In a shocking televised interview, 53-year-old Lorenz Kraus admitted to suffocating his elderly parents and concealing their bodies in the backyard of their Albany home—nearly a decade after their deaths.
The admission came a day after authorities recovered two human remains buried behind the Kraus residence. Police were investigating why the couple, Franz and Theresia Kraus, continued receiving Social Security benefits despite their disappearance years earlier.
During the on-air exchange, Kraus described his actions as “mercy” killings, claiming his parents’ declining health and physical impairments motivated him. He first denied wrongdoing, invoking his Fifth Amendment rights, but later confessed under persistent questioning—saying he choked his father and strangled his mother.
Kraus was arrested immediately following the interview and was arraigned on charges of two counts of murder. He entered a not guilty plea and is being held without bail. The remains are undergoing forensic testing to confirm identities and establish cause of death.
Investigators are also assessing whether the media’s role in arranging the interview will affect the admissibility of the confession in court.