Paducah, Ky., authorities say that longtime convict Timothy Krajcir has confessed that he killed a Kentucky woman, his ninth victim.

Krajcir, 63, reportedly gave police a detailed account of the 1979 murder of Joyce Tharp, whose naked body was found dumped behind a Paducah church.

Authorities say Krajcir, who was living in Carbondale, Illinois at the time, went to Paducah to cruise for victims. He saw Tharp in her home, broke in, and abducted her.

He then drove her to his home, forced her to commit a sex act, and strangled her. The next night he drove her body back to Paducah and dumped her behind the church.

Krajcir has now confessed to murdering nine women in four states during the late 1970s and early 1980s. He has a long history of sex crimes and has been in prison in Illinois since the 1980s.

His alleged connection to the murders came to light earlier this year when the Carbondale police reopened the investigation of the 1982 murder of Deborah Sheppard. Krajcir's DNA matched DNA recovered at the crime scene.

In addition to the murders of Tharp and Sheppard, Krajcir has confessed to the 1977 killings of Brenda and Mary Parsh and Sheila Cole and the 1982 murders of Margie Call and Mildred Wallace all in Cape Girardeau, Mo. He also confessed to the 1978 murder of Virginia Lee Witte in Marion, Ill., and the 1979 murder of Myrtle Rupp in western Pennsylvania.