UPDATE: Couple Charged in Murder of Brookfield Businessman

Updated 3:55 p.m.: A Brookfield business owner died of strangulation and blunt trauma to the head and chest, the Waukesha County Medical Examiner's office ruled.

Prosecutors filed homicide charges Thursday against a duo accused in the brutal slaying of John C. Aegerter, 63, who was found dead last week in the garage of his Golf Parkway home.

Tommy V. Douyette, 42, of Milwaukee, and Lynn Hajny, 48, of New Berlin, were charged in Waukesha County Circuit Court with one count of first degree intentional homicide.

They remained jailed on $750,000 and $500,000 bail, respectively.

Neither defense attorneys nor prosecutors would comment after court Thursday. Both defendants have retained private criminal defense lawyers — Jonathan Smith for Douyette and Mike Hart for Hajny. 

The criminal complaint contains much of the same detail about the crimes as was laid out in a probable cause statement filed last week. But the complaint adds the official cause of death and some new details, such as the duo's theft of Aegerter's voluminous key rings, which friends said opened the many communications towers he owned and operated in Wisconsin and Illinois.

Two key ring sets with more than 50 keys were found in Hajny's purse, one set wrapped in a bloody towel, the complaint says. 

Waukesha County Medical Examiner Lynda Biedrzycki said Aegerter died from "airway obstruction, ligature strangulation and blunt trauma to the head and chest."

Police said they found Aegerter dead in garage with his ankles tied in electrical tape, face wrapped in duct tape and head covered with several plastic bags and a white electrical cord around his neck.

According to the criminal complaint, Hajny and Douyette, who is described as her boyfriend, went to Aegerter’s home either late June 21 or early June 22 to try and get money Aegerter allegedly owed to her husband, who worked for Aegerter.

After the murder, the complaint states Douyette and Hajny went to Hajny's cousin’s house in Slinger. Hajny told her cousin she was “freaking out” and they were being chased. She told her cousin Aegerter was "dead with his feet tied" and they took his house keys, car keys, credit card and $75 from Aegerter’s wallet.

When asked by the cousin how Aegerter had been killed, Hajny allegedly replied, “Tom snapped his neck.”

Hajny then told the cousin they were trying to contact a man named Ziggy near the airport in order to obtain a freezer and dissolve the body in hydrogen peroxide.    

After police were contacted by the cousin, Douyette and Hajny were taken into custody and Douyette allegedly told investigators they had gone to the house because Aegerter was two to three months behind in paying Hajny’s husband. Douyette said he hit the victim up to nine times in his face and body and said he “kinda” remembered placing a sleeping bag on top of Aegerter’s body.

He also told investigators they had brought soda cans into the house, which they had left in the refrigerator.

Investigators then searched Hajny’s vehicle where they found a bow saw and anvil pruners.

When arrested, the two had blood drops on their shoes and officers found a shirt of Douyette's that was covered in blood.

A preliminary hearing is scheduled for both suspects July 15. Waukesha County Circuit Judge Patrick Haughney has been assigned to preside over the homicide cases, if the two are ordered to stand trial.

The case is Brookfield's first homicide in six years, since a mass murder during a church service held at the Sheraton Milwaukee Brookfield Hotel in 2005.

, and friends and business associates said his death would leave a big void in the radio telecommunications industry. Aegerter owned some 75 communications towers in Wisconsin and Illinois plus two in Nevada and was president of Air Page Corp. and several other businesses.

Friends and business associates of Aegerter said he talked about as the Greenfield Avenue business cuts its hours from five to three days a week. They said Aegerter had agreed to employ Albert Hajny, his longtime friend, last year after Hajny lost his job and he and his wife Lynn were fighting foreclosure of their New Berlin home.

Police said Albert Hajny was not involved in Aegerter's homicide.