Illinois Woman’s “Suspicious” Bathtub Drowning Stumps Police for Years: “No Explanation Whatsoever"

From the moment he answered the 911 call, Sgt. Bryant Haniszewski believed that Cynthia Hrisco’s death was more than just an accidental bathtub drowning.

“I looked at Mr. Buschauer and I noted that he was wearing pajama pants and a pajama shirt and that they were dry,” Sgt. Bryant Haniszewski, former patrol officer for South Barrington P.D., said on Accident, Suicide or Murder, airing Saturdays at 8/7c on Oxygen. “That seemed a little odd, since he told 911 that he took her out of the tub and then placed her on the floor.”

Officers found Cynthia Hrisco lying face down on the floor next to her bathtub around 2:30 a.m. on Feb. 28, 2000, in her South Barrington, Illinois home. Her husband, Frank Buschauser, claimed he’d gone to bed at 9:30 p.m., as Hrisco was starting a bath. He then said he woke up in the middle of the night to his baby son crying and discovered his wife dead in the tub.

It took police a decade to reopen the case and, through a series of recreations and staging, decide that Buschauser’s story didn’t add up.

“There was no sign of accident. The only thing left that was reasonable was homicide,” Andrea Zaferas, water death expert, said on Accident, Suicide or Murder.

But Cynthia and Frank’s son disagreed and is fighting for his father to this day.

“Everyone’s gonna have their own opinion. I know what I know. And that’s that my dad’s innocent,” said David Buschauer on Accident, Suicide or Murder.

Frank Buschauer. Photo: Oxygen

Cynthia Hrisco and Frank Buschauer met through online dating and married in 1996. They adopted their son, David, from Russia when he was ten months old, and built their dream home in the Chicago suburbs. But just months later, Hrisco was dead.

As police searched the home after her death, they found letters Hrisco and Buschauer wrote to each other in counseling.

“These letters are explosive,” said Maria McCarthy, ret. Asst. State’s Attorney for Cook County, on Accident, Suicide or Murder. “They are full of anger and vitriol and accusations. ‘Motive’ evidence. And all the problems revolved around the house that they had built.”

Buschauer’s cousin had built their home, but there were construction issues.

“On top of that, there were cost over runs,” McCarthy said. “His cousin was charging them hundreds of thousands more than they had intended to pay for the house. And so, Cynthia was furious. She wanted to sue his cousin…but Frank did not want to hurt his cousin financially. So over time, the arguments really escalated between them.”

It was so bad, divorce had come up in their letters.

“’If we can’t resolve our conflict in a constructive manner, then divorce is better than assault or murder,’” Barbara Vitello, journalist for the Daily Herald, read from a letter on Accident, Suicide or Murder.

Police were suspicious from the beginning that Cynthia Hrisco’s death wasn’t an accidental drowning. Not only was Frank Buschauer not wet, but items around the bathtub were undisturbed. Police arrived at the home only two minutes after Buschauer called 911.

“Obviously he had to go in the tub and pull his wife out. You could not do that without getting wet,” Haniszewski said. “Which would mean that he should have greeted me at the door wet. Soaked. And then also if he took her out of the tub, he would most likely knock over everything that was around the tub.”

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When questioned about his dry clothing, Buschauer claimed he changed clothes before police arrived. Marks on Hrisco’s body also raised police suspicion during the autopsy.

“[The medical examiner] found fresh scrapes on her body,” McCarthy said. “Fresh scrape on her knee. Fresh scrapes on her knuckles. Fresh abrasions and scrapes on her nose. And he found a fairly deep hemorrhage in her neck. We had no explanation for how the neck hemorrhage occurred.”

A toxicology report showed Hrisco was in good health when she died. The medical examiner concluded Cynthia Hrisco’s cause of death was drowning, and the manner of death was undetermined. With no hard evidence suggesting it was murder, the case was closed.

Did Frank Buschauer Drown Cynthia Hrisco in a Bathtub?

Frank Buschauer and his son, David, moved to Wisconsin after Cynthia Hrisco’s death. But ten years later, Sgt. Bryant Haniszewski was still unable to let the case go, and asked to reopen it, with the Cook County State’s Attorney’s help. In October 2010, the new homeowner of the house agreed to let police use the bathtub to do a reconstruction of Hrisco’s death, with the help of water death experts. They first examined if it was possible to remove Hrisco’s body from the bathtub without knocking anything over — and without getting wet.

“There was a way that he could do it, but he had to be very ginger about it,” McCarthy said. “And when a husband wakes up, and their wife’s missing, and they realize that they’re underwater in a bathtub, they’re going to be like a bull in a china shop. They’re not going to be gently lifting their wife out so that they don’t knock over a coffee thermos.”

She added, “We did that multiple times and the Frank model was wet every single time.”

Water death expert Andrea Zaferas played Hrisco as more scenarios were conducted to see if murder was possible. Officials simulated Buschauer holding Hrisco under the water and purposely drowning her.

“She actually developed injuries in the same spots that Cynthia had injuries,” McCarthy said. “On her knee. On her knuckles from being crushed under her body. On her nose from being pressed against a jet.”

With this new evidence, the medical examiner changed the manner of death to homicide from being forcibly submerged in a bathtub. On April 24, 2013, a warrant was issued for Frank Buschauer’s arrest.

“Her constant talking about the house — it built up in him over a year and I think he exploded that night after they had confronted each other about these letters they had just written,” McCarthy said.

On May 30, 2019, Buschauer went on trial before a judge, who found him guilty of first-degree murder and sentenced him to 25 years in prison.

“My dad was at that point 70 years old,” David Buschauer said. “It might as well have just been a life sentence…we did not get to hug him and did not get to see him after he was taken out in handcuffs.”

David does not believe his father killed his mother.

“Our ultimate goal is to get my dad freed,” he said. “We don’t want them to get away with putting an innocent man in prison.”

Watch all-new episodes of Accident, Suicide or Murder on Saturdays at 8/7c on Oxygen.