LOWELL, Maine — EDITORS NOTE: The video of Krause pleading not guilty was published April 2018.
A Rockport man pleaded guilty today in a Massachusetts court for killing his mother, grandparents, and their caretaker.
Orion Krause, 26, has been held in jail since 2017 when he was arrested and charged with four counts of murder.
According to the Portland Press Herald, Krause pleaded guilty Wednesday to four counts of second-degree murder in connection with the 2017 deaths in Groton, Massachusetts. According to the paper, Judge Kenneth W. Salinger sentenced Krause to life in prison with the possibility of parole in 25 years.
According to police reports, Krause confessed to officers that he killed his family with a baseball bat, police reports said.
According to documents obtained by NEWS CENTER Maine at the time, Krause told a former teacher, "I think I have to kill me mom."
Krause's mother was also concerned at the time.
On September 7, 2017, the day before the gruesome killings, Orion Krause's mother, Elizabeth Krause, called Rockport police to say she was worried because Krause was missing when she came home from work and he had taken off in her car. She said she was concerned because "he has been troubled."
Elizabeth Krause told first responders she didn't believe drugs or alcohol were involved but said that she "checked a couple places, including the hospital lot to see if he might have checked himself into the PARC unit."
The PARC program is a treatment center in Rockport that focuses primarily on substance abuse services.
Elizabeth Krause also told police her son "suddenly had the urge to go to Chicago," but said she and her husband could not drop everything to go with him. She asked police to keep an eye out for the car's license plate number so she would know if he was headed to Chicago or a college friend's home in Ohio.
Information regarding whether the 22-year-old had been suicidal was redacted in court documents, but his mother told police she had "told him that the world wants him alive, and he did promise he wouldn't do it."
According to the documents, the next day, September 8, a woman called police around 5 p.m. to report a disturbing call her husband had received from Krause, a former student of his at Oberlin College.
The woman says Krause did not sound like himself and he told her husband, Jamey Haddad, that he had "done something bad." Krause went on to tell Haddad, "I think I have to kill my mom."
According to the official report, police immediately tried to contact Krause's family to make them aware of the situation, but no one was home.
Police were able to get in touch with Krause's twin brother, Cooper Krause, who said his parents and brother were visiting their grandparents in Massachusetts.
After multiple attempts to reach the Krause family were unsuccessful, Rockport Police contacted the Groton Police Department in Massachusetts.
Groton police officials told the Rockport officer they had received five calls about Orion Krause. Shortly after, Rockport police were told Groton responders had found the bodies of the four people.
NEWS CENTER Maine will update this story.