Police deny leads on Kissel's lover
Police have closed investigations into the murder of investment banker Robert Kissel and, contrary to reports, are not pursuing inquiries into his wife's lover, Michael Del Priore.
Nancy Ann Kissel, 41, was convicted last week of murdering her husband by drugging him, then bludgeoning him to death. She rolled his body in a carpet and had it stashed in a storeroom on the Parkview estate where the couple lived, the court heard.
Prosecutor Peter Chapman suggested during Kissel's trial that she killed her husband with her lover's 'tacit support' and planned to flee into his arms after the crime.
Western District police commander David Madoc-Jones yesterday dismissed as 'incorrect rumours' reports that police were investigating Mr Del Priore. But he confirmed police did explore a link between Kissel and Mr Del Priore at the start of their investigation, and found no evidence suggesting any direct link between the Vermont-based TV repairman and the crime.
While police have telephone records showing Kissel talked to Mr Del Priore before and after the November 2003 murder, they have no way of knowing what passed between them.
Immigration records show Mr Del Priore was not in Hong Kong either before or after the murder.
'Unless they decide to tell us what was said in those conversations, and in the absence of any direct evidence, there is nothing we can do,' Mr Madoc-Jones said.
William Kissel, Robert's father, said there was no doubt in his mind that Mr Del Priore played a role.
'It is all there in the evidence and in the interview in the South China Morning Post,' Mr Kissel said. Mr Del Priore's brother Lance recalled telling his brother: 'You must have had something to do with this.'
The killing shocked Hong Kong and many found the trial enthralling.
Kissel's lurid defence - that her husband was addicted to cocaine, drank heavily, beat her and persistently demanded rough sex, and that his actions drove her to kill him - made headlines around the world.
She pleaded not guilty to murder but a jury of seven found her guilty at the end of the near three-month-long trial and Mr Justice Michael Lunn imposed a mandatory life sentence.
Kissel's legal team are considering whether to file an appeal against her conviction for murder and life sentence.
