• Lovstuhagen@exploding-heads.comOPM
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    1 year ago

    Police in the Austin suburb of Pflugerville said May 23 they were looking for Meza in connection with the death of his roommate, 80-year-old Fraga. Officers found Fraga’s body May 20 while doing a wellness check after loved ones hadn’t heard from him for several days.

    Austin police said Meza called them May 23 and confessed to killing Fraga. Police said he included details that had not been made public, although they did not disclose those details.

    Police said Meza also implicated himself in the 2019 death of Lofton. He did not name her, but said the street name where she was killed.

    Lofton, 66, was strangled to death.

    Meza pleaded guilty in 1982 to raping and murdering 8-year-old Kendra Paige, whose body was found behind an Austin elementary school. He served over 10 years of his 30-year sentence and was released on parole in 1993, with credit for time served and good behavior.

    At the time of the girl’s killing, Meza was on parole for robbing a convenience store and shooting a man, leaving him with permanent injuries, police said.

    Eight to 10 cold cases going back to 1996 are being investigated as possibly connected to Meza, and the number could rise, Austin Police Department detective Katie Conner said in a news conference Tuesday. She said there appeared to be no immediate connections between the victims and that the cases “fit the circumstances” that they were looking at, but did not elaborate further on what those were.