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A new image obtained by Fox News Digital now reveals Frank and Maureen Olton, the elderly Queens couple police say were brutally tied up, stabbed and set on fire after a man claimed he needed to come inside a home to charge his phone.
The victims, ages 76 and 77, were “simply spending a Monday morning at home” before they were murdered and viciously tortured for hours in their Bellerose home, Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz said in a press release Friday.
Jamel McGriff, 42, a Bronx ex-con with a decades-long rap sheet, has been charged with 14 counts of murder and 37 charges in total, including kidnapping, burglary, robbery, arson, weapons offenses, grand larceny and identity theft, the Queens County District Attorney’s Office said.
“As alleged, in a brazen act of violence, the defendant forced himself into a Bellerose home, stabbed one of the elderly homeowners to death and then deliberately set the house on fire,” Katz said in the release.
NEW IMAGES SHOW ARMED EX-CON HUNTED FOR TORTURING, KILLING ELDERLY COUPLE AFTER RUSE TO ENTER HOME: POLICE
“This is a horrific double murder that has shocked our entire city. Frank and Maureen Olton were simply spending a Monday morning at home and their deaths have shattered the sense of safety and security in New York. The defendant is now charged with multiple counts of first-degree murder and faces life in prison if convicted. I thank the NYPD and the members of my office for their work in apprehending this defendant.”
Surveillance footage shows McGriff first approaching a different home around 10 a.m., asking to come inside to charge his phone, and being turned away. He then went to the Oltons’ residence, where Frank allowed him into the backyard before both men were seen entering the home. McGriff was later captured on video leaving five hours later carrying bags.
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Their son, an FDNY EMT, received a security alert that his parents’ house was on fire and called 911, according to officials. Responding firefighters discovered Maureen in the living room with severe burns, a fractured larynx and soot in her airway, the DA’s office said. Frank was also found bound in the basement, stabbed multiple times in the neck and chest. Fires had been set on both floors, according to officials.
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Afterward, McGriff allegedly used Frank’s credit cards at Macy’s to make purchases totaling $796.10 and sold the couple’s phones in the Bronx, using his own ID and loyalty card in the transactions, according to the DA’s office.
McGriff was apprehended by the New York Police Department Wednesday evening in Manhattan.
The 42-year-old has a rap sheet spanning three decades, including two armed robberies in Manhattan just weeks before the murders, FOX 5 reported.
Julia Bonavita contributed to this report.
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