Serial killer charged in Missouri

CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo., Dec. 10 (UPI) -- A convicted sex offender pleaded guilty to killing a Southern Illinois University student Monday and then was charged with killing several other women.

Timothy Krajcir, 63, was sentenced Monday to 40 years in prison after he pleaded guilty to the murder some 25 years ago of Deborah Sheppard, a 23-year-old SIU student, the Chicago Tribune reported Monday.

Police said Krajcir also admitted Monday to killing five women in Cape Girardeau, Mo., in 1982 and 1977, KSDK-TV reported. Authorities did not say who Krajcir's other alleged victims were except to say they were outside their jurisdiction.

Police tied Krajcir to the Sheppard murder after Carbondale, Ill., police reopened their cold case. They found DNA evidence linked him to the crime.

"We received word from the lab technician that there was a relatively strong DNA match from evidence seized at the Wallace scene to Timothy Krajcir," Cape Girardeau Police Chief Carl Kinnison was quoted by WSIL-TV as saying.

Krajcir has spent the last 24 years behind bars; he hasn't been a free man since 1983, the Southeast Missourian reported.