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72-Year-Old Man Accused of Serial Killings in 1980s

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Samuel Little (Photo courtesy LAPD)
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A man suspected of killing three women in Los Angeles in the 1980s has been charged with multiple counts of murder.72-year-old Samuel Little was arrested in Kentucky in September on unrelated narcotics charges from Los Angeles and is already serving prison time on those charges. He has not yet been arraigned for the new murder charges, according to the Los Angeles Police Department.

Little is accused of killing Carol Alford, 41, in 1987; Audrey Nelson, 35, in 1989; and Guadalupe Apadaca, 46, in 1989. The women's bodies were all found discarded in public locales; Alford's body was found in an alley, Nelson's in a trash bin on a city street, and Apadaca's inside a commercial garage, elaborates City News Service.

LAPD detectives "allege that Samuel Little preyed on women in downtown and Central L.A., meeting some at bars before strangling them and dumping their bodies," reports L.A. Now.

The suspect's rap sheet extends over several years and several states, and has used aliases. Authorities say Little has lived a "life of crime," and was even once acquitted of murder charges in Florida at one point. Little was linked to the three murders in L.A. through DNA evidence examined by cold case detectives with the LAPD.

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Because the three counts of murder include the special circumstance allegation of multiple murders, Little is potentially eligible for the death penalty, however prosecutors have not yet decided if they will seek that punishment.

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