WIFE TESTIFIES ON HER OWN BIRTHDAY; GUTHRIE BREAKS SILENCE; TIGER PLEADS NOT GUILTY

0:03 Kalaroga Shark Media. Good morning, I'm Garrett Fisher. Thursday, April second, twenty twenty six. Three things on the board today. First, the Konig trial Honolulu, Hawaii. Earlier this week, we brought you days one and two. Today, we're getting you through day five, and I will tell you right now, day three alone is worth the price of admission. Ariel Konig, the alleged victim, took the stand, and she did it on her birthday, one year almost to the hour after her husband allegedly tried to beat her to death on a Hawaiian cliff side. She looked at that jury and told them what he said to her while it was happening. We're going to spend some real time here. Second, Nancy Guthrie, Savannah Guthrie's mother, eighty four years old, taken from her home in Tucson, Arizona, in the middle of the night on February first, and she has not been seen or heard from since. After eight weeks of silence, Savannah sat down with her former co host Hota Kappi and did her first interview. She answered the question that everyone has been afraid to ask out loud. Does she think her fame is the reason her mother was taken. And Third, Tiger Woods, we brought you the arrest Yesterday, Friday, March twenty seventh. Dui rollover crash near his Jupiter Island home. Two opioid pills in his pocket, breathalyzer blewe zero point zero refuse the urine test.

1:33 As of this morning, he has entered a not guilty plea and demanded a jury trial. His court date is April twenty third. There's a lot to get to. Let's go Koenig Trial Days three through five. We've been with this case since it opened on March nineteen. Earlier this week, we walked you through the first two days, the eyewitnesses who ran toward the screaming, the crime scene photographs, and the defense's attempt to frame this as mutual combat between two people in a broken marriage. If you haven't heard those episodes, go find them their essential context Today days three through five, and I want to start with the timing because I think it matters. Day three was March twenty fourth, twenty twenty six, Ariel Koenig's thirty seventh birthday, exactly one year after the day. Prosecutors say her husband took her to a hiking trail above the poly lookout on Oahu and tried to end her life. She sat in that witness box on her birthday and testified against him.

2:38 I don't think you do that by accident. I think you make a decision, you decide. This is the day I say what happened? Quick recap for anyone just joining. Gerhart Koenig is a forty seven year old anesthesiologist. He and Ariel have two children together, ages three and five. On March twenty fourth of last year, he planned a birthday trip to Oahu. Ariel had never been on the hike he chose at the Nuanupoly Lookout, on a narrow trail above a sheer cliff. Prosecutors say he asked her to pose for a selfie near the edge, and when she said she wasn't comfortable and walked away, he grabbed her, pushed her into the bushes, and when she escaped again, he picked up a rock and hit her in the head approximately ten times, while grabbing her hair and slamming her face into the ground. He also, according to Ariel, reached into his bag and produced syringes. He is an anesthesiologist.

3:35 He knew what was in them. He brought them on a birthday hike. Two nurses hiking nearby heard her screaming and ran toward the sound. That's the case. Now Here's what Ariel told the jury. She described the months leading up to the attack, Gerhardt had been monitoring her, obsessively checking her phone daily, going through her emails. She acknowledged that she had developed what she called an emotion connection with a coworker named Jeff Miller. She described the messages as flirty, said the relationship was never physical, but acknowledged that it felt like a betrayal to her husband. I was apologetic, she testified. He was obviously hurt. I was committed to my marriage to rebuild. It felt like an affair to him. It was an emotional affair to him.

4:24 When Gerhart found the messages during their vacation, he called her a lying bitch and a whore. Then he told her they were going for a hike. The defenses leaned hard into the affair from the start. Attorney Thomas O'taki described Arielle in opening statements as unfaithful, unwilling, and untrue. The argument is that Gerhart was a devastated husband that Arielle attacked him first, that he hit her back in retaliation and that this was mutual combat on a cliff side rather than premeditated attempted murder. That's the theory they're running. But then o'take made a decision during cross examination that I think he may come to regret. He asked Ariel to read the birthday card. Gerhard had given her the card on the morning of the hike, the morning of the alleged attack. On the stand before the jury, Ariel read it aloud. He had called her his angel face, said she was one of the kindest, most giving, and selfless people he knew, called her the heart of our family, called her a terrific mom. Wrote I hit the jackpot with you and told her there wasn't an obstacle in this world too hard for me to fight through for you.

5:37 He wrote that on the morning he allegedly took her to a cliff to kill her. The ostensible purpose of having her read it was to suggest a devoted husband rather than a calculating one. What it actually produced was Ariel Koenig on her birthday on the stand, reading a love letter from the man charged with bashing her skull with a rock a few hours after he wrote it. The jury watched her become emotional in real time. That's not a defense strategy. That's a gift to the prosecution. Now, and I want to be fair here because this is a trial and both sides will get their say. There is a detail from Ariel's testimony that the defense will absolutely use. She moved money from the couple's joint account into a new account in her name only, and she did it four days before she asked her doctor to add traumatic brain injury to the official list of her injuries.

6:31 The defense is going to argue that this looks strategic, that it looks like someone building a case rather than just recovering from an attack. Here's the counter argument. A woman whose husband allegedly just tried to kill her has every reason in the world to separate her finances. The jury gets to decide what that timing means, but watch for it in closing arguments. It's coming on the medical side. The day three testimony from doctor Whitney Carlton, the acute care so who treated Ariel, confirmed no skull fracture, no facial fracture, her thumb was broken. The defense attorney has suggested her injuries were less severe than they appeared, pointing to what he described as a small laceration to the eyebrow.

7:16 What is not in dispute. There was enough blood on that trail to stain the leaves, the branches in the ground. Jurors have seen the photographs they held the rock. Day four March twenty fifth, the body camera footage arrived. Corporal Kevin Chun of. The Honolulu Police Department testified to what he saw when he reached the scene. Three women coming down the trail. Two of them the nurses Amanda Morris and Sarah Bucksbaum, the same women who testified on day one, were helping the third Ariel walk. Blood was streaming down her face, She was breathing heavily, Her voice was weak. She was communicating through hand gestures. The jury watched the footage. Defense attorney Otaki tried to use the bodycam in his favor during arguing that Ariel appeared coherent, that she was able to answer questions. Coherent enough to answer questions apparently is the standard there offering for a woman with rock embedded in her skull. Evidence specialist Brittany cop walked the jury through photographs from the trail, the main path, a side trail, a hole in the brush where the struggle occurred, the cliff area nearby, and multiple locations where bloodstains were documented on leaves, branches, and the ground. The rock believed to be the weapon was collected and shown to the jury up close. There was one item that the defense flagged.

8:37 Cop acknowledged on cross examination that the rock may have been moved before she photographed it. That's a chain of custody wrinkle they will revisit. Day four also brought the manhunt testimony. Officer Chauncey Nikola testified that he had been driving back from a mountain lookout in an unmarked van when he spotted Gerhart and noticed what appeared to be blood on his shirt. He gave chase. Officer Riley Borges joined in along with other officers. They forced him to the ground, had to strike him multiple times with closed fists to get him to comply. Eight hours that's how long it took to find him after he fled the scene where his wife was bleeding on the ground. Lead investigator Officer Aston Koch also testified on day four, and there was a detail in his testimony worth noting a second bag was recovered from Maui containing medical supplies linked to the defendant. He is an anesthesiologist.

9:34 He had a bag of medical supplies at the time of the alleged attack. The chain of custody for all evidence was documented and presented day five, March twenty seventh, the DNA came in. Criminalist Michelle Amorin from the Honolulu Police Department testified about testing conducted on multiple pieces of evidence, the rock, swabs from the scene, clothing from both parties, her finding many samples tested positive for him human blood, and most came from a single female contributor. When those samples were compared to Gerhart Koenig's known DNA profile, he was excluded as a contributor for many of the key items. Let me be clear about why that matters. The defence's theory, the one they've been building since opening statements, is mutual combat.

10:20 Two people fighting, two people bleeding. That's the story. But mutual combat produces a mixed evidence scene, two combatants, two DNA profiles. What the lab found at this scene was overwhelmingly one person's blood, one person's DNA. The female contributor Ariel, criminalist Scott Henderson followed with probabilistic genotyping testimony, a statistical framework that quantifies the strength of DNA evidence. Results are measured in likelihood ratios. The testimony indicated strong statistical support for the conclusions. The defense will find the cracks, they can chain of custody on the rock lab procedures the moved evidence.

11:03 That's their job and they'll do it. But the picture of the DNA paints is hard to explain away with a theory about mutual combat. If he was hitting her back in self defense, where's his blood? Day six began this morning in Honolulu. We'll be back with updates as testimony continues. This trial deserves your full attention. Commercial break. Nancy Guthrie, eighty four years old, taken from her home in the Catalina Foothills neighborhood of Tucson, Arizona, overnight on January thirty first into February first.

11:45 Her front door camera. Had been disconnected, there was blood in the doorway, Her phone and purse were still inside. She was gone and her pajamas, no shoes, no medication that was two months ago. No arrests, no proof of life, no resolution. Last week for the first time since her mother disappeared, Savannah Guthrie sat down with Hoda Kopby and gave an interview. It aired in three parts on March twenty sixth and twenty seventh on The Today Show. I want to give you what she said. The FBI had previously released surveillance footage a masked, armed man appearing to tamper with the camera at the front door of Nancy's home the morning she disappeared.

12:28 Savannah described seeing it for the first time. It's just totally terrifying, she said, I can't imagine that that is who she saw standing over her bed. I can't. It's too much an eighty four year old woman in her bed in the dark, and then that standing over her. Savannah also addressed the question that has been circulating since the beginning. Spoken quietly in the margins of coverage, but always there is Nancy Guthrie's daughter. The reason this happened is the price of Savannah's platform. A kidnapped mother, She said, I don't know that it's because she's my mom and somebody thought that lady has money. We can make a quick buck. I mean, that would make sense, but we don't know which is too much to bear to think that I brought this to her bedside, that it's because of me. Her brother Cameron knew immediately from the first phone call. He said he thought Nancy had been kidnapped for ransom. Savannah said she didn't want to believe it.

13:34 Do you think because of me? She asked him. He said, I'm sorry, sweetie, but yeah, maybe that's a sentence you carry on. The ransom notes. Dozens of notes were sent to local news affiliates and to TMZ in the weeks after Nancy disappeared. Savannah said, most of them, to her understanding, are not real. A person that would send a fake ransom note has to look deeply at themselves elves, but she believes the first two notes the family received and responded to were genuine. They contained specific details about what Nancy was wearing the night she was taken and about damage inside the home that had not been made public. The family has been cleared as suspects.

14:17 Sheriff Chris Nanos announced on February sixteenth that all Guthrie family members were cleared. Savannah addressed the early speculation directly, calling it unbearable. She spoke about her sister Annie and brother in law caring for Nancy, about her brother Cameron, protecting her. She is our shining light, she said, and she is all we have. She wakes up every night, every night, in the middle of the night, thinking about her mother. Nancy Guthrie has been missing for two months. The investigation is still active. A twenty to twenty four person task force remains on it. Sheriff Nanos said this week the investigation is definitely closer and that there is a lot of intel.

15:00 To work with. January eleventh has emerged as a key date. The neighbor reported seeing a suspicious man near the home on that date, and the FBI has requested doorbell camera footage from the surrounding neighborhood going back to that day. The family is offering one million dollars for information leading to Nancy's recovery. The FBI has posted an additional reward. Savannah is returning to the Today Show on April sixth. She said, I think it's part of my purpose right now. I want to smile, and when I do, it will be real, and my joy will be my protest. I hope she finds her mother first. If you have information about Nancy Guthrie's disappearance. Contact the FBI at one eight hundred call FBI, and then there's Tiger Woods. Yesterday we gave you the initial store the quick version. Last Friday, March twenty seventh, Tiger Woods rolled his land Rover on South Beach Road in Jupiter Island, Florida, a short distance from his home. He was attempting to pass a truck pulling a pressure washing trailer, crossed a double solid line into oncoming traffic, clipped the back of the trailer, and his SUV flipped onto the driver's side.

16:22 He crawled out through the passenger window. The other driver was not injured. Sheriff John Budenzig gave the press conference describe Woods as lethargic, sweating profusely despite cool air flowing in the patrol car movements slow. He did feel sobriety test while limping, told officers he'd had seven back surgeries and over twenty operations on his leg. He blew zero point zero on the breathalyzer, not alcohol. He refused the urine test, and when officers searched him, they found two white pills marked M three sixty seven in his left pants pocket. Hydro codone, a prescript shinopioid. When asked if he was taking any medications, he said, I take a few.

17:05 The arrest affidavit released this week says he told officers he was looking down at his cell phone and changing the radio station when the crash occurred. Let me give you the full picture on this man's history behind the wheel. In two thousand and nine, he crashed into a fire hydrant fleeing his Florida home after his wife discovered his affairs, the incident that began the public unraveling of his reputation. In twenty seventeen, police found him asleep at the wheel in Jupiter, Florida, with five drugs in his system. He pled guilty to reckless driving avoided a DUI conviction. In twenty twenty one, he was in a severe single vehicle crash in California that shattered his right leg. He said, doctor's discussed amputation. And now this Friday, fourth incident, second DUI arrest. As of this morning, Woods has entered a not guilty plea his attorney the arraignment. He is demanding a trial by jury court date April twenty third. He is charged with dui with property damage and refusal to submit to a lawful test, both misdemeanors. The damage to the trailer came out to about five thousand dollars. Florida legal commentary this week suggests the dui charge may be harder to prove without the yearine results. When a defendant refuses the chemical test, Establishing what specific substance caused impairment becomes a more complicated argument a trial. That's part of why lawyers sometimes advise refusal. There's still a separate charge

18:36 for the refusal itself under Florida's implied consent law, and there's the observed behavior, the crash circumstances, the pills in his pocket. Girlfriend Vanessa Trump, the ex wife of Donald Trump Junior, reportedly told him he needs to get his act together or she won't stick around. The President, who described Woods as a close friend, called it some difficulty. And this is close to Woods, per reporting this week, say he has no intention of changing how he lives, that he's fifty years old, that he enjoys what he's built, that this will pass. Look, I'm gonna be honest with you. I've been covering stories like this for a long time and there's a version of this where you say, well, it's his life, nobody got hurt this time. Let the man be I understand that argument.

19:25 Here's the problem. The last time in twenty twenty one, he shattered his leg. The time before that, he was found unconscious at the wheel. The trajectory on this one is not a mystery, and next time there might be someone in the other car. That's not a mistake, that's a pattern. We'll follow this to April twenty third. That's Thursday, April second, and twenty twenty six. The Koenig trial is in day six as of this morning in Honolulu. We'll have updates as testimony continues. Nancy Guthrie's family waits and Tiger Woods heads toward a courtroom of his own. I'm Garrett Fischer, See you tomorrow.

20:05 Daily Crime and Justice is produced by Calarogu Shark Media. This episode was researched and scripted with the assistance of AI based tools. All facts are drawn from court records, law enforcement statements, and credentialed news coverage and have been reviewed for accuracy. But this is not a legal proceeding, and information can evolve as trials progress. When we get something wrong, we say so. The views expressed are those of the hosts, not of the courts, law enforcement, or any party to these cases. This program is produced for informational and entertainment purposes. If you have information about the disappearance of Nancy Guthrie, please contact the FBI at one eight hundred call FBI