'He is evil': Serial killer indicted for murders of two women in Cincinnati-area

CINCINNATI — The man the FBI called the country's most prolific serial killer has admitted to two murders here in Cincinnati from decades ago.

Samuel Little was indicted for both of those killings Friday.

The one victim whose identity is known lived along the 1600 block of Walnut Street at the time she went missing.

Her family knew she had been strangled. But until now, they did not know by whom.

Authorities say Little confessed about 10 days ago.

The killings are two of his possible 93 nationwide.

They said he strangled Annie Lee Stewart, also known as Anna Stewart, here in the city Oct. 11, 1981.

He then drove to Grove City to dump her body in some woods because it was raining in Cincinnati at the time.

Investigators have not identified the second local victim.

But, they hope his drawings of her and their own sketch based on his description of her might jog someone's memory.

"We've got interns down at the coroner's office going through files trying to see if they can locate potential victims of him that match the description," stated Prosecutor Joe Deters.

Little's killing spree stretched from California to Ohio to the East Coast to Florida.

The time range is believed to be from around 1970 to 2005.

He was arrested in 2012 at a homeless shelter in Louisville, tied to various killings and convicted two years later. About a year ago, he started confessing to scores of other murders.

Authorities said Little would crisscross the country, staying true to a certain method of killing.

Chief Assistant Prosecutor Mark Piepmeier explained it this way.

"To him, strangulation was sex, and he said, 'How could you tell a man not to have intercourse with a woman? Well, that's like telling me not to strangle people.'"

Piepmeier and Detective Kelly Best interviewed Little in a California cell, describing him as talkative, friendly and forthcoming about his urge for a certain type of neck and victims who wouldn't be missed, as he put it.

"Street people, prostitutes, figuring it's not a, a young mom with kids. It's not somebody that's leaving work. It's somebody that's walking the streets 'cause he figured he could do it, he could dump 'em and no one would miss 'em for days. I mean, he knew what he was doing, and he was very good at it," said Piepmeier.

According to investigators, Little did not rape his victims.

He would knock them out with a punch, then choke them to death.

Best described how Little would commit his crime, dump the body and get on the highway right away.

Investigators don't know much about the unidentified woman but believe her body may have been placed on a hillside near a Kool cigarette billboard.

Little described her as a slender female with very dark skin and very short hair wearing glasses and a wig.

He recalled a street entrance to her apartment that opened to a staircase to a second floor and that she lived with a "heavy female Hispanic."

On one of the sketches he did of her, Little wrote, "1984 or '74."

Authorities said the murder likely took place sometime between 1980 and 1999.

Little is in ill health at the California prison where he is serving time.

It's expected he'll plead guilty to both Cincinnati murders via Skype in early August.

Deters has informed the family of Annie Stewart, who was a 33-year-old mother of three at the time of her killing.

"You know the old saying, 'Only the good die young'?" Deters asked with special emphasis at the news conference announcing Little's indictments. "This piece of garbage is 79 today."

Source: https://www.wlwt.com/article/killer-indicted-for-murders-of-two-women-in-cincinnati-area/27805063