Couple’s Remains Were Found in Their Backyard — And Their Son Just Made Chilling Televised Admission

A New York man was arrested outside a news station after admitting in a shocking TV interview that he killed his elderly parents and buried their bodies in their backyard.

Lorenz Kraus told CBS6’s Greg Floyd in an interview that aired on Thursday, Sept. 25 that he choked his father with his hand and strangled his mother with a rope in 2017, claiming he “did his duty to them as a son.”

“My father, after he died, my mother put his head on his chest and after a few hours, I finished her,” Kraus said in the interview after initially declining to admit to the killings, citing the Fifth Amendment.

The 53-year-old claimed that he committed the crime because his parents had physical impairments and that he buried the victims a few days later to cover it up. “My concern for their misery was paramount,” he told Floyd.

FULL: Man confesses to killing his parents during news interview, arrested in front of station

CBS6 reported that Kraus sent a seemingly political letter to the news station shortly after Albany Police Chief Brendan Cox announced at a press conference earlier that day that remains believed to be Franz and Theresia Kraus, Lorenz’s parents, were found in the backyard of an Albany home.

The investigation began Tuesday, Sept. 23 when local and state police served a search warrant at the Crestwood Court home in connection with suspected financial crimes, according to a statement from the Albany Police Department.

During the search, investigators learned that the residents, Franz and Theresia — who would’ve been 92 and 83, respectively — had not been seen or heard from for several years, police said. A neighbor alleged to NewsChannel 13 that Lorenz told her his parents moved to Germany.

Police claimed Lorenz had actually been collecting his parents’ social security benefits and using the funds for “his own personal use.”

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Authorities then found remains suspected to be the couple in the backyard on Wednesday, Sept. 24, police said. Investigators believe they were killed in 2017.

Cox told reporters that authorities are still working to officially identify the remains as the couple and that their cause of death remains under investigation.

Lorenz was arrested outside the CBS6 station after the interview aired, the outlet reported. He was subsequently charged with two counts each of murder and concealment of a human corpse, per the police statement.

He was arraigned at Albany City Criminal Court on Friday, Sept. 26 and pleaded not guilty, CBS6 reported, adding that he is being held without bail. It’s unclear if Lorenz has retained an attorney to speak on his behalf.