Samuel Little, who claims to be the most prolific serial killer in American history, has admitted killing a woman 25 years ago in Pine Bluff, Arkansas, a Pine Bluff official tells CNN.
Terry Hopson said he investigated the death of 26-year-old Jolanda Jones in 1994 for the city police. He told CNN at the time it looked like an “unexplained death.”
Hopson, who is now a deputy police chief with Pine Bluff, said he spoke to Texas officials over the phone about Little’s confession to Jones’ murder. He said he remembered the case clearly, and that police “fowarded the charge” to the county prosecutor’s office.
Little, 79, claims he killed at least 90 people from 1970 to 2005, a Texas prosecutor said.
Little is serving three life sentences on California convictions and is cooperating with authorities from different states behind bars. Detectives have linked him to 60 deaths, Ector County, Texas, District Attorney Bobby Blanda told CNN last June.
Jefferson County prosecutor Kyle Hunter has asked the state’s crime lab to look again at Jones’ autopsy report to try and confirm Little’s story, according to the Pine Bluff Commerical.
CNN has reached out to Hunter’s office, as well as the Arkansas State Crime Laboratory.
If Little’s claims prove true, he would have killed more people than Gary Leon Ridgway, the Green River Killer, who pleaded guilty in 49 murder cases and reportedly confessed to killing 71 people.
CNN has filed a public records request with the Texas Rangers for more information about Little’s confessions.
The death in Pine Bluff is just one of dozens authorities are investigating across the country.
One of those deaths, to which Little confessed in 2017, was that of Rosie Hill in Florida in 1982.
Angela Malone, who said Hill was her babysitter, told CNN affiliate WHBQ, “It’s ridiculous. He was able to get away with so many murders for so long.”
She said she mourns the death of her neighbor 40 years ago. “Whatever punishment he gets he deserved it because too many people have lost family members,” Malone said.
