Authorities are hoping alleged serial killer Timothy Krajcir will be able make his initial court appearance in Cape Girardeau County on Thursday, Prosecuting Attorney Morley Swingle said.

Though Krajcir, 63, has a lengthy criminal history, including the recent conviction for the 1982 killing of Deborah Sheppard and several rapes in Pennsylvania, he has never been tried in Missouri.

On Dec. 10, Swingle's office charged Krajcir with five counts of first-degree murder and three counts of rape in connection with the 1977 murders of Brenda and Mary Parsh and Sheila Cole, the 1982 slayings of Margie Call and Mildred Wallace and an additional rape in 1982.

Hours before Swingle announced the charges at a news conference, Krajcir pleaded guilty to Sheppard's murder in a Jackson County, Ill., courtroom and received a sentence of 40 years.

Plans have been made for the Cape Girardeau Sheriff's Department to transport Krajcir from Tamms Correctional Center in Illinois to the Cape Girardeau County Jail, but security considerations prevent authorities from releasing further details, said Sheriff John Jordan.

The sheriff's department will be taking extra precautions while transporting Krajcir to and from correctional facilities.

In 1983, Krajcir escaped from the Lehigh County Prison in Allentown, Pa., when he and a fellow inmate cut a hole in the wall and scaled the side of the building using a rope made of bedsheets tied together, according to court records. The other inmate eluded authorities, but Krajcir fell while climbing down the rope and broke his leg.

The first appearance in court before Circuit Judge Gary A. Kamp will most likely be done by video, so Krajcir will remain at the county jail in Jackson during the proceedings, Swingle said.

Though it is not official that Krajcir will arrive in Missouri by Thursday, Swingle said there was an "excellent chance."

Krajcir will likely face additional charges in three other states in connection with unsolved homicides where either DNA evidence or a confession links him to the crime.

He may be charged as early as January in Reading, Pa., with the 1979 killing of Myrtle Rupp, according to William J. Moyer of the Reading Police Department.

Last Wednesday, Paducah, Ky.'s assistant police chief, Danny Carroll, announced Krajcir's alleged confession to the 1979 kidnapping and murder of Joyce Tharp. Krajcir told police he abducted Tharp from her Paducah home and drove her to Carbondale, Ill., where he killed her in his apartment before returning to Paducah and dumping her body behind a church.

Police in Marion, Ill., have also singled out Krajcir as a person of interest in the 1978 killing of Virginia Lee Witte, 51, of Marion.