Police: After admitting to 2 slayings, convicted killer arrested to Austin
Austin police arrested a man they suspect has killed multiple people in the area and may be linked to nearly a dozen more cold cases.
Raul Meza Jr., 62, was arrested on suspicion of killing Jesse Fraga in Pflugerville last week and Gloria Lofton in 2019.
Fraga’s relatives grew concerned after not hearing from him for several days and asked Pflugerville police to conduct a welfare check May 20. Inside the Camp Fire Trail home, they found the 80-year-old strangled to death with a belt.
The Travis County medical examiner later noted that Fraga also had a puncture wound in his neck that severed his spine.
Pflugerville police considered Meza a person of interest as he and Fraga had been living together at the time. An arrest affidavit said the pair had become friends in the 1990s and that Fraga was trying to help rehabilitate Meza.
Several days later, Meza called Austin police and confessed to killing Fraga, Det. Patrick Reed said during a news conference.
Reed, who took the call, said Meza told him “you’re looking for me” and went on to describe the murder with details that were not released to the public. During that call, Meza implicated himself in another murder, saying that he “killed a lady” soon after getting out of prison in 2019.
“He told me he was ready and prepared to kill again and he was looking forward to it,” Reed said.
While Meza didn’t state the woman’s name, detectives determined that Meza was talking about Lofton, 66, who was killed in her Sarah Drive home on May 9, 2019. DNA recovered in her home matched Meza’s DNA, Reed said.
Through their investigation, detectives have identified eight to 10 unsolved homicides that have similar circumstances, and they warn there could be more. Austin police are working to determine whether Meza can be linked to other victims.
After Meza’s phone call to detectives, Austin police — along with Pflugerville police and the U.S. Marshals Service — obtained two arrest warrants for Meza. They believed he was armed, dangerous and suicidal with violent tendencies.
He was arrested Monday at a bus stop in the 12400 block of North Lamar Boulevard in Austin. His bag contained zip ties, duct tape, a flashlight and a .22caliber gun with extra ammunition.
Austin police said Meza has a history of violence.
Meza was convicted of killing 8-year-old Kendra Page on Jan. 3, 1982. The child was found sexually assaulted and murdered in a dumpster behind Langford Elementary School in Austin. Meza, then 21, turned himself into police headquarters.
He was sentenced to 30 years in prison in a plea deal, but he was released after serving 11 years.
“Here is a guy who should have been in prison for the rest of his life, but he pleads and is released and now has killed how many more people?” said Austin Assistant City Manager Bruce Mills, who was the detective assigned to the Page case when he was with Austin police. “He is a serial killer. Justice was not served.”
Meza also spent 20 years in prison after participating in an aggravated robbery in which he shot and paralyzed a clerk at a South Congress Avenue convenience store. Though 15 at the time, Meza was convicted as an adult.