By Editor,Joe Hutchison

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Cozy local TV sit-down interview sees middle-aged man confess to killing BOTH his elderly parents then burying them in backyard

WARNING GRAPHIC CONTENT

By JOE HUTCHISON, US NEWS REPORTER

Published: 15:06 BST, 26 September 2025 | Updated: 15:10 BST, 26 September 2025

A New York man confessed to murdering his own elderly parents and burying them in their backyard in a jaw-dropping TV interview.

Lorenz Kraus, 53, the son of Franz and Tereza Kraus, sat down with CBS6’s Greg Floyd after police raided their family home in Albany on Tuesday.

The two, who would be 92 and 83 if alive today, vanished in 2017 according to authorities.

Police officers executed a search warrant related to suspected financial crimes on their property on Tuesday, on Wednesday a body was found in the backyard.

That was followed up with further skeletal remains being pulled from the dirt on Thursday morning.

Albany Police Brendon Cox said at a press conference that Kraus was interviewed, and shortly after that he reached out to CBS6 and gave a bizarre tell-all interview.

His sit-down had all the hallmarks of a frothy morning news interview, the details however went beyond what would be usually broadcast.

In it, he revealed that in around August of 2017 he used his hand to smother his own father – before then using a rope to take his mothers live a few hours later.

Lorenz Kraus, 53, the son of Franz and Tereza Kraus, sat down with CBS6’s Greg Floyd after police raided their family home in Albany on Tuesday

He revealed that in around August of 2017 he used his hand to smother his own father – before then using a rope to take his mothers live a few hours later

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When asked by Floyd if his parents had specifically told him that he should kill them, Kraus replied: ‘Implicitly but not explicitly.

‘After my sister died my mother would give me these do not resuscitate things every few months, she wanted to die because of her grief.

‘They didn’t explicitly say that [they wanted to die] but they made it clear that they were going downhill.

‘There is something special about our family that we can somehow read each others minds. The context of all of this came to bear on me.

‘My father told me he has double vision, he had a hearing aid. My mother wasn’t using her turn signals properly, so they were losing their independence.’

Floyd, very matter-of-factly, hit back saying: ‘Most people, I think I’m safe in saying, would not take their parents’ life because they couldn’t use their turn signals.’

As the steady questioning persisted, Kraus said his mother had also been injured crossing a road and his father was unable to drive after cataract surgery.

Describing the killings, he said it was ‘so quick’ and nodded when Floyd asked if he suffocated them.

He said he suffocated his father first, adding: ‘After he died, my mother put her head on his chest and she was there for a few hours.

‘And then I finished her. I didn’t know what to do after that, it took me several days to realize that I should bury them on the property.’

Authorities executed a search warrant related to suspected financial crimes on their property on Tuesday, on Wednesday a body was found in the backyard

Further skeletal remains were later pulled from the dirt on Thursday morning

When asked what was going through his mind at the time, he said: ‘Not thoughts, action. Make sure it is done. And not fool around, not make a mistake.

‘I’m sure the police will say what an incompetent idiot’, he added.

Floyd pushed him to answer if his parents had struggled as he killed them, he responded: ‘I would say the last minute no.

‘I think my father died very quickly, that shocked me. The part with my mother that went quickly too.’

Seemingly in an attempt to hide his parents disappearing, he told neighbors they were moving tom Germany, his mother’s place of birth.

At times he invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination when asked about the killings.

Kraus also added that he knew what he was doing was breaking the law, before rambling on how ’40 million boomers are going to suffer a horrible death’.

He was also questioned over continuing to take their government money after their deaths.

‘The government is p***** because I took their social security money and gave it to people starving in the Philippines, okay then be angry about that.

‘The police know that all of the money that I have was given away. I didn’t play with the money, I gave it away, I didn’t enrich myself. This was not a kill for money case.’

Investigators sift through soil on Wednesday behind the Crestwood Court home of Franz and Theresia Kraus

Police said in a statement that Kraus is due to be arraigned in Albany City Criminal Court this morning

Floyd told him that the cash would be considered blood money by some, to which he responded: ‘Right but I was giving it away’.

In a weird twist, he went on to say that ancient Greeks would die with honor on the battlefield, and Native American tribes would do the same to stop suffering.

‘They didn’t die on a battlefield though’, Floyd said. ‘It sounds to me like they died in their beds with a pillow over their faces.’

Clearly uncomfortable, Kraus then added that it wasn’t actually a pillow – that he used his hand to smother his father and then a rope on his mother.

When asked if he had any regrets, he said: ‘I did the right thing for them, I did my duty to them as a son. Everything fell into place.

‘It’s a horrible position to be in, one does his duty. It’s a regrettable experience, life is horrible. But that’s that.’

Floyd asked if he suffered from any mental health problems or was under the influence of drugs.

Kraus said he was not and that he was ‘just a little sleepy’, he hesitated slightly when asked about being on medication.

He added that there was a few hours between their deaths, but struggled to remember what he did in between killing one another.

According to Kraus he waited between two or three days before actually deciding to bury them in the yard.

In another bizarre turn he mentioned former state Governor Andrew Cuomo and his poor handling of deaths in nursing homes during the pandemic.

‘It’s on the record he sent people into nursing homes for a certain reason and died as a consequence. That’s probable cause.’

Bringing him back to reality, Floyd abruptly told him: ‘Andrew Cuomo did not put his hands around someone’s neck, or a rope around someone’s neck.’

He then seemed to have shot himself in the foot by suggesting Cuomo should be convicted for ‘criminally negligent homicide’.

Seemingly in an attempt to hide his parents disappearing, he had told neighbors they were planning to move to Germany, his mother’s place of birth

Posts to his Facebook include links to the Daily Stormer, an American neo-Nazi message board and in one comment he appeared to admire Adolf Hitler

‘So what are you guilty of? Are you guilty of murder?’, Floyd hits back. After a few seconds of silence Kraus added: ‘You could say age related homicide.’

He again started to ramble that ‘age related homicide’ should be in the law, adding that ‘this will blow over’ while saying he would make restitution to the family.

In a particularly sharp barb, Floyd shot back: ‘Kraus this is not going to blow over, you killed your parents.’

Kraus largely ignored the comment, before adding that President Donald Trump ‘has proven that anything is negotiable in this country.’

‘Did you ever kill anyone else?’ Did you ever commit physical harm to anyone else?’, to which he denies vehemently.

As Floyd closed out the interview, Kraus asked for the video to be posted on YouTube and shared widely.

Alongside his interview he provided the outlet with what he described as a ‘statement to the public’.

Not long after they finished their sit-down, Kraus left the news station and was immediately taken into custody by police crews standing by outside.

He was charged with two counts of murder in the second degree, and two counts of concealment of a human corpse.

Police said in a statement that Kraus is to be arraigned in Albany City Criminal Court this morning.

The financial crime investigation uncovered Karus was funding his personal life with their social security money, police said.

A look at his social media profiles by the Daily Mail revealed that he shared a host of extremist views and anti-Semitic conspiracies.

Posts to his Facebook included links to the Daily Stormer, an American neo-Nazi message board and in one comment he appeared to admire Adolf Hitler.

Other YouTube videos he linked focused on European immigration and the flat earth theory.

In 2020 he put himself forward as a presidential candidate on the New Hampshire ballot as a Democrat.

His defunct campaign site allegedly shared anti-Semitic memes, using the internet address banjews.com.

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Cozy local TV sit-down interview sees middle-aged man confess to killing BOTH his elderly parents then burying them in backyard

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