In a story that has gripped Albany and sent shockwaves far beyond, Lorenz Kraus, a 53-year-old resident of upstate New York, stunned viewers and law enforcement alike with a chilling on-camera confession. On Thursday, September 25, 2025, Kraus sat for a half-hour interview at CBS6’s Albany studio and admitted to killing his parents, Franz and Theresia Kraus, eight years earlier. The interview, which aired on the station’s 6 p.m. broadcast, was conducted just one day after police had recovered two bodies from Kraus’s property as part of a welfare check prompted by suspicions of Social Security fraud.
The sequence of events leading to this extraordinary moment began when authorities noticed that Kraus’s parents, who would have been in their 70s and 80s at the time of their deaths in 2017, were still receiving Social Security payments despite having not been seen or heard from in years. According to The New York Times, the Social Security Administration’s concerns triggered a welfare check at the Kraus home, setting in motion a probe that would soon escalate from a financial crime investigation to a murder case.
Neighbors, for their part, were largely in the dark. Many believed the couple had quietly moved back to Germany, and no one had reported them missing. Police only began to dig—literally and figuratively—when an array of vehicles showed up on the street and began searching the home on September 23 and 24, 2025. The next day, Kraus made his way to CBS6, determined to tell his story in his own words.
The interview itself was as unsettling as it was revealing. News anchor Greg Floyd pressed Kraus repeatedly about what had happened to his parents. Initially, Kraus was reluctant, even evasive. But about eight minutes in, Floyd’s persistence paid off. “Did you kill them?” Floyd asked. Kraus finally replied, “Yes. And it was so quick.” He went on to describe how he strangled his father, Franz, with his bare hands and then strangled his mother, Theresia, with a rope after she had lain her head on her husband’s chest for hours. “They knew that this was it for them, that they were perishing at your hand?” Floyd asked. Kraus responded, “Yes.”
Kraus characterized the killings as acts of mercy, claiming he wanted to spare his parents the indignities and suffering that come with old age. He insisted, “My concern for their misery was paramount.” He noted that his mother had recently been injured in a fall while crossing a road and that his father could no longer drive after cataract surgery. But he was also clear that his parents had not asked to be killed. “They knew they were going downhill,” he said. “I did my duty to my parents.”
After the interview concluded, police—who had been waiting in the station’s parking lot—immediately arrested Kraus. The arrest was swift and uneventful, according to CBS6 news director Stone Grissom, who had arranged for plainclothes officers to be present during the interview, just in case. Grissom later told The Times-Union that the interview came about after Kraus emailed a two-page statement to news outlets, including his phone number. When Grissom called, Kraus admitted he had buried his parents in his yard. Grissom recalled, "When I asked if he killed them, he said, ‘I plead the Fifth.’" But Kraus agreed to the interview on the condition that his statement would be posted on the station’s website. Grissom checked to ensure Kraus was unarmed before the interview began.
During his court appearance on Friday, September 26, 2025, Kraus was arraigned on two counts of murder and concealment of a human corpse. He pleaded not guilty and was ordered held without bond in Albany County jail. According to The Associated Press, Kraus did not speak during the brief hearing; his public defender entered the plea on his behalf. Albany County Assistant Public Defender Rebekah Sokol, who represented Kraus, indicated she would be scrutinizing the circumstances of the interview, raising questions about whether Kraus’s comments to the media would be admissible at trial. "If the media was essentially an agent of police in this matter, that could raise questions about whether (Kraus') comments in the interview would be legally admissible at trial," Sokol said.
The story has also drawn attention for its disturbing subtext. According to The New York Times, Kraus had a history of posting antisemitic and conspiracy-laden statements online. In a manifesto shared with the news station, he referred to various individuals and groups—including Zionists, Governor Kathy Hochul, and recipients of Oxford’s Rhodes Scholarship—as "domestic enemies" and requested prosecution under German law. Kraus’s online activity over the years revealed a fixation on conspiracy theories, including hatred of the British, the Council on Foreign Relations, Freemasons, and Jews. He even made a quixotic presidential run as a Democrat in New Hampshire in 2020, campaigning on a platform to dissolve the presidency and promote his conspiracy theories.
The discovery of the bodies capped a yearslong deception. Police allege that Kraus had been collecting his parents’ Social Security benefits and using the funds for his own personal use. The financial fraud investigation was what brought authorities to the Kraus home in the first place. As CBS6 reported, no one had reported the couple missing, and the public only became aware of their disappearance when police vehicles descended on the quiet neighborhood and began digging in the backyard.
For the journalists involved, the story was as unexpected as it was harrowing. Greg Floyd, the anchor who conducted the interview, later reflected, “I was thinking that I was on a mission to find the truth of what happened.” He added that the experience was unlike anything in his 45-year career. The interview, conducted with virtually no notice and just ten minutes of preparation, was broadcast in its entirety and posted online for the public to see.
The tragic end of Franz and Theresia Kraus, both survivors of World War II in Germany, has left many questions about the nature of mercy, the responsibilities of family, and the dangers of unchecked isolation. As the legal process unfolds, the case will likely continue to raise difficult questions about justice, mental health, and the role of the media in uncovering the truth.
For now, Lorenz Kraus remains in Albany County jail, awaiting trial for a crime that might never have come to light if not for a welfare check and a shocking decision to confess on live television.
