In a shocking revelation, a 53-year-old American man has confessed to murdering his parents and burying their bodies in his home’s backyard eight years ago. In a TV interview, he showed no remorse, claiming instead that he was fulfilling a duty to end their suffering.
Lorenz Kraus, 53, came forward to a local news outlet, CBS6 in Albany, and later sat down with news anchor Greg Floyd to detail his actions. A video of the interview has since gone viral.
“I did my duty to my parents… my concern for their misery was paramount,” Kraus said. He cited his mother’s injury from a fall and his father’s inability to drive following cataract surgery as factors behind his decision.
Kraus admitted to suffocating both parents before burying their bodies in the backyard. When asked which parent he killed first, he replied, “My father, and after he died, my mother put her head on his chest. She was there for a few hours and then I finished her.” He claimed neither parent struggled and that their deaths were quick, using his hands on his father and a rope on his mother.
He also revealed that his parents, 92 and 83 years old and survivors of World War II in Germany, were kept for three days before being buried. “They knew that this was it for them, that they were perishing at your hand?” Floyd asked. “Yes,” Kraus responded. “And it was so quick.”
Throughout the interview, Kraus appeared calm and unaffected by the gravity of his actions. The anchor noted that the case surprised the community, as no one had reported Kraus’s parents missing; neighbors assumed they had moved back to Germany.
“The public never knew anything until Tuesday when an array of police vehicles showed up on that street and started searching a house and digging in the backyard,” Floyd said.
Kraus was arrested shortly after leaving the television studio and charged with two counts of murder. The remains of his parents were recovered from the backyard.
