Justice Swings Down: Man Convicted in 1982 Ax Murder of Wife After 4 Decades of Uncertainty
James Krauseneck got to live his life for years before being charged with the murder
On February 19, 1982, in Brighton, New York, when thirty-year-old Jim Krauseneck returned home from work. The house was quiet, and he couldn’t find his wife and three-year-old daughter. He went upstairs, and it was then that he discovered the body of his wife, twenty-nine-year-old Cathy, in their bed, covered in blood with an ax embedded in her body still.
He then went to his daughter’s room, where he found her alone and unharmed, picked her up, and ran to a neighbor’s house to call the police.
Detectives arrived and confirmed that Cathy was deceased. She had been hit once to the back of the head. She was still in her nightgown, and she appeared to have been sleeping when attacked.
Her husband had claimed he had left for work early that morning, and everyone in the home was still sleeping when he left.
An initial glance at the crime scene appeared to have been a robbery gone wrong. Valuables had been strewn about the home, but according to Jim, nothing seemed to be missing. The items also appeared to be a little too perfect. There were plastic garbage…
