Texas murder suspect calls police and tells them, ‘You’re looking for me.’

A murder suspect phoned Texas police and confessed to multiple slayings, telling them, “You’re looking for me,” triggering a manhunt that led to his arrest this week, authorities said.

Marshals and police captured Raul Meza Jr., 62, in Austin on Monday, five days after his chilling call to homicide detectives, officials said.

Meza had been called a person of interest in the fatal stabbing of Jesse Fraga, an 80-year-old man whose body was found on May 20 in nearby Pflugerville.

Meza called police on May 24 and told them he was aware he was being sought, Austin police Detective Patrick Reed told reporters on Tuesday.

“The caller stated, ‘My name is Raul Meza, and you’re looking for me,’” Reed said.

Meza confessed to killing Fraga, revealing details of the murder not disclosed to the public, before admitting to another homicide, Reed said.

“’I got out (of prison) in 2016, I end up murdering a lady soon afterwards. It was on Sara Drive,'” Meza told police, according to Reed.

Jail records did not indicate whether Meza had hired a lawyer or had a public defender assigned to him.

The 2019 strangulation of Gloria Lofton, 66, on Sara Drive in Austin had been unsolved, but DNA from the crime scene matched Meza’s, police said.

Meza had been known to stay in hotels close to Interstate 35 in and around Austin, and a fugitive task force arrested him at one of them on Monday evening.

“Raul Meza was considered armed and dangerous,” Deputy U.S. Marshal Brandon Filla said. “He was suicidal and had violence tendencies.”

Authorities found zip ties, duct tape, a flashlight, a .22-caliber pistol and rounds on Meza when he was arrested, Filla said.

Reed said that Meza on Monday night admitted to planning more murders.

Meza “was ready and prepared to kill again, and he was looking forward to it,” Reed said.

Police said they are looking into possible links between Meza and several unsolved murders going back to the 1990s.

“There is a good possibility that we will find additional cases,” Austin police Detective Katy Conner said.

“Right now, we have between between eight and 10 cases that kind of fit these similar circumstances that we’re looking at, but that can obviously grow,” she said. 

Meza served 11 years behind bars for the Jan. 3, 1982, murder and sexual assault of an 8-year-old girl, police said.

Bruce Mills, now the interim assistant city manager of Austin, was a city police sergeant leading the investigation in that 1982 case.

He told reporters Tuesday that police were developing a strong case against Meza before prosecutors made a plea bargain with him for a 30-year sentence, which turned out to be 11 years of actual time behind bars.

“I remember it like it was yesterday,” Mills said of the murder investigation. “We were shocked, disappointed with no real explanation as to why this case didn’t go to trial. We never got solid answers to that.”

“Here’s a serial killer that justice was not served,” Mills added. “It was a travesty of justice.”

A representative for Travis County District Attorney José Garza could not be immediately reached for comment Thursday.

The county’s top prosecutor in 1982 was Ronnie Earle, who died in 2020. A representative for his family could not be reached for comment.

The building that now houses the Travis County DA operations was named in honor of Earle in 2018.