AUSTIN, Texas (NewsNaction) — A Texas detective who investigated a man suspected of killing an 8-year-old girl in the 1980s said he was shocked that the man recently called police to confess to another murder.

Raul Meza Jr.’s latest arrest didn’t necessarily surprise a former Austin Police detective but the fact that he called the police on himself did.

“Very, very, out of the ordinary that a murder suspect — one that has been convicted of murder and this is not his first time around the block — would call a detective and confess to a murder,” said former detective and current interim Austin City Manager Bruce Millis.

Police, however, say there may be many more murders tied to Meza, and they’re reopening several cold cases that could be linked to him.

“We have reason to believe that there are other unsolved murders that (Meza) is responsible for, not only in Austin, but in the central Texas area,” said Millis. “Our detectives are working diligently to determine that and see if we can make that connection.”

Police in the Austin suburb of Pflugerville said on May 23 they were looking for Meza in connection with the death of his roommate, 80-year-old Jesse Fraga. Officers found Fraga’s body on May 20 while doing a wellness check after loved ones hadn’t heard from him for several days.

Austin police said Meza called them on May 23 and confessed to killing Fraga. Police said he included details that had not been made public, although they did not disclose those details.

Police said Meza also implicated himself in the 2019 death of Gloria Lofton. He did not name her, but said the street name where she was killed.

Lofton, 66, was strangled to death.

Meza pleaded guilty in 1982 to raping and murdering 8-year-old Kendra Paige, whose body was found behind an Austin elementary school. He served more than 10 years of his 30-year sentence and was released on parole in 1993, with credit for time served and good behavior.

At the time of the girl’s killing, Meza was on parole for robbing a convenience store and shooting a man, leaving him with permanent injuries, police said.

Eight to 10 cold cases going back to 1996 are being investigated as possibly connected to Meza, and the number could rise, Austin Police Department detective Katie Conner said in a Tuesday news conference. She said there appeared to be no immediate connections between the victims, and that the cases “fit the circumstances” that they were looking at, but she did not elaborate further on what those were.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.