Gloria Lofton's death in her Texas home in 2019 had been a mystery until a murder suspect allegedly confessed to that crime and others last year. Austin Police Department acknowledged this month that it failed to act on forensic evidence that could have linked suspect Raul Meza Jr.
to the death four years earlier. "Who knows how many deaths could have been avoided if [the agents] had looked a little further and more carefully," lamented the daughter of Gloria Lofton, who was murdered in her home in Texas in 2019. The note, which had not been previously reported, identified Meza by name, but authorities did not turn it over to the public. He had forgotten about her document while searching her phone for a video he recorded of the Lofton home after her death. Meza, 63, served 11 years in prison for the murder of Jesse Fraga, a retired probation officer whom authorities have described as his caretaker and roommate. Sonia Houston, Fultz's sister, told NBC News last year that she was baffled by the discovery. Authorities provided few details about what had happened to Lofton, she said. Houston has said the police investigation was not questioned further because it was focused on resolving Lofton's issues and putting her to rest. In a statement this month, Robin Henderson, Austin's acting police chief, said the department "deeply regretted" the oversight related to the DNA sample report. The sisters said they did not know what the arrest affidavit revealed. They also said that authorities did not say anything more about their mother's death until last year, after the alleged confession of Meza, who told the detective that he was responsible for the murder of a "lady" on the street where Lofton lived. The cause and manner of Lofton's death was changed to homicide by strangulation, the affidavit stated. A DNA sample taken from a vaginal swab provided a link to Meza in 2020, the document stated.