An inside look into the Samuel Little investigation

Fort Myers Police Department said publicity is generating tips about who a woman might be among the nearly 100 victims a serial killer claims he murdered.

FMPD Detective Maalisa Langton said there is at least one credible tip Wednesday about who a female victim is, who serial killer Samuel Little confessed to killing in Fort Myers in 1984.

“We’ve actually received a call just yesterday from someone that grew up in the neighborhood,” Langton said. “Our cold case investigators located the victim’s mother.”

Langton is leading the investigation, and she’s talking with Little. Her mission is to verify that the word of a serial killer is true — that Little killed a woman in Fort Myers 35 years ago.

Little told the detective the murder of a woman in our area was one of the easier ones. Little claims the woman got into his car near a liquor store on Immokalee Road or maybe Immokalee Street.

“He said, ‘Where do you want to go?’ Langton recalled his conversation with Little. “And she said, ‘Just drive, anywhere.’ Something to that effect. And it was at that point that he said, ‘She’s gonna die.’”

Little chose his victims carefully, women who live on fringes — prostitutes, drug dealers and addicts.

“He didn’t go into specifics about that,” Langton said. “But he did allude to the fact that she was the same kind of person.”

Little claims to have murdered 93 women from Florida to California, drawing sketches of his victims he says he strangled to death more than three decades ago. Langton said the most important thing for Little now is credit for his killings. The FBI has verified 50 of the 93 killings Little admits to.

Anyone with information can call Fort Myers Police Department  at 239-321-7700 or Southwest Florida Crime Stoppers at 1-800-780-8477.

The investigation is ongoing, and questions still remain in for Detective Langton.

“He can remember the car he drove, the street he was on, 40 years later. But he doesn’t remember any of these women’s names?” Langton said. “Those details may not have been important to him, to remember by choice.”