A suspected Texas serial killer who allegedly confessed to two murders in May may be linked to another case after investigators found a possible grave and clothing during a search this month, police documents reveal.
Raúl Meza Jr. was arrested in May and is currently being held at the Travis County Correctional Complex in Austin, Texas, on murder charges for the fatal stabbing of his roommate Jesse Fraga, 80, in May and the death of Gloria Lofton, 66. 2019.
At the time of his arrest, Austin’s acting deputy city manager called Meza a “serial killer,” and Austin police said they were investigating possible links between him and several unsolved murders dating back to the 1990s. 1990.
Austin police investigating Meza have learned that police stopped him in Pflugerville, just north of Austin, in March 2022, and found him walking near a field, bleeding on his face. He told officers that he had taken a woman.
A search of those fields earlier this month led to the discovery of a “grave” that partially buried clothing and a tarp, but no human remains.
Police found a grave, partially buried clothing, and a tarp.
A search warrant affidavit obtained by NBC News shows that Austin police began closely investigating Meza’s story in May, when they were looking for him in connection with the murder of his roommate, Fraga.
Austin police obtained body camera footage of an interaction Meza had with Pflugerville police on March 11, 2022.
That day, officers responded to a 911 call about a man “who appears to have been in a fight” walking on the sidewalk outside an apartment complex” in Austin.
The man was identified as Meza and was found “bleeding on his hands and mouth,” the affidavit says. When asked about his injuries, Meza “did not offer a logical explanation,” the affidavit says.
One of the officers said he observed Meza “walking through a large field” in the area before police pulled him over.
When asked why he was there, Meza tried to convince officers that his car had been stolen. His car, a red 2001 Ford F-150, was located less than half a mile from where officers initially contacted him, according to police documents.
When asked why his car was found parked on the road, Meza referred to a woman.
“We got here around 9:35 or so” on March 10, 2022, he said, adding, “I gave her a lift and she’s heading toward Hutto,” the affidavit reads. Hutto is more than eight miles from where Meza’s truck was parked, the document says.
It is not clear to whom he was referring.
A police officer began searching the open fields on both sides of the road, and the officer observed brass knuckles, a bag of about 20 years old in the field on the west side of the road, “a vandalized phone” and two holsters. of cell phones, according to body camera footage reviewed by Austin police.
Meza was not arrested in that interaction.
Austin police detective. Patrick Reed wrote in the search warrant affidavit that he “began to suspect that the woman Meza claimed to have arrived in the Old Austin Pflugerville Road area with was murdered and disposed of in one of the fields or overgrown areas at both sides of the highway where Meza the truck was located.”
The drones flew over the fields, and Reed “observed various locations that showed the properties of a possible burial site,” including disturbed soil and obvious man-made piles of rock and brush.
The affidavit noted that human remains that had been discarded in an open field for a year will have decomposed and could be dispersed due to weather and animals.
On July 12, the Austin Police Department, Pflugerville Police Department, and the FBI Evidence Response Team searched several locations in the fields.
In that search, Reed observed “a grave containing partially buried clothing and a tarp.”
The site was exhumed, but no human remains were located, according to the affidavit.
The affidavit called for the area to be searched by a K-9 officer trained to detect human remains. The order was officially granted by the court on July 13.
Meza ‘confessed’ to 2 murders in May
Meza had a long criminal record before he was arrested in May.
He previously served 11 years in prison for sexual assault and murder in 1982 of kendra page age 8.
A search for Meza was launched after authorities discovered Fraga’s body in a closet in May 20th at his home in Pflugerville, just north of Austin.
Meza called police on May 24 and said, “My name is Raúl Meza, and I think they are looking for me,” according to an arrest affidavit. He was arrested on May 29.
During the phone call, Meza confessed to the fatal stabbing of Fraga and the murder of Lofton, the affidavit says. Lofton’s cause and manner of death were initially listed as “undetermined,” but after the alleged confession, authorities linked DNA found at the scene to Meza and said he died by strangulation, according to the affidavit.
Meza was found with zip ties, duct tape, a flashlight, a .22 caliber handgun and bullets when he was arrested, Deputy U.S. Sheriff Brandon Filla told reporters at the time.
When Meza was arrested, he confessed to planning more murders, Reed said at a news conference at the time.
Meza was “ready and prepared to kill again, and he was looking forward to it,” Reed said.
His criminal history goes back nearly 50 years and includes convictions for aggravated robbery and murder, an NBC affiliate. Austin KXAN informed.
