Convicted Sex Offender Confesses to 1970s Murders

July 23, 2012— -- Oregon police are investigating the claims by a convicted sex "predator" that he committed three to four homicides in Portland between 1970 and 1993.

Jeffrey Paul Cutlip called police in Brownsville, Texas, Saturday to admit to the murders.

Homicide detectives from Portland arrested Cutlip, 63, in Brownsville on Sunday for his involvement in a 1975 and a 1977 homicide in Portland. Police will not release information about the victims or the homicides until the victims' families have been notified and Cutlip is fully investigated.

"The next step is seeing what he says and seeing what they [detectives] can come up with," Officer Billy Killebrew of the Brownsville Police department told ABCNews.com.

Records show Cutlip has previous convictions of first-degree sodomy and first-degree burglary from December 1982, and he is listed as a "predator" on Oregon's sex offender databae. He was arrested in Brownsville in April for failure to register as a sex offender, Killebrew said. Oregon Department of Corrections records show Cutlip targeted women strangers "using threats and weapons to gain compliance."

"He said he had been involved in three or four murders between 1970 and 1993," Killebrew said. It is unclear why Cutlip was only arrested for involvement with two murders.

Portland police flew two detectives to Brownsville Sunday to question Cutlip. He is currently in the Cameron County Jail awaiting extradition to Portland. Extradition could take weeks if he fights it, according to Portland police.

Cutlip has been in Brownsville for almost a year, Killebrew said.