The country’s most prolific serial killer, who died at 80 in prison in December 2020, has been linked to the death of a 20-year-old woman killed in Georgia in 1977.
Samuel Little, a Middle Georgia native, confessed to killing 93 women, including several in Georgia. On Thursday, the Bibb County Sheriff’s Office confirmed that Little was also responsible for the death of “Macon Jane Doe,” now identified as Yvonne Pless.
Captain Shermaine Jones of the Bibb sheriff’s office and Amy Hutsell with the Criminal Justice Coordinating Council began working on the case in 2018 when Little confessed to killing two Macon women. In 2019, Jones and Hutsell traveled to Wise County, Texas, where Little was being held, to confirm that his confessions matched the unsolved Macon cold cases.
Last year, through the help of Texas-based company Othram, Jones and Hustell found a relative of Pless who connected them with family members.
Pless was Little’s first victim in 1977, and his second, Fredonia Smith, was murdered in Washington Park in 1982.
“Thanks to the dedication of Captain Shermaine Jones and Director Amy Hutsell, the family members of Yvonne Pless and Fredonia Smith now have closure concerning their missing or victimized loved one,” Bibb Sheriff David Davis said in a statement. “I believe with continued dedication, teamwork, and advancement in technology, we can bring that same closure to other awaiting families.”
While already serving time for killing three women in California, Little began confessing to the deaths of dozens of other women. In October 2019, the FBI labeled Little the most prolific serial killer in U.S. history. He confessed to more than 90 murders, including several in Georgia, and provided drawings of many of his victims.
“For many years, Samuel Little believed he would not be caught because he thought no one was accounting for his victims,” FBI crime analyst Christie Palazzolo said in 2019.
Little claimed he strangled all of his victims between 1970 and 2005. Included among his confessed killings are women in Atlanta, Savannah, and Bibb and Dade counties.
He claims he killed the three women in Atlanta between 1981 and 1984, according to the FBI. Though Little couldn’t provide names, he said he killed a woman between the ages of 35 and 40 in 1981, a 26-year-old in 1983 or 1984, and then a woman who may have been a college student in 1984. She was between the ages of 23 and 25.
Despite the claims, Atlanta police have said investigators have not connected any cold cases to Little.
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