On the day before a 91-year-old Georgetown socialite was found slain in her home, her much-younger husband forged letters to family members saying he was entitled a $150,00 payment in the case of her death, according to a police affidavit.
Charging documents released Wednesday accuse 47-year-old Albrecht Muth of strangling and fatally beating Viola Drath, his wife of 21 years. The struggle left him with scratches on his forehead and a chipped tooth, police said.
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Muth had an initial arraignment hearing in D.C. Superior Court on a charge of second-degree murder while armed, and a judge ordered him held without bond until a Sept. 2 preliminary hearing.
According to the court papers:
Muth acknowledged to detectives that he and Drath had a “marriage of convenience,” but said he did not kill Drath, a German journalist.
Muth — who is also known as Count Albi — said he did not have a job and Drath provided him with a monthly allowance of $2,000, that had recently been reduced to $1,800.
After Drath’s body was taken from the home on the 3200 block of Q Street NW, he handed her relatives letters, supposedly signed by Drath, that said the family was to pay him $150,000 upon her death, plus $50,000 if the assets from her estate were greater than $600,000. The letter was dated Aug. 11 — the day before she was found on the bathroom floor. A witness who was familiar with Drath’s handwriting told police the document appeared to have been forged.
Drath also asked whether the family would continue to pay him the monthly allowance, police said.
Police said a neighbor told them that on the night before Drath’s death was reported, the neighbor awoke about 3:30 a.m. and heard a faint cry followed by a sinister laugh.
The couple, who married when Muth was in his 20s and she in her 70s, had a long history of domestic violence. In 1992, Muth was convicted of assaulting Drath and sentenced to a year in jail, police said.
In 2006, Muth was arrested after she accused him of striking her with a chair in the home’s library. He slammed her head against the floor and sat on her and screamed at her for 10 minutes, according to court records. He was charged with assault with a dangerous weapon, but the charges were dropped.
D.C. police originally said Drath had died of natural causes, but the medical examiner ruled the death a homicide on Saturday. According to the autopsy, Drath suffered several injuries to her body, fractured neck cartilage, bruising around the neck, fractured ribs and a torn right thumbnail.
In court Wednesday, Muth insisted the four-page affidavit supporting his arrest be read, saying “I object strongly” to some of the facts in the charging document.
But prosecutors contended that there was powerful circumstantial evidence, and Muth admitted that no one else was in the home when Drath was killed.
