WAUPACA, Wis. (WFRV) – The trial for an over 30-year-old double murder case came to an end Monday morning after jurors found 54-year-old Tony Haase not guilty.
Haase was facing two first-degree murder charges in the brutal stabbing and killing of Tanna Togstad and Timothy Mumbrue in her Royalton home back in 1992.
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During the trial, prosecutors told the court that Haase had mentioned to police that his father had died in a snowmobile accident that also involved Togstad’s father. They suggested that Haase had gotten drunk one night and decided to confront Tanna Togstad about the accident, leading to the murders.
Prosecutors also pointed to DNA samples from “foreign bodily fluids” on Togstad’s body that match those collected from Haase during a 2022 traffic stop and an interview he did in 2022 with police during which prosecutors say he confessed to the murders as cornerstones of the state’s case against Haase.
Haase’s defense team told a different story on what had happened, stating that Haase himself is a gentle, mild-mannered man who isn’t capable of committing a vicious crime like the one he was standing trial for.
One of his attorneys suggested that it was actually Haase’s uncle, Jeff Thiel, who committed the double murder. Several witnesses throughout the trial testified that Thiel was a violent man who threatened to kill several of his ex-wives and viciously killed multiple animals.
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Haase’s defense team added that Thiel, who died of suicide in 1995, had once broken a kitten’s neck for being too loud and that he reportedly had an obsession with knives, making sure the ones he owned were as sharp as possible.
In response to the jury’s verdict, Haase’s defense team said, “Our team, for three years, have moved heaven and earth to make this happen and to show the world what kind of man Tony Haase really is.
Following the not guilty verdict, the judge filed a motion for Haase to be acquitted and for his bond to be removed.
