Dateline NBC airs a detailed new episode revisiting the 1992 rural Waupaca County killings and the long investigation that followed

Dateline NBC returns to rural Waupaca County in a new episode that walks viewers back through the 1992 killings of Tanna Togstad and Tim Mumbrue and the decades of investigation that followed.

Titled Raising the Dead, the two-hour report airs Friday, November 21 2025, at 9 p.m. Eastern and 8 p.m. Central, with Keith Morrison retracing how a cold case from a quiet Royalton farmhouse became one of Wisconsin’s most closely watched trials. The episode focuses on the stabbing deaths of 23-year-old Togstad and 35-year-old Mumbrue and the long search for answers in Waupaca County.

Across the hour, Dateline NBC revisits the original crime scene, the 2018 media appeals for information, the 2022 DNA match that pointed police to local man Tony Haase and the 2025 jury that found him not guilty. Host Morrison leads viewers through both the criminal trial and the ongoing wrongful death lawsuit that now carries a multi-million dollar claim.

Dateline NBC’s Raising the Dead revisits the 1992 Waupaca County farmhouse murders

The new Dateline NBC episode returns to the early morning of March 21 1992, when deputies were called to a farmhouse near Royalton and found the bodies of Tanna Togstad and her boyfriend, Timothy Mumbrue. As per the WBAY news report dated August 18 2025, authorities said both victims had been stabbed inside the home, and Togstad’s dog was also killed.

Autopsy findings later confirmed that Togstad died from a single stab wound to the chest, while Mumbrue suffered multiple stab wounds to his torso in what investigators described as a frenzied attack.

Detectives processed the remote farmhouse and surrounding property, collected biological samples and interviewed friends, coworkers and people who had been at a nearby bar with the couple that night.

Despite that early work, the investigation into the deaths of Tanna Togstad and Tim Mumbrue quickly stalled. More than one hundred people were questioned over the years, search warrants were executed, and evidence was preserved, yet no one was charged, and the case grew cold.

The community never forgot the case. As per WBAY report dated March 19 2018, local investigators and the victims’ families helped erect a billboard showing photos of Tanna Togstad and Tim Mumbrue, asking for tips on the unsolved homicides and reminding drivers that the violence at the farmhouse remained unexplained.

DNA break, barroom memories and a 2022 arrest in the Togstad Mumbrue case

Three decades after the killings, a routine traffic stop changed the direction of the case that Dateline NBC now explores. As per Fox 11's report dated July 13, 2025, Waupaca County investigators obtained a DNA sample from resident Tony Haase after a 2022 traffic encounter and sent it to the Wisconsin Crime Lab.

Laboratory testing linked that profile to biological evidence preserved from the 1992 crime scene, prompting Haase’s arrest and charges in the deaths of Tanna Togstad and Tim Mumbrue.

According to an ABC News report dated August 15 2022, a criminal complaint says Haase told detectives he had been in a “drunken stupor” on the night of the killings and had only “snippets” of memories of the crime. As per the same report, Haase described starting a fight with Mumbrue at the farmhouse after years of anger over a 1977 snowmobile crash that killed his father, an accident that also involved Togstad’s father.

At the same time, state prosecutors argued in court filings that the preserved crime scene work from 1992 had proved crucial to the match. The complaint and subsequent civil filings note that evidence from the farmhouse was carefully collected and stored for future testing, allowing modern DNA analysis to be used when new technology and a new suspect became available. Dateline NBC is expected to show how that evidence handling gave investigators a second chance to identify a suspect decades later.

The climax of Raising the Dead follows the 2025 jury trial that drew national attention and now shapes the latest Dateline NBC report. As per NBC26 report dated August 11 2025, jurors heard weeks of testimony about DNA testing, Haase’s recorded statements and alternative suspects before finding him not guilty of two counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of Tanna Togstad and Tim Mumbrue.

Outside the courthouse, Haase’s lawyers underlined their long-held position. As per the NBC26 report dated August 11 2025, defense attorney John Birdsall stated,

“We were 100% convinced of his innocence and that has never wavered.”.

His co-counsel, Nicole Muller, acknowledged the lasting damage to both families.

Stay tuned for more updates.