Nearly 40 years later, suspect in custody for Racine homicide cold case

RACINE, Wis. (CBS 58) -- A suspect in a Racine homicide cold case spanning four decades has finally been charged.

The Racine District Attorney's Office has formally charged Fred Wagner-Richardson for the 1987 murder of his wife.

Investigators said now-83-year-old Fred Wagner-Richardson was always the prime suspect in his wife's murder.

They said Wagner-Richardson had a motive to kill his wife, Derby Wagner-Richardson, after serval years of a difficult marriage.

"It was kind of surreal at the time, I guess still shutting a lot of it out," said Bryon Linder, whose sister was murdered in 1987.

In March of 1987, Derby Wagner-Richardson was found murdered in the trunk of her car after not reporting to her security guard job at Styberg Engineering.

She was found bound with duct tape and bruises on her forehead.

She also had injuries to her wrist and neck -- which investigators say ultimately was the cause of her death.

Derby's murder came the same day she and Wagner-Richardson were finalizing their divorce.

At a news conference, detectives with the Racine Police Department, who investigated the case along with Racine County District Attorney Patricia Hanson, spoke about the decades of work that went into charging Derby's husband.

"I've decided that while the case is circumstantial, certainly there are a lot of pieces to this puzzle, and it's not like a case I would present today with hours of video and surveillance cameras, but ultimately I think that Derby deserves for a jury of her peers to make a decision on this case, and now that it is in my hands and my office, we are going to make that happen," said Hanson.

A preliminary court date is set for Fred Wagner-Richardson on April 10.

In the meantime, he is out on a $50,000 cash and signature bond.