Bloodied attack ends story of love

Friends say Blazej Kot and Caroline Coffey appeared to be very much in love. Photo / Supplied

It took less than two hours for Blazej Kot to go from doting newly-wed to bloodsoaked prime suspect in his wife's brutal murder.

At 8.02pm on June 2, 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 2004 Suzuki Forenza in the Taughannock Falls State Park, 350m from their Ithaca home.

Wearing only a bathrobe, and with his arms covered in dried blood, Kot led police and state troopers on an 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.

Documents filed in the Tompkins Country Court reveal the first thing he said to police was: Is my wife Caroline Coffey okay? Where is she? We were jogging near 921 Taughannock Boulevard, our house."

Officers converged on the couple's apartment to find it ablaze. Kot's 28-year-old wife was missing and a massive search was launched.

Coffey's bloodied corpse was found face up by a jogger early the next morning. She was on a trail in the park near where Kot was first spotted. Her throat had been slashed and there was blood all over her white T-shirt and black jogging pants.

Word spread quickly that police were investigating a murder and their main suspect was Kot, an Auckland University graduate enrolled at the prestigious Cornell University.

He was charged with second degree murder at a special court sitting at his hospital bedside two days later.

What happened in those 105 missing minutes on June 2 will be the subject of a trial, likely to start in January.

But fresh details have emerged of the cases being prepared by District Attorney Gwen Wilkinson and Kot's lawyer Joseph Joch.

Wilkinson confirmed that among the 70 items seized by police were bloodstained utility knives, one in a zip-lock bag, a razor blade, corkscrew, champagne and wine bottles found in Kot's car; from the apartment they took laptops, a diary and bloodstained shoes.

As well as blood samples from a wine fridge, light switch and computer, forensic experts also lifted remnants of burned clothing and vegetation from the living room floor and fireplace in the couple's apartment.

Investigators intially refused to discuss the details of the fire. But crucial information was included in court documents filed when Kot was charged with second-degree arson and tampering with evidence.

The documents say an empty can of a highly flammable solvent called Klean Strip, lacquer, shellac and varnish were littered through the apartment alongside matches and a lighter.

Kot has already denied all charges and Joch told the Herald on Sunday he had "no confidence" his client was the "proper suspect".

"I can't discuss what he tells me, but what I can certainly tell you is he has a great deal of difficulty remembering anything about that night."

Joch will tell the murder trial that someone else murdered Coffey and that Kot ran from police because he was in a "confused state relating to her death".

He claims Kot was "emotionally out of control" because of his failure to protect his wife from a "bloody and murderous attack" at the hands of someone else.

"In this event, it would have been his inability to emotionally cope with that failure that drove him to his desperate flight and suicide attempt."

Kot, who was born in Zaire but raised in New Zealand by his Polish parents, was once hailed a star student at Auckland's Macleans College.

One former teacher said the murder accused was focused, intelligent and academically gifted, but brooding and unusual at the same time. Another said he was polite, respectful and affable.

Auckland University Professor of Applied Computer Science John Hosking said he was surprised to read of Kot's arrest.

"It wasn't something you'd ever expect from him. There were never any signs that this sort of thing might happen in his future, I was pretty shocked to put it bluntly."

Hosking said Kot was "quite driven" and it was his dream to obtain his PhD from Cornell.

That was where Kot and Coffey met. She was born in Ireland and raised in Pennsylvania. After graduating from Cornell, she went to work at another university.

She was already dating Kot, who would visit her often, and after about a year she returned to Cornell to be with him.

They married in a civil ceremony last October but celebrated a second wedding with friends and family in Costa Rica on May 2. Kot's best man, who asked not to be named, was audibly distressed when told of Coffey's death in June.

Friend Dimitra Livanos-Hollows, who met Kot through Coffey, said the couple appeared to be very much in love.

"Nobody had any reservations about Blazej. I don't know of any fighting or arguments which they had. They both seemed to really be excited for one another's success and they had lots in common. Their wedding was the happiest I had ever seen them."

Photos from the wedding posted on the internet depict a loving and happy couple, totally unaware of the tragic twist their lives would take.

Thirty-two days later Coffey was dead and Kot is facing 25 years to life in a US prison.

His parents Barbara and Leszek rushed to the US after Coffey's death to support their son.

They returned to their home in Half Moon Bay, Auckland, after a week and have refused contact with the media.

Joch says they write to their eldest child regularly.

Their daughter Lucja, who is also a computer science student at Cornell, visits Kot regularly but has also refused to speak about his case.

Without a surprise confession - from Kot or someone else - what really happened on the night of June 2 may remain a mystery.

But in less than two hours Blazej Jakub Kot went from a man with a promising future to an alleged killer; from star student to slasher.

At 8.02pm he had the world at his feet, a future and freedom. Now, his fate rests in the hands of 12 American jurors.