Defense seeks to limit evidence in South Barrington cold-case murder
Defense lawyers filed multiple motions Wednesday to restrict evidence allowed during the trial of a Wisconsin man charged with murdering his wife 17 years ago in their South Barrington home.
Frank Bushauer, 68, of Pell Lake, is charged with murder in the drowning death of his wife Cynthia Hrisco, 47, on Feb. 28, 2000. Hrisco was found next to a bathtub in the couple's South Barrington home with wounds to her legs, arms, head and abdomen.
Buschauer's attorneys asked Cook County Judge James Karahalios to suppress certain documents as well as statements made by Hrisco, to limit items seized by investigators in 2000 and to allow a hearing on an expert witness. The hearing would decide whether certain scientific evidence is allowable.
Prosecutors have until the next court date, Oct. 12, in Rolling Meadows to file responses to the motions.
Bushauer was charged in April 2013 in the cold case. Back in 2000, he was considered a person of interest and told police he could have killed his wife but couldn't remember, prosecutors said. At the time. police lacked evidence to file charges.
The marriage was troubled and several times Hrisco told friends her husband had threatened to harm her, authorities said. The couple had a 13-month-old son.
A South Barrington detective who was a first-responder to their home asked the Cook County state's attorneys office to re-examine the case in 2010. Two crime experts reconstructed Hrisco's death, leading the Cook County medical examiner to conclude it was a homicide in 2012.
Interviewed by police in 2013, Buschauer made contradictory statements, saying he put his hands on Hrisco and threatened to kill her but suggested it was suicide or an accident. He also told detectives "we've established that it's probably me," when asked who could have committed the crime, prosecutors said, but he couldn't recall.