A convicted child rapist and murderer involved in multiple unsolved cases was arrested this week after confessing to the crime, according to Texas police.
Raul Meza Jr. was identified as a person of interest on May 20 when Fluggerville police investigated the murder of his roommate, 80-year-old Jesse Fraga.
Meza was reportedly spotted driving Fraga’s gray Toyota Tundra.
After police obtained an arrest warrant, Meza, 62, called the Austin Police Department Homicide Division with a chilling message.
“My name is Raul Meza. You’re looking for me,” recalled Austin Police Detective Patrick Reed. Press conference.
Meza then allegedly confessed to killing Fraga and a woman in 2019 after providing information that had not been made public.
“I was released[from prison]in 2016 and soon afterwards murdered a woman,” Reid recalled Meza.
During a welfare search on May 20, Pfluegerville police found Fraga in a closet with a belt around her neck, with a knife and blood stains around the house.
The Travis County medical examiner said Fraga died from a stab wound and a severed cervical spine.” Affidavit obtained by KVUE.
According to the newspaper, Fraga met Meza in the 1990s while Meza was on parole, and Fraga was trying to help the scammers rehabilitate as an adult probation officer.
Meza was arrested and is being held on four counts, including one count of death row, a felony of vehicle misuse, and two undisclosed first-degree felonies.
Police said Meza was in possession of zip ties, duct tape and a bag of bullets when he was arrested.
“[The Marshals]approached him, surrounded him, and took them into custody in the blink of an eye. Given the contents of that bag, I think that was an important advantage,” Deputy Sheriff Brandon Fira said at a press conference. Told.
Over the past 50 years, Meza has amassed a huge lap sheet.
According to KXAN, he was first arrested and charged with aggravated robbery of an Austin convenience store clerk in 1975.
Meza was sentenced to 20 years in prison, but served only five years.
In January 1982, Meza, still on parole after being arrested for robbery, was charged with raping and murdering eight-year-old Kendra Page and then dumping her body in an elementary school trash can.
Meza was found guilty of the charges and sentenced to 46 years in prison, but was released after just 11 years for “good behavior” and sent back to prison in 1994 for parole violations.
“We have a serial killer here who hasn’t been served justice. It was a farce of justice,” said interim assistant city manager Bruce Mills, who was the lead detective in the 1982 murder investigation.
Meza was in and out of prison as he struggled to find a job, one of the conditions of his parole, but in 2012 he found a house next door to Gloria Lofton, 66, and in 2019 committed murder. confessed. .
The 2019 Lofton murder case was never formally resolved after Austin police ruled the death “unconfirmed” before a DNA profile at the scene matched Meza’s in 2020, but Meza said the case was never officially closed. was never searched for.
