Lorenz Kraus admits to murdering, burying parents in TV interview, calls it ‘mercy killing’; probe reveals otherwise
The bodies were uncovered in the yard of a tightly packed neighborhood of small houses, bringing to a head a financial crimes probe in which police allege Kraus had been pocketing his parents’ benefits and spending the money on himself.
Lorenz Kraus confessed during a Thursday interview to killing his parents and burying their bodies in the backyard of their upstate New York home eight years ago. He was later arrested as he exited the studio. The confession came a day after police say they recovered two bodies from the home in Albany. Authorities had launched an investigation after discovering Kraus' parents, Franz and Theresia Kraus, were still receiving Social Security benefits despite having vanished years ago.
Lorenz Kraus contacted local news outlet CBS6, and sat for a half-hour interview, in which he described the deaths as mercy killings for aging parents who were becoming more frail. However, probe revealed that Kraus has been pocketing his parents social Security money for years now.
What Kraus said about why he killed his parents?
During the interview, Kraus repeatedly declined to say how his parents died. News anchor Greg Floyd wouldn't let it go, and kept turning back to his most important question: “Did you kill them?” Eight minutes into the interview, Kraus said he had suffocated them both and described how he did it.
Floyd asked Kraus that “They knew that this was it for them, that they were perishing at your hand?” He responded saying. “Yes. And it was so quick.”
Kraus said his parents didn’t ask to be killed but “they knew they were going downhill.” He went on to add, “I did my duty to my parents,” Kraus said in the interview. "My concern for their misery was paramount.”
Kraus said his mother had recently been injured from falling while crossing a road, and that his father could no longer drive after cataract surgery.
What investigations revealed?
Investigation began as fraud inquiry
The bodies were uncovered in the yard of a tightly packed neighborhood of small houses, bringing to a head a financial crimes probe in which police allege Kraus had been pocketing his parents’ benefits and spending the money on himself.
In 2020, police were asked to conduct a wellness check after a distant relative reported not seeing the couple for a long time, said Albany Police spokeswoman Megan Craft. Officers found no one at the house, and neighbors claimed the couple had moved to Germany years earlier, a New York Times article said.
In May, another welfare check showed the Krauses were not living at their home. Social Security Administration investigators asked the police to help conduct a welfare check on the Krauses. Police opened an investigation as they suspected financial fraud and looked into the couple’s disappearance.
Floyd said the story came as a complete surprise. No one had reported the couple went missing. Neighbors thought they had moved back to Germany, Floyd said.
“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,” he said.
(With inputs from AP and New York Times)