Killer confesses to 1982 slaying of Florida woman

Authorities say man told them, ‘God put him on this earth to do it’

A suspected serial killer confessed to killing and dumping the body of an Ocala woman, closing a Marion County cold case 36 years after her murder, deputies said Thursday.

Samuel Little, 78, is currently serving three life sentences for the killing of three California women in 1980s.

According to an NBC News report, authorities in Texas say Little has provided details on a “multitude” of murders from 1970 to 2005, and could be connected to more than 90 killings.

The body of 20-year-old Rosie Hill was found on the evening of Aug. 16, 1982, in a wooded area off County Road 326 near a hog pen. Detectives concluded she was either strangled or suffocated.

Witnesses said Hill had left a bar and got into a car that looked similar to Little’s vehicle, according to deputies.

In December of that year, Little was arrested in Mississippi on charges of attempted murder, aggravated assault and rape of two prostitutes in Mississippi, deputies said.

Since that arrest, Marion County dectives have interviewed Little repeatedly, but did not have enough evidence to charge him with Hill’s murder at the time, they said.

Charges were also dropped in the Mississippi cases.

A year later, Little was acquitted in another homicide case in Alachua County, according to deputies.

In 2012, he was arrested and eventually convicted of killing three women.

On Oct. 9, Marion County Sheriff ’s Detective Sgt. Michael Mongeluzzo traveled to Texas, where Little was recently extradited to after being charged with the killing of a Texas woman. Little confessed to killing Hill.

“Additionally, Little told Sgt. Mongeluzzo that he killed Rosie because God put him on this earth to do it,” the sheriff ’s office said in a statement.

Marion County authorities will not be pursuing charges in Hill’s killing, since Little is serving three life sentences.