Convicted killer, 78, may be tied to more than 90 cold case homicides, police say

Samuel Little may be linked to more than 90 cold case homicides across the country, police said. (Wise County Sheriff's Office)

A 78-year-old man serving a life sentence for killing three women may be tied to more than 90 unsolved homicides dating back to the 1970s, police said.

Authorities extradited Samuel Little from California to Texas in July after charging him in the 1994 murder of Denise Christie Brothers in Ector County, Dallas Morning News reported. Little was already serving a life sentence in California after he was convicted of killing three women.

On Tuesday, police said Little gave authorities details to dozens of homicides committed between 1970 and 2005. Officials from more than a dozen states, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the U.S. Justice Department interviewed Little while he was in the Wise County jail.

"Little has provided details of more than 90 murders committed in multiple states," the Wise County Sheriff's Office said in a statement.

Along with Texas and California, Little may have also killed people in Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi, Louisiana, Illinois, Ohio, California, Indiana, Arizona, New Mexico and South Carolina, authorities said.

"That's a scary number [90]. That's more than the BTK killer and the Green River killer," Wise County Chief Deputy Craig Johnson told WFAA. "...Closure is a big deal for those families. Tragedy is a big deal for those families. Anything we can do to help them out, we're more than happy to."

The details Little provided to authorities have not been released, officials said.

Little was sentenced in 2014 of killing three women — Carol Alford, 41, Audrey Nelson, 35, and Apodaca, 46 — in Los Angeles in the 1980s after DNA linked him to the murders in 2012, the Los Angeles Times reported. He was living in Kentucky at the time of his arrest.

Prosecutors previously dubbed Little a serial killer and said police were already concerned he may have committed more killings across the country. Police said he had committed crimes in at least 24 states but never served a lengthy sentence.