Brighton ax murder: James Krauseneck's 1982 police statements reveals new details of wife's homicide

On Feb. 19, 1982, James Krauseneck Jr. returned from his job as an economist at Eastman Kodak Co., saw broken glass on the first floor of his Brighton home, then "called for my family."

"I ran up the stairs and went in our bedroom," Krauseneck said in his 1982 statement to Brighton police. "Cathy was in bed in our room and she had been struck in the head with a long handled ax. I saw the back of her head. I did not touch my wife."

From there, according to the statement, which has not previously been released publicly, Krauseneck ran into the room of the couple's 3½-year-old daughter, Sara, and found her "snuggled up in the corner of her bed, fully dressed."

"She had a red sweater over a pink sweater with blue ABC corduroy pants and two pair of socks. She looked dazed to me. I picked her up from her bed and ran downstairs and out the front door with her."

The statement is included in court papers filed Tuesday by the attorneys for Krauseneck, who is now accused of killing his wife, Cathleen "Cathy" Krauseneck, on that February day in 1982. While police have previously released details about Krauseneck's statement and the initial police investigation, the now-public court papers better illuminate the events of the day of the homicide and what occurred in the hours before and after.

"On February 19, 1982, at about 6 p.m. Jim Krauseneck came to my door and when I answered the door I saw Jim standing at the doorway, clutching Sara in his arms," reads a statement from a neighbor of the Krausenecks on Del Rio Drive, whose home Krauseneck ran to with his daughter.

"I saw that Jim was drained of all color, that he had a look of terror on his face, and that he could not stop looking over at his house," the neighbor told police.

The evening before

Cathy Krauseneck was not particularly happy in Rochester. The couple and Sara had moved to the Del Rio Drive home in late 1981, only months before the homicide.

James and Cathy had met in Michigan, where their families still resided, and lived in Lynchburg, Virginia, before the move northward, to more money and less sun. Krauseneck's job at Kodak paid significantly more than he had earned as an economics professor at Lynchburg College.

"Cathy Krauseneck was somewhat disillusioned with Rochester," the neighbor said in her statement. "I think that Cathy's disillusionment could be related to the fact that they moved in the fall and resided here throughout the winter and due to the cold weather could account for disenchantment with the Rochester area."

The evening before the homicide, the Krausenecks ate around 6:30 p.m. — meat loaf for James and Sara and egg salad on lettuce for Cathy — before driving to the bank in the lone family car to deposit Krauseneck's checks. After a stop at a department and drug store, they went to a nearby liquor store and "we purchased an alcoholic beverage with milk in it," Krauseneck told police.

At home, Cathy had a drink, her husband had two beers and made shrimp for his wife, then they put Sara into their own bed around 10 p.m., the statement says. The couple watched TV and relaxed in their library, let their golden retriever, Amicus, out and then in again, and went to bed around 11 p.m. after taking Sara to her bed.

The next morning, Krauseneck said, he left for work around 6:30 after putting Amicus in the basement. After a normal day at work, he said, he returned home around 4:50 p.m., planning to take Sara to a podiatry appointment.

At the house, he discovered the broken glass and his slain wife, the ax embedded in her skull. He grabbed up Sara, and ran to the home of the nearby neighbor.

What Sara saw

Police have long questioned Krauseneck's next moves. The day after the homicide he and Sara left for Michigan to stay with family. Police say Krauseneck was uncooperative thereafter; Krauseneck's attorney, Michael Wolford, said he set conditions for interviews that police would not abide by.

Wolford is still representing Krauseneck, joined now by defense lawyer William Easton. Krauseneck was charged with second-degree murder in November and pleaded not guilty.

Shortly after the homicide, police learned that Krauseneck had not completed the final portions of his doctorate and had lied about this to both Lynchburg College and Kodak. Cathy became aware of the lie, police say.

Current police and prosecutors say that they can better narrow the time of Cathy Krauseneck's death now, and it contradicts Krauseneck's claims. There is other evidence that will be unveiled at trial, authorities say.

Police briefly spoke with Sara the day of the homicide. She said she awoke after her father had left, and saw a person she did not know sleeping in her parents' bed with an ax in the head.

Sara first told police the person she saw in the bed was a man. Police believed Sara did not recognize her mother because of the grisly scene.

The neighbor told police that Sara had also told her that she had seen a man with a "hammer in his head" and later said it was an ax. When the neighbor asked what color the man was, Sara said "many colors" and she could not see his eyes.

In 1982, police released some information about Sara's statements, leading to public speculation that Sara saw her mother's killer. But the police reports show that investigators instead suspected in 1982 that Sara was "referring to her mother's face covered with blood."

The Del Rio neighbor

The neighbor on Del Rio told police that Krauseneck appeared traumatized when he arrived with his daughter at her home. At first, he was unable to speak, and could only respond with "a guttural sound," she said.

The neighbor asked whether something had happened to Cathy, whether Cathy was injured, or, worse, dead.

"Jim replied, 'I think so. Her body is limp,'" the neighbor told police.

She called police, and felt that Krauseneck "appeared to be going into shock."

Even so, the neighbor said, Krauseneck kept quietly asking Sara whether she was OK, and that "every time Sara spoke he would cry and hug and kiss her."

"I also heard Sara say to Jim, 'I'm glad you came home early today, Daddy.'"

Contact Gary Craig at gcraig@gannett.com or at 585-258-2479. Follow him on Twitter at gcraig1. This coverage is only possible with support from readers. Sign up today for a digital subscription.

This article originally appeared on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: Brighton ax murder: Husband's 1982 police statement seen for first time