Child killer released for good behavior in the 1990s has admitted two more murders

A Texas man convicted of killing little girl was released early from prison for good behavior in 1990s. He then murdered at least two more people.

On Monday, Raul Meza Jr., 63, pleaded guilty to killing 65-year-old Gloria Lofton in 2019 and his 82-year-old roommate Jesse Fraga in 2023.

“I plead guilty because I am guilty,” Meza said in court. He refused to address the victims' families, stating that he did not feel the need to apologize to anyone who would not accept his apology.

Meza spent a decade in prison for the 1982 murder of eight-year-old Kendra Page. When police arrested him in May 2023 for the murders of Fraga and Lofton, investigators believed he could be connected to up to 10 other murders.

But on Monday, officials told KXAN that cold case investigators used DNA to rule out eight cases that occurred between 1979 and 2021.

Meza's plea means he is ineligible for parole and cannot appeal the case. But he will avoid the death penalty, despite objections from the victim's family members who wanted him tried.

“A life sentence will not make up for the pain,” Loftin’s daughter Sonia Houston said in a statement read in court. “By accepting this plea, we are giving Raul exactly what he wants.”

Who is Raul Meza Jr?

Meza's criminal history dates back to 1975, when he was just 15 years old.

The teenager shot and wounded Derly Ramirez, a store clerk, during a robbery at the South Congress Avenue supermarket on New Year's Eve, the American-Statesman reported.

Meza was sentenced to 20 years in prison in 1976, but served only five years before being released on parole – shortly before he killed 8-year-old Kendra Page in Austin in 1982, who authorities say had been strangled and sexually assaulted.

He accepted a plea agreement in which he admitted the murder and was sentenced to 30 years in prison, but only served 11 years.

Meza's early release from prison in 1993 sparked riots across Texas, and he was greeted by protesters at almost every turn. Pickets drove him out of six cities, sometimes with threats of violence.

“I know in my heart that I will not intentionally harm anyone,” Meza said during a news conference in August 1993 after he was expelled from the community.

Austin police said Meza called them in May 2023 and confessed to killing Fraga and implicated himself in the sexual assault and murder of Lofton in 2019.

“Here is a serial killer who has received no justice. It was a travesty of justice,” Interim Assistant City Manager Bruce Mills, who was also the lead investigator in the 1982 Page case, said in May 2023.

The murder of 8-year-old Kendra Page

Kendra was a brave eight-year-old little girl with her whole life ahead of her when she was separated from her family in 1982.

She was last seen riding her bicycle near Langford Elementary School.

Her brother Cary Page was 17 when his sister was killed. He remembers seeing her ride away on her bike. A few hours later he heard an ambulance. His sister's naked body was found beaten and bruised in a dumpster.

“It wasn’t a pretty sight. I just can’t get that image out of my head,” Cary Page told KVUE.

Meza turned herself in to Austin police a few days after the girl's body was found.

“[She was] “A brave, outgoing little 8-year-old that Raul Meza took away from us,” said Page's sister Tracy Goldstein.

“She could have been the best in the whole family. She was great. And now she doesn't have that chance. And she lost his whole chance because of him,” her brother Kevin Page added.

Meza was sentenced to 30 years in prison but was released after just 11 years, infuriating Kendra's family.

“I think our court system has really done us an injustice,” Kevin Page said. “There was no justice for my little sister, for my family. There was no justice at all and all he got was a slap on the wrist.”

Meza's roommate, Jesse Fraga, was found dead in 2023

Jesse Fraga, 80, a retired Travis County probation officer, was found dead in his Pflugerville home on May 20, 2023, after his niece called Pflugerville police about a welfare check.

It was later revealed that Fraga and Meza had known each other since the 1990s and that he had taken Meza in and tried to help him re-enter society after he was released from prison in the Page case, KXAN reported.

Meza was identified as a person of interest and he eventually turned himself in.

While in custody, he was implicated in the 2019 death of Gloria Lofton, according to his affidavit.

On that call, he talked about being in and out of prison his entire life, saying after his last release in 2016, “Soon after that, I ended up murdering a woman… It was on Sara Drive.”

The mysterious death of Gloria Lofton

Lofton's 2019 murder was long a mystery – until Meza allegedly confessed to her murder while in custody for the murder of his roommate.

The 65-year-old was found dead in her bedroom at her home east of downtown Austin on May 9, 2019. The medical examiner found evidence that she may have been strangled, but the cause and manner of death were listed as undetermined, according to the affidavit obtained by NBC News.

Her children told NBC they received few details from police and came to believe that Lofton, who their daughter said had a troubled relationship with alcohol, may have had an alcohol-related accident while she was drinking.

They claimed they didn't hear from authorities about their mother's death until Meza allegedly made a confession – when he told investigators that he killed a woman on the street where Lofton lived, according to the affidavit.

The affidavit also revealed details the siblings didn't know — that a sexual assault kit was used on Lofton during her autopsy and that in 2020, a DNA profile from a vaginal swab provided a match to Meza.

After Meza's confession, Lofton's cause and manner of death were changed to murder by strangulation, according to the affidavit.

Acting Austin Police Chief Robin Henderson said the department “deeply regrets” the oversight surrounding the DNA report. No explanation was given for the error.

“We recognize the impact this has on the case itself, the community and, most importantly, the victims and their families,” Henderson said. “As soon as we were made aware of the error, we fixed it as quickly as possible to find out how it happened and implemented policies to prevent incidents like this from occurring again. Since this incident, the Austin Police Department has incorporated redundancies into the notification process to ensure this does not happen again.”