Los Angeles Police Announce Samuel Little, 72, Is Charged With Murdering Three Women in 1987 and 1989
DNA linked Little to the cold cases after his September 2012 arrest in Kentucky. Detectives asked other agencies with similar killings to come forward.
Published
Three women were found dead just south of downtown Los Angeles in 1987 and 1989. On January 7, 2013, police announced that Samuel Little, 72, had been charged with murdering all three.
Little had been arrested at a Kentucky homeless shelter in September 2012 on an unrelated warrant and extradited to California, and the Los Angeles County District Attorney's office charged him that Monday with three counts of murder with special circumstances for multiple murder. The victims were Carol Alford, 41, found dead July 13, 1987; Audrey Nelson, 35, found August 14, 1989; and Guadalupe Apodaca, 46, found September 2, 1989, all in the Central Avenue and Alameda Street corridor. Los Angeles police detectives Mitzi Roberts and Rick Jackson said DNA evidence linked Little to the killings, and police alleged that he met women while cruising in his car or in bars. "It was theft by day and murderer by night," Jackson said.
Little, who also used the name Samuel McDowell, had a criminal record dating back to the 1950s. In the early 1980s he was accused of killings in the Gainesville, Florida, and Pascagoula, Mississippi, areas; a Florida jury acquitted him in the 1982 death of Patricia Ann Mount, and he was never tried in the Mississippi cases. He later served more than two years in a California prison for assaulting two women in San Diego. Police said they were working with other jurisdictions to learn whether he was responsible for more killings. Little pleaded not guilty, and in 2014 he was convicted and sentenced to three consecutive life terms without parole.
NewsOne, citing ABC News, said all three Los Angeles killings happened in 1989, while the Los Angeles Times reported that Carol Alford was found dead in 1987.
Sources
- ViCAP Links Murders to Prolific Serial Killer, Federal Bureau of Investigation
- LAPD Arrests Man in 1980s Serial Killings, Officer.com (Los Angeles Times)
- Samuel Little, Serial Killer: Homeless Man Arrested, Suspected In Cold Case Murders, Black America Web (NewsOne)
Related News
- September 25, 2014: Samuel Little Gets Three Life Terms for Strangling Three Women in South Los Angeles
- November 13, 2018: Samuel Little May Be Linked to More Than 90 Murders, Texas Authorities Say
- August 23, 2019: Samuel Little Pleads Guilty to Four Ohio Murders
- October 6, 2019: FBI Confirms Samuel Little as the Most Prolific Serial Killer in U.S. History
- December 30, 2020: Samuel Little, Who Confessed to 93 Killings, Dies in California Custody at 80