It took less than two hours for Auckland man Blazej Kot to go from doting newlywed to blood soaked prime suspect in his wife's brutal murder.
At 8.02pm on June 2, 2009 the 24-year-old computer science student was helping Caroline Coffey load their wedding photos on to Facebook in their
New York State apartment.
At 9.47pm police found Kot sitting in his car in a park 350m from their Ithaca home.
Covered in dried blood, Kot led police and state troopers on a high speed 8km chase that ended when his car slammed into trees.
He was found slumped over the steering wheel bleeding profusely from a self-inflicted gash to the front of his neck.
The next morning Coffey's body was found, brutalised and bloody, on a trail in a park near the couple's home.
Today we look back at the grisly and bizarre crim in the Herald podcast A Moment in Crime.
The episode is available on the Herald website today using the player below - and you can listen on iHeartRadio, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts and Spotify.
This episode of A Moment In Crime contains material including references to violence, sexual assault and murder and might be distressing for some listeners.
LISTEN TO EPISODE 5 HERE:
Kot was born in Zaire to polish parents - and the family moved to Auckland when he was a young child.
He attended Macleans College and Auckland University.
His dream was to attain a PhD at Cornell University in the US.
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Soon after his move to the United States Kot met Caroline Coffey.
She too was born overseas - in Ireland - but had been raised in the US from childhood.
The pair married in a civil ceremony in 2008 and headed to Costa Rica for a second wedding with family and friends in 2009.
Just over a month later, Kot beat his wife with a metal pipe and slit her throat.
A Moment In Crime is written and hosted by Anna Leask, senior crime reporter for the Herald. The podcast is produced by Chris Tarpey. Frances Cook is the executive producer.
Leask has been covering crime and justice for the Herald for more than a decade and has reported on most of the major incidents and events over that time.
"Each month I'll take you inside some of our most infamous incidents, notorious offenders and behind the scenes of high profile trials and events to show you what's really happening in your backyard," she said.
"Heroes and villains battle for justice to be done, and it seems no matter how horrifying the story, we always want to know more.
"If you want to know more about the cases that have shocked and shaped our nation - from murders and massacres to violent villains and the utterly unbelievable - join me for A Moment In Crime."
In our first episode we looked back at the Christchurch terror attack - what unfolded on March 15 and how it changed New Zealand.
The podcast has also delved into the death of West Auckland toddler Aisling Symes, the cold case murder of Kayo Matsuzawa and double killer Jason Somerville, infamous for the Christchurch House of Horrors.
In 2017 Leask wrote and hosted Chasing Ghosts - a six-part podcast series on the Amber-Lee Cruickshank case.
The South Island toddler disappeared almost 27 years ago from a small town on the shore of Lake Wakatipu.
READ MORE AND LISTEN TO CHASING GHOSTS HERE
Despite exhaustive and repeated searches, there has never been any sign of the little girl.
To mark the 25th anniversary of Amber-Lee's disappearance, Leask investigated the famous cold case in a bid to generate some answers for the toddler's family.
It was the Herald's first true-crime podcast.
To subscribe to A Moment In Crime visitiHeartRadio, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts and Spotify.
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