A husband accused of drowning his wife before murder charges against him were dropped claimed today that she told him she had signed a ‘contract with the Devil’ before he found her lifeless body in a lake and tried to resuscitate her.
Factory worker Andrius Vengalis, 46, also denied trying to ‘throttle’ mother-of-five Egle Vengaliene, 35, or pushing her under the water at the lake in Brandon Country Park, Suffolk on April 9, 2021.
He claimed that he tried to save her by carrying out chest compressions and trying to blow air into her mouth but he could not open her jaw.
Mr Vengalis was charged with his Lithuanian-born wife’s murder but after nine months in custody, he walked free after a not guilty charge was recorded by a judge at Ipswich Crown Court in January last year when prosecutors offered no evidence against him.
During his time in jail, his five children had gone to live with his wife’s family in Lithuania.
Andrius Vengalis (pictured at Suffolk Coroner’s Court today), who was accused of drowning his wife before murder charges against him were dropped, claimed today that she told him she had signed a ‘contract with the Devil’ before he found her dead
Mr Vengalis, 46, also denied trying to ‘throttle’ mother-of-five Egle Vengaliene (pictured), 35, or pushing her under the water at the lake in Brandon Country Park in Suffolk on April 9, 2021
Mr Vengalis told Suffolk Coroner’s Court in Ipswich today that his wife had said to him two or three days before her death that she had made a pact with the Devil.
Speaking through an interpreter, he said: ‘A couple of days earlier, she had mentioned something about Devils tearing her apart. It was the things she was into.
‘She mentioned that she had signed a document, a contract with the Devil. We were outside the room and I think I was preparing myself for work.
‘When she got up in the morning, she mentioned something about dreaming about the Devil. He had put his leg on her chest, and would not release her until she signed the contract. She said, “Don’t be afraid, don’t worry. I know how to disperse this contract”.’
Mr Vengalis was asked by Michael Hill, the counsel to the inquest, whether he thought his wife believed it was something that had happened to her in real life or a dream. He replied: ‘I started to think there was something wrong going on with her.’
When quizzed on whether he was concerned about her mental state, he said: ‘Now in hindsight and looking back, I think she was having issues much earlier, but I didn’t mention it.
‘I had not paid much attention to it until she started talking about the Devil. I was worried, but she was always smiling and saying everything was fine with her.’
Police at Brandon Country Park in Suffolk after Egle Vengaliene was found drowned in a lake
Mr Vengalis (pictured with Ms Vengaliene) told Suffolk Coroner’s Court in Ipswich today that his wife had said to him two or three days before her death that she had made a pact with the Devil
Asked how his wife thought she would discharge her contract with the Devil, he replied that he believed she would use ‘regressive hypnosis’.
He also recalled her ‘discussing something along those lines’ while his wife was talking to her mother on the phone in Lithuania two days before her death.
Mr Vengalis said: ‘I can’t say the exact conversation, but I heard the word Devil was mentioned more than once.’
Earlier the inquest heard how three of the couple’s children had given statements to police suggesting that he had been physically abusive to Ms Vengaliene for years.
One of the children, referred to only as Child A, said: ‘He would hit mum sometimes. Throw her out of bed, kick her out of bed, throw stuff at us.’
Another of his children called Child C told police that Mr Vengalis used bad language against his mother, punched her in the back and ‘put his hands around her neck’.
But Mr Vengalis dismissed the abuse claims as ‘complete nonsense’. He told the inquest today: ‘I never did this. I never hurt her.’
He claimed that his children had been coaxed by their grandmother into making statements about him. ‘Everything was done so they would have some reason to take my children out of the country. They had to show that father was an enemy,’ he added.
Mr Vengalis (pictured today) also recalled her ‘discussing something along those lines’ while his wife was talking to her mother on the phone in Lithuania two days before her death
‘All the childrens’ evidence was gathered to take them out of the country. They had to portray their father as a horrible animal.’
The family’s former neighbour Kasey Shorten also recalled witnessing a physical altercation between Mr Vengalis and Ms Vengaliene in their garden in Brandon.
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Meanwhile dog walker Robert McDonald told how he was walking his four pets in the country park when he heard the sound of a man shouting in distress.
As he approached the lake, he thought he saw a man pushing a woman down in the water or throttling her at around 6.50am.
But as he got nearer, he realised he was mistaken and that the man was trying to resuscitate the woman while her legs were in the water and her upper body was on the bank.
Mr McDonald said he helped Mr Vengalis drag his wife fully out of the water, and took over the resuscitation attempt. She was declared dead at the scene and a post mortem revealed she had drowned.
Mr Vengalis insisted that his wife appeared to be in a ‘good’ mood when they went shopping together on the day before she disappeared.
He said he went to work his shift as usual at a food factory in Thetford, and returned home at around 11.30pm to find her in the kitchen, where they discussed how their days were and she told him she felt ‘sort of unwell and sort of torn inside’.
Earlier the inquest heard how three of the couple’s children had given statements to police suggesting that he had been physically abusive to Ms Vengaliene (pictured) for years
Mr Vengalis said they both went in bed, and he went to sleep before he became aware at around 1am that his wife was getting up. She told him that she was going downstairs and he presumed she was going to the toilet before he fell asleep again, he said.
Mr Vengalis said he woke up as it was getting light and found his wife was not there. He assumed that she had gone jogging as she often did so early in the morning, and he went downstairs for a coffee while he waited for her so he could talk to her about how she had been feeling unwell.
But he became more concerned when he went outside for a cigarette and saw the back gate was left open when she normally used the front door to go out.
He added: ‘I just had a bad feeling straight away in my heart because of Egle.’ When he went back inside, his fears increased when he saw his wife’s running shoes still in the house.
Describing how he went out to look for her, he said: ‘I was worried because she had mentioned Devils, then I saw she had left without shoes on.’
He said he first went to check two local play areas beside a local school, before heading back to his house to get in his car and drive to the country park around 1km away.
Mr Vengalis said: ‘I parked my vehicle, got out and started looking around. I walked slightly towards the visitors’ centre. Then I was going through a wooded area towards the pond.
‘First of all I walked on the left side of the pond. Then I walked towards the mausoleum as I reached the crossing of the paths.
‘Visibility was very good because there were no leaves on the trees.. I turned back and was walking on the right side of the pond and saw Egle was floating in the water.
Mr Vengalis (left, today) insisted that his wife appeared to be in a ‘good’ mood when they went shopping together on the day before she disappeared.
‘I saw her stripey top. She was maybe 3m from the edge of the water.. Her face was down. I saw her back. She was lying face down in the water.
‘I started shouting, took my jacket and shoes off and got into the water.’ Indicating that the water was waist-deep, he said he was unable to drag her completely out of the water because of the steep bank so he tried to resuscitate her with her legs still in the lake.
He said: ‘I tried to blow some air into her lungs, but her jaw was already locked. I also did chest compressions on her.’
Mr Vengalis admitted he had no training in CPR apart ‘from what he had seen on television’.
Mr Hill asked him if he had ever been throttling his wife. He replied: ‘No, never’. The barrister also asked if he was ever holding his wife under the water, and he replied: ‘No’.
Mr Vengalis admitted not telling police at the scene about his wife’s discussions about the Devil, but it was because he spoke only poor English and did not have a translator present.
The inquest earlier heard a Royal Mail delivery driver had spotted a woman, believed to be Ms Vengaliene, walking into woods at the country park just after 3am on the day she died.
Ms Vengaliene knocked on the window of Brandon Park care home next to the lake at 5.15am, appearing wet and shivering when she was seen by staff. She asked for help, but they could not let her into the home due to Covid restrictions at the time.
When they offered to call police to help her, she replied: ‘No, no police. Will be big trouble’, and walked off.
The inquest heard last week how Ms Vengaliene’s blood was found smeared on a washing machine and microwave in a near neighbour’s conservatory after her death.
The near neighbour’s fence and gate had also been broken, and her property including slippers and a necklace found at the scene.
The hearing continues.
