A convicted serial killer who has confessed to murdering more than 90 people in the 1970s and 1980s across the country has now admitted to killing a female here in Prince George’s County back in 1972. The victim in that case is still unidentified. For 46 years, the killer was unknown – until now.
In early October of 2018, a Texas Ranger contacted law enforcement in Washington DC indicating convicted serial killer, Samuel Little, murdered someone in the Washington region in the early 1970s. That information prompted Prince George’s County Police Cold Case Unit detectives to travel to Texas in November where they interviewed Little. The now 78 year old is serving multiple life sentences there for murders in California and Texas. During the interview, Little told our investigators specific and previously unreported details about an unsolved murder in Laurel that likely took place in the summer of 1972. In December of that year, a hunter found the skeletal remains of the victim in a then wooded area off of Route 197 and the Baltimore-Washington Parkway.
After the murder, a medical examiner determined the victim is a Caucasian female, approximately 5’2”–5’6”, with dirty blonde or reddish hair. She was approximately 19 years old at the time of her death. Efforts to identify her at the time of the discovery were unsuccessful.
Samuel Little provided PGPD detectives key pieces of information that is narrowing the search for her identity. According to Little, he picked up the victim at a bus station on New York Avenue in the District of Columbia. Little says the victim indicated she was recently divorced and from the Massachusetts area. She may also have been a mother. Cold Case Unit detectives are now working with multiple agencies, including the FBI, Massachusetts State Police and the Metropolitan Police Department to try to determine her identity.
Anyone with information that could help investigators is urged to please call 301-772-4925. Callers wishing to remain anonymous may call Crime Solvers at 1-866-411-TIPS (8477), or go online at www.pgcrimesolvers.com, or use the “P3 Tips” mobile app (search “P3 Tips” in the Apple Store or Google Play to download the app onto your mobile device.)
