Shock at Kiwi student's murder charge

Blazej Kot is accused of killing Caroline Coffey a month after he married her. Photo / Supplied

Friends and colleagues of a New Zealand graduate student are stunned that he has been charged with murdering his wife in the United States.

New York state police have charged Blazej Jakub Kot, 24, with second-degree murder, saying he slashed 28-year-old Caroline Coffey's throat with a knife, causing her to bleed to death in a state park near New York.

Kot, from Auckland, and Ms Coffey, originally from Ireland, were married a month earlier in Costa Rica.

Police said an officer saw Kot drive into the park about 9.50pm on Tuesday. The officer went up to his vehicle and saw Kot was covered in blood.

Kot took off and led police on an 8km chase before he drove off the road and crashed into trees. He was found with an apparent self-inflicted injury and an "edged weapon", police said.

They began searching for Ms Coffey and found the couple's apartment on fire.

The next morning a jogger found Ms Coffey's body. Kot was arrested and charged in his hospital bed on Thursday morning.

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

Kot, of Polish ancestry and born in Zaire, lived most of his life in Auckland. He attended Macleans College and completed a bachelor of science degree in computer science and physics at the University of Auckland.

Professor of Applied Computer Science there, John Hosking, said he was shocked when he read of Kot's arrest. "I saw it and thought 'oh s**t'.

"It wasn't something you'd ever expect from him," he told the Herald on Sunday. Professor Hosking said Kot was sociable, dry witted and "very bright and quite driven".

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

Kot was in hospital in a stable condition after emergency surgery. His lawyer, Joseph Joch, said Kot's parents had flown there from Auckland. Kot would defend the charges, he said. "It's a very puzzling case."

- NZPA