Who is James Krauseneck and where is he now? Whereabouts explored ahead of new NBC Dateline episode

Over 40 years ago, in 1982, James Krauseneck, who worked as an economist at Eastman Kodak Co., allegedly murdered his 29-year-old wife Cathy Krauseneck in their Brighton, New York, home. Cathy was found with an ax embedded in her head and their three-year-old daughter Sara alone in the house.

Prosecutors alleged that James struck his wife with an ax and staged the crime scene to make it look like a botched burglary before leaving the house for work. At the time, he claimed that when he left the house, Cathy was still alive.

James Krauseneck was arrested in 2019 after a second medical examiner reported that the victim was murdered while he was still in the house. Three years later, a jury found him guilty of second-degree murder and sentenced him to 25 years to life in prison.

According to the Democrat and Chronicle, he is currently imprisoned at the maximum-security Clinton Correctional Facility.

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James Krauseneck, a former Mount Clemens resident, moved to Brighton with wife months before her murder

James Krauseneck was an economist with the Eastman Kodak Company and had previously taught economics at Lynchburg College, Virginia. Krauseneck's father, who died in 2019 at the age of 94, and uncle owned a carpet shop in Mount Clemens, Michigan.

The couple had only moved to the area around six months before the horrible tragedy. James and Cathy went to the same Michigan high school. But they didn't begin dating until they were Western Michigan University students. They were finally married in 1974, eight years before Cathy's murder in February 1982.

Krauseneck took his daughter Sara back to Michigan after the murder and married three more times. At the time of his arrest and conviction, he was with his current wife, Sharon, whom he married in 1999.

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Krauseneck informed authorities that he returned home and found his wife dead with an ax stuck in her head

James Krauseneck initially informed authorities that on February 19, 1982, he discovered his wife dead with an ax sticking out of her skull, the garage door open, and glass on the floor when he returned home from work that evening. Their daughter, Sara, was in another room, unharmed.

The then 30-year-old Krauseneck grabbed his daughter and rushed to their next-door neighbor, who then made the 911 call. According to the neighbor, Krauseneck seemed speechless and had "a look of terror on his face."

The case eventually went cold and remained unsolved for four decades until detectives solicited the assistance of the FBI and a celebrity coroner. After further investigation, it was found that Cathy was probably murdered while James was still at home. Moreover, forensic evidence found at the crime scene showed James' DNA in significant quantities.

Detectives also learned that James never finished his PhD but was still able to teach at Lynchburg College and secure steady work at Eastman Kodak, despite the fact that both positions were reliant on his degree. They suspected that his forged degree was causing conflict between the couple.

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Where is James Krauseneck now?

Finally, in 2019, James Krauseneck was arrested on allegations that he killed his wife, staged the crime scene to make it seem like a botched robbery, and then left his daughter in the Del Rio Drive home while he went to work. He was charged with second-degree murder to which he pleaded not guilty.

A jury in Monroe County found 70-year-old James guilty of second-degree murder in September 2022. He was handed a maximum sentence of 25 years to life in prison and is reportedly serving time at the at the maximum-security Clinton Correctional Facility as his lawyers prepare an appeal. They claim that he was only implicated via circumstantial evidence, leaving room for an appeal.

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NBC Dateline will chronicle the decades-old case of Cathy Krauseneck, in an episode titled The Bad Man, on Friday, January 20, 2023, at 9 pm ET.