A Wife's Brutal Killing and a Crime Scene that Didn’t Add Up: Inside the Brighton Ax Murder Case

Cathy and Jim Krauseneck.

Investigators who showed up toJim and Cathy Krauseneck’s house on Feb. 19, 1982, encountered a brutal scene they would never forget: Cathy, a 29-year-old mother, had been killed in her bed, with an ax lodged in her head.

It took investigators decades to crack the case, and how they did is the subject of tonight’s episode ofPeople Magazine Investigates. Titled “Brighton Ax Murder,” the episode premieres tonight, Aug. 14 at 9/8c on ID and streams on Max. (An exclusive clip is shown below.)

In the clip, Patrick Gallagher, an Assistant District Attorney with the Monroe County District Attorney’s Office, who prosecuted the case in 2022, describes his initial thoughts about the crime scene.

“One of the things that really hit me right away was the use of both an ax and a maul,” he says. “No matter how I wrapped my head around it, I couldn’t come up with a reason why an intruder would need to use both the ax and the maul.”

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In 2019, however, police finally arrested a suspect.

People Magazine Investigates: Brighton Ax Murderairs on ID and streams on Max tonight, Aug. 14, at 9/8c.

source: people.com