More Ohio Indictments For Serial Killer Samuel Little

Hamilton County's prosecutor is working with the coroner's office to identify the body of a Jane Doe in a case potentially connected to convicted serial killer Samuel Little.

Hamilton and Franklin counties are indicting 79-year-old Samuel Little for the murder of two former Cincinnati residents. Little is currently in a California state prison serving three life sentences for killing three women there. He confessed to prosecutors last week that he strangled women that "wouldn't be missed if they went missing" and claims to have murdered 93 women over 35 years.

Last week in Cuyahoga County, a grand jury indicted Little for two murders authorities could tie to him, 21-year-old Mary Jo Peyton in 1984 and 32-year-old Rose Evans in 1991. A third Northeast Ohio victim Little confessed to killing has not been found or identified, but an investigation is ongoing, the Cuyahoga County Prosecutor’s Office says.

Now, at the other end of the state, Little is charged with one count of murder in the death of Annie Lee Stewart on October 11, 1981. Stewart was killed in Hamilton County but her body was found in a wooded area behind a small apartment complex in Grove City in Franklin County.

"Because it was raining, he didn’t want to dump the body here [in Cincinnati]," Franklin County Prosecutor Ron O'Brien says. "He put it in the trunk, drove up to the Columbus area and exited 71 North."

If Little is convicted in this case, he would serve 15 years to life. Prosecutors are unable to pursue the death penalty because Ohio didn’t have it at the time of Stewart's murder.

Meanwhile, interns from Hamilton County are going through files at the coroner to identify the second body. According to prosecutors, Jane Doe's body was found within a 20-minute drive of the Over-the-Rhine neighborhood in Cincinnati. Little describes the victim as a slender, dark-skinned black woman with short hair and glasses.  

"He strangled them, that was the way he enjoyed his pleasure and he specifically looked for girls with a specific neck type," Hamilton County Prosecutor Joseph Deters says.

According to prosecutors, Jane Doe lived in Over-the-Rhine with a street entrance to her apartment, which opened to a staircase to the second floor. She lived with a heavy-set Hispanic woman.

"Cold case investigations like this are some of the hardest investigations our detectives undertake," Cincinnati Police Chief Eliot K. Isaac says. "But we never give up on attempting to find those that are responsible."

The alleged killer will be video-conferenced next August for his plea deal. 

"This is the fifth serial killer I have dealt personally with since I've been prosecutor," Deters says. "They all have proclivities people don’t understand but the reality is they have a compulsion to kill people. They are not insane. They are evil."

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