A career criminal with ties to our area confesses to a series of murders in the midwest. Former Lehigh County resident Timothy Krajcir pleaded guilty this week to killing a Southern Illinois University student 25 years ago and police say he's admitted to much more. WFMZ's Joscelyn Moes has the story.  63-year-old Timothy Krajcir, a man who investigators say has a long history of sex crimes, has admitted to killing 9 people ... 5 from Missouri. Morley Swingle: "This is a historic day in the history of crime and punishment in Cape Girardeau."  On August 12, 1977 Mary and Brenda Parsh, a mother and daughter, were found shot to death in their home. Sheila Cole, a 21-year-old college student, was killed on November 16, 1977. Investigators say she was kidnapped from a Wal-Mart parking lot. On January 27th, 1982 57-year- old Margie Call was found strangled to death inside her home. 65-year-old Mildred Wallace was shot to death in her home on June 21st, 1982. For decades people living in the quiet river town of Cape Girardeau, Missouri were haunted by these crimes. This woman carried a picture of her best friend Brenda Parsh with her after she was murdered. Vicky Abernathy: "30 years I've been obsessively consumed." Then recently a detective assigned to cold cases noticed similarities between the five Missouri murders and the 1982 murder of a Southern Illinois University student. D-N-A evidence linked them together. Krajcir has also admitted to three other killings in other jurisdictions. Investigators declined to elaborate on those cases. Krajcir is formerly of Ironton, Lehigh County. In late 1982 investigators say he moved back to Pennsylvania and while living in Laurys Station he sexually assaulted three women. According to the Chicago Tribune he spent five years in prison for those assaults and for an unsuccessful attempt to escape the Lehigh County Prison.

e-mail story | print view | rss feeds | wireless | google desktop | podcast