On April 28, 2020, Steven Kraft — a 34-year-old Marine veteran — dropped his two daughters off at their mother’s house in Beacon, New York after a custody visit. He was never seen again. Three days later his car turned up abandoned eight miles away, in Newburgh.
The federal case that followed centered on Jamie and Nicholas Orsini. Prosecutors say the two made a series of dry runs and cash purchases in the weeks before Kraft disappeared — a paint tarp, duct tape, a Tyvek suit, a burner phone — and that a Sonic receipt tied them to his last known movements. Kraft’s car was found staged in Newburgh, and investigators say the person seen dumping it wore a disguise meant to mislead them. A trail of later purchases — galvanized cans, lighter fluid, a grinder, an axe — and search history including “is galvanized steel fireproof” pointed investigators toward how Kraft’s remains may have been destroyed.
Jamie and Nicholas Orsini were arrested in 2023 and convicted at a federal trial in September 2024; an appeal upheld both convictions in January 2026. Jamie Orsini was sentenced to life in prison on August 11, 2026, and Nicholas Orsini on August 13, 2026. Steven Kraft’s body has never been found.
Watch the full case:
Sourcing & Credits
- DOJ / USAO-SDNY press release 26-239 (2026-08-14) — sentencing outcome and case summary.
- DOJ / USAO-SDNY 2023 charging press release and the underlying federal criminal complaint — the dry runs, cash purchases, Sonic receipt, staged car, disguise, and the later purchases/search history supporting the burn/disposal theory.
- Law&Crime (2023-06-16) — complaint coverage, and the source of the two federal court-exhibit images used in the video.
- Mid Hudson News (2024-09-30), WRRV/WPDH (2024-12-10, 2026-08-18), CBS6 Albany (2026-08-17), the Times Union, and the Highlands Current (2026-08-16) — trial, appeal, and sentencing coverage.
- Daily Voice (2020-05-15) — the original NYSP missing-person alert.
- Images: New York State Police missing-person photo of Steven Kraft; his 1999 Toyota Camry via his NamUs case record; federal court exhibits (surveillance still, disguise photo) via Law&Crime; Beacon Main Street and the Newburgh-Beacon Bridge via Wikimedia Commons. Illustrative b-roll reused from earlier episodes in this series; none of it depicts this case, and no unlicensed news-broadcast footage was used anywhere in this video.
Jamie and Nicholas Orsini were convicted at trial and that conviction was upheld on appeal, so this account states their guilt plainly. Steven Kraft’s body has never been recovered; the prosecution’s burn/disposal theory is presented as the state’s theory, not as an established fact.
Related reading: No well-reviewed book has been written about this case specifically yet. Rather than pad this section with an unrelated true-crime title, here is an honest, case-scoped search: Hudson Valley true crime books on Amazon.
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