Kissel,'' suggested Chapman.

Chapman will continue his questioning today before Justice Michael Lunn in the High Court.

rubycat 20 yrs ago

oh no, she is not trying to paint a bad picture of him, not at all.

Starhawk 20 yrs ago

Frankly I find the prosecution's line of questioning abusive in its own right. It shows very little understanding of the problems facing abused women. The fact that she didn't tell anyone doesn't mean it wasn't happening. Who was she supposed to tell?

Remmy 20 yrs ago

Starhawk - the prosecutor's job is not to "understand the problems facing abused women". The prosecutor's job is to convince the jury of Mrs Kissel's guilt beyond a resaonable doubt.

As to your question as to who one should tell if a crime is being committed agianst you, well it's pretty simple isn't it? You tell the police.

Starhawk 20 yrs ago

Remmy it's not that simple. If it were that simple there would be no women living with abusive husbands, now would there?

Starhawk 20 yrs ago

Urbanus...just because she sedated him does not mean she intended to kill him. It means she intended to sedate him - if that is in fact what happened. There seems to be some questions as to how the whole "sedation" happened. If she put the drugs in the milkshake, when did she do that? What about the milkshake the kids drank? Was she really callous enough to just handed out a drug laced milkshake to a guest? How big was the mixer that she used? Did she just mix up one batch of several. How big were the glasses she used.? She obviously knew Tanzer was there... why put drugs in his milkshake, why not in RK's food or drink so that only RK would be affected? Is it possible that Tanzer lied? He didn't feel sick enough to go to hospital. His wife, while concerned, did not feel he needed to go to hospital. If You suspected that you had been drugged, wouldn't you head to hospital in case it was poison? I would.

Furthermore I think we're getting hysterical about the "amount" of drugs found in RK. Not all were from the contents of his stomach. Some were from his liver i.e. had already been processed and stored, and it was difficult to determin the amount he had ingested, when he had ingested it and what the effect would have been on him.

Starhawk 20 yrs ago

In Hong Kong, is it illegal for a man to rape his wife?

Remmy 20 yrs ago

Forth is correct - men are allowed to sodomise their wives in HK (provided their wives consent to this).

But at issue in this trial is not whether either he (or she) committed a crime by engaging in sodomy, but rather whether he did this with her consenting to it, or whether (as she claims) he did it with out her consenting (a claim which she has not s single piece of supporting evidence). She never made a complaint about this to a policeman (or to any other person), there is no evidence of her having anal enlargement and/or tearing, no photos or vidoes, it was not witnessed by either the maids or the children (despite he statement that he would just grab her and do it whenever he felt like it), no seamen from him ever found in her anus. It therefor seems that almost no credibility will be given to her claims that he anally raped her(you can be sure the prosecution will emphasise all these points).

Starhawk 20 yrs ago

No, Pumpkin, I don't see.

Remmy just because she didn't report it doesn't mean it didn't happen. Majority of this kind of thing goes unreported for a number of reasons ... she thinks it won't happen again, she's too ashamed to report it, what's the point of reporting it? Do you think any woman who has been through something like that would want to bring it out into the open so that everyone knows? Of course not.

Corby 20 yrs ago

Girls do talk, eventually, to someone I feel. I had a friend who was being sodomized and humiliated by her husband. It took a while for her to feel safe, but eventually she confided in me about it. Girls talk.

Carol Japngie-Horton 20 yrs ago

I have quietly read a lot of comments on this site as well as others and I am finding that the most frequently asked question is who Robert Kissel was as a person. Being that he is not here to defend his integrity and since I haven’t seen a lot of response’s by people who knew him, I feel some what obligated to respond.

I dated Robby in high school for 2 years. We split up during our senior year but always remained friends; he actually took me to my senior prom. We ended up going to different colleges but in the same city of Rochester New York. We continued our close friendship during those years in Rochester.

Rob was probably the most tenacious person I had ever known. He was bright, determined and always followed through with what he put his mind to. He had the grace of a well refined gentleman, even in his younger years and was passionate about his goals. He loved his family and treated his sister Jane and his mother Elaine with the up most respect and love. He was always patient with his sister, who, at the time, was a young little girl that most brothers in most families would not want to have much to do with due to the age difference. But Rob was noticeably different with the women in his family and I was always proud to be his sweet heart because I was also treated with the same respect.

He was always loyal to his friends, he stuck up for all of us and stood behind us as if we were cut from the same cloth. In the eyes of my own father, I could never top the quality of person that Robby was. I remember my father saying that to me 10 years after we had broken up. It became a standing joke between us. “Well dad, he’s not Rob Kissel, but I hope you like him anyway”

If you can stop and think about whom you were when you were in your late teens, I think you will agree that your “core” personality hasn’t changed very much. Your career changes, your ideas and values change along with your friends, your sense of fashion, etc. But who you are as a person, your belief in things larger than yourself, your family, and your place in this world as a contributing member of the human race, your deep rooted love doesn’t change very much. (The 2 operative words in this sentence is “deep rooted”)

Rob loved his birth family way to much too ever harm his own family, especially his children. His own moral values would never allow it. Rob was an amazingly compassionate man, so much so that I if he were able to speak today, for only a second, he would probably ask all of you to be compassionate towards his wife who murdered him and understand that she acted in utter sickness.

Although I am not able to see Nancy with a heart of compassion either, I know the heart of Robert Peter Kissel would want that. Although he is gone, his spirit will always remain in those of us who knew and loved him. He was a teacher in his own right and every life his life touched was a mark left with love, respect and honor. I pray that his children will grow to learn that about their father in the years to come.

To Jane, Andrew and Mr. Kissel if you ever come across this, you haven’t lost Robby, he’s right here in his children and in your hearts and dreams.

Respectfully Carol Japngie-Horton

xfriend 20 yrs ago

To Carol Japngie-Horton I completely agree with you on who Rob was..always treating people with the utmost respect..Loved his mother and Janie as well, was always supportive to me and lent a caring ear if needed..The person that Nancy is describing here is only in her mind...Rob was exactly the way you said he was up until his death..He would never of forced anyone to do anything they didn't want to do...especially sex!

rubycat 20 yrs ago

this Nancy K. never ceases to amaze me.

"Kissel lover viewed her as a 'goldmine'"

Realizing that knowledge of her affair with an electrician living in a trailer park would disadvantage her in divorce proceedings, accused murderer Nancy Kissel went on a ''shopping spree for drugs'' the week before her banker husband Robert Kissel was killed, the prosecution claimed in the High Court Tuesday.

At the same time, her lover, electrical repairman Michael Del Priore, considered the accused a ``goldmine'' and was willing to invest time and money on long-distance calls, which increased in frequency in the months leading to the alleged murder and intensified on significant dates, such as the day the accused was prescribed Rohypnol, the court heard.

Senior Assistant Director of Public Prosecutions Peter Chapman also suggested it was ``nonsense'' that the accused had felt so lonely that she searched for ``medication causing heart attack'' on the Internet to commit suicide, because e-mail records suggested at the time she had plenty of social functions to attend. She was also ``intimately familiar with sleeping pills and painkillers'' by this time, said Chapman, and could have just taken any one of the bottles she said were lying around the house to kill herself.

Throughout the trial, the prosecution has suggested that the accused was the primary beneficiary of the deceased's life insurance policies and estate, which Robert Kissel's sister, Jane Clayton - the first prosecution witness - estimated at US$18 million, including stocks, cash, real estate and life insurance.

Chapman, continuing his third day of cross-examination Tuesday, suggested that, by August, the accused had no intention of salvaging the marriage.

``Michael Del Priore was the man you loved. He was the man in your life,'' said Chapman. Kissel replied that he was the person she had become very close to since they shared a lot and that ``he continued to give support.''

``Del Priore lived in a trailer park, right?'' asked Chapman.

``No,'' she answered.

``In a stationary mobile home?'' suggested Chapman.

``I believe something like that,'' she replied.

``And you represented a potential goldmine to him, didn't you Mrs Kissel?'' said the prosecutor.

``No, he had an understanding of what my life was about,'' she said.

Kissel said Del Priore did not judge her by what she possessed, and accepted her as a person.

Chapman pointed out that, in September, 2003, Kissel made 52 calls to Del Priore, followed by 106 calls in October. On the day she was prescribed Rohypnol - a drug found in the stomach of the deceased - she made seven calls to Del Priore before and after her meeting with the doctor.

At the end of August, two days before her husband returned home from New York after back surgery, the accused had searched the Internet for sleeping pills, ``drug overdose'' and ``medication causing heart attack.'' That day, she had spoken to Del Priore for more than three hours.

She said she never talked to Del Priore about receiving the drugs, nor her thoughts of suicide.

``This man called you back, spending hours on the telephone, spending hundreds and hundreds of US dollars, which a resident of a trailer park can ill-afford,'' said Chapman.

``He worked,'' she replied.

``I suggest to you, he considered that a good investment,'' said Chapman.

Prosecution witnesses have testified that they believed the accused realized her husband had discovered her secret mobile phone, which she used to contact Del Priore, and that he was preparing divorce papers.

Kissel said Tuesday she was unaware that her husband knew of the secret mobile phone at the time.

``So he didn't come and confront you and beat you up? That would seem a bit out of character wouldn't it?'' asked Chapman.

Kissel replied: ``Yes, it would seem so,'' adding that she did not know why he didn't confront her.

Kissel is accused of serving her Merrill Lynch banker husband a pink milkshake laced with sedatives, which left him unconscious at the foot of the bed as she bludgeoned him to death with the heavy metal ornament on November 2, 2003. She denies the charge and is out on bail.

Last week, she accepted that she inflicted the fatal wounds with a metal ornament, but said she could not remember any further details about the fight, nor her consequent actions.

Chapman suggested Tuesday that the accused returned to Hong Kong on July 30 from Vermont, only to go back to New York on August 3 with her husband because she would have the opportunity to sneak a visit to Del Priore in Central Park.

Kissel said she did meet Del Priore for half an hour, but the purpose of the trip was to support her husband through his back surgery. The accused said that, in this period, the ``anal sex, cocaine use and painkillers'' continued.

Chapman said that the banker's doctor in Adventist Hospital gave the impression that ``he was a cripple, barely able to walk, destined for New York to have back surgery.''

Kissel replied: ``That's what painkillers are for.''

Chapman pointed out that, by September, the deceased had known that Web pages for drugs had been visited, and ``half jokingly'' expressed concerns for his life to his confidante. He was also said to have told his private investigator that he wondered whether his whisky was being tampered with, and that he did not trust his wife.

Chapman will continue his cross-examination today before justice Michael Lunn.

norbert88 20 yrs ago

to what extent (if at all)did RK use cocaine?

To what extent could the use of cocaine fundamentally alter his character?

rubycat 20 yrs ago

U.S. housewife Nancy Kissel who is currently on trial in Hong Kong for murdering her husband, said she was planning to visit the U.S. for breast surgery to please her abusive spouse.

Kissel said she scheduled the procedures in San Francisco in October 2003 - shortly before her wealthy banker husband, Robert, was killed -but canceled them because they conflicted with her daughter's dance function.

"The breast surgery was very important to my husband," Kissel said.

-- I thought he was gay....

rubycat 20 yrs ago

HKSAR will pay.

Anonymous 20 yrs ago

Nancy Kissel told ''plain simple lies'' as she deceived friends and family about what happened to her spouse in the days before her arrest, the prosecutor suggested in the High Court, Wednesday.

Senior Assistant Director of Public Prosecutions Peter Chapman added that her claim now of selective memory loss, ''is equally a lie.''

Kissel, 41, is accused of serving her husband Robert a pink milkshake laced with sedatives, which left him unconscious at the foot of the bed as she bludgeoned him to death with a heavy metal ornament on November 2, 2003.

The body of her husband, a high-flying banker with Merrill Lynch, was found wrapped in a rug in a storeroom at their Parkview residential complex in the early hours of November 7. She denies the murder charge and is out on bail.

The furious fight she described, in which she claimed she fought for her life against a baseball-bat wielding, abusive Robert Kissel ``just didn't happen,'' said the prosecutor.

The court also heard claims that Robert Kissel would not accept a drink from his wife by November because he knew of the accused's Internet searches for drugs and had tasted something strange in his whisky.

The couple's neighbor, Andrew Tanzer, and his daughter - who helped bring out the milkshakes - were, therefore, unwittingly used to deliver the drugs into the victim's body, the prosecutor suggested.

The ``problem'' with her claim of memory loss during and after the claimed fatal fight on November 2, 2003, was that she managed to recount a version of events to Dr Annabel Dythin on November 4, said Chapman.

``The account you gave to Dr Dythin is significantly different from the account you've given as evidence,'' he added.

As well as depicting a different version of events without mention of a life-or-death struggle or a dead husband, ``there's not a single reference in that report to you having any difficulty recalling events,'' said Chapman.

The accused said she could not remember what she told Dr Dythin, and that she only started to ``piece things together'' when she was in Siu Lam psychiatric center between the end of 2003 and 2004.

``What the [Dythin] report records is an attempt by you to embark on a process of deception, isn't it Mrs Kissel?'' asked Chapman.

``No it's not. I don't have a memory of that day, nor the visit,'' she replied.

``You had a memory on November 4, that's your problem isn't it Mrs Kissel?'' said Chapman. She said she did not know what she remembered then.

On November 4, evidence suggested she went to consult Dr Dythin, who compiled an assault report based on an account given by the accused.

The report said the accused was holding a fork upside down and a glass, while her husband assaulted her using hands and feet, chasing her around the room. Chapman said that the fork was a lie used to explain the puncture wounds on her hands that she received when she used the ornament ``to smash Robert Kissel's head.''

Kissel testified last week that the couple had an argument in the hallway about divorce, resulting in her husband dragging her into the bedroom and attempting to force sodomy. Resisting, she knocked him on the head, which resulted in him swinging a baseball bat at her and saying: ``I'm going to kill you, you bitch.''

She later accepted that she inflicted the fatal wounds with the metal ornament, but said she could not remember any further details.

The days about which she has no recollection include ``incriminating acts where you sought to cover up what you had done on November 2 to Robert Kissel,'' said Chapman.

``I don't know what happened to me after that night,'' said the accused, who added she had to accept what the prosecution claims. ``I still don't know. It's a part of my life that's been taken from me.''

Chapman countered: ``The person who has had a part of life taken from him is Robert Kissel, because you killed him. And in order to achieve that purpose, you had to drug him first.''

The accused said there was a ``horrible fight'' with a baseball bat. ``He was going to kill me, and I defended myself, because he was going to kill me. I fought for my life,'' she said. Chapman countered: ``You just forgot to mention that to Dr Dythin, 36 hours later. You remember not putting drugs in the milkshake, but remember Robert Kissel threatening to kill you.''

Chapman noted the fight she described was a furious life-or-death struggle, which nobody heard. She said the helpers never knew what went on in the bedroom, and she never asked neighbors if they heard anything.

Given the five-year history of abuse, the appearance of her husband with a threatening baseball bat should have excited her into choosing from a ``far superior array of weapons,'' seeking help from the helpers or simply walking out the door, said Chapman.

The accused said she wanted to have a discussion about divorce.

Chapman said she described her husband standing over her, aiming blows to her head from above.

``How did you get the better of Robert Kissel using this ornament?''

She replied: ``I don't know.''

``Because it didn't happen Mrs Kissel, it just didn't happen,'' said Chapman.

As the day's proceedings ended, the accused exclaimed: ``He was going to kill me, he was going to kill me, oh God, he was going to kill me.''

rubycat 20 yrs ago

She was not working so I do not think she paid any tax to Hong Kong's coffers, FOTH.

rubycat 20 yrs ago

In other words he, in his taxes, paid for her trial - how fitting

Lets Go Round Again 20 yrs ago

" Ahem, if allowed.

I think it's not for the HKSAR to pay for her prosecutors etc... if she's found guilty. Use her assets. I hate it to pay for a killer in HK, especially if it's a foreign devil!

Duh."

That has got to be one of the most dumb statements I have seen on this forum.

You cannot put a price on justice...well, maybe you can in China but one of the best things the Brits left behind was a justice system that works. Without it HK would be well & truly screwed.

coffeegirl 20 yrs ago

From what I have heard- and it is a reliable source- the kids and Connie (the nanny) were in the next room or the apartment while Nancy was killing Rob. How could he have been screaming at her that he was going to kill her and have no one hear that?? It is obvious to me that she drugged him and blugeoned him to death while he was drugged. He probably went to go lie down, feeling tired ( from all the drugs) and she went in and beat him to death. I worked with Nancy years ago in NY- and she was trouble, all the way back then. Everyone was taken in by her- she was very pretty and charming. People do not change- their inherent them-ness stays the same. She lied all the time then and she is lying now. I did not know Rob really well, but I do know that he really loved Nancy. He was devastated that she was having an affair but I find it hard to believe that he would have ever laid a hand on her or his kids. She is just trying to make up enough damaging stories about him in the hopes that they will think that her murdering him in cold blood was justifiable.

Anonymous 20 yrs ago

Prosecution asks: did you tell Del Priore you had solved the problem with your husband? After eight days in the witness box, accused murderer Nancy Kissel Thursday completed her testimony in the trial over the alleged murder of her husband, former Merrill Lynch banker, Robert Kissel.

Senior Assistant Director of Public Prosecutions Peter Chapman completed his cross-examination by asking why Michael Del Priore, the electrical repairman with whom she had an affair in Vermont, continued frequent telephone communication with her during the days she is alleged to have been busy covering her tracks, but ceased all communication after her arrest.

Kissel replied that she continued to confide in Del Priore about a range of issues until her arrest, but that after her arrest she had lost contact with him and many other people as well.

The prosecution had suggested Tuesday that Del Priore, who lived in a trailer park, may have considered the accused to be a ``goldmine.''

Kissel is accused of serving her husband a pink milkshake laced with sedatives which left him unconscious as she bludgeoned him to death with a heavy metal ornament on November 2, 2003. She denies the charge and is out on bail.

She has testified that there was a furious fight that night, in which she feared for her life as her husband bore down on her swinging a baseball bat, saying: ``I'm going to kill you, you bitch.''

She has accepted that she killed her husband, but said she could not recall how she came to inflict five fatal wounds to the side of his head.

Thursday, the accused said the force of the bat striking the ornament as she was protecting herself caused the curvature on the metal base, which was originally flat.

But Chapman said that, since a considerable force would have been required to cause such a curvature, the force of the strike should have ``caused the ornament to fly out of your hands, Mrs Kissel, leaving you totally defenseless.''

Kissel disagreed, saying she was holding on to the ornament with both hands ``with some strength to protect myself.''

Between November 3 and 6, the prosecution alleges, Kissel conducted a cover-up, shopping for new bed sheets to replace the blood-stained linen and ordering carton boxes to pack away incriminating items.

Closed-circuit television cameras captured her going in and out of the couple's apartment in the Parkview residential complex with a rug, a suitcase and bags of shopping.

At 7:41am on November 3, the accused telephoned Del Priore in the United States and spoke for 24 minutes.

``By this time, you're unlikely to need a sympathetic ear about an abusive husband,'' said Chapman.

Kissel said she spoke about a lot of issues during their conversations. Chapman asked: ``During this phone call, did you tell Del Priore you had solved the problem with your husband?'' She said she could not recall the telephone call.

On November 4, the day she told a doctor she was assaulted by her husband and was examined for injuries, she telephoned Del Priore six times.

In the days between the alleged murder and her arrest, Kissel packed boxes full of bloodstained items, made arrangements for a storeroom to be cleaned out and sent her domestic helpers to buy various items, including nylon rope, Chapman said.

``Eventually, the rug containing Robert Kissel's body and various items is removed from the apartment into the storeroom. While all this is going on, you're continuing to speak to Michael Del Priore,'' Chapman said.

``Yes'' she replied, according to her telephone bills.

``Since your arrest, Mrs Kissel, has Michael Del Priore come to see you?'' asked Chapman.

Kissel replied: ``No, he hasn't contacted me.''

The prosecution suggested Wednesday that Kissel's selective memory loss was a lie, since there was no mention of such a disorder in her bail applications in November, 2004, but it found its way into a report in 2005, as well as her current testimony.

In re-examination Thursday, defense counsel Alexander King SC emphasized that the bail application was heard in the context of ``mental stability'' and did not specifically touch on the issue of memory loss.

Kissel said that, since that bail hearing, she had been seen by another psychiatrist, who attended her for 60 to 70 hours and diagnosed her with ``dissociative amnesia.''

Defense witness Dr Desmond Fung, who is also testifying as an expert in psychiatry, said that when he attended the accused on August 29 and October 30 there was no evidence to suggest she was making up a story.

He said Kissel had described to him occasions where arguments ``sometimes erupted into physical violence.''

According to his notes of the visit, Kissel described her husband as an extremely powerful man, someone who had ``brought Merrill Lynch to Asia,'' and also a ``five-minute father'' since he spent so much time away from his family.

Under cross-examination, Chapman pointed out that Fung was ``totally reliant'' on what the accused told him.

rubycat 20 yrs ago

yes but apparently there are crowds there

xfriend 20 yrs ago

Hey coffee girl...not cool...be quiet!

walshpj 20 yrs ago

This goes out to 5star. Can you e-mail me? I'm a stateside newspaper editor. pwalsh@startribune.com

thanks.

Corby 20 yrs ago

Nancy Kissel does have high powered representation. I don't think the government would pay for such expensive counsel.

rubycat 20 yrs ago

Backdrop to Fraud Case: Custody Fight and Murder

By ALISON LEIGH COWAN

Published: August 13, 2005

When Nancy Ann Kissel was arrested in Hong Kong in late 2003 and charged with murdering her wealthy husband after disabling him with a drug-laced milkshake, in a case the newspapers there call the "Milkshake Murder," her three young children suddenly found themselves without parents to care for them. They ended up in the temporary custody of their uncle, a prosperous Greenwich, Conn., real estate developer who promised to provide the "stable, loving home" they needed while their mother's case was resolved.

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Vincent Vu/Associated Press

Nancy Ann Kissel, accused of killing her husband, leaves court in Hong Kong with her mother, Jean Keeshin.

But the promised haven appears to be in peril. Last month, federal prosecutors charged the children's uncle, Andrew M. Kissel, with orchestrating an elaborate fraud that left banks, title companies and others in his real-estate deals facing tens of millions of dollars in possible losses. His own lawyer has offered up as a defense the explanation that his client, free on $1 million bail and wearing an electronic ankle bracelet, is a "sick man" in need of psychiatric help.

The Manhattan district attorney's office also is investigating Mr. Kissel for having taken more than $3 million of his neighbors' money in the years before he moved to Connecticut, while he was treasurer of a co-op on the Upper East Side. And this year, his wife Hayley, filed for divorce.

"These poor children went from their mother apparently killing their father to this mess," said Michael J. Collesano, the lawyer who was appointed last year by the New York Surrogate's Court to represent the children's interests as their father's will was going through probate there.

Their odyssey began in November 2003, when their father, Robert P. Kissel, an executive at Merrill Lynch in Hong Kong, was found dead, wrapped inside a carpet in the family's storage room. He had left his estate, valued at $18 million, to his "beloved wife," as she was called in his will. Prosecutors in Hong Kong accused Nancy Kissel of having given him a pink milkshake laced with sedatives before she bludgeoned him to death. On the stand last week, the widow made the startling admission that she had killed her husband but testified that the fatal blows were made in self-defense. She also denied putting anything harmful in his milkshake.

After the body was discovered, relatives in the United States arranged for the children to live with Ira A. Keeshin, their maternal grandfather, in Winnetka, Ill., outside Chicago.

Accompanied by their nanny, they arrived on Nov. 22, 2003, and spent two weeks with Mr. Keeshin before he began to complain to relatives that he and his third wife, both in their 60's, were ill-equipped to care for three children under age 10. Court records show he took them to a Holiday Inn in Cincinnati while preparations were made for them to live with his son from his second marriage, an unmarried medical student.

Critical of that decision, Andrew Kissel petitioned Stamford Superior Court for guardianship. The litigation was settled after the families agreed to give Andrew and Hayley Kissel, who also have two children themselves, temporary custody of the children while deferring the more permanent question of guardianship until after Nancy Kissel's trial.

For all the tumult in the Kissel family, the couple continues to care for the children, who are now 5, 8 and 11. "My client is a wonderful mother and is taking very good care of all five children, and I don't think anyone has an issue with that," said Sarah S. Oldham, Hayley Kissel's divorce lawyer.

Lawyers involved in the case recall a consensus that Andrew Kissel's wealth and business success gave his proposal the edge. Also working in his favor, according to Carl D. Bernstein, a lawyer who has been advising the children's paternal aunt, Jane K. Clayton, was that "at the time, it appeared that Andrew and Hayley had a solid, stable marriage and had two kids roughly the age of two of the other three kids. And they were living in Greenwich, in a privileged community, where the kids were likely to be raised well."

Throughout the custody fight, Andrew Kissel argued that he would provide a "stable, loving home." He also vouched that he did not know of any "civil or criminal proceedings" that might color the custody issue and did not volunteer any details of the tumult going on elsewhere in his life. He had made the last of $4.7 million in restitution and other payments to the co-op on Oct. 23, 2003, days before his brother's murder. He spent much of December 2003 on real-estate deals that federal prosecutors now call frauds.

The one party who expressed qualms at that time about placing the children in Greenwich was the children's mother. From the maximum-security psychiatric hospital in Hong Kong where she was being held, Nancy Kissel issued a notarized declaration on Dec. 18, 2003, asking that custody be given to her brother or father. "In no event," she stated, "shall my three children be placed under the care, direction or supervision of Andrew Kissel."

She gave no reason for the request, and her Connecticut lawyer did not return two calls seeking comment in the past week.

While Mr. Kissel gained temporary control of the children, records show he was never given managerial control or a fiduciary role over the brother's will or the children's trusts. "We're making sure that Rob's money is protected for its intended heirs," said Ms. Clayton, who is Robert and Andrew's sister and a co-executor of the will.

Ms. Clayton just returned to her home near Seattle from Hong Kong, where she was attending the trial, and is planning to fly east to revisit the children's situation. "There's not a second that goes by that I'm not thinking about those beautiful children," she said.

There is one passage in the file at surrogate's court that lawyers in the case say might warrant monitoring.

A report prepared by Mr. Collesano, the lawyer for the children, notes that Andrew Kissel told him that he had "independently and without any obligation raised $100,000 in a separate trust fund for my wards through donations. This evidences strong intent to provide the children with financial support for them to receive a proper education and move forward in life."

On Wednesday, Mr. Collesano said he had no idea where the money was and whether it was still available for the children's benefit.

Mr. Kissel's lawyer, Philip Russell, declined to comment.

rubycat 20 yrs ago

And now over to Andrew Kissel:

Inside a drab series of windowless basement rooms in Town Hall are shelves of plastic-bound land records and stacks of enormous ledgers that describe every piece of real estate in town.

On most mornings and afternoons, professionals like Peter Byrne bounce between computer screens and paper documents, some of which date to the earliest beginnings of Greenwich. Lending institutions pay title searchers to follow the paper trail associated with properties.

Ask any title searcher such as Byrne about Andrew M. Kissel and they are likely to groan or roll their eyes. Word has traveled about the Greenwich real estate developer arrested on federal bank fraud charges and who prosecutors said defrauded lending institutions out of more than $25 million.

Kissel is ac-cused of concocting a scheme based mainly on forgery to persuade lending institutions to issue him millions of dollars in new loans. The fraudulent documents made their way into the vault, according to investigators and representatives of lending institutions, and fooled the title searchers who depend on the accuracy of the records.

Even in hindsight, experienced title searchers and lawyers said they probably would have failed to spot Kissel's alleged forgery.

"That is kind of scary," said Byrne, who has been doing title searches since the 1970s. "It would be very difficult for me to detect it under any kind of circumstances."

Kissel allegedly forged mortgage releases and then submitted them to the town clerk, who then filed the documents in the vault. The fraudulent releases fooled title searchers into believing that a mortgage had been paid off, even though Kissel still owed the money and continued to make payments.

Because title searchers only had the forged mortgage releases, they would report to their clients that the property was "unencumbered" by loans. That report would persuade lending institutions to issue to Kissel a new mortgage on the same property, something they probably would not have done had they known about the existing mortgage.

Kissel is accused in the federal complaint and in several civil lawsuits of using the same forgery scheme numerous times. Kissel is cooperating with investigators, his attorney said.

Nancy Walkley, a Trumbull branch counsel for Fidelity National Title Insurance Co., which insures mortgage transactions against fraud, said she was fooled while working on a Kissel mortgage application. In that case, Richard Margenot, a Greenwich lawyer who works with Fidelity, uncovered an existing mortgage on the property. Confronted with that mortgage, Kissel said there had been a mistake and later produced a fraudulent release that appeared to clear the mortgage obligation, according to a lawsuit.

Walkley said she grew suspicious when she encountered a similar set of circumstances involving a second Kissel deal. In that case, Walkley decided to call the bank directly and that is when she discovered that the mortgage was still outstanding.

"The way the whole system works -- and it's not unusual in Connecticut -- is relying on the basic honesty of people," Walkley said. "The land records are, in general, sacred sources of information that people don't usually muck with."

Kissel also escaped attention by continuing to make payments on his mortgages, lawyers and title searchers said, but at some point, he accrued more debt than he could pay.

"It's like a house of cards, eventually it's going to fall on you," Byrne said. "It just has to."

But Walkley's suspicions were raised only because she was involved in both deals, she said. Right now, her company is reviewing their procedures to see what they can do to spot potential fraud earlier. But tightening of policies also could have a negative impact on the home buying experience.

"Do you change the system and make the closing procedure difficult to the 99 percent of the honest people in the world because of this one bad individual?" Walkley asked.

ctdr 20 yrs ago

Ummmm....it is bad enough that poor Robert Kissel's wife felt it necessary to get beat him to death. This is the father of children who did not deserve what has been thrust on them.

Is it necessary to trawl through the laundry of Andrew Kissel as well to add to the misery of the family? They are all grieving for a lost son / brother/ father and now this thread is on to A. Kissel. I don't see the relevance of Andrew Kissel's alledged dodgy activities to this tragic murder case....am I missing something? Unless A. Kissel was involved with Mrs. N. Kissel, I really don't see the relevance. If he has undertaken to provide these kids with a stable environment in which to come to terms with what has happened, good for him.

Anonymous 20 yrs ago

Doctor tells murder trial Nancy Kissel's bruises not necessary visible after brawl with husband Dr Annabelle Dytham told the High Court Monday that Nancy Kissel could have been suffering from intense pain from a weapon-swinging brawl with her murdered husband without showing any visible marks.

Kissel visited Dytham 36 hours after her husband is thought to have been killed, saying she was in serious pain. Dytham testified last week that she thought Kissel's reaction to the physical examination on November 4, 2003, was ''disproportionate to the actual injury'' since she did not see any visible bruising in some of the areas that evinced a pained response.

When informed by defense counsel Alexander King SC that blood tests later showed the possibility of ''skeletal muscle injury,'' Dytham said that would definitely have been a matter for consideration and would have suggested that her ''expressions of pain were not exaggerated.''

Dytham added that ''deep tissue injuries do not necessarily show up as bruises'' or red marks.

Dytham, who was part of the medical team during the Hong Kong Rugby Sevens tournament, agreed with King that rugby players often come off the pitch not realizing until the next day the extent of their injuries.

Kissel, 41, is accused of serving her husband a pink milkshake laced with sedatives which left him unconscious at the foot of the bed as she bludgeoned him to death with a heavy metal ornament on November 2, 2003 in their luxury Parkview apartment.

Kissel has testified there was a furious fight that night and that she feared for her life when her husband bore down on her swinging a baseball bat.

She has accepted that she killed her husband, but she says cannot recall how she came to inflict five fatal wounds to the side of his head. She denies the charge of murder and is out on bail.

The decomposing body of Robert Kissel, a high-flying Merrill Lynch banker, was found wrapped in a rug and locked in a storeroom in the Parkview residential complex in the early hours of November 7.

The prosecution alleges Kissel went shopping for drugs in the week leading up to that fatal Halloween weekend, and secured a prescription of Rohypnol, the infamous date rape drug which was found in the stomach of the deceased, from Dytham on October 23, 2003.

The prosecution has charged that Kissel misled Dytham into composing a report of injuries supposedly inflicted on her during an assault by her husband.

The fact that Kissel managed to recount a version of events to Dytham on November 4, albeit without mention of the baseball bat or the life-or-death struggle, suggests that the defendant's claim of memory loss since November 4 is a lie, the prosecution alleged last week.

Senior Assistant Director of Public Prosecutions, Peter Chapman, completed his cross-examination of the doctor Monday, noting her report made no mention of memory disorder, baseball bat, nor nine or 10 areas of injuries which the defense had previously said were ''classic areas of defensive injuries.''

Dytham said she had not been aware of Kissel's visits to a Dr Desmond Fung, who prescribed Lorivan, Stilnox and Amitriptyline, the other hypnotics and sedatives found in the stomach of the corpse along with Rohyphnol.

Dytham said she saw no signs of confusion or problems with recollection when she examined Kissel on November 4, but she emphasized she is no expert in psychiatry.

There seems to have been no mention of rape since ''rape is very serious and if it had been mentioned, I feel I would have explored that at greater depth,'' she said.

In relation to the nine or 10 areas of injuries, she said: ''I may have seen them, but did not record them.''

''The other possibility is they just weren't there at the time,'' Chapman said.

Dytham agreed with Chapman that the carpet burns found on Kissel's knees could have been caused by her efforts to push a dead body into a sleeping bag while kneeling on a carpet, but said that they could equally have been caused by being dragged around the room.

''If an adult male was swinging that [baseball bat], accompanied with threats that he was about to kill, and manage to land blows, what type of injury would you expect to see?'' asked the prosecutor.

Dytham replied: ''Bruises, collection of blood over areas of bone, possible fracture - and if on the head, loss of consciousness.''

She added that such injuries should have been readily identifiable.

In re-examination by King, Dytham said she would have examined Kissel in a different light had she known of possible ''skeletal muscle injuries'' which are often deep in the body hidden from sight.

Anonymous 20 yrs ago

The father of accused murderer Nancy Kissel told the High Court Tuesday of his love for his daughter, his bonding with his son-in-law Robert - with whom he often had "guy-talks'' about business - and his belief that "their whole life was ideal.''

But Ira Keeshin's perception of their marriage changed radically when he received a call from his daughter on November 3, 2003, informing him she had been beaten up by her husband, who then walked out of their apartment.

He was shocked again on November 6, the night before the accused's arrest, when he heard for the first time the suggestion that Robert Kissel's body might be concealed in a storeroom.

When told by defense counsel Alexander King, SC, that he would be inquiring about the events of that November, Keeshin asked the judge for some time to "get my breath back.'' Apologizing to the judge, Keeshin said: "There's waves of emotion that just overcome me. I can't stop 'em.''

When Keeshin first heard of the alleged assault and was advised by his son to go to Hong Kong for his daughter's "protection,'' he braced himself for the worst-case scenario.

"You hear all these horror stories of guys that beat up women and then come back and kill the kids, kill the wife and then themselves,'' he said.

He could not remember the details of the conversation which first informed him of the alleged assault. "When a daughter calls you and says `I've been beaten up,' you're just in shock,'' he said.

Kissel, 41, is accused of drugging Robert Kissel with a milkshake laced with sedatives then bludgeoning him to death as he lay unconscious at the foot of their bed in their luxury Parkview apartment on November 2, 2003.

She has testified that there was a furious fight that night, in which she feared for her life as her husband bore down on her swinging a baseball bat, repeatedly saying: "I'm going to kill you, you bitch.''

She has accepted that she killed her husband, but said she cannot recall how she came to inflict five fatal wounds to the side of his head. She denies the charge of murder and is out on bail.

The decomposing body of Robert Kissel, a former high-flying Merrill Lynch banker, was found wrapped in a rug and locked in a storeroom in the Parkview residential complex on November 7.

Keeshin testified he thought Robert Kissel had been a "good guy, pretty industrious and bright'' and they bonded over their interest in business. He said they had particularly lengthy talks about his son-in-law's move from Goldman Sachs to Merrill Lynch, often over glasses of scotch and cigars.

"It was a nice relationship,'' he said.

He never detected that Robert Kissel had any problem with drugs but, although he had known there were arguments, "she said she was OK.''

Around September, 2003, the accused phoned him to say her husband was jealous of their close relationship and wished her to stop speaking to him on a daily basis.

"I said, `You know, your marriage is more important,''' said Keeshin. He said he understood that, "as Rob made more money, worked longer hours, traveled more, Nancy's life become more lonely.''

Keeshin arrived in Hong Kong on November 5 after his daughter informed him of an alleged attack by her husband. When he first saw her, "she looked terrible, she looked beat up,'' he said.

At 11pm on November 6, Keeshin went to the Parkview apartment on hearing the police had arrived. He said the police officer in charge took him aside, saying they had search warrants, and asked for the key to the storeroom.

At this point, he exclaimed: "Oh my God,'' because it was the first time he contemplated something else could have happened to Robert Kissel other than he had just disappeared.

As some of the officers opened up the storeroom, Keeshin said his daughter began shaking violently in the apartment, saying repeatedly, "He wouldn't stop, he wouldn't stop.''

The officers present on that occasion have testified that Keeshin and the accused had a private conversation during which Keeshin exclaimed, "Oh my God, I don't believe it,'' although no one had noted it down.

Earlier Tuesday, the accused's half-brother Brooks Keeshin testified that he arrived in Hong Kong on November 8 to help pack the belongings of the children after he heard of her arrest.

He said he was accompanying her solicitor, Simon Clark, on November 9 when they carried out a general inspection of the apartment and found a baseball bat, identified as the one Robert Kissel was said to have been swinging at the accused.

He said Clark had seen the bat lying on the ground behind a chest of drawers, and he helped him move the furniture for him to retrieve the bat.

Under cross-examination, Senior Assistant Director of Public Prosecutions Peter Chapman suggested that Brooks Keeshin and Clark had led an "expeditionary force,'' conducting searches. They were then joined by "re-inforcements'' - King and Ira Keeshin - "armed with cameras.''

Brooks said they only moved out one piece of furniture, had one disposable camera with them and were only doing general searches to help with the children's packing and look for the accused's personal belongings.

Chapman will cross-examine Ira Keeshin today.

rubycat 20 yrs ago

so even dad-in-law thought RK was a good guy....

norbert88 20 yrs ago

What with the tatoo and shagging the TV repairman and now the revelation that the step brother works in some sort of institution for battered wives the evidence is clear.It must be beyond reasonable doubt that the Defendant is a low class person with, to say the least ,highly questionable family conections.

That may not be enough to justify a murder rap, however it should be sufficient to justify a lengthy period of re-education.

norbert88 20 yrs ago

Ask that Demacratic party guy who got caught in bed with the hooker what re-education is - the perfect remedy for resolving issues of gross moral turpitude.

rubycat 20 yrs ago

yes, why?

The only thing is his work equipped him very well to be able to brief his sister on how to pretend to be a battered wife.

norbert88 20 yrs ago

sad but true I'm afraid.This defence could only have been dreamed up by some wooly minded social worker type, who mistakenly assumes that the rest of the world is also soft in the head .

rubycat 20 yrs ago

Another example of Oscar-worthy performance by Nancy Kissel (unless her friend is also in the scam):

"Testifying to Kissel's mental state after the crime, defense witness Geertruida Samra, who provided surety for the accused's bail application, spoke of visiting her in Siu Lam psychiatric centre in "the very early days'' of her stay there.

She was shocked when Kissel asked, "how's Rob?''

Samra said she told the accused, "Honey, Rob's gone, you know that right?'' Kissel replied she didn't "remember much,'' according to Samra."

rubycat 20 yrs ago

on second thoughts:

"Trudy, how is Rob?" - why on earth would she ask? She said she saw him leave and go to a hotel after he beat her up. So how did she think he would be? By her own account he should be well-rested and well-fed after a nice quiet night and a breakfast in Mandarin Oriental perhaps?

misterangus 20 yrs ago

brings a whole new meaning to the phrase "wearing a rug"

rubycat 20 yrs ago

what the jury finds is one thing but that should not stop anyone from using their own brains and judgement. however, one should not act on an impulse (and not grab any metal ornaments)

xfriend 20 yrs ago

You know, when I first saw this website awhile back I thought it somewhat interesting the views that were being expressed Back & forth it showed different ways people were reacting to this tragic story. Now Its gotten to be something else, far from interesting and pathetic. This incredible story and chain of events were a sad and tragic ending to 2wonderful people. We don't know the outcome you didn't know them...Joking about this situation and making light of it really doesn't prove or do anything and certainly isn't interesting interactions

Corby 20 yrs ago

It is easy for people on this site to be flippant because almost everyone here didn't know either person involved. But a few of us who do have an insite as to who these people were...are...its disturbing to read how callus and insensitive some of the remarks are. I for one have to bite my fingers when I read some of the remarks.

Corby 20 yrs ago

Callus as far as the remarks pertaining to RK. Not NK. I have no sympathy for her, she's a lying bitch.

rubycat 20 yrs ago

Corby, the vast majority have loads of sympathy for RK, even accounting for his perceived "deficiencies". I basically agree with Mascot although wealth here is of secondary relevance to me. I would say education is more important - I can make allowances for a young mainland wife feeling trapped in her public housing estate and not knowing how to deal with abuse from her construction worker (no offence construction workers) husband but someone with NK's background resorting to killing as the only way out of an unhappy marriage - this beggars belief.

Life 20 yrs ago

So who is protecting the kids intrests? The executor of the estate will have free access to all the monies left to them, unless it is held in trust by a bank that can question the withdrawl of money. Now if the guardians are facing money woes, then those kids may end up with little or nothing when they turn of age.

rubycat 20 yrs ago

maybe she saw despatching her hubby as a fitting end to a moving romance and a proof of love for her knight in shining armour (I mean in a van).

romina 20 yrs ago

The Us has laws in place to stop guardian from

getting hold of the money ,the judge will make sure th emoney is put in a trust account until the children Are Age 21 / 25 / 30

The interest on the money will be allocated for study /leaving expences but will not be able to touch the capital ( not even the children lets say at 16 years of age they want cash 2 milion dollars to buy a house they will have to apply to the court and get an order to get the money. and the couurt is not give them the money for any shady deals ( Judges in case like this are t are very responsable )

So this stop other family member/good Friends taking advantage of the children

I am Quite sure they have relatives who really do not need their money.

It sadden me to think of the Children, With no Father ( or mother Now )only because some stupid ( she is not very smart if she tought she will get away with it)

just by saying she was abused buy her husband , what a legacy to her childrem thanks to her now not only their father is dead but now

a villan, a coke head and whatever more she is going to say.

She loves her children very mutch!

And when is her boy Friend going to testify?

that could be quite interesting.

Life 20 yrs ago

Romina there are no laws to prevent that. As executor of an estate you are paid a yearly sum, and you have FULL access to the money unless, there was a stipulation in his will, limiting access. Even banks and lawyers have charges for maintaning these accounts. But then again, the laws might differ from state to state.

As for living expenses, his social security will take care of that.

When money is concerned, you would be surprised to see how many relatives fight for custody of children in such cases. And unless the relatives are stinking rich, the thought of more money always causes problems.

ex-HK 20 yrs ago

I agree with Life. I've seen many cases where relatives come crawling out of the woodwork for "poor, dear so-and-so" for "estates" that hardly bear mentioning. The kids are hugely at risk here, regardless of trial outcome.

romina 20 yrs ago

life and exHK

Yes i can see the point.

Well lets hope some one will look after them.

and not take advantage of the situation.

Corby 20 yrs ago

Justin Credible, Robert's sister is not an attorney and never has been. The only thing she is concerned with is making sure Rob's kids are in a loving, healthy and supportive enviornment. She herself has a wonderful husband and children of her own, not to mention they have their own money and are quite capable of supporting her brother's children. She wants custody only to give her brother's children a stable and loving home, now that her other brother's marriage is in turmoil. The family will all pitch in if needed, financially etc. to make sure the kids have everything. They are not going to be fighting over Rob's estate. William Kissel, the grandfather will make sure if nobody else can, that there is pleny of money to care for the children. If they end up with Jane, the sister, they will be in very very good hands.

xfriend 20 yrs ago

Corby...I think as a good friend to the family you are giving up a bit to much information that no one else needs to know. Don't you think so?

Corby 20 yrs ago

No I don't think I am giving up too much info. When someone on this site states false info. like the sister being a lawyer, I am only correcting them. I have not stated anything that anybody can't get from the internet or even read in the papers. For those of us who do know the family, Its a given that the children will be well taken care of. People on this site seem concerned about the children and what will happend to them, with good reason. I am merely saying that they are loved and will be OK. Everyone can read about Andrews situation. Well, Rob's sister doesn't have the same problems. If she gets custody which she wants very badly, the children will be in good hands.

xfriend 20 yrs ago

Corby..My point is...whatever happens with the kids, Connie, Janie, etc. doesn't need to be discussed on this site...the less talked about the better. Why give more details about there lives..no one needs to know the specifics...There is no point in giving out private info on what anybodys plans are.

rubycat 20 yrs ago

Corby is not exactly giving any top secret info. In fact it's more her thinking aloud. Why are you so bent on gagging her, Xfriend?

xfriend 20 yrs ago

Names that I posted..duh..are all throughout the internet from the trial..The less said about anything private is best..and the family doesnt know who Corby is.

Soutie 20 yrs ago

xfriend, nobody asked you to be the thread Policeman - first it was coffee girl & now its Corby! If you don't like what they are saying then don't log on. For everyone comment saying Mr Kissel was a sensitive warm family man with a heart of gold & committed to his wife/family we can find one that says he was an agressive, wife beating, coke-snorting meglomaniac ass-bandit.

Whatever happened to the discussion & comments on testimony. In my humble opinion to much comment upon personal knowledge of people, we might think we know what goes on but we can never be sure.

Innocence please come back, all is forgiven.

moonfairy 20 yrs ago

When is this case going to close? Have they done the closing statement yet?

Corby 20 yrs ago

It is supposed to wrap up this week and then each side gives its closing arguments. It will be interesting to see how long the jury will delibertate before coming to a decision.

All I want to say about the comments above from x friend...I am quite positive that my comments or statements or any info. I have given is appreciated by the family. Obviously they are going to appreciate anyone who supports them and Robert. I would never say anything that would harm them in anyway. THE END...discussion re testimony is more important.

Soutie 20 yrs ago

Hey Mascot, you may be right but don't write off Mrs. Kissel's very expensive defence team quite yet! Remember we all thought OJ was destined for the Electric Chair & he was acquitted.

Does anyone know what happened in Court yesterday?

phillberto 20 yrs ago

As a matter of interest what is the make-up of the jury. How many ex-pats/gweilos (if any) compared to local Chinese. A factor in OJ's not guilty verdict was gettig a sympathetic jury to subsequently play the race-card. Anyway just curious how the jury of her peers is made up.

ex-HK 20 yrs ago

Jury is guaranteed anonymity in HK. But if I recall, during selection one juror, a local male factory worker, tried to get off several times and was finally successful.

phillberto 20 yrs ago

I don't think the make-up of the jury constitutes jeopordising anonymity. I did go along to the court-room but they were arguing over a legal point so the jury were not present.

ex-HK 20 yrs ago

Let me be more accurate: Here's the article from The Standard: "Potential juror excused after second try" by Albert Wong. June 8, 2005

Note jury is 5 men and two women.

"A potential juror was dismissed before the murder trial of Nancy Kissel after he told the court he would not be able to give a fair verdict when he realized the accused was Jewish.

Nancy Kissel is standing trial in the High Court for the murder of her husband, Merrill Lynch banker Robert Kissel.

A deputy general manager of a factory in Dongguan, Lau Kin-po, originally sought exemption from sitting as a juror because his factory is going through ``restructuring'' which requires his supervision.

Justice Michael Lunn dismissed his objection since another employee could easily take over his role, as would happen if Lau fell ill.

After two more jurors had been selected, Lau raised another objection. Remembering that he and other possible jurors had been informed by the judge that the Kissel family were members of the United Jewish Congregation on Robinson Road, Lau said he would not be able to pass a fair verdict.

Lunn asked him if he were implying that, because of race or religion, Lau could not be impartial. Lau replied that he held ``a position'' in the Arab-Israeli conflict. In a stern voice, the judge said simply, ``Go.''

When told that the murder trial would last until mid-August, there was a collective gasp from the jury panel.

The judge reminded them that ``trial by jury is one of the cornerstones of the rule of law'' and should be cherished by citizens since it was what made Hong Kong stand out from other countries in the region.

Nevertheless, eight potential jurors succeeded in obtaining exemptions.

Three men were successful on the grounds of their poor English.

A chef originally sought exemption because it was ``impossible to replace'' him at the culinary school where he taught.

The judge refused this exemption, but the prosecution dismissed him when a member of the prosecution team realized he had gone to school with him.

A female administrator at Queen Mary Hospital was excused by the defense because she was acquainted with some of the witnesses. A bus driver was also asked to step down by the defense, although the judge originally believed his English was adequate.

A man whose son is suffering from a long-term illness was also excused.

Some of those eventually sworn in as jurors had raised the usual issues of language ability and employment commitments.

The decision on whether Nancy Kissel had an affair with another man while in America, caused the break-up of the marriage and murdered her husband, will be made by a jury of five men and two women."

ex-HK 20 yrs ago

Well, one might well wonder how heavily the "peer" factor was weighted given the scant info about the actual jury info available. But as I understand it both the defense and prosecution have a number of "wild card rejections" that they can use to delete any jurors they deem potentially biased. Of course, that numbver is limited at at the end of the day it is more a question of damage control for the guilty party.

rubycat 20 yrs ago

The metal ornament allegedly used by accused murderer Nancy Kissel to defend herself in a furious fight with her husband was not dented by the baseball bat she said he was wielding, a government forensic expert told the High Court Tuesday.

Doctor Wong Koon-hung said he would have expected to find wood grain patterns or paint smears left on the ornament, or traces of lead on the bat. But no traces of such contact evidence were found, he said.

Wong said he had done controlled experiments using baseball bats bought in Mong Kok to strike tightly clamped lead sheets to attempt to replicate the effect of Robert Kissel's Little League bat striking the base of the metal ornament.

During cross-examination, Wong said he could not produce all his test results since he hammered flat the same metal sheets and reused them, and they now only show the most recent results.

Defense counsel Alexander King SC told the judge: ``We've now heard that the results of earlier tests have been destroyed.''

Kissel, 41, is accused of murdering her husband Robert Kissel on November 2, 2003. The accused testified that on that night, her husband came at her swinging a baseball bat saying, ``I'm going to kill you, you bitch,'' and that she used the metal ornament to protect herself from the blows.

Although she acknowledged in testimony that she struck him five times, she has pleaded not guilty to the murder charge and said she could not remember how she came to inflict the fatal wounds to the side of his head.

The defense has repeatedly suggested that the dent on the base of the metal ornament was caused by the bat's impact.

That was before Wong conducted tests on the possible impact of the bat and the ornament. Tuesday, Wong was re-called to submit ``rebuttal evidence'' in relation to a wooden baseball bat, a defense exhibit, which has been identified by the accused as the one wielded by her husband.

Wong said that while he could not exclude contact between the bat and the ornament, given the controlled experiments, it was doubtful.

When he used one of the bats with ``moderate force'' to strike the sheets of lead, he said, it produced a 1.9 centimeter dent on sheets weighing 2.09 kilograms. On those weighing 2.28kg, he was able to produce an indentation of 1.4cm, he said.

But he added the sheets of lead were ``less resistant to bending'' than the solid metal base of the ornament.

The indentation on the ornament's base measured between 1.4cm and 1.8cm depending on which side.

Earlier in the trial, Wong said he had found the metal base of the ornament to be 1.7kg.

After having caused the indentations, he found wood grains imprinted on the lead sheets and lead smears on the bats, he said.

The sheets also showed ``quite a regular arch shape.''

However, ``I could not find such regular indentation across the base of the metal ornament. Nor could I find wood grain pattern nor paint smears across the metallic structure,'' Wong said.

The two lead sheets bearing regular ``V-shape'' arches and wood grain patterns were shown to the jury.

In cross-examination, King asked Wong to produce the other eight or nine sheets of lead that should be in existence given the record of the tests he had conducted.

Wong said the only available results of the experiments were the two already shown to the jury, since he hammered the sheets flat after previous tests and re-used them.

King said the defense was therefore unable to ``test the science'' of the earlier results.

King showed a picture of Wong's technician striking pieces of lead with a baseball bat. ``What happened to those pieces of lead?'' asked King.

Wong replied that he kept the top layer but he did not consider those underneath to be of importance.

Earlier Tuesday, government DNA profiling expert Dr Pang Chi-ming said ``there was no bloodstain found on the baseball bat'' and that the human material that he found on its handle belonged to neither the deceased, nor the accused, but to another female.

In cross-examination, King asked, ``You would agree, would you not, that not everyone that touches the end of the baseball bat will leave human DNA material that is detectable by testing?''

Pang said that ``if I touch this microphone with my finger, it's possible my human material will not be left on it. But if I held it tightly, and moved it around, I don't believe that my human material would not be left on it.''

He added that if the bat had been kept in a cool area, DNA-bearing material would be preserved longer.

King suggested that after six months, ``you may or may not find material on the article.''

Pang said in the case of the bat, he was able to find human material on it.

``Are you saying then in the history of that bat, only one person has ever held the handle?'' said King.

Pang replied: ``I did not say that.''

The trial was adjourned early Tuesday to give more time for the defense to consider how to continue the cross-examination of Wong.

rubycat 20 yrs ago

3. will Tequila Kola furnish her cell in return for all the publicity generated?

4. are any tatooists on standby in Hong Kong prisons?

phillberto 20 yrs ago

5. Will she be allowed an in-cell TV (and if its broken who will fix it).

6. Do prisons do Kosher?

7. Will her memory return and she will be able to recall murdering him in cold blood and covering up the evidence?

8. Who will be drinking the most champagne after the guilty verdict? Prosecutors or defence team with some serious cash to spend.

livewire 20 yrs ago

does any one know the description of the metal ornament she used ?

mdap 20 yrs ago

She'll probably get a prime time tv show in America hosted by Martha Stewart !

rubycat 20 yrs ago

or she will open a bar and serve "enriched" milkshakes, with her signatureone: "Pink Widow"

phillberto 20 yrs ago

A few anagrams of 'Nancy Kissel trial' (yes, a quiet day in the office)

Sinister Yank Call...

A killer's instancy

or Sick as internally.

misterangus 20 yrs ago

anal sickly insert

Soutie 20 yrs ago

Whilst many of you seem to be ready with the Lynch Mob & planning the post-sentencing party there is still a chance she can be aquitted - even with the comment on this thread & and all the cynics & friends of the victim saying "of course she did it" the defence team doesn't have the burden of proof, all they have to do is add single solitary doubt in the minds of the Jury & they must say not guilty!

Remember good old Ronnie Reagan, he sold weapons to the Contra Rebels, and claimed to have no knowledge [maybe he did maybe he didn't] but he also got off without punishment without being able to plead on the grounds of duress!

Stranger things have happened & there may still be time for a few more googlies to be bowled.

tsuiwah 20 yrs ago

no, she said she killed in self defense. how is that manslaughter?

Soutie 20 yrs ago

I think it has probably been established that Mrs. Kissel administered the fatal blows but whether she will be convicted of the crimes with which she is charged remains to be seen.

phillberto 20 yrs ago

Closing statements start tomorrow apparently. We'll find out soon enough.

ex-HK 20 yrs ago

Any ideas how long the jury will take to return a verdict?

Soutie 20 yrs ago

There have been weeks of testimony so if the Jury does its duty properly & looks at all of the evidence & testimony it could take quite a while & rightly so since Mrs Kissel is on trial for a particularly nasty crime.

ex-HK 20 yrs ago

Is there such a thing as a hung jury in HK?

Soutie 20 yrs ago

Bill Sticker,

The Jury's decision needs to be made upon the evidence & testimony presented to them, not like the conjecture & opinion here. Whether she killed or not does not make her guilty of murder or manslaughter - there are other options, one of which is acquittal!! The extent of pre-determination is your opinion based upon your interpretation of the case details you are aware of. A Jury may have more or less information to consider and may, by way of a total agreement or majority, agree or disagree with your opinion but, as they say "it isn't over till the Fat Lady sings."

norbert88 20 yrs ago

Soutie- You think Fat Boy Warne's going to come to the rescue? He doesn't bowl the googly anymore, although we've already had a couple of flippers and even the odd Chinaman

Soutie 20 yrs ago

No, I think Shanes' allegedly a bit pre-occupied with humping some Pommie tart at present but you know what its like when you play a high risk shot across the line, sometimes you get bowled or top edge it but other timed you'll time it of the middle for 6 & other times, with a bit of luck, you'll get a thick edge that'll carry for 4!

phillberto 20 yrs ago

they took a day off to prepare closing statements. Start presenting them today.

gum 20 yrs ago

The nancy kissel case

http://www.zonaeuropa.com/kissel.htm

norbert88 20 yrs ago

I think the prosecution is going to play straight down the line and only hit with the spin.I know the Defence have produced a couple of Wrong 'Uns at various times and that after a marathon 8 week game the pitch is taking a lot of spin but they face a massive task.

phillberto 20 yrs ago

Defence reckon RK tried to bowl a maiden over but was hit for six.

rubycat 20 yrs ago

she will sell the rights to her story to Hollywood and will be set for life with or without RK's money

stgeorge 20 yrs ago

OK Why did she do this? The way I see it is that it has become clear this TV repair man played a role.

She was obviously besotted by him and called him 100 times in the month leading up to the murder. (That's an average of 3 a day to the states) It looks like he was attempting to start a new life with her and he must have been very confident and persuasive when he suggested bumping him off.

There lives would be happy thereafter and they would have lots of money and kids would be fine...etc.

I think Robert must have informed his wife on that Sunday (or even the day before) that he would be filing for divorce the following morning.

This meant she had to act fast and it was now or never. He had whiskey after work during the week (which is difficult to drug) and now he had his neighbour in and accepted milkshakes she didn't care if the neighbour was involved.

She must have talked at length with the TV repair man about knocking him off but when push came shove, she had to do it in a hurry. When in a rush, individuals make mistakes and that's when the whole catalogue of errors started when panicing on how to dispose of the body.

All her defence is so shaky and it seems odd he would want anal sex and beat her up when he wanted to walk away with the divorce and he was well aware for months about her other man.

Lets Go Round Again 20 yrs ago

" she will sell the rights to her story to Hollywood and will be set for life with or without RK's money"

This gets my vote for the most Crass statement I have heard this month.

She has killed her husband, lost access to her kids for a long time, will probably be incarcerated for 10 years +, but you think she will be set for life if she sells her story for money.

If you think that she is set for life according to your values system , I genuinely feel sorry for you & your family.

phillberto 20 yrs ago

I think she is set for life ;-)

rubycat 20 yrs ago

LGRA, get a sense of humour. may not "set" you for life, but it definitely will make it easier

bloggz 20 yrs ago

There seems to be little interest in the lover....could he be a bit more involved in this than anyone seems to care. I not suggesting that N. Kissel was totally put up to this but he could be accessory to the murder, could he not? There seems to be a shift in her attitude at some point - one moment she is wanting a divorce and then suddenly parks on hubbie's desk, and declares that she wants the marriage to work/loves him. I would not be a bit surprised if lover was involved. I don't believe that he did not know that it was going to happen.

Why is it when he seems to be a big part of a possible motive, has he not been called to be a witness? Anyone else got this hunch?

bloggz 20 yrs ago

More than a shoulder it appears!?! I cannot believe he is insignificant in all of this. As I said, she did the deed but I think that there is a whole other story as well, that has not even reared it's head here, it seems. If he is in on this he should be sweating bullets too. As nuts as she seems, I don't believe that she acted without support of some sort - just not a girl thing.

ex-HK 20 yrs ago

Does the HK government have the power to supoena a witness from the US? Surely the Prosectution would have done so if it had been possible. I am guessing that the other US-based witnesses came voluntarily. And it is unlikely that the Defense would trot him out because then he'd be subject to cross-examination.

bloggz 20 yrs ago

Well they got the "sleuth" that R. Kissel hired to check out her movements, here - he would be a prosecution witness, would he not? I think that.

Interesting one? I know a legal beagle...will find out.

ex-HK 20 yrs ago

Kissel family probably paid to get sleuth and other witnesses over, and can only assume they'd have been more than happy to get the Trailer Park Lover on the stand. I'm wondering if it was not a mistake by the Defense to put Nancy up.

bloggz 20 yrs ago

Yup - he would have been worth an airticket, that's for sure.

stgeorge 20 yrs ago

I don't think the prosecution could force the TV repair man she was banging to attend. However, had she escaped to the States after the murder then there would certainly have been a court case where he would most certainly attend. I think she stayed in HK voluntarily because this would have become a federal case (a crime commited outside a state of residence) and should it have gone against her, she would have faced the death penalty.

I'm not even sure that if she gets a HK life term for say 30-40 years, she could still be libel to another federal case if she ever returned to the States...

ex-HK 20 yrs ago

Prosecution in Hong Kong murder trial calls housewife cold-blooded killer

HONG KONG -- A prosecutor gave his closing argument Friday in an American housewife's Hong Kong murder trial, saying she was a cold-blooded killer who cheated on her wealthy husband before serving him a drug-laced milkshake and bashing in his head.

Speaking in a packed courtroom, prosecutor Peter Chapman rehashed much of the sensational testimony about alleged domestic violence, abusive sex, drug use and infidelity in Nancy and Robert Kissel's stormy marriage.

The nearly three-month trial has made big headlines here, giving the public a rare glimpse into the private world of wealthy Hong Kong expatriates.

Chapman challenged the defense's argument that Nancy Kissel, 41, was defending herself against her violent banker husband who was armed with a baseball bat.

The lawyer said that the woman had planned the killing in the couple's luxury apartment in 2003.

"There was no provocation, no baseball bat," Chapman said. "This is a cold-blooded killing."

Nancy Kissel allegedly beat her husband to death with a metal ornament.

"These injuries inflicted on Robert Kissel were not the result of a life-or-death struggle," he said. "There was no shouting, yelling, screaming."

Nancy Kissel has admitted dealing the fatal blows to her husband, a 40-year-old investment banker at Merrill Lynch. But she has pleaded innocent to murder, which involves premeditation.

Chapman argued that the defendant planned the killing. He said she searched the Internet for information about how to drug her husband.

Before the killing, she mixed Robert Kissel a milkshake laced with sedatives that disabled him, the prosecutor said.

After the killing, Nancy Kissel allegedly rolled her husband's body in a carpet and had maintenance workers haul it away to storage space rented by the couple.

The prosecutor also mentioned an affair that Nancy Kissel, who has three children, admitted to having with repairman Michael Del Priore, who lived in a trailer park near the couple's vacation home in the northeastern U.S. state of Vermont.

"Nancy Kissel didn't want Robert Kissel alive anymore. She wanted the children, but Michael Del Priore was the man in her life," Chapman said.

The prosecutor repeated testimony by witnesses, who said the victim was a loving, kind, soft-spoken husband who was well regarded by his company.

Nancy Kissel, dressed in black as she has been for much of the trial, was expressionless and often looked down at the floor as she listened to Chapman's closing argument.

She has said her desperation and unhappiness in her marriage drove her to seek comfort in an affair, and that her husband was an abusive workaholic who used cocaine, drank too much and forced her to have anal sex.

She has testified that she cannot clearly remember what she did after her husband's death.

The victim was from New York. Nancy Kissel was born in Adrian, Michigan, but her family had also lived in Minneapolis, in the northern U.S. state of Minnesota. (AP)

August 26, 2005

Ed 20 yrs ago

Any males who try to drag this forum into the gutter will be banned.

If you want to participate make it constructive otherwise we will revert to the Women ONLY policy and any posts from a male perspective will be deleted.

wann 20 yrs ago

Is Nancy now under police custody? She's now charged with murder and if she gets away with it, she'd get away with Robert Kissel's estate - and the man in her life!

yolly 20 yrs ago

As we all know she admitted killing her husband, 100% she shd be locked in a cell. I don't think she have a heart, who not leave him alone in the diplomatic way and let her self free of what she was claiming was "sex abuse" or whatever she calls them.

oj 20 yrs ago

To add more smoke to the fire.............

did hear a murmur that in the legal circles, they fear she is covering up for the son.

Now i don't know how old the son is and like i said it is just a murmur. Hmmmmmmmmmmmm.

ex-HK 20 yrs ago

Son is 5-ish, no? So that does "oj" mean?

romina 20 yrs ago

Very strong boy,

And if the child is 5 or 10 years old,she would not need to sacrifice herself, court would deal with it differetly (under HK OR USA )

did he make the milk shake too? No she would not spend 20 years in jail to cover up any body.

But is sad to have rumors like that,these children have enough to cope with in future.

sadley they lost their father and in future they will have to deal with the knowledge of her mother actions.

A

rubycat 20 yrs ago

for whose son?

ex-HK 20 yrs ago

Defense gives closing argument in Hong Kong murder trial for U.S. housewife(Updated 02:00 p.m.)

2005/8/29

HONG KONG (AP)

A lawyer defending an American housewife accused of murdering her wealthy husband in Hong Kong said in a closing argument Monday that the man was paranoid and prosecutors failed to prove the killing was premeditated.

Nancy Kissel, 41, has admitted during the nearly three-month-long jury trial that she beat to death her husband, Robert, with a metal ornament in self defense during a quarrel in the couple's luxury flat in 2003.

But the woman has denied planning the killing by searching the Internet for tips about how to drug people. She's accused of serving her husband a milkshake laced with sedatives before their fight, and the prosecution said Robert Kissel had long suspected that she was trying to spike his drinks.

During his closing argument, defense attorney Alexander King repeatedly referred to Robert Kissel, an investment banker at Merrill Lynch, as "this paranoid, suspicious man." The lawyer argued the prosecution never proved beyond reasonable doubt that the wife planned the murder.

King also said the prosecution never showed any evidence that Nancy Kissel planned how she was going to dispose of the body, found wrapped in a carpet in storage space rented by the couple. Witnesses testified that the wife asked maintenance men to haul away the body.

The defense also said Robert Kissel was a controlling husband who installed spyware on his wife's computer. "What type of loving husband wants to know everything his wife does?" King asked the jury.

King also alleged the husband was violent, sexually abusive and obsessed with anal sex. The attorney said when Nancy Kissel was away, her husband used the Internet to research gay sex services in Taiwan before a business trip to the island.

"What kind of husband, when his wife is away, starts searching out for male prostitutes?" King said.

When prosecutor Peter Chapman wrapped up his case Friday, he argued that Nancy Kissel was a cold-blooded killer. "This case is not about a battered wife doing away with an abusive husband. Her evidence is a self-serving mixture of deception and lies," Chapman said.

The prosecutor said Nancy Kissel wanted to get rid of her husband so that she could pocket the life insurance and be with her lover, a repairman who lived in a trailer park near the couple's vacation home in the northeastern U.S. state of Vermont. The wife admitted to having the affair.

The victim was from New York. Nancy Kissel was born in Adrian, Michigan, but her family had also lived in Minneapolis, in the northern U.S. state of Minnesota.

The defense was to continue giving its closing argument on Monday.

ex-HK 20 yrs ago

Agree weak. That was a "flash" report based on half day's trial. Suspect more and more illuminating reports will emerge over the next 12 hours.

ex-HK 20 yrs ago

Wife did not plan to kill banker, HK lawyer says

Mon Aug 29, 2005 10:17 AM BST

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HONG KONG (Reuters) - The wife of a prominent American banker in Hong Kong killed him with such an obvious lack of planning that the crime could not have been premeditated, her lawyer told Hong Kong's high court on Monday.

Rounding up the defence case in the three-month trial, lawyer Alexander King said that the way Nancy Kissel disposed of Robert Kissel's body and tried to cover up the crime afterwards "defy common sense" and showed she did not plan on killing him.

Nancy, 41, has admitted to killing the top Merrill Lynch banker on November 2, 2003, but has pleaded not guilty to premeditated murder.

If convicted of murder, she could be jailed for life.

Prosecutors say she searched the Internet for details on drugs, obtained them from doctors and gave her husband a milkshake spiked with sedatives before bludgeoning him to death. She has denied those allegations.

The trial has riveted Hong Kong and its expatriate community with tales of rough sex, marital violence and infidelity.

Nancy Kissel told the court earlier that her husband had often flown into rages fuelled by cocaine and alcohol and had abused her physically and sexually for years.

She said she had struck her husband five times on the right side of his face with a metal statue after he hit her repeatedly, but added that she had no recollection of what happened afterwards on the night of November 2.

King said it simply did not make sense that she would choose to kill her husband on a busy Sunday afternoon, when their three children and maids would be going in and out of the flat.

She also called managers of their apartment estate after the killing, identified herself and rented a storeroom -- which she later used to store his body. Police found Robert's decomposing body rolled up in a carpet in the storeroom on November 6.

BAD PLANNING

"Now, she's planning to kill her husband and getting away with it. Now, where was the planning? ... Nothing in all of these shows any planning," King said.

King also challenged prosecutors' claims that she had sought out doctors and complained of insomnia in order to obtain drugs which she later used to poison her husband.

Robert had a long history of back pain and other ailments and their home was filled with such a plethora of drugs and painkillers that she would not have needed to procure any more if she had wanted to poison him, King said.

King described Robert as a person who wanted full control over his family, forbade his wife to speak on the phone with her father and micro-managed even small household expenses despite his considerable wealth, valued at $18 million.

"He was someone who was very controlling, manipulative and someone who abused his wife sexually, who wanted to be in control all the time," King said.

Prosecutors have painted Robert as a loving father and husband who lost hope of saving his marriage after he found out that his wife was still communicating with her TV repairman lover a few weeks before he died.

During the trial, Nancy admitted to the affair, which happened in the United States between March and July 2003, when she fled there with their three children to escape the SARS epidemic in Hong Kong.

The prosecution said Kissel had decided to divorce his wife and was going to tell her that on the night that he was murdered.

A verdict from the seven-member jury is expected by the end of this week.

rubycat 20 yrs ago

I love Mr. King's (defense counsel) line:

"she got rid of the body probably because her father was coming that night and it began to smell".

She was a warm and loving wife. She would have hang onto her dear husband's body forever out of her undying love.

But surely, dear jury, you understand (and I trust you would do the same), that she had to make sure her aging father was comfortable and his stay was undisturbed by any "offensive ouput" produced by a rotting corpse.

ex-HK 20 yrs ago

Somewhere in the evidence is a report that an analysis of Rob Kissel's hair indicated that he had taken Ambien, a sleeping pill, for several months. Whether he did this (because he was so upset due to family issues or to take off the alleged coke edge or if Nancy had discovered how to dope him is not known. But might it suggest that he had developed a tolerance for sleeping medication? That might explain how he could walk and chew gum at the same time. Plus, we know from Noh's testimony that RK's speech was slurred and drowsy sounding at the time.

phillberto 20 yrs ago

Can they not test for cocaine use in your hair as well?

ex-HK 20 yrs ago

Maybe that's the real reason why RK did not have himself tested as advised by the surveillance people he hired.

Nevertheless, not much, if any, documented evidence was presented to show that he was a beast to his wife, so its not relevant to the case.

ex-HK 20 yrs ago

Agree, that's what I was trying to imply. Not relevant. Neither does wife-beater, absentee father, porn surfer, controlling exec, tightwad....

phillberto 20 yrs ago

It does seem strange that when you have the ability to test for his drug-use over the last 6 months neither defence or prosecution has done so. I hear what you are saying about relevance but if defence paints a picture of him as cocaine fuelled monster then a negative test would shoot that down in flames right away. Similarly if the defence had some concrete proof of their claims then why not produce it.

ex-HK 20 yrs ago

Yes you can determine cocaine use from a hair sample. One other strange thing that emerged on another thread is that the neighbors one floor below heard "rob's tirades" but this person was not called as a defence witness.

ex-HK 20 yrs ago

Here's a paste from the other thread: "I lived at Parkview also & I remember Nancy's ribs broken. I also lived in the flat underneath theirs & heard Rob's tirades."

wann 20 yrs ago

What happened today? Has the King finished his submission? Then what's going to happen tomorrow?

xfriend 20 yrs ago

I have some thoughts..If you are an abused woman, and are getting beat up by your husband..you would think one would want anyone to hear your screams to help you..If you hurt someone badly..you call the police to take care of things..you don't roll your husband up in a rug..

rubycat 20 yrs ago

c'mon, she loved him. maybe she wanted to keep him and perhaps embalm him later. she used the rug because she did not want her father to sniff around

rubycat 20 yrs ago

friend's husband has just lost his fourth mobile phone. anyone knows where she can buy a nice metal ornament? she's already got the rugs

yolly 20 yrs ago

xfriend you are very right.

ex-HK 20 yrs ago

From the South China MOrning Post, Judge's instructions to Jury: "If the jury did not believe the killing was provoked by the victim's conduct, the verdict would be guilty of murder, he said. But if the victim's conduct could "cause the defendant of such age and sex to do what she did", a verdict of manslaughter would be returned.

He said jurors could consider Kissel's good character and years of aid to the United Jewish Congregation, Hong Kong International School and deprived children of Vietnam when considering the credibility of her evidence. "If you think self-defence may be true, you may acquit," he said.

ex-HK 20 yrs ago

SCMP has better, more well-rounded reporting than the Standard.

On another note, I am not sure where Reuters gets the info that "a verdict is expected by the end of the week". Those folks have a lot of evidence to consider.

Yppah 20 yrs ago

Not sure I understand all of the judges directions as it does seem he is covering all bases. The evidence from what I read suggests there was nothing to suggest self defence at the time of the killing and that self defence could only be a verdict if the jury felt the prior conduct of the victim lead this woman to do this and if all her charitable work and previous work is taken into account. I really don't have an opinion either way on this but I do think the judges direction is a bit wayward and I have sat in courtrooms most of my adult life as a barristers assistant.

ex-HK 20 yrs ago

Interesting. Yes, he rarely seems neutral, either pro-prosecution or pro-defence. Here's the full SCMP clip: "The judge in the trial of Nancy Ann Kissel said yesterday the jury had to consider whether the force she used to deal the five fatal blows to her husband's head was "reasonable" or "in excess" when deciding whether she is guilty of murder.

Mr Justice Michael Lunn told jurors in the Court of First Instance they had to be sure the injuries Kissel inflicted on Robert Peter Kissel, a senior Merrill Lynch banker, were intended to kill or cause grievous bodily harm to satisfy one of the conditions for a murder verdict.

Recalling evidence, he said forensic experts identified five curved lacerations on the upper right side of the deceased's head, with fractured skull driven into the brain, causing "massive spillage of brain substance". "Did the defendant believe it was necessary to use force to defend herself? If yes, was the amount of force she used reasonable?" he said.

Defence counsel Alexander King SC said Kissel, 41, was attacked by her husband with a baseball bat as he was attempting to force anal sex on her in their Parkview flat on the night of November 2, 2003. He argued she had acted lawfully when she swung a heavy lead ornament in self-defence.

Mr Justice Lunn reminded the jury that Mr King had argued Kissel had reacted "on the spur of the moment" as her husband said "I will f***ing kill you" in the bedroom of their flat. He described the victim, 180cm tall and 69kg, as "well-built" and "athletic". By contrast, Kissel was a "slightly built female".

However, the judge reminded jurors that forensic pathologist Lau Ming-fai said each of the five blows "required a great amount of force" and that there was no self-defence injuries on his upper limbs, which led him to conclude he had "little or no motion at the time the blows were dealt to his head". If the force used was unreasonable, Kissel could not be acquitted on the basis of self-defence, the judge said.

Mr Justice Lunn also directed jurors to consider a reduced verdict of manslaughter by reason of provocation if they believed the conduct of the victim had caused Kissel to "suddenly and temporarily lose her self-control".

The judge repeated Kissel's claim that she had been physically and sexually abused by her husband for five years, resulting in broken ribs, bruises and a black eye on different occasions. Kissel had also testified about the bedroom struggle with her husband on November 2 after he told her he had filed for divorce and was taking their three children, he said.

If the jury did not believe the killing was provoked by the victim's conduct, the verdict would be guilty of murder, he said. But if the victim's conduct could "cause the defendant of such age and sex to do what she did", a verdict of manslaughter would be returned.

He said jurors could consider Kissel's good character and years of aid to the United Jewish Congregation, Hong Kong International School and deprived children of Vietnam when considering the credibility of her evidence. "If you think self-defence may be true, you may acquit," he said.

He instructed jurors to consider the credibility of oral testimony by its consistency. An example he gave was the evidence of Kissel's father, Ira Keeshin, who said in his police statement his daughter told him in a phone call on November 3, 2003, that her husband had slammed her into a wall in 2002. But in court last month, he said he had heard about the assault in 2002. Asked by prosecutor Peter Chapman, he accepted his oral testimony was incorrect.

Mr Justice Lunn drew the jury's attention to conflicting versions of the events of November 2 given by Kissel to the court, her father, friends and a colleague of her husband, but added there could be innocent reasons, such as panic or confusion.

Earlier yesterday, Mr King told the jury in his closing submission they should not consider a verdict of manslaughter by provocation. He argued that Kissel acted in lawful self-defence and was entitled to be acquitted of murder.

Kissel wept in the dock as her lawyer outlined the case.

Mr King said the victim was not rendered unconscious or severely impaired after he and his neighbour Andrew Tanzer drank a milkshake prepared by Kissel on November 2. He said the amount of drugs found in his body was insufficient. The banker was talking on his mobile and walking around in Parkview when Mr Tanzer, who passed out on his couch about 4pm, was severely affected, he said.

"Evidence all points to the direction that he didn't receive the same dose as Mr Tanzer," said Mr King.

The lawyer said Kissel did not ask for the sedatives Rohypnol, Lorivan and Stilnox and anti-depressant amitriptyline during her several visits to clinics shortly before November 2; they were prescribed to her by her doctors.

He said the video recorded by Rocco Gatta, a private investigator hired by Robert Kissel to follow his wife in Vermont, had no sign of Kissel's lover, Michael Del Priore. He said it showed nothing other than a "beautiful countryside", a "very expensive home" and a van parked at the house at night several times.

Mr King criticised the government's bloodstain pattern analysis experts for missing a large number of blood spots and not looking for the extent of cleaning up of the blood in their investigation.

Mr Justice Lunn continues his directions to the jury today."

SAMMIGILL 20 yrs ago

i would like to know how r their kids? i mean wat r their reactions?

livewire 20 yrs ago

So if she is aqquited in lieu of self defence will she walk away scott free with the kids, and her dead husbands assets ?

will she have to undergo therapy or will the kids? I am asking if the court can / will give such directives.

Afterall one day the kids will realise that the woman they call mom kiled a man , who was their Dad/

Robina Hood 20 yrs ago

Is it true that the Jury will return a verdict tomorrow...Thursday...at last !!

And who are the two lawyers involved on each side...are they English? Maybe the Judge is too? I am sure Nancy will have had an expensive legal superstar helping her! The best defence money can buy no doubt which is the way to play the game !

This case has gone on sooooo long....!!

Those lucky ones with time to spare who have had time to watch the actual case ...what are they picking?

rubycat 20 yrs ago

have they started serving Kissels in LKF yet?

yolly 20 yrs ago

As from what I read here on this forum, from both side's testimonies: My verdict is GUILTY.

joncolli 20 yrs ago

Guilty. She is guilty of rendering her three children parentless and should be put behind bars for this alone!

Yppah 20 yrs ago

I am confused why is the judge continuing reminding jurors about how much money she raised for charity? It is like saying the catholic priest who abused 200 children also raised money to help the poor....what a strange direction for a judge to be giving...

Yppah 20 yrs ago

of course any one can kill a spouse and if they got caught then that's that, but to set this woman up as a wonderful charitable person and imply this should be taken into account strikes me as a bit bizzare. did anyone at anytime say anything nice about the husband? did he ever take his kids out, did he ever pay for his family vacations? Did he ever support his wife so she could then have the time to fundraise? I have no idea to be honest but the direction is weird. Like many have already said here we only know snippets of this case

Yppah 20 yrs ago

FOTH I do understand what you are saying but my point is way too much time and direction has been pointed towards this womans charitable contributions. I believe the judge has refered to her charity more than 3 times and has not once said anything (from what I read) positive about the husband. Just does not seem like a balanced direction.

stgeorge 20 yrs ago

I believe we will get the verdict shortly and if it is murder, she will be led to the cells immediatly. If my legal knowledge is correct, the sentance will be announced at a later date where upon we will know exactly how many years she has got and what chance she has for parole if any...

Yppah 20 yrs ago

FOTH , you really didn't think the husband was on trial? that's a first

rubycat 20 yrs ago

wow! US$18million will buy her a lot of tatoos and boob jobs - even after deducting King's king-size fee

ex-HK 20 yrs ago

FOTH, I find that your comments add value to this thread, thank you.

One small thing, possibly irrelevant, is that from my Dorothy Sayers-reading days I recall that the character of the deceased is of the utmost importance in finding WhoDunIt. Logic being that something he did, usually over a long period of time, triggered the Kill Mechanism. But in writing this I guess it is more useful in fingering the Killer than proving the guilt or innocence of the accused.

Still, I am curious as to the motive, battering or greed. The jury will decide which way to write history, because only they are equipped with "all" the facts and the buden of conscience, unlike us voyeurs.

stgeorge 20 yrs ago

Why she did it is an absolute mystery. There is no clear motive other than she banging her TV repair man...

Anonymous 20 yrs ago

I spoke with someone the other day whos maid is a good friend with Kissels one maid and she said that Mr Kissel was a very mean and not a very nice person. I know someone who interviewed for ajob with Kissel few months ago and his only comment was that "he could imagine this guy not being very nice to be around"

Why did she kill him? Probably because he was a total SOB and she hated him.

Should she get off because of this? Absolutely not. If she hated him so much and he was such an SOB the door swings out and she could have probly got big money and the kids.

ex-HK 20 yrs ago

Of course he was an SOB, or had the capability of being that way. You just don't have that kind of job, in that industry or any ultra competitive one, if you're a total softie. And he probably wasn't able to switch it off all the time, or didn't want to. Or maybe Nan knew how to get under his skin and her repressed anger made her want to egg him on. Whatever. Her hatred must have been very black to bludgeon him with such force, so many times.

But the argument or self defence makes no sense if the ornament came from another room. "Wait a sec, honey, while I go and grab a weapon." I think he passed out (must have been very anxious waiting for the drugs to finally kick in), saw the opportunity and seized it. She probably did lose self control, however, during the actual bludgeoning as evidenced by her hand injuries and, pardon the expression, overkill. One blow would have been sufficient.

rubycat 20 yrs ago

a statement by a friend of a maid's friend - wow, that's very credible.

I know maids who think their employers are very mean and not very nice because they do not fund them trips home every year (as I do with mine).

Anonymous 20 yrs ago

Who are you kissels mother or what?

Add it up, he surfed gay sites for male whores right before he went to taiwan, he smacked her around, he was a coke head, and the maid said he was a prick so did someone I know said he was a real piece of work as well.

Real nice guy our Mr Kissel, pope should make him a saint.

Sorry but I think I'll believe the maids version

rubycat 20 yrs ago

someone I know ..... - hmm.

Many people I know say many different things.

The very same maid said Nancy was volatile and would not forgive easily. Can't please these maids, eh?

RK surfed porn sites... - sure, that does it for me!

Nancy was too kind in dispatching him in 5 short blows anesthetised by a milkshake.

She should have him tortured or at least hire some triads to give him a taste of China's ancient art of limb breaking

Anonymous 20 yrs ago

Geeb i never sided with her only wondered what he could have done to make her do such a vicous thing.

I think exhk says it all, to make her hatred so black to commit that act he must have been a very vile basterd. Otherwise why not just leave.

I think she'll get the maximum sentence thrown at her. This was premediated.

rubycat 20 yrs ago

your reasoning Innocence parallels the logic that rape victims are repornsible for their own misfortune - "surely, she must have been wearing a skimpy outfit, otherwise she would not have been raped".

ex-HK 20 yrs ago

Repressed anger is very strong and dangerous and seeps out out in all kinds of behaviors, from adultery to anorexia. Maybe even murder. It could well have caused her to do the deed, but in no way excuses it. She is responsible for her behavior, not Rob no matter what a SOB he may have been.

phillberto 20 yrs ago

Yeah could be summarised as..he was killed - he deserves everything he got.

She killed him - she deserves everything she gets!

ex-HK 20 yrs ago

No, he did not "deserve" to be killed if self-defence is ruled out. An explanation is different from an excuse.

phillberto 20 yrs ago

Sorry I was (trying to)summarise the views of innocence there..not my own.

Personnally I think self-defence would have involved proving he came at her with a baseball bat which I think prosecution has effectively countered.

Manslaughter would involve proving she did what she did under stress and in the heat of the moment. For me defence has proved it was pre-meditated.

Finally I'm not sure where the law stands on this but surely even if what she did could be classified as manslaughter the covering up she did after the event would justify a murder charge.

FOTH or anyone with legal expertise, question for you - If you witness somebody killing someone and don't report it what are you liable to be charged with.

You can't blatantly try and get away with it as she has and expect any kind of leniency in my book.

ex-HK 20 yrs ago

Agree that the case for self-defence is very weak. Manslaughter (plus cowardice not to come forward/cover up) I might be able to buy if he had threatened her with divorce. But is it likely that he'd do that, then pass out? Going into that kind of discussion, and knowing her hot temper, one would think he'd have choosen to wait if woozy. The cover up only reinforces that she DID intend to kil him. Otherwise what to lose by being honest? She tried to "come forward" with the flimsy "he beat me and ran of" story, but chickened out.

My legal question is this--can arguments be made in couurt that attorneys know to be false? Surely the defense attorneys knew there was no fight, no threatened bat beating, yet they present this as gospel.

rubycat 20 yrs ago

I, as a taxpayer, do not fancy contributing towards her upkeep in prison. But I would give her a chance .... at one of China's reform-through-labour camps.

phillberto 20 yrs ago

As a matter of interest assuming the choppers of the seven year old boy are brought to justice how do you think the sentences should and would compare to a guilty Nancy Kissel?

phillberto 20 yrs ago

Ok fair point not entirely relevant but I asked because were discussing the appropriate punishment. The chopping crime wasn't murder no but the callousness of it will be taken into account. A lot of the comments on punishment were tongue in cheek but evil as Nancy Kissel's deed was there are worse things in this world.

This said anything less than murder would be a travesty.

misterangus 20 yrs ago

philberto,

there is no positive legal obligation to report a crime - merely witnessing one (however horrible that crime may be)and not reporting it does not constitute an offence. If you deny seeing it when asked , that could be obstruction, perverting or perjury depending on the circumstances.

My understanding on sentencing is that murder is a minimum 36 yrs. I think the choppers would get around 15.

I was talking with some female friends last night who share certain things in common with NK (although they have kept their hair blonde). They are convinced that, within her community, if what she said happened to her was really taking place, there is no way she would not have told anybody/people would not have known. That plus the complete lack of medical evidence of abuse plus the emails to the trailer trash in Vermont plus her attempts to cover it up all lead me to suspect, unfortunately, that it is murder rather than manslaughter (although you really need to be there to make a full assessment. As for self-defence, I would be amazed if she walked on that basis.

I am a lawyer but I would still love someone please explain to me how she got bail on a murder charge? Talk about a 2-tier system.

Anonymous 20 yrs ago

Ruby cat - your reasoning does not apply.

If she was abused mentally or physically she should have left. He did not chain her in a dungeon did he?

The analogy for rape would be if a women were in a room with freedom to walk out at any time. The rapist is across from her and he says I am going to rape you now. And she decides to stay. And he rapes. Very different than if the women walks into a room and is ambushed by the rapist.

In both cases the person had the opportunity to leave but decided to stay. Sorry but if you know you are going to be abused or raped and you decide to stick around and maliciously pull a gun and murder the person thats no excuse. The right decision is to leave.

Who was it who said that Mr Kissels lifestyle is "similar to most men they know" huh? He doesnt deserve to die for his sins but this man is not reflective of anyone I know, he is a monster, weirdo, from everything I can see. How many men do you know who force anal sex on their wife, snort coke and apparently have sex with make prosititutes when they go on business trips.

Kissel is typical of the inbred high society types the world over. Total weirdo with no conscience, difference is he paid the price for being a SOB.

ex-HK 20 yrs ago

This from AP: "High Court Judge Michael Lunn instructed the five-man, two-woman jury to convict Nancy Kissel only on a vote of 5-2 or greater."

phillberto 20 yrs ago

Wow..that seems a very arbitrary figure to choose. Don't they normally ask for unanimous initially.

rubycat 20 yrs ago

Hang on, Innocence, you are saying that in normal circumstances a person would leave. But RK was sooooo vile that she did not leave. How is that logical. How about the most obvious explanation - there was no abuse, no bogey man - ever heard of Ockham's razor?

Yppah 20 yrs ago

FOTH, has there been any examples of witnesses lying in this case? i thought I heard MRS K's father changed his story........

phillberto 20 yrs ago

He changed his story somewhat on the length of time he was at the apartment after seeing CCTV footage. It was discussed in court during a legal argument but it wasn't argued that the discrepancies were intentional fabrications rather just mistakes that were corrected later on when his memory was jogged by the footage.

His memory seemed rather sketchy on a number of things - he wasn't sure how many times he been to Hong Kong in recent years and was pretty up-front on having a flawed memory.

Yppah 20 yrs ago

thanks......were there any positive witnesses to MR. K's character or only people saying he was an SOB? just interested whether the deceased had any good points despite what Mrs. K would have us believe with no evidence to the contrary

ex-HK 20 yrs ago

Sister, for one, and friend and confidente, for another, both testified as to good character, gentle nature, kind person etc. of deceased. In fact, to my knowledge the only negative testimony about the deceased that emereged during the trial came from the acused. It is only on this blog and others his supposedly "SOB" nature has come out. Which begs a question....

Yppah 20 yrs ago

thanks . that's what I thought. easy to talk about some one who can not speak in their defence....

ex-HK 20 yrs ago

Just in from AP: "A Hong Kong Kong jury Thursday convicted an American of murdering her wealthy investment banker husband by drugging him with a milkshake laced with sedatives and beating him to death in the couple's luxury apartment."

ex-HK 20 yrs ago

Also: "The judge sentenced her to life in prison." AP

ex-HK 20 yrs ago

Finally, sorry for the strings, 8 hours of deliberations: "Sept. 1 (Bloomberg) -- Nancy Kissel, on trial in Hong Kong for the killing of her Merrill Lynch & Co. investment banker husband, was today convicted of murder. She was sentenced to life imprisonment.

A jury of seven -- five men and two women -- told Hong Kong's High Court of the decision after eight hours of deliberations. A minimum of five out of the seven jury members had to be in agreement to reach the verdict."

ex-HK 20 yrs ago

Verdict Unanmious:

Sept. 1 (Bloomberg) -- Nancy Kissel, on trial in Hong Kong for killing her Merrill Lynch & Co. investment banker husband, was today sentenced to life in prison for his murder.

A jury of five men and two women told Hong Kong's High Court of the decision after eight hours of deliberations. The verdict was unanimous.

Nancy Kissel, 41, had pleaded not guilty to murder. Defense lawyer Alexander King said in his closing remarks on Aug. 29 that Kissel wasn't guilty as the killing was in self-defense and wasn't premeditated. The prosecution said Kissel drugged her millionaire husband on Nov. 2, 2003, by lacing a milkshake with sedatives and then beat him to death with a metal ornament.

``Robert Kissel, I pray, can now rest in peace,'' William Kissel, 77, the father of the deceased, said after the verdict. ``The children can go on with their lives in peace knowing that their father loved them.''

Nancy Kissel, under cross-examination by Prosecutor Peter Chapman on Aug. 4, admitted that she killed her husband. She said the pair had a fight about getting a divorce and the custody of their three children. She said she defended herself with the metal ornament when Robert Kissel came at her, swinging a baseball bat and threatening to kill her.

Resolution

``I'm still a little stunned,'' Jean McGloughlin, Nancy Kissel's mother, said after the verdict. ``I'm right now going to try to get my feet on the ground.''

The body of Robert Kissel was found wrapped in a carpet five days later in a storeroom near the couple's Tai Tam apartment, according to a police report at the time.

Kissel said during the hearing that she had no recollection of how her husband died and what she did in the following few days.

The Kissels were married in 1989 in the U.S. and moved to Hong Kong in 1998. Merrill Lynch hired Robert Kissel from Goldman Sachs Group Inc. in 2000 to head its distressed assets business in Asia outside Japan. He was a vice president in Goldman's Asian special situations group, helping the firm become one of the biggest investors in bad debt in the region.

Degree

Robert Kissel was educated at the University of Rochester's College of Engineering and had a master of business administration degree from the Leonard N. Stern School of Business at New York University. He worked as a vice president, research, for Lazard Freres & Co. from 1992 to 1997.

Nancy Kissel worked as a volunteer at Hong Kong International School, which her two daughters attended, and she had her own photography business.

The value of Robert Kissel's estates amounted to about $18 million, made up of stocks, life insurance polices, cash and real estate, according to Jane Clayton, Robert Kissel's younger sister, who gave evidence in June as a prosecution witness. Nancy Kissel is the beneficiary of Robert Kissel's will and life insurance policies, prosecution evidence showed.

Robert Kissel wanted a divorce because he suspected his wife of having an affair, the prosecution's Chapman told the court.

Affairs

Kissel admitted she had an affair with a television repairman, Michael del Priore, who lived in a trailer park near the Kissels' holiday home in Vermont in the U.S., when she stayed with her children there during the severe acute respiratory syndrome outbreak in Hong Kong in 2003.

Nancy Kissel's affair with del Priore was a ``catalyst'' for the series of events leading to the death of Robert Kissel, Chapman alleged. Nancy Kissel killed her husband possibly with del Priore's ``tacit encouragement'' and he regarded Kissel as a ``potential gold mine,'' Chapman said.

Kissel admitted, when shown phone records, that she spoke with del Priore in the days after her husband was killed. She said she couldn't remember the content of the calls.

Nancy Kissel embarked on a cover-up of the killing over the next few days, lying to her father, maids and friends about the whereabouts of Robert Kissel, Chapman said. Meanwhile, she had taken steps to remove the bloodstained items in the master bedroom and had the body removed to the storeroom, the prosecutor said.

Defense lawyer King said Kissel's claim of memory loss was a genuine one. The trauma of what had happened had led to a ``mental meltdown'' resulting in ``bizarre behavior'' in the following few days, King said, in reference to the prosecution's allegation of a cover-up.

Deception

Kissel was detained at Siu Lam Psychiatric Center for about a year after her husband's death until November 2004, when she was free on bail.

The prosecutor alleged the fight that led to Robert Kissel's death was a deception created by Nancy Kissel and ``just did not happen.'' Kissel had ``rendered her husband defenseless'' by drugging him, using her daughter to deliver a drug-laced milkshake to him because he already suspected her of trying to poison him two months before he was killed.

Nancy Kissel inflicted ``five grouped, accurate blows'' to the right side of the head of her husband and any one of the blows could have proved fatal, Chapman said.

Chapman alleged that Kissel searched the Internet for ``overdose on sleeping pills'' in late August 2003 and stocked up on drugs a week before she allegedly laced the milkshake with sedatives. Four of the six drugs found in Robert Kissel's stomach content after he died were prescribed to Nancy Kissel by two doctors, the prosecutor said. Nancy Kissel denied she drugged her husband before bludgeoning him to death.

Abuse

Nancy Kissel had given evidence she was the victim of ``five years of humiliating, degrading sexual abuse and violence'' at the hands of Robert Kissel, who abused cocaine, sleeping pills, painkillers and alcohol.

``No one appeared to notice the effect of five years of abuse on Nancy Kissel and asked about this,'' Chapman said in his closing remarks on Aug. 26, 2005. ``The reason is that the claims of years of the abuse and violence never happened.''

The case is HKSAR v. Nancy Ann Kissel, case no. HCCC113/2004 in the Court of First Instance of the High Court.

rubycat 20 yrs ago

incredible - unrecognizable.

and so tai-tai typical that almost cliched - the Cartier bangle etc.

On the strength of the Bush picture I would have had strong doubts that this is a woman who an hour before took it up her batty from the guy standing next to her.

rubycat 20 yrs ago

Her good friend Ms. LaCause says "if I had a husband who beat me, raped me and sodomised me, I would kill him too."

Wonder if Mr.LaCause is reading and taking a note cause this is not that far-fetched.

If I had a husband who beat me, raped me and sodomised me I would leave him. And so would any normal person, I believe.

rubycat 20 yrs ago

still better than being in the care of China. she should thank her lucky stars. after a few years of good behaviour and with fluent Cantonese she will be out and about, no doubt.

There's precedence - different set of rules has been applied to her from the start (bail etc).

Anybody knows what's gonna come out of that baseball bat affair - it being removed from the crime scene by defence and kept in secret until mid-tial? Is that normal procedures in HK?

stgeorge 20 yrs ago

US Gaol, no way. If she had gone to the US, she would have faced the death penalty. I don't even know that after serving out her sentance here if she could ever face prosecution in a US court.

rubycat 20 yrs ago

I think Chinese lao gai would be the best choice.

stgeorge 20 yrs ago

Tangerine,

Rainbow warrior was different. A french government agent was put in NZ jail for murder and the doggy french government threatened trade scantions unless he was released.

john5023 20 yrs ago

Why would the USA government and its taxpayers want to absorb the cost of Nancy Kissel's incarceration? I seriously doubt this is going to happen.

misterangus 20 yrs ago

i think gwai po prisoners are segregated so not much chance of meeting Ho-yin's stepmother. Under the reciprocal arrangements, I believe NK has to serve at least one year here before being returned to the US. Unlike Rubycat, I think she will serve a very long time.

As for the baseball bat, I can only assume that the Defence thought that, because it was not taken by the police in evidence and was left in the flat, it was irrelevant to the prosecution's case - a brave call - I believe the solciitor is explaining himself in court this morning.

rubycat 20 yrs ago

defence thought it was irrelevant and yet they took it away to produce in court - proving they thought it was relevant. How does this all square up?

I would really like to hear the solicitor's explanation.

I do hope she will severe very long time but as we all have seen, she has been on special lenient terms throughout so I have my doubts.

rubycat 20 yrs ago

Sept. 2 (Bloomberg) -- Nancy Kissel, convicted yesterday of murdering her Merrill Lynch & Co. investment banker husband, may appeal the verdict, her lawyer Alexander King said outside Hong Kong's High Court today.

``There is an appeal under discussion,'' King said. ``Nancy will be advised as to her right to appeal.'' Kissel has 28 days to file an appeal.

Pending an appeal Kissel will be interned in Tai Lam Institute for Women, one of five women's prisons in Hong Kong, where she will be one of only about 230 prisoners in the system who aren't citizens of Hong Kong or China.

Without an appeal, Kissel will be eligible in five years to apply to a government board to commute her sentence to a fixed term, and then apply for early release after serving two-thirds of that term. Alternately she can seek a transfer to a federal prison in the U.S., where rules make her eligible for parole after a decade behind bars.

Prosecution lawyers today asked Judge Michael Lunn, who presided over the 66-day hearing, to order the defense to pay some of the costs of the trial because it ``unnecessarily prolonged'' the trial.

``An order designed to meet a portion of the prosecution case may be appropriate,'' said prosecutor Peter Chapman in court today.

The case is HKSAR v. Nancy Ann Kissel, case no. HCCC113/2004 in the Court of First Instance of the High Court.

rubycat 20 yrs ago

She CAN be transferred to the US - and be out in 10 years.

paparazzi 20 yrs ago

Observatory, you make it sound like she has 18 mil waiting for her when she gets out.

She gets NOTHING!

(posted earlier)

phillberto 20 yrs ago

No expert of course but I think the principle is that no criminal is allowed to benefit financially for their crimes. Life insurance of course she would not get but in other murder cases (in the US) with a murdering spouse the estate has been split and held in trust.

I don't think she will be poor when she gets out but I sure hope she will be old.

paparazzi 20 yrs ago

Based on what you are saying, if I (e.g. 18 year-old) murdered my husband (a zillionaire), I would be able to enjoy the wealth inherited from my dead husband when I got out from the prison 20-30 years later. That sounds like it's a much better deal than getting educated and working my butt off for 20-30 years. Sweet deal.

phillberto 20 yrs ago

...or you could just divorce them. Happy hunting for a zillionaire.

misterangus 20 yrs ago

she will be entitled to keep what is hers, she will get nothing of her husband's money - it will go on trust for the children until they reach majority

paparazzi 20 yrs ago

rubycat 20 yrs ago

she will sell her sordid story - remember my words.

phillberto 20 yrs ago

http://www.yourlocallawyer.com/lg_14.html

I got my info on what happens to murdering spouses on this article entitled 'Murder and real estate law'. American law so it may or may not apply..who knows.

phillberto 20 yrs ago

Another one for the legal eagles. Will her parental rights be removed as a result of this?

Life 20 yrs ago

Property owned in the US, will not be governed by HK. Therefore, she will still own half of her house and other marital ‘properties” that would be hers legally as a spouse. Stocks and Bonds that are in her name can not be removed from her name.

Now granted the life insurance policies are gone, and unless there are other beneficiaries named, not even the children can inherit. She however can not inherit anything from a will. Now if she was found guilty in the US, she would lose even her marital properties.

(1) Voluntary manslaughter disqualifies a killer from inheriting, involuntary doesn’t

Now her husband’s family can go ahead and take her to civil court and file a wrongful death suit against her and try and wipe her out. However like most expats, I am sure they hid their money in off shore bank accounts, and unless they know exactly those account numbers, they may only be able to force her to sell their American property and take those funds. With regards to Stocks and Bonds, they will have to find those in her name and without the actual bond certificates; she can claim anything and wait them out.

If I am not mistaken, OJ Simpson, has not paid out a dime to his wife’s family, nor that of Ron Goldman.

She may have come across as stupid, but she really was not. She did not flee the country. She did her homework, and although she does not inherit all, she most likely inherits more than one might realize.

ohh and the laws all depend on the state in which his realitves choose to go after her in.

romina 20 yrs ago

AN AMERICAN housewife was jailed for life yesterday after being found guilty of murdering her wealthy husband by drugging him and beating him to death in their luxury apartment.

Nancy Kissel, 41, dressed in black, as she had been throughout the three-month trial, was stoic as the seven-member jury delivered its verdict on the death of her husband, Robert.

This was the verdict in HK court .

Guess many here new the answer.

What i do not get is the fact that she will

(keep The marital Property in the Usa

( Or part of )That seams not right.

Any way Crime does not pay.

F100 20 yrs ago

Does anyone here know if the children have heard the news of the verdict?

How are they doing?

romina 20 yrs ago

I guess Corby,will up date us shortly,

some of us are really concern not just curious.

rubycat 20 yrs ago

She wanted to be close to him. She would have had him shipped to her house in Vermont and buried in the backyard. She said she still loves him. Isn't it obvious?

rubycat 20 yrs ago

HONG KONG (Reuters) - An American housewife jailed for life in Hong Kong for murdering her prominent banker husband intends to file an appeal, radio station RTHK reported on Wednesday.

A Hong Kong jury last Thursday found mother of three Nancy Kissel guilty of the premeditated murder of her husband Robert in 2003, ending a trial that riveted the city with tales of rough sex, marital violence and adultery.

A judge sentenced her to life in prison.

Kissel has given notice of her intention to appeal the conviction and lawyers could file it as early as next week, the radio station said, citing lawyers in the case.

rubycat 20 yrs ago

SCMP today - "A judge has refused bail to socialite Mo Yuk-ping who is on trial for manipulating shares of a listed company controlled by her husband".

Yet, a US-born murderess was allowed bail and walked the streets for almost two years. Why?

mah9ru 20 yrs ago

can u pl post that letter. could not access SCMP

rubycat 20 yrs ago

she's appealed. Cycle two is coming up.....

NoDinero 20 yrs ago

"By the time you hear the siren

It's already too late

One goes to the morgue and the other to jail

One guy's wasted and the other's a waste

It goes down the same as a thousand before

No one's getting smarter

No one's learning the score

Your never ending spree of death a violence and hate

Is gonna tie your own rope "

From the Offspring, sums it up nicely

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