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#Post#: 9366--------------------------------------------------
Re: JACKSON MISSISSIPPI JANE DOE: BF, 35-45, found in Moss
Point, MS - 27 December 1977
DIR By: Akoya
Date: October 19, 2020, 1:48 pm
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HTML http://www.wlox.com/2019/01/11/serial-killers-confession-leads-investigator-fifth-possible-victim-coast/
Serial killer’s confession leads investigator to fifth possible
victim on the Coast
PASCAGOULA, MS (WLOX) - He told investigators that she was
pretty, in her mid 30s, and had rough hands from her job as pipe
fitter at Ingalls Shipbuilding. But, that’s all Samuel Little
remembers of the woman he claims to have murdered in Pascagoula
back in the late 70′s or early 80′s.
Now a prolific serial killer, Samuel Little has admitted to
killing more than 90 people nationwide-- five of them here on
the Coast. Four of his coast victims have been identified; Tracy
Lynn Johnson, Alice Taylor, Julia Critchfield, and Melinda
Lapree. However, one remains nameless.
In December 1977, skeletal remains were found by two rabbit
hunters off the side of the road just north of Pascagoula. A
forensic anthropologist determined the body had been there since
August or September of 1977.
This composite shows what the victim may have looked like.
Police have still not been able to identify her.
Darren Versiga, a lieutenant with the Pascagoula Police
Department, made the connection with Little because of a police
report made during one of his arrests.
“I had a file on him that said 8-11-77 (Aug. 11, 1977) and when
I found her remains, immediately I said ‘Okay, let me go back
and look at that picture.' He was here 8-11-77; she was found 12
(December) of 77, could be him," Versiga said.
Versiga showed Little photos of a forensic sculpture molded from
the victim’s skull and adorned with a wig.
“When he first starts looking, he’s not sure, he doesn’t like
this picture, he doesn’t like that, but when he gets to that
one-- his statement to me - he goes, “How many bodies y’all
found out there? If y’all ain’t found one this has gotta be
her,” Versiga recalled.
There are some distinct details about the victim that Little
can’t recall, but Versiga still believes there are enough
similarities between the victim Little describes and the victim
found here in 1977 for it to be a match.
#Post#: 9367--------------------------------------------------
Re: JACKSON MISSISSIPPI JANE DOE: BF, 35-45, found in Moss
Point, MS - 27 December 1977
DIR By: Akoya
Date: October 19, 2020, 1:49 pm
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[img]
HTML https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/apg-wi.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/d/f1/df13f17a-f2a0-11e8-b29f-33c7dc9b52ee/5bfddb2459ca0.image.jpg?resize=750%2C422[/img]
HTML https://www.fbi.gov/news/stories/vicap-links-murders-to-prolific-serial-killer-112718
Samuel Little has confessed to 90 murders. The FBI has created a
map of all his confessions. The killings span from all across
the United States from 1970 to 2005. The FBI been able to
confirm 34 of his confessed killings.
Little preyed upon women who were sex workers, drug addicts and
women down on their luck.
#Post#: 9368--------------------------------------------------
Re: JACKSON MISSISSIPPI JANE DOE: BF, 35-45, found in Moss
Point, MS - 27 December 1977
DIR By: Akoya
Date: October 19, 2020, 1:51 pm
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HTML https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/2019/01/09/investigator-believes-hes-found-body-woman-sam-little-killed-serial-killer/2482507002/?fbclid=IwAR0KKZMh-4F0t_EVWW8Q0XwVk5Tnm8cuWozKHzQZhdoHpNMtqPOsMGXFKAY
He may have found the body of a serial killer's victim. Now he
needs to find her name.
The serial killer, now imprisoned and in his late 70s, can't
remember her name but recalls her figure and death with ease.
She lived in Gulfport but was originally from the Jackson area,
the killer said.
She was attractive. She was in her early 30s, weighed about 130
pounds and had light skin and an ample bottom. Her hands were
rough from her job as a pipe fitter at Ingalls Shipbuilding in
Pascagoula.
A forensic sculpture shows what an unidentified woman may have
looked like when she was alive. Her skeletal remains were found
north of Pascagoula in 1977. Lt. Darren Versiga with the
Pascagoula Police Department believes she was killed by serial
killer Samuel Little. When shown this photo, Little confirmed it
looked like his victim.
A forensic sculpture shows what an unidentified woman may have
looked like when she was alive. Her skeletal remains were found
north of Pascagoula in 1977. Lt. Darren Versiga with the
Pascagoula Police Department believes she was killed by serial
killer Samuel Little.
HTML https://i.imgur.com/5zGSFE3l.jpg
When shown this photo, Little confirmed it looked like his
victim.
From the moment he met her, he was planning to kill. That's what
Samuel Little, who has been in prison since 2014 for murdering
three women in California, told investigators.
A few months ago, he began confessing to more killings,
including several in Mississippi. At first, investigators had
trouble matching Little's description of the young woman from
the Jackson area he met in Gulfport to a name — or a body.
Now, Lt. Darren Versiga with the Pascagoula Police Department
thinks he has probably found her remains, which had sat nearly
forgotten for decades in the offices of a late forensic
anthropologist whose help law enforcement sought in identifying
the victim.
A mugshot of Samuel Little taken in 1977 is next to a 2013 photo
where Los Angeles Police Detective Rick Jackson marks a map with
dots indicating where Little had police contacts. He’s suspected
in as many as 90 killings of women across the country.
A mugshot of Samuel Little taken in 1977 is next to a 2013 photo
where Los Angeles Police Detective Rick Jackson marks a map with
dots indicating where Little had police contacts. He’s suspected
in as many as 90 killings of women across the country.
Versiga, who specializes in solving cold cases, is trying to
track down her identity and bring a sense of closure to her
family, who may still be looking for her after all these years.
"There is no greater feeling than bringing them home," he said.
"That's why I do it."
She was a 'great woman,' her killer said
For things like distance and time, Little's memory can be
faulty. However, when it comes to the graphic details of his
crimes, he has a "photographic memory," Versiga said.
Little and the victim met at a bar in Gulfport sometime before
1982, Versiga said. After talking for a while, they went across
the street to the boarding house where she was staying. There,
Little had an accident in the bathroom. He defecated outside of
the toilet bowl. She came in and cleaned up after him.
Little told Versiga that she was a great woman and would have
made a good wife.
Another man at the boarding house — possibly someone the victim
had a prior relationship with — didn't like the fact that Little
was over.
So, that same night, Little and the woman went to Pascagoula. He
bought her one last meal at a bar in Carver Village. Then he
drove her a ways away and strangled her. He dumped the body in
the the woods, off a dirt road.
A possible match is identified
On Dec. 27, 1977, hunters stumbled upon the skeletal remains of
a woman near a wooded area, off the side of the road, north of
Pascagoula, Versiga said.
Serial killer Sam Little admitted to killing a Jackson woman in
Pascagoula decades ago and dumping her body in a washout in an
overgrown area off Greenwich Road in Moss Point. Little produced
a photo of the victim, center, and said that a police composite
sketch (right) was the woman he killed.
Serial killer Sam Little admitted to killing a Jackson woman in
Pascagoula decades ago and dumping her body in a washout in an
overgrown area off Greenwich Road in Moss Point. Little produced
a photo of the victim, center, and said that a police composite
sketch (right) was the woman he killed.
Back then, forensic anthropologist Clyde Snow was asked to take
a look at the body. He estimated that the body had been there
since August or September of 1977.
Snow examined the skeleton and noted that she had an area in her
left jaw that may have caused her pain and she may have had a
limp in her left leg, possibly from an old injury. Snow also
said it appears the victim had at least one child, possibly
more. The woman would have been 5 feet, 6 inches to 5 feet, 8
inches tall, he said, and 35 to 45 years old.
A couple of local newspapers reported the discovery of the body,
but investigators were unable to make an identification.
Versiga didn't locate the case file until 2012. He found out
that Snow kept the skeletal remains at his office in Oklahoma
after examining them. Versiga asked Snow's office to send him
photos of the body. In 2017, the Mississippi State Crime Lab
received possession of the remains.
Even before Little began confessing to more killings, Versiga
suspected it might have been the work of the serial killer.
Police records show Little was in the area in August 1977, when
he was arrested for stolen clothes out of his trunk, Versiga
said.
"We're comfortable now we have found (the victim Little
described)," Versiga said.
Versiga said the timeline matches. The build of the body appears
to be similar to the victim Little described. The location seems
about right.
Versiga showed Little photographs of a forensic sculpture,
molded from clay off the skull and adorned with a wig. These
types of sculptures, Versiga said, are "only suggestive,"
offering an interpretation of what the person could have looked
like when they were alive.
After seeing the first few photos, Little said it wasn't her.
Then he looked at another picture of the sculpture from an angle
with a different wig. "This looks just like her. This picture
right here," Versiga remembers Little saying.
One thing in particular leads Versiga to believe he's on the
right path. The anthropologist's notes said the hair on the body
that was found was "plaited," and said it was an indication she
probably regularly wore wigs.
During an interview, Little used the same word — "plaited" — to
describe his victim's hairstyle. He said he remembers that she
had a wig because it fell off when he strangled her.
There is one discrepancy. The skull found in 1977 has two
prominent gold incisors. The gold on her front tooth has a
distinctive triangle-shaped cutout, which may have had something
in it at one point, Versiga said.
Little didn't remember any gold teeth in the victim's mouth, and
believes it's something that would have stuck out. Despite the
teeth, Versiga feels fairly confident that the body matches
Little's confession, but it's not "100 percent."
"He could be off," he said. "We could be off." Pascagoula police
are open to looking at other cold cases, Versiga said, if this
body is not the one. He said he encourages anybody with
information about missing persons to reach out to Pascagoula
police.
"I want to make sure if they have somebody missing, they need to
be calling and we need to be looking into that as well," he
said.
'It's going to be a long process'
The next step in the investigation is looking for the location
where Little met his victim. The bar and boarding house are now
gone, Versiga said. He's going to try to find records from that
time period that might give clues as to where they used to
stand.
"Going back to '77, especially after Hurricane Katrina (wiped
everything out) is going to be hard," he said. "But we're going
to try."
Versiga will also try to find records, starting in 1977 and
going to 1983, of any black females from the Jackson area who
didn't show up to work one day and was terminated.
"It's going to be a long process," he said. Another investigator
with the Pascagoula Police Department, Joseph Bignell, said DNA
testing could play a big role in the investigation.
The plan is to get a DNA sample from the skeletal remains and
submit it to a database that will match it to potential
relatives, Bignell said. It's the same type of technology that
allowed law enforcement in California to identify the man
suspected of being the Golden State Killer last year.
Versiga plans to remain in contact with Little, who he is now
"pen pals" with. They bonded over the fact they're both former
fighters. At one point, Little sent him a letter with a playful
jab: "I'm a better fighter than you." He drew a smiley face.
Versiga replied with something like, "Well I bet I'm a better
artist than you." Versiga said he'll put on a friendly face with
Little as long as it helps him get the information he wants.
"He's not my buddy, he's not my pal. He is a killer. I've never
lost sight of that," he said.
Have a tip?
Versiga asks for anyone with tips to reach out to the Pascagoula
Police Department at 228-762-2211 or to email him at
dversiga@cityofpascagoula.com.
#Post#: 9369--------------------------------------------------
Re: JACKSON MISSISSIPPI JANE DOE: BF, 35-45, found in Moss
Point, MS - 27 December 1977
DIR By: Akoya
Date: October 19, 2020, 1:53 pm
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HTML http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/1247ufms.html
HTML http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/images/1247UFMS8_LARGE.jpg
Sketch of victim by suspect
Circumstances of Discovery
Three men rabbit hunting discovered the victim's skeletal
remains in the vicinity of I-10 and Highway 63 (now Highway 613)
before the I-10 road construction had been completed.
In 2018, convicted murderer Samuel Little confessed to murdering
a woman in the area sometime before 1982. He described his
victim as an attractive Black woman with a light complexion, who
was employed as a pipe fitter at Ingalls Shipbuilding in
Pascagoula. He claimed she lived in Gulfport but was originally
from Jackson.
He apparently met her at bar in Gulfport and shared a
conversation with her. The pair later went to a boarding house
the woman resided in. He described her as a "great person who
would have made a wonderful wife." He took the woman out to a
restaurant in Carver Village later that night. He eventually
strangled her and left the body in a wooded area off of a dirt
road.
The bar and boarding house described by Little have since been
torn down.
Little elaborated that the woman he killed wore a wig and her
natural hair was plaited underneath. Additional details he
shared with officials were consistant with this unidentified
person case, except for the fact that he was unable to remember
the gold caps on her teeth.
Little has confessed to over 90 murders.
#Post#: 9370--------------------------------------------------
Re: JACKSON MISSISSIPPI JANE DOE: BF, 35-45, found in Moss
Point, MS - 27 December 1977
DIR By: Akoya
Date: October 19, 2020, 1:54 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
HTML https://i.imgur.com/XUvNJSd.jpg
Forensic artist Carl Koppelman did a new facial reconstruction
of an unidentified woman who was found north of Pascagoula.
Investigators believe she may have been a victim of serial
killer Samuel Little. (Photo: Carl Koppelman)
Investigators think the body, which was discovered in 1977,
likely belongs to an unnamed Jackson-area native that convicted
serial Killer Samuel Little confessed to strangling.
#Post#: 9912--------------------------------------------------
Re: JACKSON MISSISSIPPI JANE DOE: BF, 35-45, found in Moss
Point, MS - 27 December 1977 *Clara Birdlong*
DIR By: Scorpio
Date: December 19, 2021, 7:00 pm
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Identified as Clara Birdlong.
HTML https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/authorities-id-woman-found-1977-possible-victim-most-prolific-serial-n1279910
After 44 years, authorities ID woman who was possible victim of
most prolific serial killer in U.S. history
Authorities on Tuesday identified skeletal remains found nearly
44 years ago at a Mississippi construction site as Clara
Birdlong, a woman they believe was a victim of the late Samuel
Little, the most prolific killer in U.S. history.
In December 1977, hunters found her remains near a highway in
Jackson County, the sheriff's department said. Birdlong, long
identified by investigators as "Escatawpa Jane Doe," was a short
Black woman with a distinctive front gold tooth who was
discovered about three to four months after she was killed,
according to the Jackson County Sheriff's Department.
Since she was discovered, more than four decades ago,
authorities said "several facial reconstructions and computer
composites were created in an effort to help identify her." A
breakthrough came after Mississippi authorities contracted with
a Texas DNA research facility, which traced Birdlong to a cousin
in Texas. That relative connected investigators to her
93-year-old grandmother.
Another cousin told investigators in January that Birdlong, of
Leflore County and born in 1933, went missing around the 1970s.
In August, a woman who remembered Birdlong told authorities the
victim "left Leflore County in the 70's with an African American
man who claimed to be passing through Mississippi on his way to
Florida."
"Clara was never seen or heard from again," the sheriff's
department said.
Little, who was serving multiple life sentences in prison before
he died in late December at age 80, confessed to killing 93
women across the country between 1970 and 2005, including
"Escatawpa Jane Doe," whom he did not know by name, according to
authorities.
"Investigators confirmed Samuel Little was in Jackson County in
1977, during the approximate time frame of the woman’s death,"
the sheriff's department said.
The agency added: "Investigators eventually learned Samuel
Little was arrested in Pascagoula in August of 1977 for petit
theft. Although he is now deceased, Samuel Little is considered
a prime suspect in the death of Clara Birdlong."
Her cause of death was undetermined.
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