The Associated Press
The Waupaca County sheriff says he’s optimistic that investigators will solve two murder cases from 1992 and 1978 in the next year.
Sheriff Brad Hardel told Post-Crescent Media that investigators have made progress on both cold cases.
In 1992, 23-year-old Tanna Togstad and her boyfriend, 35-year-old Timothy Mumbrue, were found stabbed to death in her Royalton farmhouse. Authorities said in February 2013 that a man who was convicted of rape in Wisconsin and killing a man in Oklahoma was a person of interest in the 1992 double homicide.
Officials said DNA testing tied the man to the case, but not much has been said since.
“We’ve got a few things we’re waiting on to come back from the (state) crime lab,” Hardel said. “But we’re not definitely convinced that he’s the only person (of interest). There’s a good chance there is someone else besides him.”
Togstad’s brother, Richard Togstad, said he last saw his sister a few days before her death.
“I want it solved,” he said. “I want this guy, or guys, in prison before they die of old age.”
In the other cold case, 26-year-old Marcella Carpenter was found dead in a burning Clintonville house in January 1978. She died of a single stab wound.
Hardel said “there is a good possibility of solving that one,” but declined to elaborate.