Lucius Crawford, NY man charged with murder, confesses to two cold-case killings, report says

(CBS) NEW YORK - Lucius Crawford, a parolee from Mount Vernon, N.Y., is charged with murder after officers found a 41-year-old woman stabbed nine times in the chest under a sheet on his bed on Tuesday, police said.

After his arrest, Crawford confessed to two cold-case murders from 1993, CBS New York reports.

Crawford, 60, admitted to fatally stabbing Laronda Shealy of Yonkers on Sept. 13, 1993 and 38-year-old prostitute Nella West in the Bronx on Oct. 20, 1993.

Officers had initially gone to Crawford's home on Tuesday to question him about the 1993 Bronx murder after DNA evidence linked him to the cold case, police said.

After Crawford's arrest, the NYPD notified Suffolk County Police in order to determine if Crawford may be linked to the unsolved murders along Long Island's Gilgo Beach, CBS New York reports. Many of the victims in those murders were prostitutes. An investigation is pending, according to the New York Daily News.

Crawford has an extensive history of violence against women dating back to 1973 and he has served several stints in prison, CBS New York says.

In 1976, he was released after serving three years in prison for stabbing a woman in Charleston, S.C.

In 1977, Crawford was sentenced to 24 years in prison for stabbing five women, ages 14 to 28, over a five-day period in Charleston.

In 1991, just months after his release, Crawford was sentenced to 184 days in jail after being convicted of assaulting his ex-girlfriend.

In 2008, Crawford was released on parole after serving 13 years in prison for attempted murder for stabbing his 31-year-old co-worker 13 times.

When officers arrested Crawford on Tuesday, they discovered his parolee tracking ankle bracelet had been removed and was found in his apartment.