Krajcir appears via video in Pa.

Convicted serial killer Timothy Krajcir has faced a slew of murder and sexual assault charges since he confessed to killing nine woman in four states last December.

On Tuesday, Krajcir made an initial court appearance for the first charge against him for pretending to be a police officer, in addition to murder and rape allegations.

Krajcir waived his rights to a formal arraignment and reading of the charges against him Tuesday in a hearing at the Berks County Courthouse in Reading, Pa.

Krajcir faces charges of first-degree murder, rape, possessing instruments of crime and impersonating a public servant. The charges stem from the 1979 strangulation death of Myrtle Rupp, a 51-year-old woman, in South Temple, Pa.

A closed-circuit television allowed Pennsylvania authorities to conduct the hearing without Krajcir, 63, of Carbon County, Pa., having to leave the maximum security prison in Tamms, Ill., where he is currently serving two 40-year sentences. The sentences, which will run back to back, are for convictions in the murder of Virginia L. Witte in Marion, Ill., and Deborah Sheppard in Carbondale, Ill.

Berks County District Attorney John T. Adams said a date of June 19 has been set for a preliminary hearing in the Rupp homicide case.

"We actually expect him to enter a plea at that time," Adams said.

Adams said in previous interviews he expects to conduct all of the proceedings by video, so Krajcir does not have to be moved from the Illinois Department of Corrections.

Adams said he does not anticipate seeking the death penalty in this case, but if he did, he would be required to give notice to the court by the date of the preliminary hearing.

Neighbors discovered Rupp, a widow who lived alone, nude on her bed with her wrists and ankles bound with drapery cord. She'd been strangled with the same cord and a pillow case may have been used to choke her, according to the criminal complaint, signed by Detective James Pollock of the Muhlenburg Township Police and Corporal William Moyer of the Pennsylvania State Police.

There was no sign of forced entry to Rupp's home, but her wallet and purse appeared to have been rifled through, and she'd started a load of laundry but abandoned it — something family and friends said she never did.

Rupp reported a break-in seven days before she was found. Police believed the same person committed both crimes, but no arrests were made until 2008, after semen found on Rupp's white bedspread was entered into the DNA database and came up a positive match to Krajcir.

"I did it," Krajcir said when interviewed about the homicide.

He admitted to burglarizing Rupp's home a week before he killed her, according to the complaint.

He told police he cut the phone line and ransacked the residence, then laid down on Rupp's bed and waited for her to return, but when she did he heard two people talking in the garage. Scared, he fled through the front door.

A week later, Krajcir returned, this time armed with a phony police badge he'd bought at a store, he told investigators.

He identified himself to Rupp as a police officer and said he was investigating the burglary. When she let him into her home, he pulled a knife, raping and strangling her.

He didn't know why he killed her, he told police.

"She didn't deserve to die," he said.

In Cape Girardeau, Krajcir pleaded guilty April 4 to five counts of first-degree murder, seven counts of sexual assault and one count of first-degree robbery. He received a life sentence for each charge against him.

The charges stemmed from the 1977 murders of Brenda and Mary Parsh and Sheila Cole, the 1982 slayings of Margie Call and Mildred Wallace, and six other unrelated crimes Krajcir committed in Cape Girardeau during the late 1970s and early 1980s.

bdicosmo@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 245

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