Doctor On Trial for Wife's Slaying

May 24 -- To his friends and colleagues, Dr. Dirk Greineder is a respected physician and devoted family man who loved to take morning walks with his wife of 31 years before she was brutally slain on one of those strolls in 1999.

To Massachusetts prosecutors, Greineder, 60, is a modern-day Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde who is responsible for her death.

He was a well-known allergist and specialist in childhood asthma who was the director of clinical allergy at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston. He also led a secret life that included trysts with prostitutes and a fascination with pornography. Prosecutors say Greineder was so determined to keep that life hidden, he killed his wife when she found out, beating her with a hammer and stabbing her to death.

It will be up to a jury to decide, as opening statements begin today in Greineder's trial for first-degree murder.

Prosecutors say Mabel Greineder, 58, was killed Oct. 31, 1999, while taking an early morning stroll in the woods with her husband near Morse's Pond, about a half-mile from their Wellesley, Mass., home.

Greineder told police that he and Mabel separated during their walk after she wrenched her back, and that he later found her bloody, battered body.

‘There Was Definitely An Attack’

In excerpts of a 911 tape played at a pre-trial hearing, Greineder almost immediately claimed that someone else had attacked his wife:

Dispatcher: OK. What's your name?

Greineder: Dirk.

Dispatcher: Dirk?

Greineder: Yeah.

Dispatcher: This is your wife?

Greineder: Yeah. Yeah.

Dispatcher: And you were walking your dog and what happened?

Greineder: She, she twisted her back. She has a bad back.

Dispatcher: She twisted her back?

Greineder:I left her.

Dispatcher: OK. Is she conscious and breathing?

Greineder: I don't think so. I don't think so.

Dispatcher: OK.

Greineder: I went back for her.

Dispatcher [to unidentified person]: He doesn't think she's conscious and breathing.