- What looked like the perfect high-society marriage between Nancy and Robert Kissel unravelled into a scandal involving a secret affair, a suspicious disappearance and a chilling murder plot.
- Banker Robert Kissel was found dead inside a rolled-up carpet – was a strawberry milkshake made by his wife Nancy part of a dark plan?
- Nancy claimed she acted in self-defence – so what really happened inside the Kissels’ luxury apartment?
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Robert and Nancy Kissel had a life most could only dream of.
The couple, who’d met on a singles holiday in 1987, lived in Hong Kong, where Rob worked as an investment banker for high-profile firm Merrill Lynch.
Along with their three children, they lived in an apartment in an exclusive private housing estate, alongside some of the city’s wealthiest individuals.
While Rob worked 16-hour days, bringing in millions of dollars a year, Nancy’s time was spent with the children and doing charity work.
It was sometimes boring for a woman with a bachelor’s degree in business and a master’s in design. While just as qualified as Rob, in the early years of their relationship, Nancy had supported her husband’s studies by doing three part-time jobs.
Despite the fact she’d deviated from her own career goals while Rob climbed the corporate ladder, Nancy knew how lucky she was.
Then in 2003, the Kissels’ lives were disrupted in a way that is now familiar to many – the SARS pandemic struck Hong Kong.
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Nancy and the children relocated to the family’s holiday home in Vermont, US, while Rob stayed on.
It was a stressful time and the Kissels had no idea when they’d be reunited, so Nancy decided to install a home theatre system to keep the kids entertained.
The TV repairman who came to set it up was Michael Del Priore – and Nancy was instantly drawn to him. Before long, they began an affair.
Michael was twice divorced and lived in a trailer park – a far cry from Nancy’s gilded cage – but he showered her with the affection she was not getting from her husband.
Back in Hong Kong, Rob felt something wasn’t quite right, so he hired a private investigator, Frank Shea, to keep tabs on his wife.
Her affair was quickly uncovered and Rob was broken up about it. While he didn’t confront her directly, a phone call in which he warned Nancy “not to do anything stupid” was enough to have her back in Hong Kong a few months later.
While she kept in touch with Michael, Nancy and Rob kept up appearances of being a couple.
That was until November 2, when Rob failed to turn up for work.
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Given his high profile, colleagues noticed immediately.
Rob’s company’s vice president David Noh called Nancy to ask if Rob was okay. She said her husband was dealing with personal issues. But David didn’t buy it. And when two more days went by without any sign of him, he reported Rob missing to the police.
They questioned Nancy, who said she didn’t know where he was and, detectives noted, she didn’t seem too worried.
When officers spoke to maintenance workers in the apartment building, they said Nancy had called them asking them to move a carpet to a storage area.
The carpet had been so heavy, it had required four men to move it.
Police located the carpet – and inside it, they found the body of Rob Kissel.
He was 40 years old.
Nancy Kissel, also 40, was arrested and charged with murder.
Meanwhile, an autopsy revealed Rob had suffered severe head trauma after being struck five times with a blunt instrument.
Traces of four sedative drugs were found in his stomach.
At her trial in 2005, Nancy Kissel admitted to killing her husband, but said it was self-defence.
Prosecutors alleged Nancy had blended the sedative drugs into a pink, strawberry milkshake, which she’d given to her six-year-old daughter to “serve to Daddy”.
The couple’s neighbour, Andrew Tanzer, testified that he had been there at the time picking up his seven-year-old daughter, and he too had been served a strawberry milkshake.
He told police that after drinking it, he’d felt woozy and had passed out in bed.
It was fair to assume, prosecutors said, that Rob suffered the same effects.
They alleged that once sedated, Rob had been struck by Nancy with a lead figurine, before she wrapped him up in an oriental rug and had workers dump it in the basement.
Nancy Kissel denied sedating her husband, but admitted beating him to death in self-defence, after they’d argued about a possible divorce.
She described Rob as a domineering, heartless man. She claimed he was so obsessed with his work, he used cocaine to maintain the long hours.
According to her, he had been physically violent with her and had also forced her to have sex against her will.
Although the testimony was chilling, she had no evidence, and no medical reports to back it up.
In September 2005, the jury found Nancy Kissel guilty of murder. She was sentenced to life in prison.
Appealing her conviction, her lawyer argued the prosecution had used improper evidence.
Eventually, a retrial was granted in March 2011, but once again she was found guilty as charged and sentenced to life behind bars.
