Wisconsin police say they have solved a 30-year-old double murder that had its roots in long-simmering rage over a tragic snowmobile accident two decades earlier than that.
DNA connected foundry worker Tony Haase to the 1992 stabbing deaths of Timothy Mumbrue, his girlfriend Tanna Togstad, and her dog, according to a criminal complaint.
The couple was found dead in their Royalton home and for years police had run down leads, interviewed possible suspects, and collected DNA and fingerprints from persons of interest.
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None of the evidence matched up until investigators began looking at Haase, 51, and obtained his DNA during a traffic stop on July 6, the complaint says.
After forensic tests showed Haase’s DNA matched DNA found at the crime scene, detectives took him in for questioning about the cold case—and he denied having any connection.
But throughout the interview, according to the complaint, Haase began talking about snippets of memories he had of being at Mumbrae and Togstad’s house.
“Hasse indicated when he had these memories it made him very nervous and scared that he was involved,” the complaint alleges.
Eventually, investigators say, Haase came clean—revealing that in 1977, when Haase was 7 years old, his father was killed while snowmobiling with Tanna Togstad’s father.
On the evening of March 20, 1992, he got drunk at local bars and “for some reason he started to think about the accident that killed his father,” the complaint says.
“Those thoughts led to him going to the home of Tanna Togstad. Haase could not articulate why he went there but insisted it was not to hurt anyone.”
Haase claimed he got into into a scuffle with Mumbrue, a foundry worker, and stabbed him in the chest, police said. Togstad, who worked in a cheese factory, was yelling, and he knocked her out with a punch and then stabbed her in the chest when she started to rouse, the complaint alleges.
“When asked why he didn’t tell investigators right away Haase replied ‘I didn’t want it to sound like I had it planned.’ Haase told investigators he did not know why he did it. At this point in the interview, Haase told investigators when he eventually saw the news report he thought ‘Holy fuck, what did I do.’”
Haase is charged with first-degree intentional homicide and is being held in lieu of $2 million bond after a hearing attended by members of the victims’ families.
“Mostly happy,” Richard Togstad, Tanna’s brother, told WBAY of the arrest. “It’s been a long time coming.”
