Raul Meza Jr. was arrested in May and is being held at the Travis County Correctional Complex in Austin, Texas, on murder charges in the fatal stabbing of his roommate
Jesse Fraga, 80, in May and the death of Gloria Lofton, 66, in 2019.
At the time of the arrest, the interim assistant city manager of Austin called Meza a "serial killer," and Austin police said they were looking into possible links between him and several unsolved murders going back to the 1990s.
Austin police investigating Meza learned that he was stopped by police in Pflugerville, just north of Austin, in March 2022, and found walking near a field, bleeding on his face. He told officers he had given a ride to a woman.
A search of those fields earlier this month led to the discovery of a "gravesite" which partially buried clothes and a tarp — but no human remains.
The FBI, Austin police and Pflugerville police are searching a field off FM 1825 in Pflugerville, Texas, following leads related to Raul Meza Jr., according to Pflugerville police.
A search warrant affidavit obtained by NBC News shows that Austin police began looking closely into Meza's history in May, when he was wanted in connection with Fraga's killing.
Austin police obtained body camera footage of an interaction Meza had with Pflugerville police March 11, 2022.
On 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 he was found “bleeding on his hands and mouth,” the affidavit said. When questioned about his injuries, Meza “offered no logical explanation,” the affidavit said.
One of the officers said he observed Meza “walking through a large field” in the area before he was stopped by police.
When asked why he was there, Meza tried to convince officers that his car was stolen. His car — a 2001 red Ford F-150 — was located less than half a mile from where officers initially contacted him, the police documents said.
When pressed on why his car was found parked on the road, Meza referred to a woman.
“We got here about 9:35 or so” on March 10, 2022, he said, adding, “I gave her a lift, and she’s going towards Hutto,” the affidavit said. Hutto is more than 8 miles from where Meza's truck was parked, the document said.
It’s not clear to whom he was referring.
The July search of the Pflugerville, Texas, fields stemmed from an interaction police had with Raul Meza Jr. last year, in which he was found bleeding and walking near fields.
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