By Laurie Bennett and Nancy Monaghan
The house at 33 Del Rio Drive in Brighton, NY, was a comfortable post-war home on a winding street outside Rochester.
The neighborhood was popular with professionals – lawyers, doctors, and, like James Krauseneck, upper-level employees of Eastman Kodak.
Downstairs layout
Jim and his wife, Cathy, bought the house in September 1981, when Jim left his teaching job at Lynchburg College in Virginia for a higher-paying position as an economist at Kodak.
With a fireplace, hardwood floors, bay windows and a garage, the property was a symbol of success, a sign that the young family was moving up in the world.
Yet there were indications they were stretched financially. They owned just one car, which Jim drove to work most days, leaving Cathy at home with their 3 1/2-year-old daughter, Sara.
After returning from work on Friday, Feb. 19, 1982, Jim ran across the street to a neighbor. He held Sara in his arms.
“Jim was drained of all color,” the neighbor would later tell police. “He had a look of terror on his face.”
Police arrived minutes later to find a horrific scene inside 33 Del Rio. Cathy, her eyes covered with blood, lay in bed with an ax embedded in her skull.
Upstairs layout
The family dog, a golden retriever named Amicus, was shut up in the basement.
In the garage, police found a rug from the downstairs bathroom. It was wet, hanging over a stroller to dry.
A first-floor window was broken, with shards in the kitchen, as if the glass had been smashed from the outside.
Cathy’s purse lay open on dining room floor, contents scattered nearby. Also on the floor: a plastic bag and a tea tray with creamer and sugar bowl still upright.
Yet nothing was missing from the home. Valuables, such as cash, jewelry and watches, were left untouched. Investigators suspected the scene had been staged.
“Things were too neat,” Investigator Gary Printy told Bennett in 1990. “When burglars go in the house they’re in a hurry. They’re not very neat people.”
Later, there would be speculation that the Brighton police, unaccustomed to investigating murders in their quiet community, mishandled the crime scene.
But in the long view, their mistake might have been in allowing James Krauseneck to leave the station that night.
His parents had driven from Michigan as soon as an officer called them about Cathy’s death. Although Krauseneck promised to return to police headquarters the following morning, he and Sara accompanied his parents back to Michigan.
A lawyer was hired, and he set unacceptable conditions on any future discussions with police. Krauseneck refused permission for authorities to interview Sara.
The case remained unsolved for almost four decades, until Brighton police joined with the FBI’s cold cases unit to re-examine the evidence.
They digitized the entire case file and sent items from the scene to be examined for DNA, a technique unavailable at the time of Cathy’s death.
The only DNA found in tests at the FBI crime lab in Quantico was that of the people who lived in the house – Cathy, Sara and Jim.
“DNA, fingerprints or the lack thereof can speak volumes,” Brighton’s current police chief, Dave Catholdi, said at a press conference after Jim Krauseneck’s indictment on a single murder charge.
“No other evidence at the scene, to include DNA, points to anyone other than James Krauseneck Jr.”
Krauseneck has pleaded not guilty to the charge and is scheduled to be tried in 2020.