"Floyd didn't hesitate to ask the man - 53-year-old Lorenz Kraus - what he knew his viewers wanted to know: Did he kill his parents, whose bodies had been discovered in the backyard of their home? Just two minutes after the cameras started rolling, after Kraus had described his aging parents' deteriorating health, Floyd asked him: "Did you kill your parents as a mercy killing, to put them out of their misery?""
"Initially, Kraus dodged the question, referring to a statement he had provided (which didn't actually reference his parents' deaths at all) and saying he was invoking his Fifth Amendment rights. Floyd had to conduct the interview carefully. "I was trying to thread a needle, to walk that very fine line, because there was a chance he would just leave," Floyd said in an interview with Poynter. "But I believed early on that he wanted to go there.""
Veteran reporter Greg Floyd questioned 53-year-old Lorenz Kraus after police found two bodies in a backyard. Kraus initially evaded direct questions, referenced a prior statement and invoked his Fifth Amendment rights while describing his parents' deteriorating health. Floyd used frequent pauses and repeated, reframed questions to elicit a response. Two minutes into the exchange Kraus admitted responsibility, saying his parents knew what was happening and that the deaths were at his hand. Kraus described strangling both parents in the summer of 2017, the order of the killings, and how he buried their bodies. Floyd balanced legal caution with pressing for answers.
Read at Poynter
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