A 24-year-old woman working 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 today.

Renee C. Greco, 24, of Parkside Avenue in Buffalo was bludgeoned to death, and police believe a coverup of a recent theft sparked the killing, Detective Capt. Richard L. Podgers said. Greco was found dead shortly after 9:30 p.m. in the dining room of the East Avenue halfway house where she worked.

Police have charged Anthony J. Allen, 18, and Robert J. Thousand, 17, both of Rochester, with second-degree murder, robbery and burglary.

The two young men are believed to be residents of the home, known as Avenue House, a

six-bed group home run by Wyndham Lawn Home for Children, a facility for troubled youths.

Avenue House, which dates back to 1969, provides drug and alcohol counseling and other therapy

for teenage boys.

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

Detectives said they believe Allen hatched the plot to run away from the halfway house,

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," 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 later were recovered at the scene.

At a late-morning press 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 press

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 at Wyndham Lawn.

"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 Wyndham

Lawn, said in a statement. "Our hearts go out to the family and friends of this innocent,

selfless victim."

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 dark van believed to

have been stolen from the residence. State Police later found a van matching that description

in the Wal-Mart parking lot on South Transit Road, but the three youths in the van had left

the scene.

Lockport police later learned that a taxicab had picked up three youths at that location

and taken them to the NFTA bus station in downtown Buffalo.

NFTA 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 young men then hid in some nearby bushes, while NFTA and

Buffalo police staked out the bus station.

At about 2:05 a.m. today, the three youths 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's not clear

why he was traveling in the van and the taxicab with the other two young men.

Allen and Thousand were arraigned this morning on the murder charges.

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

in the Rochester area.

"He only had a week left, and he would have been released," Podgers said.