SAVANNAH, Ga. (AP) - The man the FBI calls the deadliest serial killer in U.S. history has been indicted in Georgia in the slaying of a woman whose body was found on a pile of construction debris more than three decades ago.
A grand jury in Savannah returned an indictment Wednesday bringing a new murder charge against 79-year-old Samuel Little. He has confessed to more than 90 killings from Florida to California, prompting detectives with cold cases from across the U.S. to seek interviews with Little at the Texas prison where he’s already serving multiple life sentences.
Little has said he killed two women in Savannah decades ago. A police detective sifting through stacks of old incident reports managed to link Little to the unsolved killing of Frances Campbell, Chatham County District Attorney Meg Heap said.
Campbell had been missing for a year when her body was discovered in 1985 on a pile of debris from the construction of an interstate highway, Heap said. Little recognized Campbell from a photograph sent by the police detective.
Heap said Little agreed to speak with the detective on the condition that prosecutors would not seek the death penalty.
“I figured, in the end, we needed to know who the victim was, and the family needed to know,” Heap told news outlets.
Campbell’s sister, Diane Williams, told reporters at the district attorney’s office that she was pregnant around the time Campbell was killed. Williams named her daughter, now a grown woman, after her sister.
“It’s bittersweet,” Williams said. “It was the not-knowing, and now that we know, it makes a big difference. I wish my parents were alive to see it.”
It’s unclear if Little will ever stand trial in Savannah. The FBI says authorities have verified more than 50 of his confessions. Some of those have led to charges in other states. Meanwhile, an attorney for Little has said he’s in poor health.
Heap said Savannah police are still trying to confirm a second slaying Little says he committed there in 1974. He referred to the victim as a woman named “Kat,” but police haven’t linked the confession to a victim.
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