News

Timothy Krajcir Gets 40 Years for a 1982 Carbondale Murder and Is Charged in Five Cape Girardeau Killings

DNA on a shirt from the scene linked the Illinois inmate to the killing of student Deborah Sheppard. Police said he confessed to nine murders in all.

Published

Timothy Krajcir with a mustache in an older black-and-white booking photograph

For decades, a string of killings of women in Cape Girardeau, Missouri, and Carbondale, Illinois, went unsolved. On December 10, 2007, Timothy Krajcir, 63, was sentenced to 40 years in prison for one of them, and charged with five more.

In Jackson County, Illinois, Krajcir waived his right to a jury trial and pleaded guilty to the 1982 murder of Deborah Sheppard, 23, a Southern Illinois University student who was strangled in her Carbondale apartment. DNA found on a shirt at the scene had cracked the case, and Krajcir confessed to her killing in August. Forty years was the maximum sentence for murder in 1982, and it will follow the term of 25 years to life he was already serving at Big Muddy Correctional Center. "I'm sorry for what happened, but you have to understand I'm not like you," Krajcir told Carbondale police when asked if he felt remorse, Lt. Paul Echols said.

The same day, Cape Girardeau County Prosecuting Attorney Morley Swingle charged Krajcir with five counts of first-degree murder and three counts of rape. Police said Krajcir confessed to killing Mary Parsh and her daughter Brenda Parsh and college student Sheila Cole in 1977, and Margie Call and Mildred Wallace in 1982. Swingle agreed not to seek the death penalty in exchange for the confessions, a decision the women's families supported. Police said Krajcir had confessed to nine murders in all, including killings in Illinois and Pennsylvania.

CNN reported that Krajcir pleaded guilty to the Sheppard murder in August 2007, while KFVS12 reported that he confessed in August and pleaded guilty on December 10.

Sources

Related News

In the Archive