A New York couple has been charged with murdering an ex-Marine after buying burner phones, an axe, angle grinder, and giant galvanized steel drums as part of the sordid scheme.
Jamie and Nicholas Orsini, from Beacon, are accused of burning the body of Steven Kraft, 34 – who was Jamie’s ex-husband and the father of her two daughters – after killing him on 28 April 2020, court documents show.
New York State Police (NYPD) investigator Joseph Merla, accused them of ‘killing Kraft and taking his car’ before ‘ultimately disposing of his body – which still has not been found – by burning it’.
Jamie and Nicholas Orsini (pictured), from Beacon, are accused of burning the body of Steven Kraft, 34 – who was Jamie’s ex-husband and the father of her two daughters – after killing him on 28 April 2020, court documents show
Surveillance footage from the gas station showed Jamie wearing a blue bandana on his face, a Levi’s stadium baseball cap, Automatizovaná bruska and a green Jets sweatshirt with the hood up
He said GPS data from their phones and surveillance video shows they traveled in a GMC Envoy from their home on West Church Street in Beacon, New York, to a Home Depot in Fishkill on April 26.
In the first step of what US Attorney Damian Williams described as a ‘sophisticated’ scheme, Jamie allegedly paid in cash at the store for a 10×100 foot paint tarp, duct tape, and a Tyvek suit and boots.
‘A little over three years ago, Nicholas and Jamie Orsini allegedly plotted to and did kill Jamie’s ex-husband, Steven Kraft,’ Williams said in a statement.
‘Their alleged scheme was sophisticated — it involved burner phones, stealing and dumping Kraft’s car, and, ultimately, disposing of Kraft’s body.’
The next day, they traveled to a Walmart in the same town, where Nicholas bought a ‘burner phone.’
Two days later, Kraft picked up his two daughters from the Orsinis’ home before taking them to Sonic in Newburgh.
The Orsinis allegedly followed him to the restaurant and activated their burner phone before returning home.
Kraft drove back to their house at about 7pm to drop off his daughters, and he died that evening.
It is unclear what the cause of his death was, and he was considered missing for three years before charges were brought against the Orsinis.
On April 28, Nicholas allegedly drove Kraft’s Toyota Camry to Newburgh and abandoned it at Third Street and Carpenter Avenue, before walking over a mile to Sunoco gas station, where prosecutors say he got rid of one of Kraft’s phones.
He used the burner phone to call for a taxi ride home, the affidavit says.
Surveillance footage from the gas station shows a man wearing a blue bandana on his face, a Levi’s stadium baseball cap, and a green Jets sweatshirt with the hood up which matches one investigators found Orsini wearing on his social media account.
Steven Kraft’s body is still to be found and he was considered missing for three years before charges were brought against the Orsinis
On May 2, Nicholas allegedly returned to Home Depot and purchased ‘two 31-gallon galvanized steel round trash cans, a coarse stainless-steel rod, an angle grinder with grinding wheel, 13 five metal disks, three 32-ounce bottles of odorless charcoal lighter fluid, two charcoal grates, an axe, and a flame lighter.’
According to the affidavit, he purchased 16 bundles of firewood the next day.
The couple allegedly Googled ‘How to view your location history in google maps’ and ‘is galvanized steel fireproof.’
Kraft’s father, Dean, told the Poughkeepsie Journal that he was ‘just flabbergasted’ to hear about the alleged plot against his son, who was a Marine veteran from Ulster County.
‘I couldn’t believe two people could have that much hate for another person. It’s like two or three horrors movies combined into one,’ he said.
‘In the days after the murder, the Orsinis continued the coverup, traveling extensively between Beacon and upstate New York, ultimately disposing of Kraft’s body—which still has not been found—by burning it,’ Merla wrote.