Man admits to killing parents in TV interview, gets arrested afterward

A 53-year-old man confessed in a television interview that he killed his elderly parents and buried them in the backyard of their upstate New York home eight years ago.

He was arrested as he exited the studio on Thursday, authorities said.

The subject, Lorenz Kraus, said he had suffocated both parents in 2017, describing it as a mercy killing.

Kraus had contacted the station himself after he sent a two-page statement to multiple media outlets, according to the station’s news director. He was asked if he would do an interview, accepted and arrived at the studio shortly afterward.

Authorities had discovered that Social Security benefits were still being paid to the elderly couple, Franz and Theresia Kraus, despite their years of absence. The bodies of his parents were recovered from the backyard a few days before the television appearance.

Kraus was charged with two counts of murder. A public defender entered a plea of not guilty on his behalf and he did not speak at the hearing.