Journalism of Courage
A man in upstate New York stunned viewers during a live television interview when he admitted to killing his elderly parents and burying them in the backyard of their Albany home eight years ago. Moments after walking out of the studio, police arrested 53-year-old Lorenz Kraus and charged him with two counts of murder.
According to a report in the Associated Press, authorities said the confession came a day after investigators unearthed two bodies at the home as part of a fraud inquiry into Social Security payments that continued to be collected in the names of Franz and Theresia Kraus, despite the couple not being seen for years.
Kraus reached out to local station CBS6, emailing a two-page statement that included his phone number. News director Stone Grissom said he called Kraus, who admitted he had buried his parents but initially dodged when asked if he had killed them. “When I asked if he killed them, he said, ‘I plead the Fifth,’” Grissom recalled. Grissom offered to publish Kraus’ statement if he came in for an interview. “To my surprise, Kraus agreed and arrived within the hour,” he said.
Anchor Greg Floyd sat down with Kraus in the station’s lobby, with little time to prepare. “I was thinking that I was on a mission to find the truth of what happened,” Floyd said. For nearly half an hour, Kraus spoke about what he described as “mercy killings” of his frail parents, who were 92 and 83 years old.
“They knew that this was it for them, that they were perishing at your hand?” Floyd asked.
“Yes,” Kraus responded. “And it was so quick.”
Though hesitant at first, Kraus admitted eight minutes into the exchange that he had suffocated his parents. “I did my duty to my parents,” he said. “My concern for their misery was paramount.” He explained his mother had recently been injured in a fall, while his father could no longer drive after cataract surgery. “They knew they were going downhill,” Kraus said.
Floyd pressed on until Kraus gave the clearest description: “I suffocated them both.”
Kraus left the studio after the taping, only to be taken into custody immediately. At a court appearance Friday, a public defender entered a not guilty plea on his behalf.
The case began as a financial probe, with police alleging Kraus had used his parents’ Social Security benefits for personal expenses. Neighbours, who never reported the couple missing, assumed they had returned to Germany.
For Floyd, the moment was unforgettable. “Maybe it’s kept me a little grounded because going through that was a tough thing to go through. And then you think, ‘Well, okay, did we at least do justice for these two people who lost their lives?’”
(With Inputs from AP)
