New York economist gets 25-to-life 40 years after murdering wife with ax

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A New York man has been sentenced to 25 years to life in prison for the 1982 ax murder of his wife – a case that went cold for nearly 40 years before it was solved, officials said. 

James Krauseneck, now 70, received the maximum sentence for killing his wife, Cathleen Krauseneck, "with an ax while she slept in her Brighton home in 1982," Monroe County District Attorney Sandra Doorley said in a Twitter post announcing the news.

"[W]e do not give up on victims," she wrote. "We will do everything in our power to secure justice, even 40 years later."

FORMER NEW YORK PROFESSOR CONVICTED OF 1982 AX MURDER OF FIRST WIFE

A combination of economist James Krauseneck's booking photo and a family portrait of his slain wife Cathleen Krauseneck and their daughter, Sara.  (Facebook/Brighton Police Department)

The story of Cathleen Krauseneck's death, which became known as the "Brighton Ax Murder," was later turned into a Netflix special, "Things Heard & Seen."

Krauseneck was convicted in September of second-degree murder for the February 1982 slaying in Brighton, New York, a suburb of Rochester located roughly 85 miles west of Syracuse.  

Brighton Police officers discovered Cathleen Krauseneck on Feb. 19, 1982, in the family’s Del Rio Drive home, dead from "a strike in the head with an ax while she slept," officials said. Officers located her lifeless body in her bed, the office said. 

James Krauseneck Jr. and Cathleen Krauseneck at their wedding in 1974. Krauseneck is on trial for allegedly murdering his wife with an ax in 1982. (Facebook)

NEW YORK ECONOMIST'S TRIAL BEGINS FOR THE 1982 AX MURDER OF HIS WIFE

The district attorney’s office reviewed the case with renewed vigor in 2015 with the help of the FBI, the Brighton Police Department and famed forensic pathologist Dr. Michael Baden, who is also a Fox News contributor. 

The Rochester home where James Krauseneck Jr. and his then-wife Cathleen Krauseneck lived in 1982, when he allegedly smashed an ax into her forehead. His trial began Monday.  (Fox Rochester)

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A grand jury indicted James Krauseneck in November 2019, after investigators determined James "moved away and went on with his life" after killing his wife, Doorley said.