GUILTY NY - Cathleen Krauseneck, 29, axed to death, Brighton, 19 Feb 1982 *husband arrested in 2019*

[Alice Ramnit]

I just watched the 48 Hours episode and didn't hear much concrete evidence to convict him at all! Even the jurors seemed to begin deliberations with reasonable doubt. It's such an odd case.
In 2020 Prof. Jane Moncton published her research on the 8 stages to domestic homicide and I didn't hear any evidence that he followed any of those typical patterns of behaviour either.

Domestic abuse: Killers 'follow eight-stage pattern', study says

Men who kill their partners follow a timeline that could be tracked by police, a new study suggests.

www.bbc.com

Curious about other viewers thoughts!

 

[Marysmith]

I just watched the 48 Hours episode and didn't hear much concrete evidence to convict him at all! Even the jurors seemed to begin deliberations with reasonable doubt. It's such an odd case.
In 2020 Prof. Jane Moncton published her research on the 8 stages to domestic homicide and I didn't hear any evidence that he followed any of those typical patterns of behaviour either.

Domestic abuse: Killers 'follow eight-stage pattern', study says

Men who kill their partners follow a timeline that could be tracked by police, a new study suggests.

www.bbc.com

Curious about other viewers thoughts!

I think for the jury it seemed just that nothing else made sense except that he did it. I agree though that there was no smoking gun.

 

[JerseyGirl]

Family of convicted Brighton ax murderer vows to pursue appeal amid courts latest decision

Rochester/Brighton, N.Y.

13wham.com

 

[Seattle1]

I just watched the 48 Hours episode and didn't hear much concrete evidence to convict him at all! Even the jurors seemed to begin deliberations with reasonable doubt. It's such an odd case.
In 2020 Prof. Jane Moncton published her research on the 8 stages to domestic homicide and I didn't hear any evidence that he followed any of those typical patterns of behaviour either.

Domestic abuse: Killers 'follow eight-stage pattern', study says

Men who kill their partners follow a timeline that could be tracked by police, a new study suggests.

www.bbc.com

Curious about other viewers thoughts!

I disagree as per the interview with juror I. Matthew. The defendant had 3 more wives following Cathy but information about these relationships and dissolutions was suppressed from the trial.

'There was no reasonable doubt': Juror in ax murder trial speaks on guilty verdict

The jury came to it's decision Monday morning after what one juror describes as an 'emotional' process.Many may have been shocked by the guilty verdict but for

13wham.com

For Matthew, the most compelling proof of James' guilt was evidence of a staged burglary.

"If you look at it even the items in the bag were standing up you had his foot print on the bag, there, the items on the floor were perfectly standing up nothing was knocked over, it was just so staged," he said. "There really was no evidence to show that anyone outside of him could have committed this murder that really did it for me."

Matthew said in the end, there was no hesitation about the verdict, but the jury had many conversations about the Krauseneck's daughter, Sara. She was three and a half years old when she was left at home, alone, all day with her mother's body.

"A lot of people had a hard time dealing with that but that was when we had to take the emotion out of it and just look at the facts and evidence that was presented- because you would say well a person who could do this to their wife, they could leave their child there in that type of situation," he said.

Krauseneck's demeanor in court also stuck out to Matthew.

"Just very stoic, he just had that demeanor, no face expression whatsoever," Matthew said.

 

[imstilla.grandma]

In the winter of 1982, in the upscale Rochester, N.Y., suburb of Brighton, Jim Krauseneck told police he'd returned home from work to find a gruesome scene: His wife Cathy was dead in bed with an ax in her head.

Jim grabbed the couple's 3-year-old daughter, then ran to get help from a neighbor, who told police Jim, then 30, "had a look of terror on his face" and struggled to speak.

For decades, police searched for whoever killed the 29-year-old mom while she slept. Finally, police cracked the cold case, and how they did so is the subject of Monday’s episode of People Magazine Investigates. Titled “Brighton Ax Murder,” the episode premieres Monday, Aug. 14 at 9/8c on ID and streams on Max. (An exclusive clip is shown below.)

In the clip, prosecutors recount investigators' heart wrenching interview with the couple’s 3-year-old daughter, Sarah

A Young Wife’s Ax Murder Went Cold for Decades Until Investigators Uncovered the Shocking Truth

'People Magazine Investigates' examines the 1982 cold case murder of Cathy Krauseneck

people.com

 

[Seattle1]

Mother, 29, was found dead in bed with an ax lodged in her head

Cathleen Krauseneck's lifeless body was discovered in bed at her family home in Rochester, New York, in 1982. But it would be 40 years before police charged her then-husband with murder.

www.dailymail.co.uk

9/17/23

A new crime documentary has laid bare the gruesome true story of a 29-year-old woman who was brutally murdered with an axe as her daughter slept in the room next door.

Cathleen Krauseneck's lifeless body was discovered in bed at her family home in Rochester, New York, in 1982.

She was found laying under blood-soaked sheets with the weapon still lodged in her head.

 

[Seattle1]

Not seeing the crime documentary named in the DM article?

Netflix previously featured "Things Heard & Seen"

New Netflix movie ‘Things Heard & Seen’ inspired by Upstate NY ax murder

Amanda Seyfried stars in the horror film.

www.syracuse.com

 

[Seattle1]

To view this content we will need your consent to set third party cookies.
For more detailed information, see our cookies page.

Accept third party cookies

"48 hours" investigates the Brighton ax murder​

Feb 24, 2023 #48hours #crime
"48 Hours" investigates one of America's oldest cold cases, the Brighton ax murder. Forty years ago, a young mother was killed in her bed, her toddler left unharmed. It remained unsolved until now. "48 Hours" correspondent Erin Moriarty reports.

 

[imstilla.grandma]

Moriarty returned to reporting on the Brighton murder of Cathy Krauseneck with a two-part podcast entitled "Did I Marry an Ax Murderer?" as part of her "My Life of Crime" series. The podcast, released late last month, includes the most extensive interviews yet with Sharon Krauseneck, whose husband was convicted last year of the February 1982 murder of his first wife, Cathy.

James Krauseneck Jr. was not charged with the murder until 2019, almost four decades after Cathy Krauseneck was found dead in the bed of the couple's Brighton home with an ax embedded into her skull.

While the title of Moriarty's podcast has a certain salaciousness, the podcast also focuses on what happened after Krauseneck's conviction and imprisonment. Shortly after being jailed, Krauseneck found he suffered from esophageal cancer. He died in prison in May at the age of 71.

Brighton ax murder case focus of new '48 Hours' podcast: Krauseneck's wife speaks out

Erin Moriarty, the veteran CBS reporter and "48 Hours" correspondent, has released a new podcast about the "Brighton ax murder."

www.democratandchronicle.com

 

[dotr]

rbbm

Young Mom Found Murdered in Upstate New York Home "With an Ax Buried Into Her Head" | Oxygen

Find out more about the murder of Cathy Krauseneck, found dead in bed in Brighton, New York, with an ax still stuck in her head.

www.oxygen.com

'Dateline will revisit the harrowing case and the decades-long quest to track down Krauseneck’s killer in a two-hour mystery titled “The Bad Man,” airing Friday, August 8 at 9/8c p.m. on NBC.

“Nearly 40 years after young wife and mother Cathy Krauseneck is found murdered with an ax in her upstate New York home, a new team of investigators joins the cold case to uncover the killer,” a synopsis of episode reads.'

To view this content we will need your consent to set third party cookies.
For more detailed information, see our cookies page.

Accept third party cookies

 

[Seattle1]

rbbm

Young Mom Found Murdered in Upstate New York Home "With an Ax Buried Into Her Head" | Oxygen

Find out more about the murder of Cathy Krauseneck, found dead in bed in Brighton, New York, with an ax still stuck in her head.

www.oxygen.com

'Dateline will revisit the harrowing case and the decades-long quest to track down Krauseneck’s killer in a two-hour mystery titled “The Bad Man,” airing Friday, August 8 at 9/8c p.m. on NBC.

“Nearly 40 years after young wife and mother Cathy Krauseneck is found murdered with an ax in her upstate New York home, a new team of investigators joins the cold case to uncover the killer,” a synopsis of episode reads.'

To view this content we will need your consent to set third party cookies.
For more detailed information, see our cookies page.

Accept third party cookies

Aftermath and Jim Krauseneck’s Death​

Jim Krauseneck died of cancer in May 2023, just six months into his prison sentence. Because his appeal was still pending at the time of his death, his conviction was vacated under New York law. Sharon and Sara Krauseneck continue to stand by him, asserting his innocence and working to clear his name posthumously.

The case remains deeply polarizing. While prosecutors believe the evidence pointed clearly to Jim as the killer, others argue that the state’s case was based on a disputed timeline and circumstantial evidence. The presence of an alternative suspect, even if discredited, continues to raise questions for many observers.

Legacy of the Case​

The Brighton ax murder remains a defining cold case in American criminal history. For decades, Cathy Krauseneck’s murder was a symbol of injustice and unanswered questions. The trial, conviction, and subsequent death of Jim Krauseneck have not resolved those tensions. Dateline NBC’s “The Bad Man” explores the complexities behind the headlines—broken trust, forensic uncertainty, and a family divided by tragedy.

While some now see the case as closed, others believe the final chapter has yet to be written.

"The Bad Man": Dateline Reports on Cathy Krauseneck Homicide August 8 2025 - Dateline Tonight

Dateline NBC's episode “The Bad Man,” hosted by Andrea Canning, returns to one of the most haunting unsolved cases in New York State: the 1982 ax murder of

datelinetonight.com