Raul Meza, who killed girl in 1982, sought in slaying of 80-year-old man in Pflugerville
Raul Meza Jr., 62, who has spent 19 years in prison, including 11 for the murder of an 8-year-old girl in Austin in 1982, is now being sought in connection with the death of an 80-year-old former probation officer who had befriended him.
Meza has not been charged with a crime but has been described by police as a "person of interest." His criminal history, including the notorious slaying of the girl on a school playground, has made it difficult for Meza to find a place to live since being released from prison.
Pflugerville police discovered Jesse Fraga's body on May 20 after receiving a check welfare call. They said Meza stole Fraga's car but later abandoned it. Police have declined further comment about the case.
According to a lawsuit, Fraga, a retired Travis County probation officer, had known Meza since the 1990's and had tried to help him after he was released from prison. The search warrant said Meza had been Fraga's roommate for two years but had agreed to move out of Fraga's house in the 700 block of Camp Fire Trail and had left it on May 12.
Police found Fraga's body in a bathroom closet and a large amount of blood on May 20, the affidavit said. Investigators also found a kitchen knife with blood on it, according to the search warrant.
It said video showed Meza getting into Fraga's truck on May 13. The stolen truck was recovered on May 22 in the 12000 block of Interstate 35 North in Austin, the warrant said. Meza's car was found parked in the driveway of Fraga's residence with duct tape, gloves, a hammer and a hatchet inside of it, according to the search warrant.
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In 1982, Meza sexually assaulted and strangled Kendra Page at a Southeast Austin elementary school. The 8-year-old was riding her bicycle on the playground of Langford Elementary, several blocks from her family's home, when Meza killed her.
Meza already had a previous criminal history. As a 15-year-old on Dec. 31, 1975, Meza was involved in the robbery of a South Congress Avenue convenience store, and during the robbery shot the store attendant, Derly Ramirez, in the back.
Ramirez survived, and Meza was convicted a year later and sentenced to 20 years in prison. He was granted parole in December 1980, released in February 1981, and killed Page on Jan. 3, 1982.
In an agreement with prosecutors, Meza pleaded guilty to the murder of Page and was sentenced to 30 years in prison. He later received another four-year sentence for having a weapon in prison.
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Meza initially was released from prison in 1993 for the murder conviction when the time he served plus additional time counted off for good behavior equaled the length of his sentence under the state's mandatory supervision law, which has since been changed.
Placed on parole, Meza was transferred to a halfway house near El Paso, where protests prompted officials to move him. Similar protests led to transfers from Wichita Falls, San Antonio, Mineral Wells and Sweetwater.
Meza then returned to prison in 1994 for violating a midnight curfew. He was scheduled for release again in 2002 but was instead transferred to a minimum-security section of the Travis County jail system where state parolees lived in a halfway house environment designed to assimilate them from prison to the community.
One of the conditions of his mandatory supervision was that he would remain at the correctional complex until he could secure work and a place to live.
He was still living at the jail in 2010 when he asked Fraga and Fraga's wife for $10 to buy a pair of pants for a job interview, according to a lawsuit that Fraga, his wife and Meza — referred to as "John Doe" — filed against the Board of Pardons and Paroles in 2012. A member of the board of pardons and paroles then illegally asked that Fragas and his wife be forbidden from contacting Meza, according to the lawsuit,
"The Fragas befriended him through their church after hearing negative media coverage of his (Meza's) release," said the lawsuit.
"As part of their Christian religious beliefs, the Fragas reached out to Mr. Doe with several other couples from their congregation. They invited him to Bible studies, which he attended, and helped him find housing and employment. The Fragas even allowed Mr. Doe to live in their home for a short period of time, when he otherwise would have become homeless."
The lawsuit was later settled out of court. Information about how Fraga and Meza became roommates was not available on Thursday.