New York City police searched for a 42-year-old man on Tuesday after an elderly couple was found dead and their home set ablaze in what authorities described as a “horrific double homicide, robbery and arson.”
Frank Olton, 76, and Maureen Olton, 77, were discovered dead about 3:30 p.m. Monday in their Bellerose, Queens, residence after firefighters extinguished a fire that a fire marshal later determined had been intentionally set, Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said at a news conference.
Surveillance video showed the suspect, identified by police as Jamel McGriff, walking in the neighborhood around 10:18 a.m. Monday and speaking with Frank Olton. After being allowed into the couple’s backyard, McGriff entered the home through a rear door with Frank Olton and remained inside for nearly five hours, Tisch said. He was next seen on camera leaving the house around 3:08 p.m. carrying a paper bag and a duffel bag and wearing a black hat, black jacket, black sneakers and dark blue jeans.
The couple’s son, a New York City Fire Department emergency medical technician, called 911 after their alarm monitoring service alerted him to the fire, Tisch said. Firefighters recovered Frank Olton’s body in the basement, where he was tied to a pole and had multiple stab wounds, and Maureen Olton’s body on the first floor with severe burns. Their exact causes of death remain under investigation, police said.
Tisch said the suspect was identified by a parole officer who recognized him from surveillance images obtained near the home. McGriff has a decades-long criminal history, Tisch said, and is on parole after serving 16 years in prison for a 2006 robbery. She said he failed to register last year as a sex offender, which should have violated his parole.
NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny said McGriff is also wanted in connection with two recent robberies, including one at a Harlem GameStop in July and another at a Manhattan Verizon store where a clerk fought him off after noticing he had a fake gun. Tisch said McGriff was captured on surveillance earlier Tuesday pawning two cellphones in the Bronx and should be considered armed and dangerous.
The NYPD and a regional fugitive task force combining local, state and federal officers were working to locate McGriff. Tisch warned the public that the suspect’s apparent method of operation has been to go door-to-door asking for assistance, often requesting to charge his cellphone, and she urged residents not to allow strangers they are not expecting into their homes.
Officials asked anyone with information about McGriff’s whereabouts or who may have seen him in the area to contact investigators. The investigation remains active as detectives continue to gather evidence and determine the circumstances leading to the couple’s deaths and the origin of the fire.