Dateline NBC Revisits Rockland County, NY Murder For Hire Case

I'll admit it, I'm a weekly Dateline NBC watcher and podcast listener. I feel like I can't miss an episode.

Recently, I was catching up on all the Dateline podcast episodes I missed during the busy holiday season. Dateline NBC in podcast form, plays recent episodes as well as visiting older episodes.

At the end of 2022, they went back to an episode from 2017 that took place right here in the Hudson Valley.

Dateline Revisits Murder For Hire in Rockland County

In an episode titled The Target, Andrea Canning dives in deep into the story of Rockland County podiatrist Ira Bernstein, his girlfriend Kelly Gribeluk, and their plan to kill Bernstein's wife Susan.

Dateline breaks down the story in the description on podcast platforms as:

A luxury car salesman receives a visit from a beautiful former client. It turns out that she in not interested in buying a car but in planning a murder.

Wild right? The story takes twists and turns, shocking local Rockland County detectives.

After a messy separation between Ira and Susan, the podiatrist sought comfort from former mortician and aspiring model Kelly Gribeluk. As their relationship grew, Susan became a nuisance to their budding romance.

Murder For Hire in the Hudson Valley

Gribeluk then took matters into her own hands as Oxygen reports the frustrated girlfriend "asked salesman Marckensy Louissaint —who had once sold her a car—to help her hire a hitman to kill her boyfriend Ira Bernstein’s wife, Susan."

According to reports, Bernstein and Gribeluk wanted the murder to "look like an accident."

Youtube

Thankfully, Louissaint had a conscience and reached out to friends in local law enforcement who then tasked him with an undercover job. Louissaint's quick thinking led detectives on the right path to botch the murder for hire and ultimately lead to Ira Bernstein and Kelly Gribeluk's arrest.

Ira Bernstein and Kelly Gribeluks: Guilty

Oxygen reports "Ira pleaded guilty to second-degree conspiracy to commit murder and two misdemeanor counts of fifth-degree conspiracy and was sentenced to five to 15 years in prison" and Kelly Gribeluk got a "four-to-12-year sentence for conspiracy."