Doctor On Trial for Wife's Slaying

May 24, 2001 -- 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.

Greineder: Someone attacked her. It's definitely an attack.

Police suspected Greineder was involved in his wife's slaying and during their investigation they recovered evidence from his home that suggested a double life and a possible motive for murder.

Porn Trail to Murder?

Investigators uncovered computer files and e-mail that indicated Greineder often solicited sex over the Internet, was a frequent visitor to porn sites and e-mailed nude photos of himself to potential sex partners. They found credit cards and credit card statements that indicated Greineder used an alias to hire prostitutes and spent $1,000 on phone sex.

According to Assistant Norfolk County District Attorney Richard Grundy, a credit card receipt showed that the weekend before his wife's death, Greineder stayed at a New Jersey hotel with a prostitute, who claimed he said he was getting tired of his wife because she was getting old. Grundy and his prosecution team believe Mabel found out about her husband's trysts and that prompted Greineder to kill her.

Besides the credit card receipts and computer files, near the crime scene investigators found a hammer, knife and two bloody gloves, which they say match a pair of gloves found in Greineder's house.

One detective noted in pre-trial testimony that Greineder had blood on his clothes and eyeglasses when interviewed by detectives. Greineder, he said, claimed that both he and his wife had bloody noses before being separated during their walk in the woods.

The Serial Killer Theory

Greineder's defense argues that a penchant for pornography and prostitutes does not prove murder.

"If there was a link, if there was a connection between the use of telephone sex lines and the use of prostitutes and homicide, the murder rate in Massachusetts and elsewhere in the nation would skyrocket," Martin Murphy, Greineder's attorney, has said.

Greineder's three children with Mabel also believe in his innocence. Murphy has suggested that Mabel was really killed by a serial killer because her slaying resembles two unsolved crimes in Massachusetts. Irene Kennedy, 75, was killed in a park in December 1998 after becoming separated from her husband, and Richard Reyenger was slain in August of 1999 near a park pond.

Earlier this week, the judge ruled that defense attorneys can present limited testimony about the other two slayings and possibility of a serial killer, but only regarding the thoroughness of police's investigation of Mabel's death.

On Wednesday, jurors toured the crime scene around Morse's Pond, where prosecutors told them investigators found the alleged murder weapons and bloody gloves in two storm drains.

If convicted, Greineder faces life in prison without parole.

ABC Affiliate WCVB-TV in Boston contributed to this report.