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Albany, NY – An upstate New York man publicly confessed on Thursday to killing his parents and burying their bodies in the backyard of their home nearly a decade ago, authorities confirmed.
Lorenz Kraus, 53, made the startling admission during an on-camera interview with CBS6 in Albany. His confession came a day after police announced they had recovered two bodies from the residence, prompting a broader investigation. Initially, law enforcement had been looking into why Kraus’ parents, Franz and Theresia Kraus, were still receiving Social Security payments despite not having been seen or heard from in years.
During the 30-minute interview with news anchor Greg Floyd, Kraus was initially hesitant to directly state he had killed his parents in 2017. However, several minutes into the discussion, he made the unequivocal admission.
“They knew that this was it for them, that they were perishing at your hand?” Floyd pressed.
“Yes,” Kraus responded, adding, “And it was so quick.”
Kraus characterized the deaths as “mercy killings,” claiming his actions were for his aging parents due to their declining health. He stated his parents did not explicitly ask to be killed but “they knew they were going downhill.”
“I did my duty to my parents,” Kraus told the anchor. “My concern for their misery was paramount.”
Despite his claims, Kraus did not indicate that his parents suffered from terminal illnesses. He told Floyd that his mother had sustained an injury after a fall while crossing a road, and his father’s cataract surgery had left him unable to drive.
When asked for specifics regarding the manner of death, Floyd inquired, “You suffocated your parents?”
“Yeah,” Kraus confirmed.
Kraus further elaborated on the sequence of events, stating he killed his father first. “After he died, my mother put her head on his chest, and she was there for a few hours, and then I finished her.”
Moments after leaving the television studio, Kraus was arrested. He has since been charged with two counts of murder and two counts of concealment of a human corpse.
Kraus appeared in Albany City Court on Friday, where a public defender entered a not guilty plea on his behalf. Kraus remained silent throughout the brief hearing.
The initial financial crimes investigation, which ultimately led to the discovery of the bodies, revealed that Kraus had allegedly been collecting his parents’ Social Security benefits and using the funds for his own personal expenses, according to police.