A New York man was taken into custody outside a news station after admitting in a shocking TV interview that he killed his elderly parents and buried their bodies in their backyard.
Lorenz Kraus told CBS6’s Greg Floyd in an interview aired on Thursday, Sept. 25, that he choked his father with his hand and strangled his mother with a rope in 2017, claiming he “did his duty to them as a son.”
“My father, after he died, my mother put his head on his chest and after a few hours, I finished her,” Kraus said in the interview. He had initially declined to discuss the killings, citing the Fifth Amendment.
The 53-year-old explained that he committed the crime because his parents had physical impairments and said he buried them a few days later to cover it up. “My concern for their misery was paramount,” he told Floyd.
CBS6 reported that Kraus sent a letter to the station shortly after Albany Police Chief Brendan Cox announced that remains believed to be Franz and Theresia Kraus, Lorenz’s parents, had been discovered in the backyard of an Albany home.
The investigation began on Tuesday, Sept. 23, when local and state police served a search warrant at the Crestwood Court residence in connection with suspected financial crimes, according to a statement from the Albany Police Department.
During the search, authorities found that Franz and Theresia — who would have been 92 and 83, respectively — had not been seen or heard from for several years. A neighbor told NewsChannel 13 that Lorenz claimed his parents had moved to Germany.
Police allege that Lorenz had been collecting his parents’ Social Security benefits and using the funds for personal expenses.
Remains believed to be the couple were recovered in the backyard on Wednesday, Sept. 24. Investigators say the deaths are thought to have occurred in 2017.
Chief Cox stated that authorities are still working to officially identify the remains and that the cause of death remains under investigation.
Lorenz was arrested outside the CBS6 station after the interview aired, according to the outlet. He faces two counts each of murder and concealment of a human corpse, as per the police statement.
He was arraigned at Albany City Criminal Court on Friday, Sept. 26, and pleaded not guilty. CBS6 reports that he is being held without bail. It remains unclear whether Lorenz has retained an attorney to represent him.
