A 52-year-old man was detained over the weekend in Connecticut after he allegedly killed his wife with a knife because she was having an affair, sent pictures of her body to her “new boyfriend,” and then drove her body to the local police station where he allegedly confessed to the killing and even displayed the images to officers.
According to court documents examined by Law&Crime, Pedro Grajalez was detained on Sunday and charged with one count of murder in the death of Nilda Rivera, 57.
The Hartford Police Department’s affidavit of probable cause states that Grajalez entered the HPD headquarters in the 200 block of High Street at around 3:22 p.m. on April 16. Police said that upon his arrival, Grajalez “advised front desk officers that he stabbed his wife.”
The complaint adds that Gonzalez “proceeded to show Hartford Police Officer Alexander Oralaza a photograph on his cell phone of a female with multiple stab wounds.” Grajalez replied that the woman was in a car outside the police station when Officer Oralaza asked him where she was.
The officer found the vehicle Grajalez had mentioned, which was in fact parked outside HPD headquarters, and apprehended him right away.
The adult female victim, later identified as Rivera, was found lifeless and appeared to have several stab wounds, according to police, who then found her in the front passenger seat. According to the affidavit, “[Rivera] was covered in blood and had numerous stab wounds throughout her torso and head.”
When emergency responders arrived on the scene, they promptly took Rivera to a local hospital for treatment. Sadly, she passed away from her injuries and was declared dead at around 3:47 p.m., according to the affidavit. According to the medical professionals who cared for Rivera, she “suffered from over twenty-five puncture wounds to her chest, head, face, and arms.
The HPD headquarters parking lot and the car Rivera arrived in were designated as crime scenes. According to one officer, the car had “a large amount of a red blood-like substance on the front passenger seat, dashboard, and floor.”
According to the police, the center console of the car had a bloodied knife. Grajalez allegedly made a startlingly frank confession during a subsequent interview with police detectives.
The affidavit states that Gonzalez claimed he had been preparing to kill Jane Doe for several days. Additionally, according to the police, Grajalez “waited for her to die before driving to the Hartford Police Department to report the incident.”
Grajalez apparently claimed that he had recently learned that Rivera was having an affair with another man when asked why he would deliberately kill his wife, according to Hartford CBS affiliate WFSB. He allegedly claimed that on Sunday afternoon he bought his wife dinner at McDonald’s while concealing the knife in his pocket, following which he reportedly parked in the lot of a remote neighborhood shop in the 200 block of Murphy Road, where he repeatedly stabbed her.
Grajalez reportedly informed authorities that after killing his wife with a knife, he snapped a picture of her body and sent it to the man she had been having an affair with, referring to him as her “new boyfriend.” On Monday, Grajalez appeared before a judge, who issued a $3 million bond for him. He will next show up in court on May 15, according to the current timetable.