An Albany man was arrested and charged this week with killing his parents, after he confessed to the crimes in an interview with a local TV news station.
Investigated for Social Security fraud
What we know:
Lorenz Kraus has been charged with the murders of his parents, Franz and Theresia Kraus, and burying their bodies. The Albany Police Department announced his arrest on Thursday.
In a statement on Facebook, the department said the family was originally being investigated for financial crimes. Local, state and federal officers served a search warrant on the family home on Tuesday, and discovered that Franz and Thereisa Kraus hadn’t been seen or heard from in years. Officials claimed that Lorenz Kraus was still cashing in their Social Security checks.
The next day, officers found the parents’ bodies buried in the backyard.
Confession interview
What they’re saying:
On Thursday, Lorenz Kraus contacted the local CBS station in Albany, and sat down for an interview with their anchor, Greg Floyd. During the 30-minute interview, Kraus admitted to taking his parents’ lives years ago.
He told Floyd that he killed his parents in 2017, because their health was declining in their old age. When the anchor asked Kraus if his parents had asked him to kill them, he replied, “implicitly, but not explicitly,” while adding that he didn’t think that it was wrong.
“You suffocated your parents,” Floyd asked Kraus.
“Yeah,” he replied.
Kraus said he killed his father first, “and after he died, my mother put her head on his chest, and she was there for a few hours, and then I finished her.”
Kraus said he spent several days figuring out what to do with his parents’ bodies before deciding to bury them in the backyard.
According to the CBS station, officers arrested Kraus in the station parking lot after the interview.
What’s next:
Kraus appeared in court on Friday and pleaded not guilty, according to CBS6 Albany.