Murder Suspect Told Authorities He ‘Freed’ His Victims
Details from a police report reveal that a Rockport man accused of killing his mother, grandparents, and a caregiver told authorities that he 'freed them.'
Orion Krause is charged with four counts of murder for the deaths of his mother, 60-year-old Elizabeth Krause; his grandparents, 89-year-old Frank Darby Lackey III, and 85-year-old Elizabeth Lackey; and their home health care worker, Bertha Mae Parker, age 68. The four were found in the Lackey's home and had been beaten to death. Krause told authorities he used a baseball bat.
According to the Portland Press Herald, Orion Krause went to a house down the street from his grandparents' home in Groton, Massachusetts after the killings and knocked on a neighbor's door. He was naked and covered in mud, with little cuts all over his body. When the neighbor asked if he was alright, he told him he'd killed four people.
When police arrived, they asked Krause where he had killed the people and he pointed in the direction of his grandparents' house. Lackey allegedly told authorities he had killed the people with a bat and then sang quietly to himself before saying 'I freed them,' according to court documents reviewed by the PPH. During a subsequent evaluation, Krause allegedly told a healthcare worker that he uses heroin, although there's no indication he had used it prior to the deaths.
The case has shocked family and friends of the 22-year-old Rockport man, who had recently graduated from Oberlin College and is described as a gifted musician. He's charged with four counts of murder and is being held at Bridgewater State Hospital in Massachusetts where he will undergo a psychiatric evaluation. Krause is expected to be back in court on October 30th.