Kiwi charged in US murder mystery

Caroline Coffey's body was found just one month after she married murder accused Blazej Kot. Photo / Supplied

An Auckland man has been charged with murder after allegedly slashing his wife's throat and leaving her body in a state park near New York - a month after their wedding.

New York state police allege Blazej Jakub Kot, 24, cut 28-year-old Caroline Coffey's throat, causing her to bleed to death. A jogger found her body on a wooded trail in Taughannock Falls State Park, about 350m from the couple's Ithaca home.

Kot and Coffey were married in Costa Rica on May 2.

Kot is a PhD student at Ivy League Cornell University, where Coffey had worked as a biomedical researcher.

Police issued a statement this week saying a park police officer saw Kot drive into the park about 9.50pm on Tuesday. The officer went up to the vehicle and saw Kot was covered in blood.

Kot saw the officer, took off and led police on an 8km chase before he drove off the road and crashed into trees.

Captain Lawrence Jackmin said Kot had been found with an apparent self-inflicted injury and an "edged weapon". Coffey's purse and cellphone were in his car.

Kot was airlifted to Robert Packer Hospital in Sayre, Pennsylvania, where he underwent emergency surgery. He is in a stable condition. Meanwhile, police began searching for Coffey and found the couple's apartment on fire.

Early the next morning they started sweeping the park area. The jogger found Coffey's body soon after. She was lying face up, wearing running pants and a white T-shirt which was stained with blood.

Kot was arrested and charged in his hospital bed on Thursday morning.

His lawyer Joseph Joch told the Herald on Sunday Kot's parents had flown from Auckland to be with their son. His older sister Lucja also lives in Ithaca and attends Cornell University. He said Kot would be defending the charges and would be extradited from Pennsylvania to New York as soon as he was well enough.

It is understood Kot has wounds to his neck but Joch did not know what caused them.

"I have only spoken to him briefly. I can't discuss what was said but no one has told me that there was any evidence that there was an attempt on his own life," he said.

"At this stage there are a lot of mysterious rumours ... it's a very puzzling case, there is almost nothing that makes sense about this."

Joch said Kot found out about his wife's death only when he was arrested.

"The police have pretty much fixated on him [Kot] from the start. I don't think they have entertained any other possibility - that's my guess."

Kot, of Polish ancestry and born in Zaire, has lived most of his life in Auckland. He attended Macleans College and then completed a Bachelor of Science Degree, majoring in computer science and physics at the University of Auckland. At Cornell Kot was focusing on energy efficient design.

University of Auckland Professor of Applied Computer Science John Hosking said he was shocked when he read about Kot's arrest.

"I saw it and thought 'oh s**t'. It wasn't something you'd ever expect from him," he said.

"There were never any signs that this sort of thing might happen in his future, I was pretty shocked to put it bluntly. It's a major tragedy."

Hosking said Kot was sociable, dry witted and "very bright and quite driven".

"I supervised him on a couple of small summer research projects. I didn't expect to get an academic paper out of an undergraduate student but that was his calibre."

Kot's best man, who asked not to be named, was yesterday distressed when told of Coffey's death, and the charge .

"Good God ... I just don't believe it."

He and Kot had known each other for a "long time" and were "very, very good friends".

In a statement posted on the Cornell University website, spokesman Tommy Bruce said: "We are shocked and profoundly saddened by the news of this tragedy. We offer our support and condolences to friends, colleagues and family members of Caroline Coffey and Blazej Kot."