Crime

Serial Killer Who Claims 90 Murders Draws Portraits of Victims as FBI Seeks Help Identifying Them

Samuel Little's drawings have helped identify two women and helped provide breaks in three cold cases, according to the FBI

By Karen Mizoguchi

Published on February 13, 2019 03:58 PM

A serial killer who claims to have murdered more than 90 people over three decades has hand-drawn portraits of 16 people he says are victims, which were released by the FBI in the hopes of solving decades-long cold cases.

Confessed serial killer Samuel Little told authorities his drawings are the faces of the multiple women he killed during his crime sprees that occurred all across the country from 1970 to 2005. He is currently serving three life sentences in the strangulation deaths of three women in California.

FBI spokesperson Shayne Buchwald told CNN that each drawing, from memory, is marked with a possible city and year in which the murder is believed to have happened.

“We are hoping that someone — family member, former neighbor, friend — might recognize the victim and provide that crucial clue in helping authorities make an identification,” Buchwald said.

“We want to give these women their names back and their family some long-awaited answers. It’s the least we can do,” Buchwald added.

Authorities noted that Little’s drawings have helped identify two women and helped provide breaks in three cold cases.

Little’s multiple slayings occurred in Texas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi, Louisiana, Illinois, Ohio, California, Indiana, Arizona, New Mexico and South Carolina.

Little’s first confession was about the 1994 murder of Denise Christie Brothers in Odessa, Texas.

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samuel-little — Wise County Sheriff's Office

He was arrested at a Kentucky homeless shelter in September 2012 and extradited to California, where he was wanted on a narcotics charge.

Then in 2014, Little was sentenced to three consecutive terms of life in prison without parole for the beating and strangulation murders of Carol Alford, 41, Audrey Nelson, 35, and 46-year-old Guadalupe Apodaca. All three victims were dumped in back alleys in South Los Angeles between 1987 and 1989.

Though several women testified against him, Little asserted his innocence throughout his trial.

But in November 2018, Ector County, Texas, District Attorney Bobby Bland told PEOPLE that Little “confessed to over 90 murders and they have been able to match over 30 [of his confessions to murders].”

According to the FBI, Little, who was a one-time competitive boxer, chose to kill marginalized and vulnerable women who were often involved in prostitution and addicted to drugs.

Little is in poor health and will likely stay in prison in Texas until his death, the FBI states.