Details about the death of 91-year-old socialite Viola Drath are arriving fast and furious: this afternoon, the documents charging Drath’s husband Albrecht Muth with murder were released. They include the results of Drath’s autopsy, as well as the revelation that a neighbor “heard a faint cry followed by a ‘sinister’ laugh” come from the couple’s Georgetown residence.
Muth reportedly had inquired with Drath’s family about finances after Drath’s death in the days leading up to her murder, which was grisly. According to the court documents, Drath suffered “bruising and abrasions of the neck, bruising to the scalp, fractured interior neck cartilage, petichial hemorrhages in both eyes, fractured ribs, and a torn right thumbnail.” Police believe that Muth — whom the documents also identify as “Count Albi” — strangled the elderly woman. (In Drath’s obituary, Muth claimed that she died of “head trauma” after suffering a fall.)
The court documents also outline what Muth told police he did during the time when Drath was killed — Muth told detectives that he was in and out of the Georgetown home several times in the time when police believe Drath was killed. Muth backtracked when police asked him about whether he had touched Drath’s body after she died, was sporting scratch wounds on his forehead, and told detectives that “it doesn’t look good for me.”
The complete charging document can be read below, or at this link.
