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June 30, 1999
Web posted at: 8:10 p.m. EDT (0010 GMT)

From CNN Justice Correspondent Pierre Thomas

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Justice Department is launching an inspector general investigation into why Rafael Resendez-Ramirez, the man suspected of being the so-called "railway killer," was released repeatedly after being caught entering the United States illegally, officials said Wednesday.

In addition, the investigation will examine why the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) did not take steps to detain Resendez-Ramirez -- even after local police alerted an INS official about the suspect this past February.

The investigation was requested by INS Commissioner Doris Meissner.

According to officials of that agency, Resendez-Ramirez has been formally deported from the United States three times.

In addition, since January 1998, he has been caught by the U.S. Border Patrol eight times and released to voluntarily return to Mexico.

The most recent detention was June 2, two days before an elderly woman was pickaxed to death at her home in Fayette County, Texas -- the first of four killings that Resendez-Ramirez has been linked to this month alone.

The killing happened about three miles from where a man and his wife were beaten to death with a sledgehammer April 30, another case attributed to the suspected "railway killer."

Authorities have implicated Resendez-Ramirez in eight murders -- seven in the last six months. He has been formally charged in two killings in Illinois and is a possible suspect in at least 10 others around the country.

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