Man arrested for 1992 double murder says he was ‘very drunk,’ has ‘snippets’ of memories of crime

Man arrested for 1992 double murder says he was ‘very drunk,’ has ‘snippets’ of memories of crime
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(WEYAUWEGA, Wisc.) — A Wisconsin man, 51-year-old Tony Haase, has been arrested for a 1992 double murder after police used DNA from a recent traffic stop to connect him to the crime. He told police last week he was in a “drunken stupor” and has “snippets” of memories of the crime, according to the criminal complaint.

On March 21, 1992, Timothy Mumbrue, Tanna Togstad and Togstad’s dog were found stabbed to death at Togstad’s Weyauwega, Wisconsin, home, according to the Wisconsin Department of Justice.

The murders went unsolved for decades, even as police collected DNA, re-tested evidence, conducted interviews and executed search warrants, according to the criminal complaint.

At one point Haase was identified in the investigation, the criminal complaint said. A DNA sample was taken from a pen Haase used during a traffic stop in July 2022, and that DNA sample was determined to be a match to fluids on Togstad’s body, the complaint said.

In a police interview on Aug. 11, 2022, Haase revealed his father was friends with Togstad’s father, according to the complaint.

Haase told investigators that he’d never been to Togstad’s home and denied involvement in the murders, the complaint said.

But Haase also told police “he had ‘snippets/blurbs’ of memories through the years that he attributed to the murders,” the complaint said. “Those ‘snippets’ included remembering walking down the front steps of the house and vomiting in the yard” and leaving her driveway, the complaint said.

Haase said those memories “made him very nervous and scared that he was involved,” according to the complaint.

He later told police that his father died a snowmobile accident when he was a child. Haase said several people were racing and collided, and that one of the snowmobile drivers was Togstad’s father, the complaint said.

Haase told police that the night of the crime, he got “very drunk” and started thinking about his father’s death, which led him to thinking about going to Togstad’s home, the complaint said.

In a “drunken stupor,” Haase said he had a “scuffle” with Mumbrue, “and he moved his arm in a stabbing motion toward Mumbrue’s chest,” the complaint said.

Haase said Togstad yelled, “what the f—” and he then punched her in the face, the complaint said.

When “Togstad started to ‘stir,'” he said he stabbed her in the chest, the complaint said.

Haase said the crime was not planned and “he did not know why he did it,” according to the complaint. He said when he “saw the news report he thought ‘Holy f—, what did I do,'” the complaint said.

Haase, of Weyauwega, was charged Friday with two counts of first-degree intentional homicide, the Wisconsin Department of Justice announced Monday. He does not have an attorney. He has not entered a plea and is due back in court on Tuesday.

ABC News’ Alex Faul contributed to this report.

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