Cathleen Krauseneck murder: Mother, 29, was found dead in bed with an ax lodged in her head as her daughter, 3, slept next door – but it took 40 YEARS before her husband was finally charged with her brutal killing

A new crime documentary has exposed the horrific true story of a 29-year-old woman who was brutally murdered with an ax while her daughter slept in the next room.

The lifeless body of Cathleen Krauseneck was discovered in bed in her parents’ home in Rochester, New York, in 1982.

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

But it would be 40 years before police charged her then husband with murder, despite another man confessing to the crime.

Here, FEMAIL has exposed the disturbing reality surrounding the case following an episode of 48 hours investigated the Brighton Ax murder.

Cathleen and Jim, who had grown up in the same shopping center town of Mount Clemens, Michigan, met in high school and started dating in college.

They married shortly after graduation and welcomed daughter Sarah four years later as their relationship seemed to go from strength to strength.

The family of three moved to Lynchburg, Virginia, where Jim taught economics at Lynchburg College.

They finally decided to settle in Brighton, an upmarket suburb of Rochester, in September 1981, but just five months later Cathleen was mercilessly murdered.

Jim, who had found a new job as an economist at Kodak, said he came home from the office to a chilling scene.

He entered the property and went upstairs to find his wife’s dead body in their blood-soaked bed, with an ax embedded in her skull.

She had been struck by a single blow from the medical examiner who claimed at the time that she “died instantly” between 4:30 a.m. and 7:30 a.m.

“It was one of the most heinous crimes we’ve seen in Rochester,” District Attorney Sandra Doorley said.

The couple’s three-year-old daughter, who was in the house the entire time, was unharmed.

Jim ran to a nearby house ‘Sarah clutched in his arms’ and with ‘a look of fear on his face’ before the neighbor frantically called the police.

Detectives discovered a scene that at first glance had all the signs of a burglary, including a broken window in the back door and another ax leaning against the wall outside.

Both axes involved in the crime belonged to the Krausenecks.

There was also a black bin bag, a tray of cutlery and the contents of Cathleen’s handbag strewn across the living room floor, but police said nothing had been taken and quickly decided it had been staged.

Jim became a suspect ‘within 24 hours’ as more and more evidence piled up against him.

Detectives believed the couple was having marital problems after finding a pamphlet offering services including “marriage counseling and sex therapy” in the couple’s car.

Police also visited Jim’s work, where they discovered that he had secured his job under false pretenses by pretending to have been promoted, despite never completing the course.

He had initially cooperated with authorities during interrogation, but less than a day after discovering his wife’s body, he headed to Michigan with his parents and daughter.

Police continued the interrogation from his new location, where Jim agreed to provide hair and blood samples.

But ten days after Cathleen’s death, he decided to hire a lawyer.

Despite their suspicions, the detectives did not have enough evidence to pursue the case further and Jim moved out with Sarah.

He married twice more before tying the knot in 1999 with current wife Sharon, who had been a long-time girlfriend.

The case lay dormant for more than thirty years before detectives decided to reopen the investigation in 2015.

They began retesting evidence in light of new technological developments, but there was still no DNA evidence linking Jim, nor anyone else, to the murder.

Detectives also brought in a new expert who concluded the actual time of death was 3:30 a.m. – hours before Jim said he left the house for work.

In light of the new development, Jim was charged in November 2019, despite another man having already ‘confessed’ to Cathleen’s murder.

In 2014, career criminal Edward Laraby – described as a ‘terrible human being’ and a ‘psychopath’ – had contacted the FBI claiming he was a serial killer.

He gave the names of his alleged victims, including Cathleen, whom he had lived near at the time of her death.

Laraby, who was imprisoned for 32 years on charges including robbery, rape and attempted murder, had been questioned once by police at the time of the murder, but authorities did not continue their investigation into him.

Detectives said his confession made decades later “did not fit the facts” and so it was dismissed.

Authorities continued with Jim’s case and he appeared in court in September 2022, with daughter Sarah by his side throughout.

The jury took just ten hours to deliberate and found Jim, then 71, guilty of second-degree murder.

He was sentenced the following month to 25 years to life behind bars – more than 40 years after Cathleen’s murder.

Jim died of cancer in prison just six months later.

Wife Sharon and daughter Sarah have continued to support and describe him him as a “decent, loving human being” and insisting that “there’s no way Jim would ever have done something like that.”

The duo and Jim’s legal team are now appealing the verdict in an attempt to clear his name.