James Krauseneck Jr. biography: 13 things about Peoria, Arizona man

James Krauseneck Jr. was an American man from Peoria, Arizona, United States. He was originally from Michigan, USA where his family was well known in the community as the owners of a popular carpet business.

Krauseneck was 1 year older than Cathleen R. “Cathy” Schlosser Krauseneck. They went to the same high school in Michigan.

James and Cathy became a couple while attending Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo, Kalamazoo County, Michigan. Here are 13 more things about him:

1. In 1974, he and Cathy got married. They first lived in Colorado, USA and Virginia, USA. He taught at Lynchburg College in Lynchburg, Virginia where he was an assistant professor of economics. He had falsely indicated to the college that he had a doctorate but his dissertation was not accepted.
2. From Virginia, he and Cathy moved to Brighton, Monroe County, New York, USA. Their house in Brighton was near his job as an economist at Eastman Kodak. Built in 1945, it is the same house where Dr. Anthony Schifino and his wife Estelle Schifino died of carbon monoxide poisoning on April 11, 1977.
3. In 1979, Cathy gave birth to their daughter Sara Krauseneck. He falsely told Kodak he had a doctorate when interviewing in Rochester, Monroe County for a job that paid significantly more than his collegiate teaching. In 1982, Kodak learned that he had not completed his doctoral work and Cathy became aware of his workplace issue.
4. On February 19, 1982, Cathy was murdered inside their home in Brighton. He told Brighton Police Department officers that he left home for his job at Eastman Kodak at around 6:30 a.m. and when he returned home just before 5:00 p.m., he found her in their bedroom with an ax embedded in her forehead while their daughter was unharmed in another room. The ax handle and surfaces across the house had been wiped clean of fingerprint. Brighton Police Department investigator Richard Corrigan searched his car in Brighton and found a pamphlet for a local marriage counselor.
5. On February 20, 1982, he failed to show up for a follow-up interview with the Brighton Police Department because he moved from his home in Brighton into a hotel in the same town with his parents and Sara then went back to Michigan and hired Michael Wolford, an attorney based in Rochester.
6. In March 1982, Corrigan interviewed him in Michigan. He told Corrigan not to give up on the case. From Michigan, he later moved to Gig Harbor, Washington.
7. In 2012, he and his fourth wife Sharon Krauseneck bought a house in Scottsdale, Maricopa County, Arizona. In the same year, convicted sex offender Edward Laraby confessed to Cathy’s murder but parts of the confession did not align with the facts of the case. In 2015, retired Brighton Police Department chief Mark Henderson reopened the homicide case of Cathy. Federal Bureau of Investigation testing showed no deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) from anyone but him on any of the evidence gathered in 1982.
8. In April 2016, Brighton Police Department investigator Mark Liberatore, who was accompanied by an FBI agent, spoke with him in Gig Harbor. Two days after the detectives left Gig Harbor, he and Sharon put their home up for sale. He later retired as vice president from a Fortune 500 company.
9. In 2017, he and Sharon bought a house in Peoria.
10. In November 2019, he was arrested in Peoria, brought to Brighton and charged with the murder of Cathy. On November 8, 2019, he appeared in court with Sara and pleaded not guilty. He was released on $25,000 cash bail and partially secured bond of $75,000.
11. On September 26, 2022, a jury found him guilty of second-degree murder. The jury determined that he picked up an ax and brought it into Cathy’s head as she slept in their bed in Brighton on February 19, 1982. While in prison, he was diagnosed with esophageal cancer.
12. How he murdered Cathy was the subject of “48 Hours” Season 36 episode 17, which aired on CBS on February 25, 2023.
13. On March 3, 2023, he died in prison. He was 71.