A jury trial is underway in Pennsylvania for a man accused of trying to kill his wife by installing a tripwire at the top of the stairs in the couple’s home.
Prosecutors allege William Joseph Dankesreiter Jr., 63, willed the death of his wife, Laura, and collected on a $300,000 life insurance policy, according to a report on PennLive.
Fortunately, he managed to catch himself before falling down the wooden stairs, at first thinking he was about to fall due to a loose piece of carpet.
However, upon closer inspection, Laura Dankesreiter said she saw a pair of metal hooks attached to either side of the door with fishing line stretched tightly between them about 3 inches above the carpet.
According to court filings, Laura Dankesreiter told investigators she tripped over something on her way down to the basement of her Derry Township home to grab something for breakfast from the refrigerator in October 2020.
The couple’s home is in Derry Township, Pa., about 100 miles outside of Philadelphia, where the alleged tripwire incident took place.KDKA
“There was nothing accidental about this,” State Trooper Stephen Limani told KDKA-TV in Pittsburgh at the time, noting that his injuries would have been “catastrophic” had he fallen all the way to the concrete floor below.
In court this week, prosecutors painted a grim picture of the state of the Dankesreiters’ marriage, with witnesses testifying that William Dankesreiter had affairs with other women.
“His sexual pleasure and satisfaction is more important than Laura’s,” prosecutors said in their opening statements Monday, PennLive reported.
According to reports, William Dankesreiter’s defense team intends to cast doubt on the alleged matter, and may even imply that Laura Dankesreiter prepared it all herself.
Court records show William Dankesreiter faces charges of attempted felony murder, assault, aggravated assault and reckless endangerment.
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
