US4 min(s) read
Published 11:22 29 Sep 2025 GMT
The terrifying moment a man revealed he killed his parents was captured on live TV.
Lorenz Kraus, 53, was taken into custody outside WRGB’s studios, moments after telling anchor Greg Floyd that he had suffocated Franz and Theresia Kraus, aged 92 and 83, and buried them at their home in Albany, New York.
Kraus, who appeared in Albany City Court on Friday (September 26), pleaded not guilty to two counts of murder and two counts of concealment of a human corpse.
He is being held without bail, CNN reported.
During the half-hour interview, Kraus openly described the deaths of his parents, saying they occurred “sometime August 2017” as they became increasingly frail.
He said his father could no longer drive after cataract surgery and his mother had recently been injured crossing a road, but did not claim either had life-threatening conditions.
Pressed by Floyd to clarify, Kraus said he had “buried them in their property.”
“You buried them in the back of your house in Albany?” Floyd asked. “Yes,” Kraus replied. He was then asked if he had suffocated them, to which Kraus said: “Yeah, basically.”
The man later elaborated that he used his hands to choke his father and a rope to kill his mother.
“My father, after he died, my mother put her head on his chest, and after a few hours, I finished her,” he said, adding that he buried the bodies after several days.
The interviewer asked the alleged killer if his parents knew "this was it for them, that they were perishing at your hand?” Kraus responded: “Yes. And it was so quick.”
He said they did not ask to be killed, but “they knew they were going downhill," adding: “I did my duty to my parents. My concern for their misery was paramount."
Kraus also told WRGB that communities need to “widen up the law so that people can deal with these kind of problems".
Police began investigating after the Social Security Administration requested a welfare check in May because the couple, who had not been seen in years, were still receiving benefits.
Detectives started digging in the backyard of the family home last week and uncovered one set of remains on Wednesday and another on Thursday.
Albany Police Chief Brendan Cox said he was confident they belonged to Franz and Theresia Kraus.
According to the Times Union, Kraus had been under scrutiny for alleged financial crimes before the discovery of the bodies. He allegedly collected his parents’ benefits and used the funds for his own expenses.
Neighbors told outlets they had not seen the couple since June 2017, but regularly observed Kraus collecting post, mowing the lawn, and clearing snow at the property.
When asked about his parents, he reportedly said they had moved to Germany.
Kraus, a Siena University valedictorian and RPI MBA graduate, contacted several outlets before arranging the interview with Floyd.
According to The Guardian, WRGB station manager Stone Grissom told the Associated Press that he personally searched Kraus to ensure he was unarmed before the broadcast and that a plainclothes police officer was stationed in the lobby.
Assistant Albany County Public Defender Rebekah Sokol, representing Kraus, called the interview “shocking” and said she had “very serious concerns” about whether it would be admissible in court, noting that “it looked like a police interrogation," per Sky News.
Local District Attorney Lee Kindlon said Kraus’s confession to WRGB is “helpful” to prosecutors but added that physical evidence and witness testimony would be crucial to the case.
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