AUSTIN, Texas — New revelations about suspected serial killer Raul Meza Jr. unfolded this week. But for decades, a family has been grieving the death of an 8-year-old girl he killed.
In 1982, Cary Page was 17 years old when he saw his little sister, Kendra, rush off to ride her bike and visit a friend. More than a couple of hours later, he heard an ambulance.
Cary Page and his then-12-year-old brother, Kevin, remember seeing their sister's body left in a dumpster, beaten and bruised, without any clothes on.
"It was not a pretty sight. I can't get that picture out of my head," Cary Page said.
It left a hole in the family that remained empty.
"It was a hard day, the worst day of my life," Kevin Page said. "You would almost think it brought us closer together, but it affected my family, I think, in a bad way, where we went our separate ways. And every time I go down to Austin or San Antonio, I'll go by her park that they named after her and visit and hang out and go to her gravesite and clean it up."
A few days after Kendra Page's body was found, Raul Meza Jr. turned himself into Austin police, confessing to her murder. While he was sentenced to 30 years in prison, he was released after serving less than 12 years due of what authorities deemed "good behavior."
It was a course of action that would lead to a lifetime of alleged crimes.
"I think our court system really did us wrong. there was no justice for my little sister, for my family. There was no justice at all, and all he got was a slap on the wrist," Kevin Page said.
Kendra Page's sister, Tracy Goldstein, laments the fact that she never got to see her youngest sibling grow up.
"[She was] a spunky, outgoing little 8-year-old that Raul Meza took her away from us," Goldstein said.
"She could have turned out to be the best one in the entire family. She was awesome. And now, she don't have that chance. And she just lost that entire chance because of him," Kevin Page said.
The Page family says they are praying for the families of Meza's other alleged victims and finally finding closure. Their hope is for Meza to be locked up for the rest of his life so he can't affect anyone else.