Police in Austin, Texas admitted on Thursday that they “did not follow up” after discovering the DNA of a potential “serial killer” on the body of murder victim, which may have allowed him to strike again years later. In a statement to the Austin American-Statesman on Thursday, the Austin Police Department acknowledged that Raul Meza Jr.’s DNA was discovered on the body of Gloria Lofton, a woman who was killed in 2019, but the police did nothing with the information. In May 2023, three years after Lofton’s death, Meza called the police and admitted he’d killed a woman on the street where Lofton was found, and police finally connected the dots. He was arrested and charged for Lofton’s murder, as well as the 2023 murder of 80 year-old Jesse Fraga. Meza had previously been convicted of the murder of an eight year-old girl in 1982. “It is hurt on top of hurt,” said Oscar Mota, Fraga’s brother-in-law. “It is a tragedy on top of tragedy." Family members of Lofton said police reached out and admitted that an “error was made.”