Millionaire Killed By Wife Dubbed The 'Milkshake Murderer'

Robert Kissel [Kissel Family Handout]

Photo by: Robert Kissel [Kissel Family Handout]

Robert Kissel [Kissel Family Handout]

By: Catherine Townsend

On November 2, 2003, a wealthy American banker was drugged with a spiked strawberry milkshake and then bludgeoned to death by his wife in a murder that would shock Hong Kong's expatriate community and make headlines around the world.

Nancy Kissel killed her husband Robert, a senior executive for the investment bank Merrill Lynch, by slipping the sedatives into his drink and, incredibly, asking her six-year-old daughter to serve it to him. She then allegedly used a heavy ornament to beat him to death, rolled him up in a carpet, and called moving men to carry it to a rented storeroom. Police recovered the body there a few days later, wrapped in the carpet and plastic sheets.

On the surface, the couple appeared to have it all. Nancy and her three children had moved from New York to Hong Kong in 1998 when her husband took a top banking job that afforded them a luxury lifestyle including a $20,000 a month ocean-view apartment and servants to tend to her every need.

Kissel worked as a volunteer at the Hong Kong International School — but mainly spent her days shopping near the posh Parkview residential complex where the family lived. Despite the life of luxury, Nancy, who had once dreamed of pursuing an acting career, was unhappy and bored. She spent her days spending money, but soon began to resent her husband's long absences.

In an email to a friend, Nancy said the relationship was a sham masquerading as the best marriage in the universe.

FILE - In this Aug. 2, 2005 file photo, American Nancy Kissel walks out of Hong Kong's High Court.  A Hong Kong judge Friday Nov. 19, 2010 ordered Kissel to stand trial again for the "milkshake" murder of her banker husband, handing a big setback to her defense team in the high profile case. Her retrial is expected to begin on Jan. 10, with a pretrial hearing on Jan. 4.  (AP Photo/Vincent Yu, File)

Hong Kong Milkshake Murder

FILE - In this Aug. 2, 2005 file photo, American Nancy Kissel walks out of Hong Kong's High Court. A Hong Kong judge Friday Nov. 19, 2010 ordered Kissel to stand trial again for the "milkshake" murder of her banker husband, handing a big setback to her defense team in the high profile case. Her retrial is expected to begin on Jan. 10, with a pretrial hearing on Jan. 4. (AP Photo/Vincent Yu, File)

Photo by: American Nancy Kissel walks out of Hong Kong's High Court (Aug. 2, 2005). AP Photo/Vincent Yu, File

American Nancy Kissel walks out of Hong Kong's High Court (Aug. 2, 2005). AP Photo/Vincent Yu, File

In 2003, the SARS crisis broke out, and Nancy and the children were evacuated back to the United States. She soon began an affair with Michael del Priore, a TV repairman.

After they later returned to Hong Kong, Robert became suspicious and installed software on her computers so that all of her emails were copied to him. He soon found messages from her lover, including one that read, "I love you when you call my name. It makes me melt."

On the day he was killed, her husband had told friends that he would discuss a legal separation on the grounds of infidelity.

Prosecutors alleged that Nancy was motivated by money — they said that she had been afraid to lose her luxurious lifestyle in the divorce, including the hefty life insurance payments on her husband.

But Nancy claimed that Robert had been abusive. She said that he took cocaine, drank excessively, and forcibly sodomized her — and that Robert had assaulted her on the day of his death.

But prosecutors hit back by detailing how Nancy had tried to cover her tracks after the murder. The day after she killed Robert, she wrote emails to cancel appointments and explain her husband's absence from work.

"My husband is not well," she said in one email to a friend, according to the prosecution. "I need to take care of something. Sorry, I will be in touch soon."

At trial, it emerged that Robert had consulted divorce attorneys a few months before his death — but had ignored advice to change the main beneficiary of his will.

In September 2003, Robert told a New York–based private detective whom he had hired to spy on Nancy that he believed she was trying to poison him. The investigator urged him to go to the police with blood and urine samples — but he did not, prosecutors said, because he felt guilty for suspecting his wife.

Nancy was convicted of Robert's murder — but in 2010, the conviction was overturned and a new trial was ordered. Then on March 25, 2011, she was again found guilty of her husband's murder and sentenced to life in prison. She is currently behind bars at the Tai Lam Centre for Women, and still maintains that she killed Robert in self-defense.

The couple's three children are currently being raised by family.

In another tragic twist, Robert's brother Andrew, an American real estate developer, was found bound and stabbed to death on April 3, 2006, at his rented estate in Greenwich, Connecticut.

Andrew had been accused of defrauding a New York co-op board of millions of dollars. The motive for his murder was really a mystery, though, as there were so many people who had problems with him, including those from the U.S. Justice Department, several multi-billion dollar corporations/conglomerates — and his own wife.

In 2008, Andrew's chauffeur, Carlos Trujillo, and his cousins Leonard Trujillo and Jair Trujillo were arrested and charged in his death. According to the prosecution, the motive for the murder was the Trujillos' fear that their involvement in laundering money for Kissel would be exposed.

Carlos Trujillo was acquitted of the murder charge but pleaded guilty to attempted murder and received a six-year prison sentence. Leonard Trujillo pleaded guilty to manslaughter and conspiracy to commit murder and received a sentence of 20 years.

To learn more about this case, watch the "High Stakes In Hong Kong" episode of Investigation Discovery's Passport to Murder on ID GO now!

Watch Now:

Next Up

Judge Accused Of Killing Wife Allegedly Texted Staff ‘I Just Shot My Wife. I Won’t Be In Tomorrow.”

Orange County Superior Court Judge Jeffrey Ferguson allegedly texted staff only minutes after shooting his wife, Sheryl Ferguson, during a heated argument on Aug. 3, 2023.

Poison Specialist Accused Of Killing His Wife With Poison

A Minnesota poison expert has been charged with second-degree murder after he allegedly poisoned his wife with liquid colchicine.

California Man Accused Of Murdering Wife And Her Parents After Torso Found In Dumpster

On Nov. 7, 2023, Samuel Haskell, Jr. reportedly hired four day-laborers to remove heavy trash bags from his home, which allegedly contained human body parts.

Former 'Family Feud' Contestant Sentenced To Life For Murdering His Estranged Wife

Timothy W. Bliefnick fatally shot Rebecca Bliefnick on Feb. 23, 2023 while the couple was in the process of getting a divorce.

5 Things To Know About The Mysterious Staircase Death of Kathleen Peterson

In 2003, Michael Peterson went to jail for life without the possibility of parole for the murder of his wife, Kathleen — but that was just the beginning of the story.

Accident Or Murder? Man Fleeing House Fire Dies After His Wife Strikes Him With Vehicle

“I don’t know why he didn’t survive,” Linda Stermer says of her husband Todd’s grisly 2007 death in Michigan.

Missing Connecticut Mom Jennifer Dulos Officially Declared Dead As Trial Begins

Jennifer Dulos, a missing mother of five from New Canaan, Connecticut, was officially declared dead, and now her ex’s girlfriend, Michelle Troconis, is on trial in connection with her murder.

Former Idaho State Trooper Charged With Murder Of His Wife

In February 2021, Daniel Charles Howard called police and said his wife had shot herself. Over two years later, he was arrested for her murder.

Man Sentenced For 1982 Cold Case Ax Murder Of His Wife

After the case went cold for 40 years, Cathleen Krauseneck’s husband was convicted and sentenced for killing her with an ax.

The Case Of Murdered Mom Renee Pagel Stayed Cold For Over Ten Years

Renee Pagel was recovering from donating a kidney when she was found stabbed to death in her bed on Aug. 5, 2006.