Gloria Lofton’s death in her Texas home in 2019 was a mystery — until a murder suspect allegedly confessed to killing her and others last year.
An autopsy into Lofton’s death was inconclusive. And relatives, who said authorities provided few details about the death, have come to believe an alcohol-related accident may have been to blame.
Now, one of his daughters is furious after the Austin Police Department acknowledged this month that it failed to act on key forensic evidence that could have linked the suspect, Raul Meza Jr., to Lofton’s death four years earlier.
And her daughter, Christina Fultz, said authorities appear to have missed another important clue that provided an even more direct and immediate link to Meza — a mysterious note she said she and her sister found in the Lofton home six days after her body was discovered.
The note, which has not been previously released, identified Meza by name.
Fultz, 35, said they found the note after police searched the house and that neither she nor her sister gave it to them. She had forgotten about it and recently found images of the document while searching her phone for a video she filmed of Lofton’s home after his death.
“It was right there in front of us the whole time, and who knows how many deaths could have been prevented if they had looked a little further and a little harder?” Fultz said.
In his alleged confession to a homicide detective in May, Meza also implicated himself in the murder that month of Jesse Fraga, a retired parole officer who authorities described as Meza’s caregiver and roommate, according to an affidavit in support for Meza’s arrest.
The affidavit says he also detailed a double murder he committed in San Antonio years earlier.
Meza, 63, served 11 years in prison for the murder and sexual assault of an 8-year-old girl in 1982. At a news conference following his arrest last year, authorities said they were re-examining up to 10 unsolved homicides in the Austin area, dating back to the 1990s. Meza has not been charged with any other murders.
In July, authorities said they searched a field and found a possible grave linked to Meza, with partially buried clothing and a tarp, but no human remains. Authorities found the location after learning that police in Pflugerville, north of Austin, detained Meza in 2022 while he was walking near the field with blood on his face.
An Austin police spokesperson said there were no updates on the possible grave or other unsolved homicides.
Meza’s attorney, Russell Hunt Jr., said last week that he offered prosecutors a plea deal of two 50-year sentences, to be served concurrently, for the Lofton and Fraga murders.
A spokesman for the Travis County District Attorney’s Office said prosecutors are evaluating the offer and would not comment further.
Police ‘deeply regret’ DNA ‘error’
Lofton, 65, was found dead in her bedroom at her home east of downtown Austin on May 9, 2019. Although the medical examiner found evidence that she may have been strangled, the cause and manner of death were listed as undetermined, according to the statement.
Fultz’s sister, Sonia Houston, told NBC News last year that she was stunned by the discovery. Authorities provided few details about what happened to Lofton, Houston said, and she thought her mother — who drank heavily and with whom she had a long-troubled relationship — may have been in a fatal accident while drinking.
Houston said she partially based that conclusion on what she and her sister found in Lofton’s home when they gained access on May 15. There was blood in the hallway and blood on a pillow, she said. They also found what appeared to be a used condom and lubricant wrapped in a latex glove, she said.
“Did she get drunk and hit her head?” Houston said. “Anyone who is drunk knows that accidents happen. Did she try to crawl onto the bed?
Houston said she did not question the police investigation further because she was focused on resolving Lofton’s affairs and putting her to rest. Fultz, who was placed up for adoption as a newborn and reconnected with her biological family in 2012, said she initially deferred matters surrounding her mother’s death to Houston.
The brothers said they were unaware of what the arrest affidavit revealed: A sexual assault kit was used on Lofton during his autopsy, and in 2020, a DNA profile from a vaginal swab provided a match to Meza, the affidavit says.
The sisters also said they heard nothing from authorities about their mother’s death until last year, after Meza’s alleged confession — he told the detective he was responsible for the murder of a “lady” on the street where Lofton lived, according to the testimony.
After Meza’s confession, the cause and manner of Lofton’s death was changed to homicide by strangulation, the statement says.
In a statement this month, Austin Police Interim Chief Robin Henderson said the department “deeply regrets” the oversight related to the DNA report. No explanation for the error was provided.
“We realize the impacts this has on the case itself, the community and, most importantly, the victims and their families,” Henderson said. “As soon as the error was brought to our attention, we resolved the issue as quickly as we could to identify how it happened and implemented policies to prevent incidents like this from occurring again. Since this occurrence, the Austin Police Department has added redundancies to the notification process to ensure this does not happen again.”
The supervising officer will not face disciplinary action, Henderson said, because state law prohibits discipline for acts that occurred more than 180 days ago.
Fultz said she was furious about the announcement. The department did not alert her family about the decision before she read about it in local media, she said, adding that it appeared authorities were unable to do their job after her mother’s death. (An Austin police spokesperson said the department did not alert the family before the announcement because the complaint about the DNA report came from within the department and was handled internally.)
“In a role like this, where you’re supposed to protect and serve, you’re not doing that,” Fultz said. “I would suggest they go work at McDonald’s, where you can mess up someone’s order and not potentially kill someone.”
‘Who the hell is Raul Meza Jr.?’
Fultz said she was confused by what she and her sister found in the Lofton home on May 15, so she began recording the scene on her phone. In a Snapchat video she shared with NBC News, Fultz captured the bloody pillow and a bloodstain on Lofton’s bed. In another, she recorded the lubricant.
Fultz said the prosecutor’s office asked her to share the video after Meza’s arrest, and that while she was searching for it late last year, she found another recording — one she said showed her sister flipping through a spiral notebook they found. in Lofton’s kitchen. counter. (The district attorney’s spokesperson declined to comment. Fultz shared email correspondence that shows a Travis County prosecutor asking Fultz to share a Snapchat video with her.)
The notebook was open to a page that appeared to be in Lofton’s handwriting, according to Fultz, which read: “I, Gloria Elizabeth Lofton, hereby give permission to Raul Meza Jr to request a certificate of authority on my behalf for the purpose of,” where the line ends.
Fultz provided a screenshot of the time-stamped note, which includes a crossed out word in the middle of the sentence. A contemporaneous video that Fultz filmed and shared with NBC News shows her and her sister finding the note and her sister saying, “Who the hell is Raul Meza Jr.?”
Hearing Meza’s name in December, when she found the video, “hit me like a truck,” Fultz said.
“I had a literal breakdown and a panic attack,” she said. “I was so sick with nervousness and anger and just overwhelmed.”
Fultz said he was unsure of the meaning of the note and that authorities have not publicly identified a possible motive for Lofton’s murder. According to the affidavit, the homicide detective who spoke with Meza on May 24 said Meza claimed he was promised 25% of an inheritance that would go to Lofton’s nephew and that he would be compensated for the murder.
The sisters said Lofton had no nephews. Fultz said it is unclear whether another family member may have promised Meza money.
Fultz shared the video with the Travis County District Attorney’s Office in December, she said. The Public Prosecutor’s Office spokesperson declined to comment.
An Austin Police Department spokesperson declined to comment, citing an ongoing investigation.
Hunt, Meza’s attorney, said he was not aware of the note and would not comment further.
This story originally appeared on NBCNews.com read the full story
