Overview

• Jamel McGriff, 42, was taken into custody in Midtown Manhattan around 5:40 p.m. Wednesday after police tracked purchases made with the victims’ credit cards.
• Frank Olton, 76, was found tied to a basement pole with multiple stab wounds and Maureen Olton, 77, was found on the first floor severely burned; a fire marshal determined the blaze was intentionally set.
• Police say surveillance shows McGriff asked to charge a phone, was allowed into the Oltons’ home around 10:18 a.m., stayed nearly five hours, and left shortly before the fire, leading to public warnings about this ruse.
• Detectives traced two stolen phones pawned in the Bronx and pushed real-time updates on McGriff’s card activity and clothing purchases to officers’ phones, helping locate him near Times Square; charges were pending Wednesday night.
• McGriff is a parolee with a decades-long violent record who served about 16 years for a 2006 robbery, failed to register as a sex offender in 2024, and is also wanted in two recent Manhattan robberies; the medical examiner is determining official causes of death.