Man Charged in Wife’s Death Led Secret Life

Last Halloween, a well-respected allergist took a morning stroll with his wife in the pine-needled woods near their home. Only the doctor came out of the woods alive.

Mabel Greineder, 58, was bludgeoned with a hammer and stabbed with a knife.

Her husband of 31 years, Dr. Dirk Greineder, 59, has been charged with her murder. Authorities say he may have killed his wife after she learned he led a secret life to indulge his desire for pornography and prostitutes.

State officials called Greineder a threat to public health and safety and suspended his medical license. Still, the couple’s three grown children are steadfastly supporting their father, a distinguished doctor and resident of one of the wealthiest towns in Massachusetts who has said he is innocent.

“We know him extremely well. And we know he’s innocent,” said Britt Greineder, 27, on Wednesday. “He would never be capable of harming my mom.”

Greineder appeared to be living a life of success and serenity.

Born in Germany but raised in Lebanon, Greineder speaks at least four languages. He was educated at Yale and received his doctorate from Case Western Reserve University. By 1998, he had risen to director of clinical allergy at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, one of the best-known hospitals in Boston and one of the nation’s top research facilities.

He and his family lived for 25 years in Wellesley, which residents describe as a peaceful neighborhood and an unlikely scene for a crime.

But prosecutors say the doctor had a second identity--using the pseudonym Thomas Young, the name of a former Yale classmate. He arranged hotel trysts with prostitutes, sent nude pictures of himself over the Internet and prescribed himself Viagra, prosecutors say.

The weekend before the slaying, prosecutors allege, Greineder stayed in a New Jersey hotel with a prostitute, and he called the same woman for sex the day after his wife was killed.

Greineder led a life “dedicated to prostitutes and pornography that was unknown to all those closest to him,” prosecutor Rick Grundy said.

Greineder told police he found his wife’s body after the couple became separated during their walk in the town park at Morses Pond, only a half-mile from their four-bedroom home.

Though he was not arrested for four months, authorities say they suspected the doctor from the beginning: When police first arrived at the park, Greineder had blood on his jacket, eyeglasses and sleeves, but not on his hands.

Prosecutors believe they have found the gloves that Greineder wore. And they say DNA tests run on a knife and hammer found in the park strongly tie Greineder to the crime. He’s being held without bail.

At a recent court hearing, his two daughters and son sat shoulder to shoulder in an otherwise empty row in the gallery. Greineder smiled at them as he walked by in handcuffs and leg manacles.

“He’s really quite remarkable. . . . He’s an amazing father. He’s always been there for us,” Britt Greineder said.

Greineder’s attorney has railed against prosecutors for assailing the doctor’s character and sharing too much publicly about the case.

“We expect to try this case in court and not in the news media, and we expect that at the end of the process, Dr. Greineder will be completely vindicated,” attorney Martin Murphy said.

Britt Greineder said she and her siblings are looking forward to the day their father goes on trial.

“We eagerly await the day in court. . . . We stand 100% behind him. We are utterly convinced of his innocence,” she said.