A 24-year-old female worker at a group home for troubled youths in Lockport was beaten to death after her killers put a blanket over her head while she was playing cards with other residents in the home Monday night, Lockport police said Tuesday.

The police identified the victim as Renee C. Greco, 24, of Parkside Avenue, Buffalo. Police said they believe a cover up of a recent theft sparked the killing.

During her two years working at the group home on East Avenue, Greco chose to stay there rather than pursue other opportunities, co-workers said. She wanted to be a social worker and had begun studies to achieve that goal.

“Renee had a genuine concern in her heart,” said Jeff Boots, manager of the group home. “She wanted to make a change in these kids’ lives.”

Police have charged Anthony J. Allen, 18, and Robert J. Thousand, 17, both of Rochester, with second-degree murder, robbery and burglary, after Greco was found dead shortly after 9:30 p. m. in the dining room of Avenue House, the East Avenue group home.

The two were residents of the home, a six-bed group home run by Wyndham Lawn Home for Children, a facility for troubled youths. The East Avenue group home, which dates back to at least 1969, provides troubled youths with a social worker and access to community-based drug and alcohol counseling.

A third teen apprehended with the two has not been charged.

Detectives said they believe Allen hatched the plot to go AWOL from the group home, after he stole $160 from a lock box in the office over the weekend. Allen had become agitated when residents of the home were told late Monday afternoon that the lock box had been checked for prints, and the person who stole the money would be arrested.

“When he found that out, he decided to go AWOL,” Detective Capt. Richard L. Podgers said of Allen. “He made the plan; he got the weapons. I’m not going to say what they were, but we have them.”

Podgers said the killers took the weapons, which he described as “not what you would think of as weapons,” from the basement. They were recovered at the scene.

At a late-morning news conference, Lockport police said Greco had decided to stay in Western New York after her immediate family moved to Texas three weeks ago to look for work. She was the only person working in the home when she was killed.

“What’s sad about this is the fact that you have a young girl who devoted her life to trying to make their lives better,” Lockport Police Chief Lawrence M. Eggert said at the news conference. “She’s kind of considered their mother figure, . . . trying to give them a better life, and this is her reward.”

The home is run by New Directions Youth & Family Services, the umbrella agency for both Wyndham Lawn and the Randolph Children’s Home in Cattaraugus County.

“We are outraged and deeply saddened by the horrific and senseless act of violence which led to the death of our staff [member],” James W. Coder, chief executive officer of New Directions, said in a statement. “Our hearts go out to the family and friends of this innocent, selfless victim.”

Greco, who was described by a friend as selfless and outgoing, was a 2002 graduate of West Seneca West High School.

Immediately after the killing, one of the young residents ran to a nearby home and called police, while the two accused killers broke into the office, where they stole Greco’s purse, some money and the keys to a Wyndham Lawn van, police said.

Lockport police received a 911 call at 9:23 p. m. Monday from someone, presumably the youth who ran from the house, who said, “They hit the lady and took the van.”

Police responded, found the body and broadcast a description of the van. State police later found a dark van matching that description in the Wal- Mart parking lot on South Transit Road, but the three fugitives had left the scene.

Lockport police later learned that a taxi had picked them up at that location and taken them to the NFTA bus station in downtown Buffalo.

Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority police developed information from a surveillance camera that one person, Thousand, had purchased three tickets at about 11:05 p.m. for a 2:45 a.m. bus headed to Rochester. Allen has told police that the three then hid in some nearby bushes, while NFTA and Buffalo police staked out the bus station.

At about 2:05 a.m. Tuesday, the three emerged from their hiding place and were apprehended by NFTA police outside the bus station. They later were turned over to Lockport police for questioning.

The third youth has been identified by police as a cooperating witness, but it is not clear why he was traveling in the van and the taxi with the suspects.

Allen and Thousand were arraigned on the murder charges before Lockport City Judge William J. Watson and held without bail.

Allen has told detectives that he was at the home because of some petty crimes he committed in the Rochester area.

Officials with New Directions issued two statements but didn’t make any of their staff available for interviews.

Lockport Mayor Michael W. Tucker echoed the sentiments of neighbors, and even some local law enforcement officials, in saying that many people didn’t even know there was a group home on East Avenue.

“It’s been totally under the radar forever, and some neighbors never even knew the home was there,” Tucker said. “That says it all in a nutshell.”

Tucker also praised Wyndham Lawn Home for Children.

“They do a great job in the community,” he said. “They serve a great purpose, caring for some wayward kids that got off the straight and narrow and took the wrong fork in the road.”

Having said that, Tucker added that now that neighbors know about the East Avenue home—and the murder committed there — they want to know who’s in that home and why they’re there.

“So I don’t know what the future of the home is going to be,” he added.

State Sen. Catharine M. Young, ROlean, on Tuesday called for a state investigation of the Office of Children & Family Services, to determine whether the two charged with murder had been placed appropriately in the group home.

“I suspect very strongly that they were not, that they were higher-level offenders,” Young said.

Young said if an investigation reveals such improper placements, she is calling for Children & Family Services Commissioner Gladys Carrion to be removed or forced to resign.

tprohaska@buffnews.com and gwarner@buffnews.com