Convicted serial killer blames God, confesses to murdering Ocala woman 36 years ago

MARION COUNTY, Fla. – A 78-year-old man serving three life sentences recently confessed to the 1982 murder of an Ocala woman, telling a Marion County sergeant "God put him on this Earth to do it," according to the Sheriff's Office. 

Samuel Little, 78, has provided information on more than 90 murders authorities say he committed across the country in the '70s and '80s, including 20-year-old Rosie Hill's 1982 slaying in Marion County.

Witnesses told investigators Hill left a bar with an unknown man matching Little's description and was never seen again. Her body was found in a wooded area off County Road 326 in August 1982 near a hog pen. Detectives said she was strangled or suffocated to death.

However, it would take another 30 years for Hill's killer to be arrested, for other crimes.

When Little was arrested in December 1982 on suspicion of killing two women in Mississippi, Marion County detectives interviewed Little about Hill's slaying; however, he said he didn't know the victim. At the time, detectives didn't have enough evidence to charge Little and he was never charged in the Mississippi case. 

A year later, Little was arrested and later acquitted in the slaying of Patricia Mounts in Alachua County. Sheriff's Office officials say Little continued to kill  women across the U.S., including in California where he was eventually arrested in 2012 on suspicion of killing three women in the 1980s.

Little was convicted of all three slayings and sentenced to three life sentences.

With Little in prison, officials with law enforcement agencies from across the U.S., including Marion County Sheriff's Office detectives, met with Little to ask about unsolved homicides of women in their jurisdictions from the time period of Little's confessed killing streak.

Little was later extradited to Texas for another charge of murder. On Oct. 9, Sgt. Michael Mongeluzzo went to visit little in the Wise County Jail in Texas. Little confessed to killing hill and dumping her body, telling Mongeluzzo "he killed Rosie because God put him on this Earth to do it," according to the Marion County Sheriff's Office.

Marion County Sheriff's Office officials said, due to Little serving three life sentences and his recent indictment in the slaying of a Texas woman, they won't be pursuing charges in Hill's death.

Little is currently awaiting trial in the Ector County Jail in Odessa, Texas.