On January 2001 Texas authorities arrested California parolee Devon Stuart Olson who subsequently confessed to crimes in Texas, California and Arkansas, including the 1986 murders of a couple near Sacramento.

Devon Stuart Olson, 42, provided details about the April 22, 1986, shootings of Koy Ien Saechao, 48, and Choy Fow Salee, 40, both of Yuba City, said Sacramento police spokesman Sam Somers. Saechao and Salee were found shot to death in the front seat of their car on the shoulder of state Highway 99 just north of Sacramento. The couple was shot through the driver's side window and 15 bullet casings were found near the car.

Sacramento detectives may travel to Big Spring, Texas, to interview Olson about those murders and two unrelated slayings. "We're looking at more than one homicide," Somers said. "He's putting out (details of) another one that may be in the city and he's put out a third one that may be with the (Sacramento County) sheriff's department." However, sheriff's spokesman Sgt. James Lewis said his department has been unable to match Olson's statements to any unsolved deaths.

Olson, a transient, told Big Spring detectives he also committed crimes in southern Texas and Arkansas, but was unable to provide specific locations, said Big Spring Police Chief Lonnie Smith. California Corrections officials said they understand Olson confessed to 10 murders. Smith declined to comment on that or characterize the crimes involved. Police in all three states are investigating his statements.

Olson has been in custody since December 27, when he was arrested for beating another man with a baseball bat at a Big Spring residence, Smith said.

Olson was convicted of bashing another transient in the head with a camp ax en 1992 near Portola in the eastern Sierra Nevada and served a three-year prison term after pleading guilty to assault with a deadly weapon.

He was paroled in 1994, sent back to prison on a parole violation in 1997, and paroled again on April 27, 1998. A warrant for his arrest was issued May 8, 1998, after he failed to report to his parole officer, and he had been missing ever since, said Department of Corrections spokesman Russ Heimerich.