Do you know her? Coast investigators search for victim of serial killer Samuel Little
The Harrison County Sheriff’s Office on Monday released a sketch of a woman convicted serial killer Samuel Little has confessed to killing, though the woman’s body has never been found.
Little told officials he picked up the woman in Gulfport, killed and dumped her body in a grassy area in Coastal Mississippi.
The woman was black, in her 20s, about 130 pound and between 5-foot to 5-foot-5 inches tall and was last seen in a bar in Gulfport.
Her body was disposed of in a grassy area somewhere in Gulfport, the Sheriff’s Office said in a release.
She may have been a native of Jackson who was living in Gulfport at the time of her death.
Little has confessed to five killings in Coastal Mississippi.
Harrison County cold case investigators have interviewed Little since he started confessing to his crimes last year.
So far, he’s confessed to more than 90 murders in 19 states, including the strangulation deaths of Alice Denise “Tina” Taylor, 27, and Tracy Lynn Johnson, 19, both of Gulfport; Julia Critchfield, 36, of Harrison County; and Malina “Mindy” LaPree, 24, of Pascagoula.
Little, according to investigators, kept up with news reports on the woman he had killed.
Little said he never saw any coverage of the killing of some of his victims, including the one Harrison County authorities are hoping to identify and find her remains.
Little believes the woman’s body was never found.
Authorities have said Little remembers vivid details about his crimes because of what cold case investigators described as his sadistic sexual gratification he still receives from the memories of his killings.
Little agreed to provide the sketches so authorities could possibly identify the victim.
The woman is believed to have been killed sometime between 1977 — when Little first came to Mississippi to sell stolen goods — and Sept. 16, 1982, when Little attacked and strangled to death LaPree in Pasagoula.
Because he was boxer, authorities say Little had a habit of sucker-punching the women to keep them at bay once he got them in the car. His primary targets were prostitutes and drug addicts at a time when human-trafficking was becoming more and more prevalent nationwide.
Little began confessing to his crimes after he was sentenced to two life terms without parole for the killings of three Los Angeles women in the last few years.
He agreed to provide the confessions after authorities agreed to take the death penalty off the the table for him.
Little first went to trial for a killing in Florida, but was acquitted.
When he was on trial in California in 2014, testimony from Pascagoula Police Lt. Darren Versiga and two women who survived Little’s attacks from Pascagoula, provided testimony that ultimately led to Little’s conviction.
To report information on the cold case killings in Harrison County, call 896-0678 or email coldcases@harrisoncountysheriff.com or reached to Mississippi Coast Crime Stoppers at 877-787-5898.
This story was originally published December 16, 2019 at 2:49 PM.
