COLORADO SPRINGS, COLO. ? Robert Charles Browne’s claims that he killed 49 people have generated a flood of more than 100 anguished calls from families and friends of people missing around the nation, some for years.

“They want to know if their family member or friend could have been one of his victims,” El Paso County Sheriff’s Office spokesman Lt. Clif Northam said Saturday, adding that authorities had stopped keeping track of the number of calls. Investigators looking into unsolved cases also were calling.

The calls poured in after Colorado authorities announced Thursday that Browne, 53, claimed to have committed scores of killings between 1970 and his arrest in 1995. He has pleaded guilty to two slayings and is serving a life sentence for murdering a Colorado girl in 1991.

Investigators so far have been able to corroborate Browne’s claims in six slayings – three in Louisiana, two in Texas and one in Arkansas. Investigators have been unable to confirm some cases and lack enough details to check out others.