Cold case catches fire: Husband charged with murder, 37 years after his wife was found dead with axe buried in her forehead
BRIGHTON, NEW YORK: A man has been charged with killing his wife over 37 years ago after authorities were unable to find anyone else's DNA at the scene of the crime.
On November 8, police arrested 67-year-old James Krauseneck, in connection with the February 19, 1982, death of his 29-year-old wife Cathleen, according to the Democrat and Chronicle report.
The young wife was found with an ax buried deep in her forehead as she lay in her bed in Brighton, New York. Subsequent tests found the weapon had been wiped clean of any fingerprints and authorities found a bedroom window broken from the outside.
While the case remained cold for decades, the FBI took it up in 2016 and carried out fresh forensic tests on evidence gathered in what had become infamously called the "Brighton ax murder".
DNA tests, however, showed no evidence of anyone else who might have been in the house, and so detectives are now pointing the finger at Krauseneck himself.
On November 8, a grand jury charged him with the second-degree murder of the first of his four wives. Cathleen's sister told the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle how she hoped for "justice" nearly 40 years after the tragedy.
"My family will see justice for Cathy, we hope. We still have a ways to go yet with the trial, but this is a huge step forward," she said, on condition of anonymity.
But Krauseneck's lawyer said he had "no doubt" his client would be vindicated. "Jim's innocence was clear 37 years ago. It's clear today," Michael Wolford told the outlet.
Not a single piece of DNA evidence belonging to anyone other than Krauseneck was found at the house, Brighton police chief David Catholdi noted.
"I understand people want a singular piece of evidence that can directly point to James Krauseneck," Catholdi told the Tacoma News Tribune. "This is not one of those cases."
Last week, Krauseneck was forced to hand in his passport as he was being released on a $100,000. The 67-year-old, whose trial is due to start in June next year, pleaded not guilty in court earlier this month.
Back in 1982, Krauseneck recounted to authorities the horror when he returned home from work to find his wife in bed with an ax buried deep into her skull. He immediately summoned help from a neighbor, he claimed at the time.
Owing to a window that was broken from outside in, police initially believed a burglar was responsible for the murder.
Meanwhile, they found the ax, which was picked up from the couple's unlocked garage, that had been wiped clean of fingerprints.
In a disturbing revelation at the time, police said Krauseneck's daughter Sara, who was just three at the time, had been left inside the home with her mother's corpse all day.
However, detectives were not able to determine whether Cathleen had been murdered before or after Krauseneck claimed he left for work. "There's no proverbial smoking gun," Catholdi said in a news conference last week. "What really cinched the case was the fresh look at it."
The day after Cathleen's murder, Krauseneck reportedly missed an interview with the police. When investigators tried to locate him, they found he had moved to Mount Clemens, Michigan, with his daughter Sara.
When he was confronted by authorities at his new place of residence, Krauseneck agreed to let his daughter speak to a child psychologist. However, he never followed through.
Investigator Mark Liberatore told The News Tribune in 2016 how Krauseneck "gave the appearance of wanting to be cooperative." He added, "But then he got a lawyer, and we never talked to him again for 34 years."