A man chillingly confessed to killing his elderly parents and burying the bodies in the back garden of their home during a chilling TV interview.

Lorenz Kraus, 53, calmly told a reporter: "I buried them in their property," during an explosive interview that aired just hours after police found the bodies of his parents, Franz and Theresia Kruas, who both vanished in 2017. During his chat with CBS6 on Thursday, Kraus was asked by news anchor Greg Flloyd "You buried them in the back of your house in Albany?," to which he replied: "Yes". Investigators began digging a day prior, uncovering the first set of human remains, while a second body was found on Thursday.

"You suffocated them? You suffocated your parents," Floyd asked as Kraus stammered and tried to backpedal, referencing his Fifth Amendment rights. "Yeah, basically," he admitted. "My father, after he died, my mother put his head on his chest, and after a few hours, I finished her." Kraus said he choked his father with his hands and strangled his mother with a rope, later deciding over several days to bury them in the back garden. Law enforcement had first looked into Kraus over financial crimes, according to The Times Union.

The investigation was further fuelled by a welfare check on the couple, who were still receiving benefits. Officers arrived to find the house empty, with Franz and Theresia Kraus, then aged 92 and 83, missing. After the discovery of their bodies, Kraus reached out to a number of news outlets, sparking the shocking on-camera confession.

Asked at one point if he had killed his parents, Kraus said he would "never have done such a thing, knowing what I did was wrong". He said: "My goal is for the American people to recognise that there is 40 million boomers, they are all going to go through the same kind of problems. It affects all of us, and we need to widen up the law so people can deal with these kinds of problems".

He then told Floyd he hoped their chat would be aired on YouTube, confirming he was of a sound mind when he made all of the statements. Kraus was immediately taken into custody when he left the CBS6 building. In a bizarre statement to to CBS6 and other outlets, Kraus made no mention of his parents but instead promoted his rash plan to replace the state and federal governments with a board of trustees.

He claimed he would be prosecuted under German law if the public chose not to go through with his plan. The statement raved about politicians like Donald Trump and Kathy Hochul, Governor of New York, as well as odd conspiracy theories about them.

Albany Police Chief Brendan Cox said officers are still working to determine the identities of the two bodies, as well as their cause of death. "While we are confident that those are the remains of Franz and Theresia Kraus, we still need to do some work and confirm who that is," he said on Thursday.

Police revealed they had received a call in 2020 from a relative asking them to do a welfare check at the house. At that time, a neighbour told them that the Krauses had moved out of the country.

Lorenz Kraus appeared in court Friday pleaded not guilty to the murders. Following his plea, he was remanded and held without bail.