Marion County Sheriff’s detectives have closed the 1982 homicide case of an Ocala woman after a convicted serial killer confessed to her murder.
Samuel Little, 78, who currently is serving three life sentences without the possibility of parole for the violent deaths of three California women he murdered in the 1980s, admitted to a Marion County Sheriff’s Major Crimes detective that he killed Rosie Hill, who was 20 at the time of her death.
Hill’s remains were found on Aug. 16, 1982 at about 6 p.m. in a wooded area off County Road 326 near a hog pen. During the investigation, it was determined that Hill was either strangled or suffocated by her attacker.
Several witnesses came forward after the killing and said they saw Hill leave a bar with unknown man and she hadn’t been seen since. The witnesses gave a description of the suspect and his vehicle that matched up with Little.
In December 1982, Little was arrested for the attempted murder, aggravated assault and rape of two prostitutes in Pascagoula, Miss. Marion County sheriff’s detectives interviewed Little then and he claimed that he did not know Hill and then invoked his right to an attorney. Detectives didn’t have enough evidence at the time to charge Little with Hill’s murder, and ultimately, he was never charged in the Pascagoula case.
In 1983, Little was arrested and ultimately acquitted in Alachua County for the homicide of Patricia Mounts. After his acquittal, Little ended up in California, where he was arrested in 2012 for three homicides that occurred in the late 1980s.
As a result of the California trials, Little received three life sentences. And in 2013, several law enforcement agencies from around the country, including the Marion County Sheriff’s Office, met with him to discuss unsolved murders – specifically those involving females in the 1970s and ‘80s.
Last month, Major Crimes Det. Sergeant Michael Mongeluzzo traveled
to the Wise County Jail in Decatur, Texas, where Little was incarcerated. During the ensuing interview, Little confessed to killing Hill and dumping her body. Additionally, he told Mongeluzzo that he killed Hill “because God put him on this earth to do it.”
Due to Little’s three life sentences and recent indictment in Texas for murder, the sheriff’s office and the State Attorney’s Office for the Fifth Judicial District will not be pursuing murder charges against him in connection with Hill’s death.
Little recently was extradited from California and has been charged with the 1994 murder of Denise Christie Brothers that occurred in Odessa, Texas. He currently is being held in the Ector County Jail in Odessa.