A retired executive has been charged with the murder of his wife 37 years ago.
According to the Daily Mail, 67-year-old James Krauseneck was arrested on November 8 for the brutal murder of his then 29-year-old wife, Cathleen, on February 19, 1982. She was discovered lying in bed with an axe in her head.
Details surrounding the death are conflicting. No DNA other than Krauseneck's was found at the scene. However, a bedroom window had been broken from the outside, and all fingerprints had been wiped clean from the weapon, which had been taken from the couple's unlocked garage.
Krauseneck, who was an executive for Eastman Kodak Co., claims he found Cathleen lying in bed when he came home from work. The couple's three-year-old daughter was left at home.
The circumstances following the murder, however, were weird. Krauseneck missed an interview with police the following day. When they tried to find him, they discovered he'd moved to a different state with the couple's daughter. Police traveled to speak with them, and he agreed he'd let his daughter speak to a child psychologist (which she never ended up doing). At the time, neighbors and friends indicated that there may have been abuse in the relationship. Krauseneck also went on to have four other wives after Cathleen's murder.
The investigation turned into a cold case, but a grand jury unsealed an indictment against Krauseneck this month, charging him with second-degree murder.
The police chief involved in the investigation insisted that this was "not one of those cases" where a single piece of evidence can directly point to James Krauseneck, which would explain why the case went cold.
Krauseneck was released on $100,000 bail last week and forced to hand in his passport. His trial is set for June 2020.
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