'Tale of two stories': Brighton ax murder trial opens with examination of 'unusual' burglary scene

When Officer Thomas Schirmer first saw James Krauseneck Jr., the man was standing behind another police officer in the upstairs hallway of his Brighton home, “screaming and growling” as he looked into the bedroom where his wife lay dead.

Inside, police found Cathleen Krauseneck, an ax embedded in her forehead.

“Do you think she’s OK?” Krauseneck later asked police at the scene, Schirmer testified Tuesday during the opening of a murder trial into the 40-year-old case.

Krauseneck, now 70, is accused of killing his wife in the early morning of Feb. 19, 1982.

He sat stoic in a Hall of Justice courtroom, listening to prosecutors, defense attorneys and witnesses recall that fateful day. Sitting behind him, his daughter Sara and wife Sharon, who have asserted his innocence. Sitting behind prosecutors, the family of Cathleen, including her 95-year-old father Robert Schlosser, who traveled from Michigan for the trial.

Prosecutors told a jury Krauseneck struck his wife with an ax from their garage and staged the home to look like a burglary gone wrong before he left for work at Eastman Kodak that day.

Defense attorneys for Krauseneck contend that his wife and 3-year-old daughter were still asleep when he left that morning, accidentally leaving the garage door open. When he returned, he found his wife dead.

More:'Brighton ax murder' trial set to begin 40 years after grisly homicide

At the core of testimony Tuesday was a silver tea service tray found at the scene.

Schirmer, the prosecution’s first witness, told the court he was dispatched to the home with little information on the evening of Feb. 19 and found signs of a break-in when he arrived. The windowpane of a door leading from the seasonal porch into the home was smashed, a maul ax perched nearby, and the contents of a woman’s purse were spilled onto the dining room carpet next to a silver tea service tray and a black trash bag.

But upon closer inspection, Schirmer said elements of the scene were “unusual” compared to nearly 1,000 other burglaries he would go on to investigate over his 30-year career with the Brighton Police Department.

Schirmer testified that milk and sugar containers on the silver tea service tray were undisturbed, indicating the tray was carefully placed on the carpet by whoever moved it.

“A burglar is in a hurry – they want to get in and out of the house quickly,” he said. “Usually, property is thrown in a bag and off they go.”

A broken windowpane is common entry in home burglaries, Schirmer said. But “ ... rarely if ever did I see an ax used,” he said. “And never in 32 years did I see two axes used.”

More:Brighton ax murder trial gets underway in Rochester

Still to come: Medical examiner's testimony

In opening statements, Assistant District Attorney Constance Patterson referenced holes in what she called the “tale of two stories. One is make-believe; one is the truth.”

Patterson said none of the valuables were taken from the home, even after Cathleen was killed, and questioned why a burglar would run past the maul ax used to break in to grab a second ax to kill the sleeping woman upstairs.

When investigators re-examined forensic evidence in 2016, she said, there were no unknown fingerprints or DNA found on any of the objects.

“Let’s look at the details that just don’t fit,” Patterson said.

But one of Krauseneck’s attorneys, Michael Wolford, told the jury that police developed “tunnel vision” when investigating Krauseneck, failing to pursue other leads – including a tip that a known rapist and murderer, Edward Laraby, lived nearby.

“There was no motive for James Krauseneck to kill his wife,” Wolford said. “No history of domestic violence. No evidence that they were not happily married.”

And still in debate is not only who killed Cathleen – but when she was killed.

An initial autopsy in 1982 put Cathleen’s time of death between 2:30 a.m. and 9:30 a.m.

Patterson said a second review of evidence by pathologist Dr. Michael Baden in 2019 shortened that window to before 6:30 a.m. – indicating Cathleen was killed before her husband left for work.

Wolford said the defense will call on three medical examiners to dispute Baden’s opinion, telling a jury that Baden’s report was an act of “desperation” by prosecutors.

“This is simply a new opinion,” he said. “Not new evidence.”

The trial continues Wednesday.

This article originally appeared on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: Brighton ax murder scene unusual for burglary, officer says