Timothy Krajcir Hides Killing Spree for 25 Years

Timothy Krajcir confessed to nine murders that happened 25 years ago, according to police in Cape Girardeau, Mo.

Krajcir pleaded guilty Monday in Illinois to the 1982 murder of Southern Illinois University classmate Deborah Sheppard, and was charged later that day with five counts of murder and three counts of rape in Cape Girardeau.

Krajcir enrolled in SIU in his 30s and over the next six years, Krajcir murdered at least six women in two states.

Krajcir would stake out shopping center parking lots in Cape Girardeau, stalking women until he found one he liked and then following her home. Due to his random selection of victims, police could not tie the murders together.

Cape Girardeau police found Krajcir's first victims on Aug. 15, 1977. Mary Parsh, 58, and her daughter, Brenda, 27, were found in their home, nude, lying side by side on the bed, their hands tied behind their backs. Each had been shot in the head.

Sheila Cole was kidnapped from a Wal-Mart parking lot and killed in November 1977. Her body was found at a rest stop in southern Illinois.

In January 1982, Margie Call, 57, was found dead in her home. Her hands appeared to have been bound, and she had been raped and strangled. That June, Milfred Wallace, 65, was found killed and partially nude. Her hands were tied and she had been shot in the head.

The lulls between Krajcir's killings coincided with his stints behind bars on sex-related crimes, authorities said. He was jailed in Illinois in 1979 for having sex with his landlord's 13-year-old daughter, but given conditional release in 1981.

After moving to Pennsylvania, Krajcir was arrested in 1982 on sexual assault charges and imprisoned until 1988, when he was returned to Illinois to resume serving his sentence there because he had violated the terms of his parole. He has been in the state's custody since.

Krajcik officially confessed on Dec. 3 after DNA testing fit him palmprints to the scenes of both Sheppard's and Wallace's killing.

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