Tony Haase, center, appears in court March 20, 2024, for the 1992 murders of Tanna Togstad and Timothy Mumbrue. (Image courtesy Waupaca County courts/Zoom)
WAUPACA, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) — A judge will allow a body to be exhumed as a scheduled trial approaches in a three-decade-old murder case.
The latest order comes a week after the judge issued an order allowing Tony Haase’s defense to pin the blame on someone else for the 1992 murders of Tanna Togstad and Timothy Mumbrue. That alternate suspect is now dead.
Haase faces two counts of first-degree murder for the March 21, 1992, deaths at a farmhouse in Royalton. Haase was charged in 2022 after confessing to the murders. Haase’s father was killed in a snowmobile crash in 1977, with Togstad’s father one of the drivers involved.
The trial, which is scheduled for up to six weeks, is scheduled to start July 14.
In Wisconsin, the defense has to get permission from the court before being allowed to argue to the jury another person in responsible for the crime. Waupaca County Judge Raymond Huber granted that last week.
According to online court records, a “Motion and Order for Disinterment” was approved Wednesday. However, the documents are sealed, so the details of the request are not publicly available.
The next hearing in the case is a motions hearing June 20. It’s unclear if the disinterment order will be discussed. It also remains to be seen if any possible testing associated with the disinterment would postpone the trial.
Although the murders happened in 1992, Haase wasn’t charged until August 2022.
Police identified Haase as a suspect, and a DNA sample was taken from him during a traffic stop. Test results showed him to be a “major male contributor” to the fluids recovered from Togstad’s body, the complaint states.
Haase initially denied any involvement, but during questioning, he eventually admitted to the murders.
Eventually, Haase disclosed to investigators that his father had been killed in a snowmobile accident when he was 5 or 8 years old. Investigators had discovered Haase’s father died on Dec. 31, 1977, when Haase was 7 years old.
Haase continued and described that his father was operating a snowmobile in a group of three that was racing. The second snowmobile hit his father’s, and his father was killed. The third snowmobile then ran over the driver of the second. He described it as a horrible accident. One of those drivers was Togstad’s father.
Haase explained that on the evening of March 20, 1992, he became very drunk as he went from one bar to another by himself. For some reason, he started to think about the accident that killed his father. 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. He described himself as being in a drunken stupor that night. Haase describes getting into a “scuffle” with Mumbrue. He could not remember if he had brought a knife or if the knife was at the house. During the “scuffle,” he and Mumbrue were wrestling while standing up, and he moved his arm in a stabbing motion toward Mumbrue’s chest. He described Mumbrue falling to the floor near the foot of the bed.
Haase remembered Togstad yelling, “What the (expletive),” and that is when he punched her in the face. It is believed he would have knocked her out at this time. At some point, Togstad started to stir, and that is when he stabbed her in the chest.
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, Haase told investigators when he saw the news report he thought, “Holy (expletive), what did I do?” the complaint states.
When they were killed, Togstad was 23 and Mumbrue was 35. Togstad died of one stab wound to the chest, while Mumbrue was stabbed multiple times, according to the autopsy report cited in the criminal complaint.
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