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Blood And
Money
'48 Hours' Looks At The Killing Of Two Brothers
Thousands Of Miles Apart
(CBS) Forty-six-year-old Andrew Kissel hoped to
make his name in real estate in Greenwich,
Conn., but instead, as correspondent Erin
Moriarty reports, he earned the dubious
distinction as the town’s sole murder victim in
2006.
Seven months after the murder, with no one yet
in custody, Police Chief James Walters remains
optimistic. "Everyone that was in Mr. Kissel’s
circle is being is being investigated," he says.
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But in this tony town,
it’s not easy to get people to talk. "Within a few days
after the murder everybody we wanted to talk had a
lawyer," the police chief explains.
Andrew Kissel’s violent death brought to an end a life
once brimming with promise. He grew up in New Jersey,
the oldest of three children in an upwardly mobile
family. Andrew’s brother, Robert, was four years younger
and there was a baby sister, Jane.
The Kissels made an impression wherever they went: an
intense passion for life permeated everything they did
and it was most evident, perhaps, on the ski slopes.
"Skiing was basically everything to them and Rob was an
amazing skier. It seemed that whatever Rob did, he did
it well," remembers Carol Horton, who was Robert's high
school sweetheart.
And Robert had no trouble keeping up with his older
brother, Andrew. "They were competitive. Who could go
faster, who could jump the highest moguls," Carol
recalls
Both boys had to answer to their father, Bill Kissel,
who had turned his hard work and smarts into his own
successful business and expected no less from his sons.
"He expected them to do their homework. He expected them
to be polite. He expected them to do their chores," says
Carol. "He set down rules and expected them to be
followed."
Danny Williams lived just around the corner, and says
Robert was his best friend, almost like a brother. Back
then, Danny remembers, Robert was already acting out the
role he would later assume for real.
"If it was Monopoly, he had to be the banker," Danny
explains. "Always, and Andy would have to be the real
estate guy."
At the same time, Andrew was building an image that
would become increasingly important to him. "He liked to
show off what he had, you know, status, he liked to show
status," Danny remembers.
There was no denying Andrew was ambitious. Just out of
high school, he started his own auto parts business and
hired Danny.
Eventually, Andrew went on to bigger ventures, becoming
a real estate developer in New York. In 1990, he had the
perfect woman at his side, Hayley Wolff, a world
champion skier who became a financial analyst. Ten years
later, they had it all: two children, a ski house in
Vermont, and an apartment in a New York co-op, where
Andrew served as treasurer.
Andrew, once outshined by his younger brother’s
charisma, soon had his hand and cash in everything:
horses, an olive oil business, and he even invested in a
play produced by Brian Howie.
Andrew spared no expense to amuse himself and his
friends and was living large. Brian says Andrew had
85-90 foot yacht, a couple of jet skis and "30-some"
cars.
If Andrew was thrust into overdrive by pressure from his
father and competition with his brother, Robert took a
more modest and methodical approach to getting ahead.
Robert’s life
began coming together in 1987, when he met Nancy
Keeshin, an art student working as a waitress.
They married and she continued working, putting
her husband through New York University’s
business school.
Elizabeth La Cause, one of Nancy’s close
friends, says that at that point, the marriage
looked like it was made in heaven. "Yeah, it
was. It looked perfect," Nancy's husband John
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By the time their first
child was born, Robert was on the fast track in the high
stakes world of investment banking. "Rob was a guy, if
you look at, and you took to for five minutes, you would
go, obviously, this guy is gonna make it," John La Cause
explains.
It didn’t take long for Robert to become a star in
financial circles, although he had to go half way around
the world to do it. In 1997, Robert and Nancy moved
their family to Hong Kong. It seemed the perfect place
for Robert but in this prosperous city so far from home,
his seemingly charmed life was about to take an
unexpected turn.
When Robert was transferred to Hong Kong, southeast Asia
was in financial turmoil, allowing the ambitious
investment banker to buy up assets for a fraction of
their value, earning him millions.
Robert, his wife Nancy, and their three children joined
Hong Kong’s privileged community of expatriates, known
as "expats."
Like the Kissels, Kazuko Oshi and her husband, business
journalist Andrew Tanzer, lived in Parkview, a luxury
complex overlooking the city. "If you are in Parkview,
don’t really have to go out. There is a kindergarten
there. There’s a big supermarket there," Oshi explains.
"Two or three pools and tennis courts."
Living in Parkview was like living in a nice resort, a
very expensive resort. The Kissels were paying $20,000 a
month for their sprawling home. Nancy and Robert drove
fancy cars and sent their kids to private school.
By 2003, Robert was one of Merrill Lynch’s top guys in
southeast Asia; Nancy’s life was centered around her
children. "Nancy seemed very happy. She always tried to
please Rob. She was always very proud of what he
achieved," remembers neighbor Trudy Samra, who became a
close friend. "On the outside world it appeared she had
the perfect life."
But the reality, says Trudy, can be much different. "I
mean in the beginning it's all very overwhelming and
it's fantastic and it's a great city. And you have a
beautiful apartment. And then the husband ends up being
away much more than he promised and you spend many
nights alone," she says.
The isolation and stress of living in Hong Kong can be
too much for some marriages. But if Nancy and Robert
were struggling, they hid it from friends.
Andrew Tanzer first met the Kissels on the day he
brought his daughter to their apartment for a playdate.
"And the girls did sort of disappear into the other end
of the apartment. And I started chatting with Robert. He
was very relaxed and, you know, confident," Tanzer
remembers.
As Tanzer was about to go home, Nancy insisted the girls
serve a milkshake she had made. Tanzer, feeling
obligated to drink it, downed his shake. "I did sort of
because I was a guest. So, yes. It had some strange
taste which I could not recognize, he remembers.
Sometime after Tanzer left the Kissel home that Sunday
afternoon, Robert disappeared. When he didn’t make a
conference call the following day, a colleague reported
him missing.
Nancy kept it secret from the children, but told others
that she and Robert had a terrible fight and he had
left.
After Robert was missing for four days, the police went
to the Kissel apartment to investigate. When they
searched the family storage unit, they found boxes of
bloody items and a rolled up carpet. Inside the carpet
was Robert's body, bludgeoned to death.
Very quickly, police investigators focused on the only
person they believe could have done it: Robert’s wife,
Nancy. Within hours she was arrested and charged with
murder.
As police were building their case against Nancy, the
Tanzers remembered how strange Andrew felt the night he
returned from the Kissels.
Tanzer had no memory of anything and wondered what was
in that milkshake. "I felt like I had been drugged," he
says. "I just immediately thought maybe Robert Kissel
was also drugged. So I contacted the police, and I said
'Do an autopsy.'"
In fact, an autopsy would reveal five different drugs in
Robert’s system, including rohypnol, known as the "date
rape drug." Investigators discovered that Nancy had kept
Robert’s body in her bedroom for two days.
The day after Robert was killed, security cameras caught
Nancy returning home, after spending thousands of
dollars on new furniture and new rugs
At the time of her arrest, Nancy was so distraught that
instead of prison, she was held in the maximum security
ward of a local hospital, where friend Trudy Samra was
allowed to see her. Trudy says Nancy was bruised and
unable to walk. "Like, almost like she was grabbed, you
know, very forcibly by someone," Trudy recalls. "I
thought, 'My God, she’s been in a terrible fight.'"
Nancy was in custody, Robert was dead and Andrew Kissel
offered to take his brother’s son and two daughters –
now worth millions – back to Connecticut. But, no one
guessed the heartache that was still to come.
With their father dead, and their mother in prison in
Hong Kong, Robert and Nancy’s children flew back to the
U.S. and ultimately found a home with their uncle Andrew
and his family but their lives were about to get turned
upside down once again.
Andrew’s friend, Brian Howie says Andrew was devastated
by his brother’s death and began to spend vast amounts
of money. Andrew was trying to buy his happiness, like
indulging in extravagant parties on his yacht.
But where was the money coming from? While Robert had
played by the rules, Andrew was taking shortcuts. And he
began years earlier when he and his family were living
in New York City in a high rise co-op. Andrew was the
building’s treasurer.
Peter Chamberlain, new to the board of directors, was
puzzled by some of Andrew’s reports. "No one could
account for how a hallway project could cost $2 million
or a million dollars. All the receipts, all the bills,
all the contracts were in Andrew Kissel’s possession,"
he says.
So was a lot of the building’s money. An investigation
revealed that Andrew had secretly transferred funds into
his own accounts. He was caught red-handed.
To avoid legal action, Andrew agreed to pay back what he
owed, which was by this time nearly $4 million.
Chamberlain says people wondered where Andrew would come
up with the money.
For Andrew, the answer was simple: another scam in
another state, Connecticut. He moved his family to
Greenwich, where he had been buying and developing
expensive homes as investments.
Nancy Walkley, a title search attorney, had processed
some of the mortgage applications Andrew submitted to
develop multi-million dollar properties. In 2005, while
reviewing routine paperwork, she noticed something fishy
about the signatures. "The 'A' in the Andrew looked very
similar to the 'A' in the first name of the gentleman
who signed that Astoria Federal Mortgage," she explains.
A quick check with the bank confirmed her fear: it
appeared that Andrew had forged a bank executive’s
signature, indicating a $5.5 million mortgage was paid
off when it wasn’t.
Walkley stopped the deal and as it turns out, it wasn’t
the first time Andrew had bilked banks with forged
documents – he had been doing it for years.
The FBI was called and Special agent Steven Garfinkel
led the investigation.
Garfinkel says Andrew would borrow money, file a fake
release saying that he now longer owed that money and
then would borrow again. The banks would think that the
land was free and clear.
"And then he’d go to a third bank and do the same
thing," Garfinkel explains. He says Andrew was able to
obtain over $30 million by this kind of fraud.
Those stolen millions supported Andrew’s spending sprees
and parties, and it allowed him to build his 10,000
square foot dream house on property he bought with
fictitious documents.
And the more money he obtained through fraudulent loans,
says Garfinkel, the more eager banks were to lend him
more. "If you come in with all appearances that you’re a
wealthy guy, you’re going to be successful in getting a
loan," he explains.
Facing federal fraud charges, Andrew sought advice from
attorney Phil Russell.
Granfinkel says while Andrew was upset he got caught, he
had no remorse. But Russell says Andrew did feel remorse
and was willing to come clean - just not completely
clean.
The FBI uncovered yet another scam, this time involving
apartment complexes in New Jersey. There, Andrew had
ripped off his investors, by forging their signatures,
secretly selling the properties and pocketing all the
profits.
And unlike in Connecticut, where he defrauded banks, in
New Jersey Andrew was ripping off people he knew,
including his dead brother’s estate, his father-in-law
and friends.
"The people in New Jersey didn't know that the property
had been sold out from under them, because he continued
to pay their quarterly dividends," Russell explains.
While Andrew’s material world was crumbling, his
personal life was already in shambles. His wife Hayley
discovered he had forged her signature to get a
fraudulent loan on their ski house. He was cheating her,
and cheating on her with other women. Hayley asked for a
divorce and $7 million.
Andrew’s younger sister Jane also turned on him,
fighting and winning a bitter custody battle for
Robert’s children.
And Andrew was estranged from the father who had once
pushed him so hard. "He was very clear to me that I had
no authority to speak to his father, and he wanted
nothing to do with the man," Russell explains.
Placed under house arrest and monitored with an
electronic bracelet, Andrew agreed to take a plea. "He
was looking at eight to ten years in jail, in federal
jail," Garfinkel says.
One of the few people left in Andrew’s life was Carlos
Trujillo, his driver and personal assistant. And Carlos
was worried. "He told me, 'A lot of people hate me,'" he
recalls.
While Andrew’s fraud case was making headlines in
Greenwich, his brother Robert’s murder case was an even
bigger sensation in Hong Kong and it was headed towards
trial.
Albert Wong covered the trial for the English language
daily The Standard. "We coined it the 'Milkshake
Murder,'" Wong explains.
It was a trial about much more than a marriage gone bad.
"I think it really hit home with a lot of people in Hong
Kong," Wong explains. "It was a glimpse of a world that
they’re not used to."
As the prosecution’s case unfolded before a Chinese
jury, the evidence against Nancy seemed overwhelming.
The seemingly perfect Kissel marriage had actually been
in trouble. In the spring of 2003, during Asia’s
pneumonia-like SARS epidemic, Nancy and the children
fled to Vermont. Robert, who remained in Hong Kong,
became suspicious of his wife, so he hired private
investigator Frank Shea to spy on her.
"About 10 o'clock, a van would arrive parked on a dark
deserted road. This man would get out of the van, go
through the bushes, and then enter the house," Shea
says.
The man was Michael Del Priore, a local TV equipment
installer. "Rob Kissel was devastated," Shea says. "All
he wanted to do was get his marriage back together. He
loved Nancy Kissel. And he loved his children."
Nancy returned to her husband in Hong Kong but secretly
continued to communicate with her lover via e-mail;
Robert found out through a spyware system he had
installed on the family computer.
Shea says Robert was planning to obtain a divorce. He
intended to tell her that on Nov. 2, 2003, the very
night he was murdered.
Asked what he believes happened on the night Robert was
killed, Shea says, "I think he was drugged. I think that
he went into his bedroom. I think he passed out. I think
Nancy Kissel then took a bronze statue and murdered
him."
Robert's head was bashed five times. "Each time would
have been fatal," says journalist Albert Wong. "The
force of the blow actually left marks on her own hand."
Prosecutors said they knew Robert had been drugged
because they had a witness: Andrew Tanzer. He testified
at trial about the strange concoction that Nancy had
made for them. "It was a very thick, sweet milkshake. It
was pink, and it had ground up cookies in it. I thought
it had this odd taste. And she said 'It’s a special
recipe,'" Tanzer recalls.
And it may not have been the first time that Nancy
doctored Robert’s drink. "When he would get home from
work he enjoyed a little bit of scotch, as he called the
two fingers," Shea says. "But the last few times that he
had the scotch he felt totally different. Very woozy. "
Shea had become so worried that he flew to Hong Kong to
warn his client. Asked if Robert believed his warnings,
Shea says, "I think Rob Kissel was in denial. I don’t
think he believed his wife was trying to kill him."
At trial, it was revealed that Nancy had been
researching various sedatives on the Internet and
stockpiling pills.
The most compelling moment came when Nancy took the
stand, and the prosecutor asked the question everyone
wanted to know. "And he just sort of went, 'Let’s just
get this out of the way. Of course you do admit you
killed your husband right?' And she said, 'Yes,'" Wong
explains.
But Nancy maintains she’s innocent of murder. She
claimed he attacked her first and it was self defense.
She testified that behind closed doors her life was
hell; that for years Robert had subjected her to the
worst kind of physical and sexual abuse. On the day
Robert died, Nancy claimed there was a huge argument.
"He came at her with a baseball bat. There was a
struggle. He turns her around and it’s at this point
that she just swings back. And he kind of sits back and
looks at the blood and says, 'You bitch.' And then
charges at her with the baseball bat. 'I’m going to kill
you. I’m going to kill you.' And she said, then she just
blanks out," Wong says.
Asked how credible he finds Nancy's memory blackout,
Wong says, "Certainly it’s a convenient time to forget
what happened next. But also, perhaps she did. The fear,
the shock combined with several years of bad experience
she may have blanked out."
Trudy Samra, Nancy’s close friend, believes the self
defense story and remembers seeing suspicious injuries.
"The first time she had a rib injury. And one time we
had a girls' night here. Then she came in. And I said,
'Wow, what happened to you?' And she had a big, big blue
eye."
Trudy says she doesn't know if those injuries were
caused by Robert but she admits Nancy never told her
that she was being abused, and Robert’s friends, like
Carol Horton, don’t believe it.
"Knowing Rob as well as I did, it just wasn’t in his
nature to do that or to be that," she says.
After 65 days, the mostly male jury took just eight
hours to find Nancy guilty of murder. But even today not
everyone is sure what to believe.
"Even now after the verdict, I don't feel I've found out
what happened. Only two people know what happened. And
one of them is dead," says Wong.
The other, Nancy, is now serving a life sentence in a
Hong Kong prison. Earlier this fall, Moriarty went there
with Nancy's mother Jean, the only television journalist
to visit since her incarceration. Nancy continues to
insist that she acted in self defense.
Robert Kissel’s case may be closed, but back in
Connecticut, the police face a much tougher task finding
the killer of Andrew Kissel. He was murdered less than
three years after his brother, Robert, was killed in
Hong Kong.
Andrew’s attorney, Phil Russell, says he never imagined
his client’s life would end this way. FBI investigator
is also unsure who committed this murder.
With the murder just days before Andrew was about to
plead guilty to fraud, it appeared that the killer could
have been someone who feared that Andrew was trading
information for a reduced prison sentence.
But Russell says there was nobody Andrew was going to
rat out.
Perhaps the most bizarre murder theory was that Andrew
himself hired a hit man. He would do almost anything to
avoid prison, but if he committed suicide, his children
could not collect his life insurance.
"He was terribly remorseful about what he did, about the
effect that it would have on his wife and children,"
Russell says.
Asked if he thinks Andrew may have planned his own
murder, Russell says, "It’s plausible."
But FBI agent Steven Garfinkel doesn't buy that theory.
"He was a narcissist. He liked himself too much," he
says.
Andrew’s penchant for grandiosity has clearly
complicated this case. No one truly knows the extent of
everything he had his hand in, nor what deals he had
made or with whom. The Greenwich police say they’re not
ruling out anything.
Until there’s an arrest in the case, Chief James Walters
is reluctant to release many details. In his first
television interview, Walters says he believes that
Andrew’s estranged wife, Hayley, may have some useful
information. "I will say that we have spoken with Hayley
and that we'd like to speak to her again," Walters tells
Moriarty.
Walters confirms that there was a dispute between Hayley
and Andrew the day before the murder. "There was a
verbal dispute between them. And to get into specifics
about what that is about, wouldn't be a good idea right
now," Walters says.
And, while he won’t publicly name a suspect, he
acknowledges his department is looking closely at
Andrew’s loyal employee, Carlos Trujillo. "We believe
the last person to see Andrew Kissel alive was Carlos,"
says Walters.
For his part, Carlos says he has done everything the
police have asked, giving them fingerprints and DNA.
But, he says, their questioning became more and more
intense. "At this point, they treat me like a suspect.
They treat me like a criminal," he says.
To convince the police of his innocence, Carlos says, he
agreed to take a polygraph. But that may have backfired:
Walters says every question connected to the
investigation came up untruthful on the polygraph.
When asked, Chief Walters does admit that polygraphs are
not always right. Sometimes people who are innocent do
fail polygraphs.
Carlos says he did not kill Andrew, nor does he have any
idea who did. "There’s no evidence that he had anything
to do with this," says his attorney, Lindy Ursu.
Carlos is no longer talking to the police but they have
searched his home, car, and storage unit. And they have
questioned his family.
Carlos insists he told police the truth and, in fact,
gave them a lead that Andrew was using drugs and had a
prostitute come to the house the night before he died.
"If you believe that Carlos Trujillo is being dishonest,
and obviously then knows more than what he's telling,
why not arrest him?" Moriarty asks Walters.
"At this stage, then that would be inappropriate," the
police chief replies. "We'd certainly like to give him
an opportunity to explain why he may have been
untruthful with us, and to actually tell us what had
occurred."
Andrew's family and creditors are now fighting to get
whatever they can from the financial mess he left them.
Meanwhile, Walters says he’s committed to finding
Andrew’s killer.
It’s little solace to the friends of the Kissel family,
who struggle to understand the loss of two brothers who
once had so much promise.
Carol Horton, Robert’s ex-girlfriend, still grieves for
the man she loved. "He was just at the beginning. You
know? There was just so much more for him," she says.
But the Kissel family tragedy may weigh most heavily on
Robert and Andrew’s father Bill, who is now growing
impatient with the Greenwich police.
"Mr. Kissel has been somewhat upset with us because of
our declining to share information with him," Chief
Walters says. "We have concerns about sharing
information with Mr. Kissel that could get out into the
public realm before we’re ready for that information to
be released."
Asked to describe Bill today, Carol says "There's a
great hole in his heart. I think he blames himself, you
know. He did something wrong somewhere along the line."
"It just seems like a bad dream," she adds. "Just a bad
dream."
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