MEMPHIS, Tenn. — He’s confessed to killing 90 women over three decades, and at least two of them may have ties to Memphis.
Crime scene photos show the grim day police found a body on a rural roadside in Marion County, Florida, not far from Ocala.
It was August 16, 1982.
A few days after Minnie Hill spoke to her daughter, Rosie Hill.
“She let me know that she was off into something, and the only way to get out of it was to come home. I said, ‘What are you talking about?’ She said, ‘I would explain it to you when I get home,'” said Hill. “She told me she loved me. I told her I love her too, and we will be glad to see you. That was it.”
That was the last time Minnie spoke to her 20-year-old daughter.
“The way they identified it was her, is because when she had her baby she had problems. They had x-rayed her pelvis. That`s how they identified her it was her,” said Hill.
Rosie Hill had a two-year-old daughter and had been living in Florida for three years. She grew up in Memphis and went to Booker T. Washington High School.
“We went down there and nobody knew anything. Much of Rosie’s body was decayed,” she said. “I’m thinking in my mind maybe it wasn’t her. She couldn’t deteriorate that quick. For two years, I waited for a call from her or even for her to come home.”
Those two years turned into more than three decades with no answers.
“It really tears the family up. I raised her child.,” she said.
Deputies told WREG they learned Rosie Hill left a bar with a stranger, who for years believed was Samuel Little.
They tried questioning him, but Little denied any involvement.
“We met with a bunch of people around the state of Florida who had the idea this Samuel little was their suspect in these cases,” said Lauren Lettelier, the public information officer for the Marion County Sheriff’s Office.
The 78-year-old is now in Texas after he was indicted for killing a woman there.
He was transferred from a California jail where he has been serving three life sentences for the murders of three women.
In October, Marion County detectives went to Texas to ask him about Rosie ill again.
“We had a two-hour interview time. He talked about Rosie Hill in-depth. For a 78-year-old, he was very sharp with certain details,” said Lettelier.
Little reportedly confessed to strangling Rosie in the back seat of his car, dumping her body and then skipping town.
He told deputies he remembers Rosie because she put up a fight, but the part of the conversation that bothers Minnie the most was why he did it.
“He said the lord put him here to do that. The lord told him to kill all those people,” said Hill.
Authorities say Little has confessed to killing 90 women across the country between 1970 and 2005.
So far, they’ve only verified thirty cases he might be connected to.
They say many of his victims were troubled, some prostitutes or drug addicts, and many he met at bars or clubs.
“I would just tell him that I forgive him. The rest of it is between him and the good lord,” said Hill.
Memphis Police are also looking into Little.
Sources tell us he admitted to strangling a woman to death in Memphis and dumped her body into the Mississippi River on the Arkansas side.
At this point, officers haven`t been able to identify the victim.
“May the lord have mercy on his soul,” said Hill as she shook her head.
Rosie Hill’s daughter is now 38 years old and has children of her own.
They all live in Memphis with Hill.
“I’m just glad they brought us some closure,’ said Hill.
Marion County deputies say since Little is already serving three life sentences and is 78-years-old, he will not be charged for Rosie Hill’s murder.
If his confessions turn out to be true, he will be one of the most prolific serial killers in U.S. history.
