A manhunt is currently underway for yet another “career criminal” who is accused of tying up, fatally stabbing, and torching an elderly couple in Queens, New York.
42-year-old Jamel McGriff, a man on probation with a 30-year criminal history, is accused of brutally murdering Maureen Olton, 78, and her husband, Frank Thomas Olton, 76, on Monday morning.
The Oltons were the elder parents of an FDNY paramedic, according to The New York Post.
McGriff reportedly entered the residence through a back door after he asked the couple if he can charge his phone. He terrorized the elderly couple for more than five hours, and then set them on fire.
Frank Thomas Olton was found chained to a pole in the basement with multiple stab wounds, The New York Post reported.
Maureen Olton was found dead on the first floor.
McGriff was caught on surveillance video leaving the elderly couple’s residence after setting it on fire.
Police said McGriff is armed and dangerous.
According to The New York Post, McGriff has a violent history of armed robbery, sex assault at knifepoint, and burglary. McGriff failed to register as a sex offender and violated parole, yet he was not taken into custody.
McGriff reportedly held up an employee at Verizon at gunpoint last week (it ended up being a fake gun), but he was not jailed.
The New York Post reported:
Police launched a massive manhunt Tuesday for a violent sex offender and career criminal sought in the horrific Queens fire that killed the elderly parents of an FDNY paramedic.
Jamel McGriff, 42, an ex-con on probation with a string of career busts, has been identified as a suspect in the vicious deaths of 78-year-old Maureen Olton and her husband, Frank Thomas Olton, 76, who was found bound to a pole in the basement with multiple stab wounds after their Bellerose home was torched Monday, police and law enforcement sources said.
NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch said McGriff is “armed and dangerous” and has a 30-year-long criminal record.
“The suspect’s MO is to go door to door, asking for some kind of assistance until he can gain entry,” Tisch told reporters Tuesday.
“Investigators for the NYPD and our partners on the Regional Fugitive Task Force are working around the clock to locate and to apprehend Mr. McGriff,” she said. “We appreciate the public’s and the media’s assistance here.”
NYPD Crime Stoppers is asking the public for help locating Jamel McGriff: 1-800-577-8477.
WANTED FOR A HOMICIDE: On Monday, September 8, 2025, at approximately 3:21 P.M., the victims, a 77-year-old male and a 78-year-old female, in the vicinity of 87th Drive and 254th street, when an unidentified male entered a residential building and set the residence on fire. pic.twitter.com/zTUFqnRbfM
— NYPD Crime Stoppers (@NYPDTips) September 9, 2025
