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Dutchess County Rocked By High-Profile Crime, Court Cases In 2015

DUTCHESS COUNTY, N.Y. -- It seems there was no end to unbelievable crime and court stories locally in 2015.

Angelika Graswald of Poughkeepsie was charged in the murder of her fiance during a kayaking accident on the Hudson River in April.

Angelika Graswald of Poughkeepsie was charged in the murder of her fiance during a kayaking accident on the Hudson River in April.

Photo Credit: New York State Police

Poll
What do you think was the top crime/court story in 2015?
Final Results Voting Closed

What do you think was the top crime/court story in 2015?

  • Hit-and-run driver sent to prison for Bard College deaths.
    22%
  • Priest charged with sex abuse.
    11%
  • Anesthesiologist pleads guilty to harassment.
    0%
  • Stabbing death at former psychiatric center.
    0%
  • Poughkeepsie woman charged in kayaking death.
    56%
  • Nine students hurt in school bus crash.
    11%
  • Other
    0%

Here is a sampling of the higher-profile arrests, convictions and accidents in Dutchess this year. 

In August, the body of missing kayaker Ian Jones, a 32-year-old New York City man who was kayaking with his girlfriend, Tail Fruchtmann, 22, also of New York City, was found in the Hudson River near Staatsburg. Fruchtmann is the daughter of singer Annie Lennox.

In May, nine students, the driver of their school bus and another driver are injured when the bus is struck and overturns on Spackenkill Road in the town of Poughkeepsie hamlet of Red Oaks Mills.

In April, Angelika Graswald, 35, of Poughkeepsie -- who reported her fiance, Vincent Viafore, missing after his kayak overturned in the Hudson River near Cornwall in Orange County -- is charged with second-degree murder. Click here for earlier Daily Voice coverage.

Also in April, Carol Boeck, 64, of Red Hook is sentenced to seven to 21 years in state prison for the hit-and-run deaths of two Bard College students. A third student from the college located at Annandale-on-Hudson in the town of Red Hook was injured in Boeck's Jan. 31, 2014, drunken driving crash. 

In March, William D. McKinney, 55, a city of Poughkeepsie ex-convict is charged with killing Jerusha L. Christie, 27, whose body was found March 18 on the grounds of the former Hudson River Psychiatric Center. Police say she was stabbed to death.

Also in March, Red Hook anesthesiologist Thomas A. Pfeiffer pleads guilty to a single count of harassment after being accused of choking an acquaintance in Rosendale and forcing her to swallow a Plan B, or "morning after" pill, that can cause an abortion. Pfeiffer originally was charged with felony abortion and strangulation and misdemeanor assault and criminal mischief.

In January, The Archdiocese of New York says a "credible" sexual abuse allegation dating back 30 years led to the suspension of the Rev. Peter Kihm, 59, the parish priest at Good Shepherd and St. Joseph churches in Northern Dutchess.

What do you think was the biggest crime/court story in Dutchess this year? Vote in our poll and continue the conversation in the comments. 

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