A deranged Albany man who made a chilling on-air confession to killing his aged mother and father and burying them in his yard is now dealing with prices for the heinous crimes.
Lorenz Kraus, 53, pleaded not responsible to 2 counts of homicide and two counts of concealment of a human corpse for the slaughter of his mother and father, Franz and Theresia Kraus — who disappeared with no hint eight years in the past — throughout a court docket look Friday.
Kraus, who was a motormouth throughout a jaw-dropping unique interview with CBS6 on Thursday, was tight-lipped throughout the listening to.
“You buried them at the back of your home in Albany?” CBS6’s Greg Floyd requested throughout the interview.
“Sure.” Kraus, 53, chillingly answered.
The twisted son described the deaths of his ailing mother and father as mercy killings.
His mom was injured crossing a street, and his father may not drive after cataract surgical procedure, Kraus recalled.
“You suffocated them? You suffocated your mother and father,” Floyd requested in a collection of stammering again and forths, the place Kraus tried to backpedal on the confession and invoke his “Fifth Modification rights.”
“Yeah, principally,” Kraus mentioned, nodding.
“My father, after he died, my mom put his head on his chest, and after a number of hours, I completed her,” Kraus mentioned.
He then detailed that he had choked his father together with his hand, then strangled his mom with a rope.
It then took him a number of days to resolve to allegedly bury his mother and father’ our bodies within the yard of their suburban residence, he defined.
Stone Grissom, the TV station’s information director, informed The Occasions-Union that the chilling interview took place when Kraus emailed a two-page rambling, conspiracy-laden assertion to information shops that contained his cellphone quantity.
Grissom known as Kraus, who informed him he had buried his mother and father in his yard.
“Once I requested if he killed them, he mentioned, ‘I plead the Fifth,’” Grissom mentioned.
Grissom mentioned he promised to publish Kraus’ assertion on the station’s web site if Kraus agreed to come back in for an interview.
The madman agreed and arrived inside an hour. Grissom then checked to ensure Kraus was unarmed earlier than the sit-down.
A plainclothes police officer was additionally within the entrance foyer, the place the interview was performed, Grissom mentioned. He added that Floyd had simply 10 minutes to organize for the interview.
“I used to be considering that I used to be on a mission to seek out the reality of what occurred,” Floyd informed The Related Press.
“I didn’t put together for this as a result of it was thrust upon us with just about no discover,” Floyd mentioned. “And I believe that labored out in an advantageous approach as a result of I didn’t go in with a set of predetermined questions,” he mentioned.
“I simply adopted the script that he laid out. I adopted what he was saying and reacted to that.”
As soon as the taping ended, Kraus left the CBS6 constructing and was instantly taken into custody.
In a second unique interview with Kraus behind bars on Friday, Floyd requested the alleged killer if he felt any reduction after his confession.
“Not any additional reduction, no, under no circumstances,” Kraus replied, sporting an orange shirt.
“I’m glad that individuals learn about my assertion, that’s vital to me,” he mentioned.
“My father lay again and was readied, he knew. There’s a authorized protection, and there’s a political protection. A very powerful regulation on this nation is the New York Ratification Regulation,” Kraus mentioned, probably citing the Ratification of the Structure by the State of New York in 1788.
He then continued to spew about his need to create a Board of Trustees for New York State and the necessity for extra choices to resolve the rising inhabitants of Child Boomers.
“However who’re you to resolve, apart from being their son. Is that call as much as you? Are you able to play God?” Floyd requested.
“You are able to do your responsibility to your mother and father as they provide you suggestions, info, and so on. It’s not a call of God, it’s a matter of what life you are attempting to provide your mother and father,” Kraus mentioned.
When requested what he has been doing with the final eight years of his life, because the dying of his mother and father, Kraus mentioned he’s “attempting to make good on their lives.”
The invention of the our bodies within the yard was the end result of a monetary crimes investigation, the place police found that Kraus had been allegedly gathering his lifeless mother and father’ Social Safety advantages.
“The general public by no means knew something till Tuesday when an array of police autos confirmed up on that avenue and began looking a home and digging within the yard,” he mentioned.
Public Defender Rebekah Sokol, who represented Kraus at Friday’s listening to, mentioned she can be wanting into the method of the station’s interview together with her consumer.
“If the media was basically an agent of police on this matter, that might increase questions on whether or not (Kraus’) feedback within the interview can be legally admissible at trial,” Sokol mentioned.
The alleged killer was a graduate of Albany Excessive Faculty and Sienna College, the place he was named valedictorian as a political science main, the Occasions Union reported.
Kraus has been ordered held with out bail.
With Put up wires.
